Chapter 8: Building a Partnership for Teacher Empowerment in India: Trusting Teachers Strengthen(s) Process and Program

In a world where 61 percent of girls and 39 percent of boys of primary school age still remain out of school (UNESCO, 1998, p. 36), Universal Primary Education (UPE) must remain a priority. Participants of the March 1990 World Conference on Education for All in Jomtien, Thailand, and the World Summit for Children accepted this premise and broadened the basic education vision to reflect a stronger ethical ideology of social justice for all. International donors, national governments, and NGOs called for new and revitalized partnerships to operationalize this UPE vision (Shaeffer, 1994). They recognized that former so-called partnerships had usually mandated universal policies or as Mullinix (2001, p. 3) notes operated with the inherent displaced equality that comes from donor relationships. These partnerships had often resulted in mistrust, difficult experiences, and failed programs. Thus, as partners at many levels, both external and internal, attempt to converge their goals, policies, and strategies, they also hope to recognize the ideology and experience of the local context and recipients, promote indigenous independence, and integrate systemic change in education. Klees (2001) has termed this phenomenon “partnership fervor.”