Teacher governance factors and social cohesion: insights from Pakistan

Abstract

This paper explores teacher governance factors, particularly recruitment and deployment of teachers, in relation to inequalities and social cohesion. Pakistan introduced major reforms in education in the post 9/11 context of escalating conflict. These include a merit and needs-based policy on teacher recruitment to eliminate corruption in recruitment and improve equity on the basis of gender, language, ethnicity, religion, and special needs. A 4Rs framework of redistribution, recognition, representation and reconciliation was employed to analyse data gathered from: interviews with teacher educators, policy makers and development partners, and focus group discussions with and questionnaires completed by pre- and in-service teachers. This work is part of ‘Engaging teachers in peacebuilding in postconflict contexts: evaluating education interventions’ project supported by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the UK Department for International Development