Educational provision for nomadic peoples is a highly complex, as well as controversial and emotive, issue. For centuries, nomadic peoples educated their children by passing on from generation to generation the socio-cultural and economic knowledge required to pursue their traditional occupations. But over the last few decades, nomadic peoples have had to contend with rapid changes to their ways of life, often as a consequence of global patterns of development that are highly unsympathetic to spatially mobile groups. The need to provide modern education for nomadic groups is evident and urgent to all those concerned with achieving Education For All; yet how they can be included is highly controversial. This volume provides a series of international case studies, prefaced by a comprehensive literature review and concluding with an end note drawing themes together, that sets out key issues in relation to educational services for nomadic groups around the world.

Current paradigms of development generally serve mobile pastoralist groups poorly: their visibility in policy processes is minimal, and their mobility is constructed by the powerful as a problem, rather than as a rational livelihood strategy. Increasingly damaged eco-systems, shrinking natural resources, globalisation and urbanisation all put pressure on pastoralist livelihoods. Such processes often worsen, rather than alleviate, poverty and socio-economic marginalisation among pastoralists, but they also precipitate engagement with forms of education that may improve their future livelihood security and social status, and enhance occupational diversification.

Opening with a discussion of how the relationships between education, poverty and development have been conceived in dominant development discourses, this book reviews the disappointing international experience of education provision to mobile pastoralist groups. It highlights a lack of sufficient flexibility and relevance to changing livelihoods and, more fundamentally, education s conceptual location within a sedentarist paradigm of development that is antagonistic to mobility as a legitimate livelihood strategy. These global themes are examined in India, where policy and practices of education inclusion for mobile, marginalised groups are critiqued. Empirically-based chapters drawing on ethnographic research, provide detailed insights into how the Rabaris of Kachchh a pastoralist community in Gujarat, Western India engage with education as a social and economic development strategy for both adults and children, and show how ethnographic and participatory research approaches can be used for policy advocacy for marginalised groups. "

Livelihoods and Learning" highlights the complex, contested and often inconsistent role of education in development and the social construction of poverty, and calls for a critical reappraisal of the notion of education . The book will be key reading for postgraduates and academics in education, development studies, international and comparative education and research methodology, as well as policy-makers, ministries and related agencies with responsibility for education."

A well-edited collection of case studies showing different experiences from around the world that involve children in decisions regarding their own education. Since the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, there has been an increasing recognition globally that children need to have more say in their education. Children as Decision Makers in Education is concerned with how children can actively participate in decision-making. It builds upon previous research into student voice and decision-making, citizenship education in the school curriculum and work with children as researchers. This fascinating collection is forward-looking, bringing together cross-cultural experiences and supporting individuals or groups to work collaboratively in the future.