Research · Editorial
Dr Munir Sewani joins IET as Visiting Fellow
Dr Sewani attended The Open University during November-December 2023 to progress his research in open education on a prestigious Charles Wallace British Council Fellowship, managed by the British Council in Pakistan.
Dr Sewani is a graduate of The Open University’s Institute of Educational Technology (IET) and was selected in the first cohort of Commonwealth Distance Learning Scholars to study IET's Masters in Online and Distance Education in 2018.
Since then, Dr Sewani has led numerous initiatives in his home country of Pakistan and beyond, intended to support social justice and educational equity.
Commenting on their passion for social action, Dr Sewani said:
"I have been actively involved in social action for two decades, but the passion for designing models, frameworks and educational theories emerged from the digital literacy that I acquired while studying at the OU. This university has ignited intellectual openness and gave me courage to think out of the box and apply learning in my professional life.
Since the completion of my studies, I have been using digital skills to empower students at my workplace, Sindh Madressatul Islam University. I am also using low-cost technology to help raise awareness about mental health and human rights values. For this purpose, using a netnographic approach, I have published two open e-books titled Face of Depression and Silent Scream for Global Empowerment. I have also designed and piloted a socio-culturally situated low-cost mental health intervention for the wellbeing of young women from disadvantaged communities.
In addition, during the Covid-19 pandemic, I networked with professionals to support the virtual professional development of around half a million teachers and educators at no cost. I am glad to inform that I have pioneered the concept of OER for teachers in Pakistan and I give credit to the Commonwealth and OU for this achievement. "
The Social Action award recognised Dr Sewani for his socioecoethical model of human rights education and for educating teachers of over 75 countries about human rights values and social empowerment.
Commenting on his motivations for future work, Dr Sewani said:
"I will continue educating students at my workplace about using low-cost technology; designing models and theories and about OER."
Read more in Dr Sewani's biography below.
He holds a Ph.D. in Education with a concentration in Human Rights Education. Currently, he serves as an Assistant Professor of Education at Sindh Madressatul Islam University- a public sector university. He is also a founding Volunteer Director of Global Forum for Teacher Educators. Munir has been the recipient of the Charles Wallace Trust Fellowship at the Open University UK, UNESCO APCEIU Micro-Project Winner, Presidency of Turks and Related Communities (YTB) Research Fellow at Istanbul Zaim University, Remote Fellow at the International Rescue Committee USA and University of Lagos. He also received bursary to attend GEI Summer School, the Ninth Pan-Commonwealth Forum (PCF9), and the European Conference on Addictive Behaviours and Dependencies (Lisbon Addictions). Additionally, he has received the Commonwealth Distance Education Scholarship, and has recently won the British Council's Social Impact Award. Munir has also delivered free guest lectures at various global institutes, including the United Nations Science Summit, School of Education at UC Berkeley, Adult School Berkeley, and Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Germany.
He has proposed several free innovative models, including:
- Munir's socioecoethical model of human rights education,
- Munir's model of teachers' identity exploration,
- Munir's socio-eco-environmental approach to environmental education for communities living under unprecedented emergencies,
- Munir's scatter plotter and human trilogy theory,
- Munir's minimal intelligence theory,
- Munir's Chameleon model of leadership.
In addition, Munir has coined the terms 'Ethrical thinking' related to the scholarly development of theories, models and frameworks (read more here), 'intellectual charity/barter', and 'loglocal pedagogy of global education'. In research, he introduced the concept of layered tripartite consent model- an ethical disposition in research and developmental policy formulation plan.
He is the first Asian to have educated more than half a million teachers towards human rights education and digital learning during COVID-19 for free via volunteer platform to promote Open Education. He uses a radically alternative approach in academia through sustainable open educational praxis.
At The Open University, Dr Sewani collaborated with Dr Leigh Perryman and Dr Tim Coughlan on developing a course on Open Educational Resources and working on a research paper, and also delivered a series of lectures.
People
-
MS
Dr Munir Sewani