The research arrangements in each country reflected its own resources for educational research. In each case the collaborators gave generously of their time and enthusiasm, and the institutions to which they belong made invaluable contributions in finance and logistics. The project as a whole was financed by the Department for International Development, the Commonwealth Secretariat (Commonwealth Fund for Technical Cooperation), and the Department of Education, Northern Ireland. All those concerned are grateful to these bodies for their funding.
We should also like to thank the 23 secondary schools in four countries who helped, their students who completed questionnaires, their staff and principals who participated in interviews, and other educational advisers and administrators who provided the raw material for this study.
In Botswana the project was undertaken by Mrs Naledi T Ratsoma in the Curriculum Development and Evaluation Department of the Ministry of Education. In India it was carried out by Professor Arjun Dev, Head of the Department of Education in Social Sciences and Humanities in the National Council of Educational Research and Training, New Delhi. In Northern
Ireland the Department of Education and the Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment nominated Dr Alan Smith, of the School of Education of the University of Ulster, to do this work; he was assisted by Ms Ursula Birthistle. In Zimbabwe the project was overseen by Ms Melania Rukanda, Chief Education Officer, Standards Control and Professional Administration in the Ministry of Education. Without their hard work, and the assistance of their colleagues, pilot schools and teachers, this report could not have been prepared.
The three year project was coordinated by Richard Bourne and Dr Jagdish Gundara at the International Centre for Intercultural Studies, London University Institute of Education. All stakeholders in the project served on an international project committee which met in London in 1995, in Northern Ireland in 1996, and in Gaborone in 1997. They were able to provide important mutual support, as for example when the University of Ulster assisted in computing the results from Botswana.
Thanks in London are also owed to Terry Allsop and Graham Larkbey, respectively chair and secretary of the Education Research Board of the Department for International Development (formerly Overseas Development Administration); to Mrs Christine Mulindwa-Matovu and Ms Madhuri Bose in the Human Rights Unit in the Commonwealth Secretariat, which has assisted the Commonwealth Values project since its earliest stage in 1993, and to Professor Stephen Matlin and his education colleagues Dr Jasbir Singh and Ms Selina Mohsin in the Human Resource Development Division. Steady interest and support of a different kind has been offered by Steve Sinnott, deputy general secretary of the National Union of Teachers.
The London University Institute of Education set up an academic advisory committee for the project chaired by Professor Gunther Kress, with Dr Bob Cowen, Dr Eva Gamarnikow, Dr Crispin Jones and Dr Phillida Salmon. They, and the long-suffering Secretary to the International Centre for Intercultural Studies, Alice Henfield, are thanked as well.
In Botswana the project was supported by the Curriculum Development Division but an exceptional amount of work and travel fell to the key researcher, Naledi Ratsoma. She was assisted by Mrs Nonofo Losike-Sedimo in the computer analysis of data, and by colleagues at the University of Ulster, Northern Ireland, who were able to support them with suitable software.
In India the study was carried out by a team comprising: Dr Dinesh Shama, Professor (Ms) Indira Arjun Dev, Mr Nasiruddin Khan, Dr J L Pandey, Ms Supta Das, Dr Ved Prakash, Professor Arjun Dev (all from the NCERT), Professor D Lahiry (formerly with the NCERT), Ms Raj Varma and Ms Sunaina Sharma (Investigators). Dr (Ms) Karuna Chanana of Jawaharlal Nehru University advised the team on several aspects of the study. The heads of various national bodies, such as the National Council of Teacher
Education, Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan, Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti and the National Council of Educational Research and Training made themselves available for detailed discussions with team members on various issues of human rights education. Professor Arjun Dev, as National Coordinator, was grateful to his colleagues Shri Harish Threja and Shri Motilal for their secretarial assistance.
In Northern Ireland the support of the Department of Education was invaluable, and special mention should be made of the interest in the project shown by Ms Carmel Gallagher of the Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment.
In Zimbabwe the National Coordinator, Ms Melania Rukanda, worked on the project with officers from the Curriculum Development Unit and with the Research/Evaluation officer from the Ministry of Education Planning Unit.
International research projects require cooperation, stamina and good humour, especially when they aim for comparable quality and are working to tight budgets and deadlines. In this case, more persons than can be named deserve our thanks, but without those listed here the project could certainly not have Been completed.
