Transnationalism, Education and Empowerment

Niranjan Casinader is Senior Lecturer in Education (Curriculum and Assessment) in the Faculty of Education at Monash University, Australia. Originally trained as a geographer, he worked as a secondary school educator for many years before moving into academia. His research is focused on three related principal strands: the notion of transnationalism in education, particularly in relation to the impact of culture on curriculum, pedagogy and thinking; the teaching of Geography and other Humanities subjects in schools; and the role of education in British colonial policy and practice, with an especial focus on its relevance to contemporary society.

• 1. Transnationalism: Reconfigurations of past and present 2. Education and Transnationalism3. The British Empire: An imaginary of dualities and contradictions4. Education in Pre-Colonial Sri Lanka: Pre-conceptions and suppositions5. Colonial Sri Lanka: Religion, sovereignty and the education of Empire6. Movements of Mind and Body: A transnationalist story7. Re-imagining Transnationalism: Trans-spatiality and implications for teaching, learning and beyond

"In recent years, the idea of transnationalism has entered registers of education in ways that are both insightful and productive, but also confusing and sometimes exaggerated. Using personal narratives, historical accounts and sociological imagination, this book is most helpful in not only clearing the debris of the recent literature on transnationalism, but also in suggesting ways we might rethink the curriculum and promote new approaches to pedagogy, to meet the requirements of the politics of cultural difference that can no longer be overlooked anywhere." - Fazal Rizvi, Professor of Global Studies in Education, The University of Melbourne, Australia"Transnationalism is characterised by tensions and contradictions, as well as hybrid and often mercurial phenomena. Consequently, it is a complex and often challenging field of study. However, this book provides new insights - both scholarly and personal in nature - to advance holistic and provocative educational responses to teaching and learning in culturally diverse environments. An excellent companion to his first book, Dr. Casinader advances his unique approach to re-imagining transnationalism and its implications for teaching and learning." - Lucas Walsh, Associate Professor and Associate Dean, Faculty of Education, Monash University, Australia"Throughout the book, he argues that current scholarly understandings of transnationalism are too constrained to the movements of people and goods. This argument is supported by an investigation into colonial education in Ceylon, modern-day Sri Lanka. While benefiting from the colonial education system, Casinader argues, members of certain Ceylonese cultural minorities – exemplified by the authors’ own family – developed a ‘transnational’ identity." - Kirsten Kamphuis, NewBooks.Asia, International Institute for Asian Studies