Waljee, Anise; (2010) The meaning of educational change in post-Soviet Tajikistan : educational encounters in Badakhshan : how educators in an in-service institution in rural Badakhshan understand and respond to educational change. Doctoral thesis , Institute of Education, University of London.

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Abstract

Abstract This thesis examines educational change in the province of Badakhshan, Tajikistan, where the processes of change are framed in the post -Soviet transition from communism to incipient forms of democracy and from a command to market economy. It focuses on the encounter of an international development agency, the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF), and a government, in-service, teacher training institution, the Institute of Professional Development (IPD). That interaction is also contextualised in a very particular relationship: the head of AKF, the Aga Khan, is also the spiritual leader of the Badakhshani community. Hence, development and faith perspectives intersect in this change process (es). Using a qualitative approach and a case study design the research makes visible educational change as it impacts structures, institutions and individual educators in post-Soviet Badakhshan. It draws on the work of Birzea (1994), Venda 1991; 1999), Foucault (1972; 1980) and Gramsci (1971) to understand how institutional transformation processes are mediated and contested as the IPD changes from a government body to a 'public-private' one. The research finds that notwithstanding the faith connection, institutional transformation involves ideological, epistemological and hegemonic contestations as well as new learning. Responses include ambivalence, resistance, adaptation, appropriation and reclamation of educational and institutional change through a recasting of social and professional relationships and a mastery of international aid discourses. The study reveals that there is not 'a change process' but, instead, change(s) processes that are multiple, interlinked, iterative, simultaneous and sometimes chaotic. It argues that the change contexts, the macro and micro narratives that attend it and the processes of educational transformation are better understood through a re-conceptualisation of familiar notions of educational change(s), tradition and development. It concludes that the role of faith is central to how development is defined, responded to and appropriated in this little-studied context and contributes to the knowledge of international development across cultures.

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