Teaching the 'Third World': Unsettling discourses of difference in the school curriculum

The public faces of development: an introduction

“…There has also been academic research addressing the ways development is represented in different contexts. For example, Lidchi's work (cited in Cohen, 2001) specifically focuses on the ways development NGOs 'commodify' the 'Third World', and Smith (1999) has explored the ways notions of development are constructed and mediated in UK schools.…”

Critical distance: doing development education through international volunteering

“…This merits critical examination of how various institutional actors reproduce and redefine acceptable ‘public faces of development’ (Smith and Yanacopulos 2004) to legitimate and sustain their activities. Geographers have paid significant attention to representations of the South employed in product marketing, charity appeals, educational texts and subtexts (Castree 2001; Cohen 2001; Ruddick 2003; Smith 1999, 2004; Wright 2004), but less to development education as an actual practice and pedagogy. Informal educational spaces are particularly neglected, with existing research focusing on public policy, school curricula or classroom practice (e.g.…”

“…Informal educational spaces are particularly neglected, with existing research focusing on public policy, school curricula or classroom practice (e.g. Marshall 2009; Smith 1999; Yamashita 2006). Researching development education through international volunteering could enhance discussion, with projects especially appealing as archetypal vessels for the meeting of people, ideas and culture mediated by past and present inequalities (Baillie Smith and Laurie 2011).…”

Contradiction and change? NGOs, schools and the public faces of development

“…A number of contradictions between constructions of development and the south were identified during ethnographic research examining communication in UK schools (Smith, 1999). 2 In the two schools researched, the statutory requirement, at the time, to teach development in the Geography curriculum was interpreted in terms of teaching pupils about the characteristics of 'developed' and 'developing' countries.…”