The Local and Global Dynamics in the Construction of the Quality of Educational Provision
The core empirical basis of the paper is based on a number of qualitative case studies conducted between 1999 and 2001 in Badakhshan province of Tajikistan. The study's insights were subsequently connected to my earlier teaching and research experiences in Pakistan and the broader literature. The analyses of the above research and teaching experiences were subsequently linked to the contexts and histories of the teachers' practices, which exposed complex, rich, and contradictory realities, forces, and factors that have contributed to (a) the dominance of the teacher-centred and transmitive approaches in their worldview, instruction, and relationship, and (b) the existence of the unrealised potential of the alternative of dialogical and interactive pedagogy, rooted in teachers' beliefs, culture and system and innovations. These analyses illustrate complex and contradictory classroom realities in which teachers appear as not always obedient servants to the forces that subdue them to transmission-oriented practices; they try to promote transactive and transformative activities to meet the fundamental needs of their students and community in terms of quality, hope, and opportunity for better and more just education and society.
The conclusions will try to connect the cases and discussions with the concepts of globalization and political economy and highlight the necessity of the awareness of the personal-professional, structural, and cultural challenges, accompanied with teacher empowerment to increase the chances of the alternative pedagogy, through restructuring the existing conditions, and teachers' ability to navigate through classroom, school and community, national and global factors. The paper's insights have implications for the reconstruction of pre and in-service teacher education, teacher development, education research and innovation implementation in the context of developing countries.