CREATING SAFE VIRTUAL SPACES FOR MARGINALIZED MINORS IN EDUCATION
Afshan Huma1* Samina Naseem2 , Salma Nazar Khan3
1Dr. Allama Iqbal Open University, Pakistan, afshan.huma@aiou.edu.pk
2Dr. Fatima Jinnah Women University, Pakistan, snaseem@fjwu.edu.pk
3Dr. Fatima Jinnah Women University, Pakistan, snkhan@fjwu.edu.pk
*Corresponding author
Abstract
Education was supposed to be “not only a human right access issue for the marginal groups” rather it was assumed that it shall become a source of improving quality of life of these groups particularly in developing countries (Rasmy, Selvadurai & Sulehan 2017). Yet one of the major reasons reported for dropout from formal educational institutions is lack of opportunity for learning and social interaction for the people at periphery. Open distance learning (ODL) emerged as an alternative education system that provided extended spaces for those who either could not reach the formal institutions or had dropped out. ODL was imitated with the purpose “to include greater dimensions of openness and flexibility, whether in terms of access, curriculum or other elements of structure” (Ghosh, Nath, Agarwal & Nath, 2012). This conceptual paper explores the issues of "social inclusion" beyond the provision of access and identifies the ways for providing a "safer place of learning" to all kinds of underprivileged or marginalized subgroups; minors or the individuals at the periphery in a social set up.
The paper is exploring the following questions:
1. how can ODL provide a safer place for them to learn?
2. how can they come out of their silence and become vocal in a virtual environment?
3. how can we desensitize them and the people around through monitored face to face interaction?
4. how can we gradually bring them into mainstream?
5. how can this be a source of bringing up trust, tolerance, harmony and peace at large?
The underprivileged, marginalized, minor subgroups include but are not limited to religious or ethnic minorities, families of low socio-economic status, people with special needs, jail inmates, transgender and females under certain situations. We conjecture that providing safer places will help in re-examining stereotypical thinking and social injustice. We shall present a strategy of how distance learning may include these subgroups and how to maintain and ensure the element of safety while enabling them to come into mainstream education and workplaces.
Extensive literature review was conducted to prepare the theoretical and conceptual framework. We selected reports and papers published in English in past 15 years to maintain a focus on contemporary arguments, theory and practice. In order to include all relevant literature we included papers and reports from multiple contexts specifically dealing with social inclusion in education. In the second phase we presented the concept note to a group of instructors and graduate students of open distance learning for the purpose of focus group discussion. The teachers included faculty of teaching in ODL as well as in the formal institutions of higher education, having some experience of ODL. The student group comprised the M.Phil and PhD students of an ODL university. One of the researchers led the focus group discussion and the other two facilitated the process of note taking and recording. The above mentioned five questions were drawn from the literature and these questions guided the focus group discussion. The discussion session was audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. The analysis was done through open coding, clustering and thematic analysis. The paper shall present strategies for teachers and teacher educators to create safer learning environment in virtual learning.
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