Browsing by Author "Monk, David"
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Item Channeling literacy learning into everydayness: Northern Ugandan women language peace(University of Nebraska at Omaha, 2026) Djuraeva, M.; Monk, David; Beach, S.; Nyirumbe, RExploring adult literacy motivations among women in post-conflict Northern Uganda, this paper uses a chronotopic lens to show how literacy is transformed into embodied, everyday practices of peacebuilding, identity formation, and self-determination.Item Collaboratively reimagining teaching and learning, In: Higher education for good(Open Book Publisher, 2023) Fabian, Flora; Harle, Jonathan; Kalimasi, Perpetua; Kilonzo, Rehema; Lamaro, Gloria; Luswata, Albert; Monk, David; Ngowi, Edwin; Nzegwu, Femi; Sikalieh, DamaryIn 2020, the African Regional Forum on Sustainable Development proclaimed Africa would only attain the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) if “universities in Africa collaborate in research, teaching and community or societal engagement” (Ligami, 2020). In 2022, the UNESCO World Higher Education conference called on universities to “reshape ideas and practices in higher education to ensure sustainable development for the planet and humanity” (UNESCO, 2022). While there are regular calls for African universities to improve their teaching, finding ways to do this within the resources and the available time in already stretched institutions, at the scale required, have proven elusive. This chapter is a reflexive exercise, discussing the work of an international partnership, Transforming Employability for Social Change in East Africa (TESCEA), that aimed to reshape habits of teaching and learning in institutions of higher education.1 We, as TESCEA partners and authors of this chapter, hope that our example can make a significant contribution towards understanding how change can happen in higher education, and particularly in resource-constrained settings. We begin by presenting our approach and then offer reflections on the change we observed, the ways in which this was achieved, and the challenges we encountered along the way.Item Compounded exclusion: Education for disabled refugees in Subsaharan Africa(Frontiers in Education, 2020) Walton, Elizabeth; McIntyre, Joanna; Awidi, Salome; De Wet, Nicole; Dixon, Kerryn; Monk, David; Madziva, Roda; Chamunogwa, NomakweziExamines how structural displacement and bodily impairment intersect to cause compounded exclusion for disabled refugees across Sub-Saharan African educational settingsItem Conceptualising Regional Skills Ecosystems: Reflections on Four African Cases(wiley, 2021) Wedekind, Volker; Russon, Joanna; Ramsarup, Presha; Monk, David; Metelerkamp, L; McGrath, SimonSynthesizes empirical case studies from South Africa and Uganda to develop a regional skills ecosystem framework suitable for African political economiesItem Decolonizing Beginning Literacy Instruction: Views From Ugandan Teachers(wiley, 2020) Monk, David; Nyirumbe, Rosemary; Pia Okecha, EstherExplores primary teachers' perspectives in Northern Uganda on decolonizing literacy instruction by centering indigenous mother-tongue instruction alongside English learningItem Designing the Future: Youth innovation, informality and transformed VET(EEASA / African Journals OnLine (AJOL), 2023) Monk, David; Adrupio, Scovia; Akite, Irene; Muhangi, SidneyInvestigating youth-driven informal innovations in Northern Uganda, this paper explores how VET systems can adapt to recognize and nurture grassroot climate adaptation and informal technical skills.Item Disability and Displacement: The Unmet Needs of Refugee Children in Vocational Education and Training(Routledge, 2025) Monk, David; Madziva, Roda; Awidi, Salome; Desire, Aine Byoona; Openjuru, GeorgeThis chapter examines the unmet education needs of refugees with disabilities in accessing Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET). Using research conducted in South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Uganda, it focuses on education experiences of refugees in Uganda to highlight the significant lack of provision in policy and practice. This situation is particularly alarming in the context of limited education and training opportunities and low school attendance in primary school despite increasing TVET policy and development interventions. The chapter uses critical capabilities theory and lifelong to reinforce the dual need to address the compounded barriers faced by refugees with disabilities in TVET and the need to develop learning pathways and educational transitions that support their life goals. In this narrative, we argue that the refugee policy has inherent structural limitations that limit education transition. We propose practical policy adaptations that promote inclusion and lifelong learning.Item Education for disabled refugees in South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe: A cross-case analysis(Routledge (Taylor & Francis), 2024) Monk, David; Walton, Elizabeth; Thondlana, J; Wedekind, V.Comparing educational access for refugees with disabilities across South Africa, Uganda, and Zimbabwe, this paper investigates structural barriers, intersectional discrimination, and policy gaps impacting refugee educationItem Embracing Love as an educational force in the Anthropocene(EEASA / AJOL, 2021) Monk, David; Hammond-Todd, MichaelA think-piece proposing love, relational care, and ecological empathy as vital educational forces necessary to counter eco-anxiety and environmental degradation in the Anthropocene epoch.Item Engaging in a Movement of Cognitive Justice at the Gulu University K4C Hub, Uganda(Africa Education Review, 2023) Monk, David; Aber, Gloria; Lamwaka, Alice Veronica; Odoch, Martin; Openjuru, George L.The Gulu hub is an initiative of the Gulu University under the Knowledge for Change (K4C) initiative of the UNESCO Chair in Community Based Research and Social Responsibility in Higher Education. The hub’s work is linked to the university’s mandate “for community transformation” oriented toward serving the geographic space of Northern Uganda. It is a somewhat unique hub, because it does not have formal space within the university, and most of the hub’s activities are generated through informal community partnerships and networks.Item Engaging in a Movement of Cognitive Justice at the Gulu University K4C Hub, Uganda(Brill, 2023-01-01) Monk, David; Aber, Gloria; Lamwaka, Alice Veronica; Odoch, Martin; Openjuru, GeorgeIn this case study, the Gulu University Knowledge for Change Hub located in Northern Uganda reflects on the possibilities of knowledge pluralism, relationships and power in the work done by the hub, and shares some lessons that were learnt from engaging in a movement of cognitive justice. The research for this case was conducted using a collaborative community-based approach that included active participation of all hub members in the formulation of research questions, data collection, and analysis. In this type of approach, the documentation of the process and dissemination activities becomes part of the data collected, which is then used to inform future direction and activities for the hub. The research therefore fits into the reflexive and ongoing process of the hub, and is useful for improving the praxis and goals to further knowledge democracy and solve local problems through community-based research.Item The gendered postconflict city: Possibilities for more livable urban transformations in Gulu, northern Uganda(Journal of Urban Affairs, 2022-08-10) Harris, John C.; Komakech, Daniel; Monk, David; Davidson, Maria del GuadalupeScholars acknowledge that postconflict urbanism is undertheorized and underdeveloped for practical governance or sustainable urban management, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, which has unfortunately experienced significant conflict in the post-independence period. We argue that postconflict redevelopment theory and practice under appreciates liminal spaces and the precarious existence of postconflict people, especially postconflict women. We examine the extant literature on Gulu, Uganda, to develop theory and urban management concepts around the notion of the gendered postconflict city as a unique urban identity and re-center the analysis on the everyday experiences, agency, and city building practices of women. We posit three realities for understanding the gendered postconflict city: (1) the postconflict gendered city is a liminal space beyond the notions of contingency and fluidity often assigned to African cities, (2) it is a place of deep and abiding trauma, and (3) it is a place of invisibility and precarity for women who selforganize to reduce precarity. We make a series of recommendations for postconflict urban management based on these realities that include recognizing liminality in postconflict planning and setting aside the impulse to prioritize the global competitiveness of postconflict cities above all else. These have important implications for NGO and national development practices.Item Interrogating the agency and education of refugee children with disabilities in Northern Uganda: A critical capability approach(National Children's Bureau and John Wiley & Sons Ltd., 2023-10-17) Monk, David; Walton, Elizabeth ; Madziva, Roda ; Opio, George ; Kruisselbrink, Annemaaike ; Openjuru, George LadaahThis paper draws on empirical evidence from a 3-year research project in Northern Uganda examining the educational experiences of refugees with disabilities. The authors present the compounded and interrelated challenges children with disabilities and their families face as they navigate their educational experiences and seek out opportunities to live well. The authors seek to make a contribution towards improving educational experiences by first highlighting compounding challenges faced by refugee children living with disabilities and their families and related policy gaps that have ramifications for refugee children's access to education in particular, and second by expanding discourse about refugee children with disabilities agency in relation to these liminal gaps and the impact the gaps have for accessing education. The authors use Powell and McGrath's(in Skills for human development: Transforming vocational education and training, Routledge, 2019; Handbook of vocational education and training, Springer, 2019) concept of critical capabilities and relationality, to expand Klocker's (in Global perspectives on rural childhood and youth: Young rural lives, Routledge, 2007) notions of thick and thin agency and to interrogate refugee children living with disabilities' agency in relation to education opportunities and rights.Item Interrogating the agency and education of refugee children with disabilities in Northern Uganda: A critical capability approach(Wiley, 2024) Monk, David; Walton, Elizabeth; Madziva, Roda; Opio, George; Kruisselbrink, Annemaiike; Openjuru, George LadaahUtilizing Amartya Sen's capability approach, this paper evaluates the educational realities and agency of refugee children with disabilities in settlement contexts in Northern Uganda.Item Learning informally: A case for arts in vocational education and training in Uganda(Engage Creative Arts, 2022) Openjuru Ladaah, Maxwell; Ladaah Openjuru, George; Sanford, Kathy; De Oliveira Jayme ,Bruno; Monk, DavidThis paper advocates for the inclusion of the arts in vocational learning programs in Uganda as an integrated form of holistic learning oriented towards empowerment and entrepreneurship. Using community-based research in the context of vocational education and training, our data emerged from open-ended interviews, focus groups and youth-led radio talk shows with stakeholders from public and private sectors, instructors, artists, and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs). Three significant themes arose from the data collected. First, pathways available to learners to become artists are limited by increasing neoliberal orientations towards education. Second, there is a thriving informal youth-led arts community in northern Uganda empowering young artists to pursue the arts as a livelihood. Third, the arts are socially delegitimated. That is, without ways for learners to generate income from the arts, they are not able to devote their time to learning through the arts, and their artistic endeavors are not recognized as important skills in their communities or in society. Although different, these three themes demonstrate that there is a vibrant space in the informal sector of arts to inform professional practices, that if supported by vocational education and training, have the potential to become important and much needed professional careers in Uganda.Item Learning Informally: A Case for Arts Learning in Vocational Education and Training in Uganda(IUPUI Arts and Humanities Institute, 2022) Monk, David; Ladaah, Openjuru Godwine; Sanford, Kathy; de Oliveira Jayme, Bruno; Openjuru George2Argues for integrating arts-based informal learning methodologies into formal VET programs in Uganda to boost creativity, problem-solving, and civic engagement among youthItem Learning with digital portfolios: Teacher candidates forming an assessment identity(Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 2022) Hopper, Tim; Sanford, Kathy; Hong, Fu; Monk, DavidInvestigates how pre-service teachers develop their professional assessment identities using digital e-portfolios, highlighting reflective learning and formative assessment practices.Item Revisiting VET research paradigms: Critical perspectives from the South(Journal of Vocational Education & Training, 2023-11-16) Monk, David; Molebatsi, Palesa; McGrath, Simon; Metelerkamp, Luke; Adrupio, Scovia; Openjuru, George; Robbins, Glen; Tshabalala, ThembaThis paper reflects on a large multisite funded VET research project conducted by a large and diverse research team. Reflecting on two of our case studies, from Uganda and South Africa, we consider both the need for broadening the VET research agenda to incorporate more research on non-formal sites of vocational learning and work, and the imperative of continued critical reflection on modalities of researching the formal sphere. What we offer is a very fallible attempt to open up the debate about the future of VET research further through, we believe, a critical reading of some of our failures as well as successes in trying to ground our research ethically, ontologically and axiologically and not just methodologically. We advocate, where possible, a radical embeddedness of VET research in communities, whilst acknowledging that this is applicable only to some parts of a comprehensive VET research agenda. We also acknowledge that employers and the state are also legitimate stakeholders who should be part of research but point to the need for a more critical reflection into the patterns of power implicit in researching with/on these constituencies. We believe that our reflection on our successes and failures in these two cases and the project as a whole offers useful provocations regarding ways of making VET research more reflective of diverse settings, less extractive from those being researched and more equal in the participation of members of the research team from the SouthItem Revisiting VET research paradigms: Critical perspectives from the South(Routledge (Taylor & Francis), 2023) Monk, David; Metelerkamp, Luke; Molebatsi, Palesa; McGrath, Simon; Adrupio, Scovia; Openjuru, George Ladaah; Robbins, Glen; Tshabalala, ThembinkosiReflecting on a large multi-site project in Uganda and South Africa, this article critically evaluates conventional human capital models of VET research and proposes Southern-led paradigms centered on social justice and ecological sustainability.Item Shifting Informal Geographies and the Hustle for a Better Future(Routledge, 2024) Monk, David; Openjuru, GeorgeBased on three years of empirical research in Uganda and South Africa, this chapter explores youth survival strategies and informal learning economies. The authors argue for learning programs that recognize solidarity, cooperation, and care embedded in the 'hustle' rather than rigid formal interventions.