Implementing Transformative Education With Participatory Action Research

Prof. Bal Chandra Luitel, Ph.D. serves as Dean at Kathmandu University School of Education and has been working with a number of Nepali STEAM teachers and teacher educators to engage with a host of transformative research methods together with new analytics arising from dialectical, metaphorical, poetic, and narrative thinking and representation as a means for conceiving, expressing, and implementing visions of inclusive and life-affirming STEAM education in Nepal. Currently, he coordinates a transformative education project called Rupantaran that aims at engaging master's and doctoral students to bring forth intimate narratives unfolded during the process of their immersion in a school transformation process of public schools in Nepal. Prof. Bhimsen Devkota with a PhD in Public Health and Health Services Research from Aberdeen University, Scotland UK, Dr. Devkota is a professor of health education at Tribhuvan University Nepal and a visiting professor at Bournemouth University, UK. He led the Rupantaran Project as a Lead Partner Coordinator. He is involved in various research works in Nepal, including South Asia. He is well versed in applied and participatory action research on education, technical and vocational education, health, nutrition, health service research, A/SRH, WASH, gender and migration, behaviour change communication, disaster management, peace and conflict, humanitarian assistance, child rights, evidence-based programming and policy making. He has published a dozen books, over 50 peer-reviewed articles and several book chapters, in addition to his extensive teaching experience of more than 30 years at Tribhuvan University of Nepal. He is a faculty Board member at Kathmandu University. Prof. Sheri Bastien PhD is professor in Public Health at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences in Norway and also holds an adjunct faculty appointment at the Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Canada. She has been engaged in transdisciplinary research for over a decade in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia on a range of issues related to determinants of adolescent health and global health promotion, with a focus on sexual and reproductive health and HIV prevention, as well as water, sanitation and hygiene. In 2014, through grants from Grand Challenges Canada and the University of Calgary and with support from faculty and students from Calgary and the Catholic University of Health and Allied Sciences, she developed an innovative participatory action research project that was implemented and evaluated in rural Tanzania which involves using curiosity-driven science education (including a sanitation science fair) and a social entrepreneurship approach to foster livelihood opportunities, and with the overall aim being to develop locally relevant water, sanitation, and hygiene strategies to improve health and education outcomes. Project SHINE (Sanitation and Hygiene Innovation in Education) is now being adapted and piloted in rural India. Prof. Bishal K. Sitaula PhD have 25 years of post-Ph.D. research/ teaching/supervision and international collaboration experiences at NMBU and internationally in diverse environmental and development issues in an inter and multidisciplinary framework issues mainly focussed on ecological and socio-economic issues influencing the environment and global changes. The specific topics covered are anthropogenic influences in soil, water and air, land use and changes, carbon dynamics, land degradation, system analyses, environmental education, conflict, peace and development, wisdom and personal transformation relevant for ecosystem management, global change, and development. Long-term research experiences from Europe, Asia (Nepal, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Indonesia, and Afghanistan), Africa (Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi), and Western Balkans through interdisciplinary research projects, and through institutional collaboration, educational program, and networking with the national and international organization. Diverse leadership experiences, including administrative and institutional collaboration experiences, including project coordination, contract management, financial management, project development, follow-up of agreements, meetings, action plans, reporting, and networking. Developed educational programs and course curricula and created several educational documentary films. Wider public engagements/social work as President /Co-Chair of social/ charity organizations (NRNA and IAHV) with extensive delivery of public talks with significant media coverage.