Over-Medicated Boys and Girls Down the Well: The Politically Awkward ‘Imaginaries’ of Education Liaisons in the U.S. and Pakistan A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduated Schools of the University of Minnesota In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Faculty Co-Advisors: Peter Demerath & Gerald Fry by Suzanne Miric March 21, 2016 Suzanne Miric, 2016, copyright ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This study would not have been possible without the generous support and encouragement of many people over the years. I am particularly grateful to the many liaisons who shared their stories, thoughts, and time with me so generously, along with their courage, warmth and friendship. I would also like to acknowledge my committee members, Francis Vavrus, Michael Goh, and my co-advisors Gerald Fry and Peter Demerath, who each in their own way contributed immensely to this study. I am particularly grateful to Peter, who took me under his wing as I moved into the dissertation process and showed unfailing patience, encouragement, just the right amount of genuine ethnographic interest to inspire me to challenge myself to do better during a long and often winding journey. I would also like to acknowledge my former committee member Richard Nunneley, who told me before he passed away in 2010 that if I thought anthropology was hard, I should try philosophy – and then encouraged me to do so. I am also deeply gratitude to Carole Gupton, whose thoughtful guidance at the University of Minnesota led me to the topic of urban schools and race, Elizabeth Watkins at the Minnesota Department of Education, who in her quiet way guided my understanding of a complex political landscape, Helen Kirby and her colleagues, who made my study in Pakistan possible in the first place, and my many wonderful colleagues at the University of Minnesota, who encouraged me to pursue my studies. Finally, I am indebted to my family and friends, including my grandmother, who pressed me to please finally finish my dissertation before she turned 100 (which barely came to pass)! i ABSTRACT This study explores the lived experiences of education liaisons in Minnesota and Pakistan in the context of cultural myths of modern educational progress, as envisioned in world society theory. Using a multi-sited ethnographic and narrative inquiry approach with 10 core participants over a discontinuous, more than five-year time period, it finds that an important aspect of education liaisons’ work is re-interpreting and re-working dominate social imaginaries of the meaning of mass education, such as those involving urban Black communities in the U.S. and rural, Pashto-speaking communities in Pakistan. This study both supported and challenged aspects of world society theory, resulting in four core analytical themes emerging from the work of liaisons: The social construction of marginality and its imaginations as an institutionalized expertise; the importance of ‘awkward’ political social imaginaries in relation to educational myth-making as everyday liaison work; understanding institutionalized manifestations of power and silence as enduring practices of bewitchment, and the tensions of engaging with particular legacies of racial and gender oppression, while constructing imaginative possibilities and social identities in institutional contexts. This study contains practical recommendations for educational policy and practice. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................................. iii List of Tables ..................................................................................................................... vi List of Figures ................................................................................................................. vii CHAPTER 1- INTRODUCTION .................................................................................... 1 Arriving at the Study: A Storied Encounter Part 1 (Pakistan) ........................................... 1 Arriving at the Study: A Storied Encounter Part 2 (Minnesota) ....................................... 6 Statement of the Research Problem. ........................................................................................ 12 Purpose of the Research ............................................................................................................... 15 Geographic Context of Study ....................................................................................................... 17 Roadmap to Study .......................................................................................................................... 19 CHAPTER 2 – EDUCATION LIAISONS .................................................................... 23 Organizational Ligare: Liaisons in Minnesota and Pakistan ............................................ 23 Geographic Contexts: Contrasting Minnesota and Pakistan ............................................ 25 A ‘Day-in-the-Life’ of a Minnesota Liaison: Interfacing with Educational Inequities. ............................................................................................................................................................... 38 A ‘Day-in-the-Life’ of a Liaison in Pakistan: Gender Disparities ..................................... 42 ‘Wild ‘Institutional Terrains ....................................................................................................... 44 CHAPTER 3 - LITERATURE REVIEW: EDUCATION IN HISTORICAL CONTEXTS ..................................................................................................................... 47 Education and Racial Legacies in the Historical Context of the U.S. .............................. 47 Education and the Black Scholar Activist Tradition ........................................................... 52 Juxtaposing Race, Ethnicity, Culture and Educational Inequalities ............................... 58 iii Multiculturalism, and Critical Race Theory ........................................................................... 62 The Growth of ‘Diversity Infrastructure’ in PK-12 Education ......................................... 70 Education Development in Pakistan ........................................................................................ 76 Education Development in Pakistan: Historical and Global Perspectives. ................. 77 Gender, Bureaucracies, and Education in Pakistan and South Asia .............................. 83 Pakistani Feminist Discourses as Context. ............................................................................. 90 CHAPTER 4 – THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ...................................................... 94 Education from the Perspective of World Society Theory ................................................ 94 Globalization, Neoliberalism and Political Myth ‘Imaginaries’ .................................... 103 Voice, Representation, and Intersubjectivity .................................................................... 113 Summary ........................................................................................................................................ 120 CHAPTER 5 - RESEARCH DESIGN ......................................................................... 122 Rationale for Approach and Methodology: Ethnography and Narrative Inquiry .. 122 Setting of the Study ..................................................................................................................... 132 Analysis of the Data ..................................................................................................................... 138 Ethical Considerations ............................................................................................................... 140 CHAPTER 6 - FINDINGS ............................................................................................ 143 Section One: Introduction ......................................................................................................... 143 Section Two: True Believers in Education .......................................................................... 146 Section Three: Imaginative Geographies ............................................................................. 159 Section Four: Unprofessional’ Perspectives and Liminal Dispositions ..................... 182 Section Five: Equity Water Wells and Unruly Corridors ................................................ 208 Section Six: Contesting Moral and Cultural Expertise ..................................................... 234 Section Seven: Illusions of Transparency ............................................................................ 252 iv Section Eight: In the Girls’ Education Trenches - Gender Liaisons in Pakistan ...... 273 CHAPTER 7 - PARALLAX REVISITED .................................................................. 308 Reading Liaison Experiences Against and With World Society Theory .................... 308 Implications for Practice ........................................................................................................... 324 CHAPTER 8 - CONCLUSION .................................................................................... 329 REFERENCES .............................................................................................................. 333 v List of Tables Table 1: Cultural Liaisons’ Perspectives on Ideal Liaison Competencies…..page 190 vi List of Figures Figure