The Dynamics of School Inclusion, Exclusion and Formal Education: Perspectives from the Global South
- Date
- Wednesday 8 October 2025, 12:30
- Location
- The Coach House, School of Education
- Category
- Seminar
We are delighted to invite you to the following seminar which will be co-hosted by the Centre for Global Development (CGD) and the Inclusion, Childhood and Youth Research Centre (ICY):
Seminar: The Dynamics of School Inclusion, Exclusion and Formal Education: Perspectives from the Global South
Wednesday 8th October, 12:30 pm
The Coach House, School of Education, University of Leeds
The seminar will feature papers presented by Prof Caroline Dyer (POLIS, University of Leeds) and Dr Daniel Kyereko (Department of Education, University of York). Please find the abstracts below.
Caroline Dyer
Schooling’s ‘guilty actions’: education and dignity among Fakirani Jat pastoralist women in western India
Policy discourses seeking universal school enrolment tend to produce an in- or out of school dichotomy that erases the multiple and contextual meaning of ‘education’. This presentation reflects on this erasure by exploring the dynamics of schooling participation and schooling rejection in the camel-herding Fakirani Jat community in western Gujarat. It examines how differing forms of education shape their notions of dignity and the ontological tensions that are produced as a community that is new to schooling negotiates its value for them. It places this discussion in two larger contexts. One is India’s SDG pledge, the vision of schooling produced by its 2009 Right to Education Act, the contemporary neo-liberal narrative of development and the quality of public schooling. The other is the ontology of this community of Sufi Muslim camel herders, their situated learning and the future of their hereditary occupation. Focusing particularly on girls, it examines drivers and outcomes of schooling participation, where some community members talk of schooling’s ‘guilty actions’, while others associate schooling with ‘progress’.
The presentation draws on a British Academy funded research project that used qualitative methods to study dignity and sustainable development amongst pastoralists in India.
Daniel Kyereko
Across the globe, millions of children remain excluded from formal education despite international commitments to universal schooling. Research on inclusion has largely focused on disability, legal barriers, or dropout, often framing exclusion in terms of keeping children in school once enrolled. Limited attention has been given to those who never enter school, partly because they are less visible in data and harder to reach through conventional research and monitoring.
This study examines this neglected dimension through the case of West African migrant children in Ghana, where informal cross-border mobility spans both shared cultural spaces and distinct Francophone-Anglophone contexts. Interviews with over 200 families and educators show that exclusion occurs mainly through non-enrolment rather than dropout. Barriers include limited awareness of fee-free education, migration patterns that clash with school calendars, cultural and religious values that privilege other forms of learning, economic pressures, and weak support networks. Beneath these lies a deeper issue: competing understandings of education itself. For many, formal schooling is viewed as western-centric or even threatening, while alternatives emphasise survival, work, or religion. The findings raise questions: Who is counted as “in school”? Whose definitions of education are recognised? And how can resource-limited systems adapt so that no child is left outside the promise of schooling?
This study examines this neglected dimension through the case of West African migrant children in Ghana, where informal cross-border mobility spans both shared cultural spaces and distinct Francophone-Anglophone contexts. Interviews with over 200 families and educators show that exclusion occurs mainly through non-enrolment rather than dropout. Barriers include limited awareness of fee-free education, migration patterns that clash with school calendars, cultural and religious values that privilege other forms of learning, economic pressures, and weak support networks. Beneath these lies a deeper issue: competing understandings of education itself. For many, formal schooling is viewed as western-centric or even threatening, while alternatives emphasise survival, work, or religion. The findings raise questions: Who is counted as “in school”? Whose definitions of education are recognised? And how can resource-limited systems adapt so that no child is left outside the promise of schooling?
We look forward to seeing you there!