Teaching and trading: Local voices and global issues from Central Asia
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Date
2005-05
Authors
Niyozov Sarfaroz, Shamatov, Duishon
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Aga Khan University, Institute for Educational Development, Karachi
Abstract
This paper is based on an analysis of data gathered through two qualitative
studies conducted by the authors in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, I accompanied
by our continuous involvement in, and reflections on, the transformation
process in the region, as well as by our review of other studies of education
and society done by international agencies (e.g., Khorog Joint Research
Team, 2001; Kuder, 1996), and individual scholars (Humphrey, 2002; Keshavjee,
1998; Ries, 2002). The paper presents a complex picture of teachers'
life and work in Central Asia. It examines how teachers are seeking various
means for survival and coping with the multiple challenges they face in their
everyday practices, In particular, we discuss the role of trade and trading in
teachers' lives, hoW and why they become traders, what effect it has on their
lives and practices, and what are the implications of this impoverishment and
intensification for education and society in Central Asia.
The collapse of the USSR, one of the most dramatic events of the 20th
century, has hit teachers, who had seemed to be at the top of the social ladder
in the communist system, hardest; it demoted them to the bottom of the social
hierarchy in the new market-oriented post-Soviet landscape. Faced with
enormous economic, social, and psychological hardships of life and work, a
great number of teachers became traders, leaving their teaching jobs partially,
or even completely, in order to make a. living. Thus, for many teachers, trading
has become an important weapon in their struggle for survival. Trading,
in other words, has not only offered a way out for teachers, but has also become
a profession that affects their status, position, values and reasons for
teaching. Their success, as well as the increasing apathy of officials towards
the teachers' plight, has made those who remain in the profession also see
trading: and commercial businesses as a way out of the poverty, while maintaining
their dignity and also continuing the teaching to which, for a variety
of reasons, they remain committed.
Description
Keywords
teaching and trading, local voices, global issues from Central Asia