an itinerant observer

A few weeks back I received an invitation to present a keynote at the Iqra University for a conference on education . When I first received the email, my first thought was that it was either spam or sent to me mistakenly. For three reasons. (1) I’m a doctor and researcher, (2) what do I have to do with pedagogy of education; in fact, I shudder whenever I am faced with something like that, and (3) the exit route – not to get involved in more things when you are already doing two full time jobs.   Anyhow, on reading the email further, I was hooked: I came across phrases like ‘Covid-19 has changed our assumptions’ , ‘rethinking education and learning spaces’ , but above all, ‘sustainable education and educating sustainability’. Although, to be honest, I had to remind myself that the latter wasn’t just a tongue twister! Once reassured that I indeed was the intended recipient of the invitation, and that I indeed would be the right person for this, I started with drafting a brief out...