Abstract

Educational provision for nomadic peoples is a highly complex, as well as controversial and emotive, issue. For centuries, nomadic peoples educated their children by passing on from generation to generation the socio-cultural and economic knowledge required to pursue their traditional occupations. But over the last few decades, nomadic peoples have had to contend with rapid changes to their ways of life, often as a consequence of global patterns of development that are highly unsympathetic to spatially mobile groups. The need to provide modern education for nomadic groups is evident and urgent to all those concerned with achieving Education For All; yet how they can be included is highly controversial. This volume provides a series of international case studies, prefaced by a comprehensive literature review and concluding with an end note drawing themes together, that sets out key issues in relation to educational services for nomadic groups around the world.

Caroline Dyer is Reader in Education in Development at the University of Leeds, U.K. She specialises in aspects of basic education in South Asia, and has a long-standing interest in the educational inclusion of ethnic minorities, particularly mobile communities.