"Education, Capabilities and Sustainable Development– How do Aspirations Matter?"
Paper presented by Dr. Caroline Sarojini Hart
The seminar will run from 1-2pm and will be held in room G/8, Waterloo Bridge Wing, Franklin Wilkins Building (SE1 9NH). Please see the abstract below. Refreshments will be served, please feel free to forward this invitation to any interested parties.
Abstract
Drawing on the capability approach, this presentation aims, first of all, to situate education in relation to the global post-2015 agenda for sustainable development. It argues that educational processes potentially have important roles in contributing to many of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and not only those specifically related to education. The discussion goes on to conceptualise the way in which personal aspirations and wider social and development goals are juxtaposed and the tensions this brings in thinking about personal and social ‘trade-offs’ in developing and pursuing goals for human development. The paper argues that educational processes may contribute significantly towards the development of individual capabilities and sustainable development more broadly, but this cannot be taken for granted due to negative as well as positive outcomes from educational processes, trade-offs and sacrifices along the way. The role of aspirations as multi-faceted, significant and yet vulnerable, emerges.