BAINTON, David Robert

Visiting Fellow, 2009-2010

Email david.bainton@eui.eu   
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After a Chemistry degree and training as a science teacher, I taught Secondary School science in state schools in Zimbabwe, Bhutan, and the UK. During this time, I became increasingly interested in the interface between western and non-western knowledge.

My doctoral research explored these issues through looking at the impact of schooling on indigenous knowledge in Ladakh, Northern India. A subsequent postdoctoral fellowship was principally aimed at disseminating the findings of this research to policymakers, academics and practitioners. 

At the heart of my research agenda is the challenge of understanding, the interface between western models of schooling and indigenous knowledge as they articulate within shifting social and economic practices associated with development and globalisation. 

Crucially this encounter is theorised from an indigenous knowledge perspective in order to be sensitive to the hegemonic practices that tend to marginalise non-western forms of knowing. Taking a narrative methodological approach within a critical theoretical framework, my current research interests are in the use of indigenous theory as a de-colonial move to decentre academic knowledge production.

This year in Florence will be an exciting time for the whole family. My wife, Noemi, is a Max Weber Fellow, and we are very much looking forward to hearing the first Italian words of our two-year old son, Buda.