Research article

Global–local imbrications in education policy: Methodological reflections on researching the sociology of Teach for Bangladesh

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Abstract

This article documents the methodological thinking that underpined a sociological study of Teach for Bangladesh (TFB), a globally mobile yet locally embedded education policy situated in a developing world context. In order to reassess education policy vis-à-vis spatialities–power, relationships–resources, culture– change and imaginations–flows of globalization, this methodological thinking has to be both flexible and innovative. Analysis (topological) has demanded a combination of global ethnography and network ethnography, the former allowing global forces to be understood as spatially and culturally imbricated within intersecting policy worlds ([g]local cases), and the latter mapping and analysing spaces (networks and relations) and places (cultural negotiations) that characterize power within such imbrications. Data were collected both online and on site, resulting in both empirical advantages and practical challenges. As a sociological attempt to study policy mobilities in education in a Southeast Asian context, this study offers an innovative methodology and a befitting set of analytical vocabulary.

Keywords: GLOBALIZATION, TOPOLOGICAL ANALYTICS, POLICY SOCIOLOGY OF EDUCATION, NETWORK ETHNOGRAPHY, GLOBAL ETHNOGRAPHY, METHODOLOGICAL CHALLENGES, TEACH FOR, BANGLADESH

How to Cite:

Adhikary, R. & Lingard, B., (2019) “Global–local imbrications in education policy: Methodological reflections on researching the sociology of Teach for Bangladesh ”, London Review of Education 17(3), 252–267. doi: https://doi.org/10.18546/LRE.17.3.02