The Department of Development Education under KUSOED was established in October 2018. Previously the department was named the ‘Department of Educational Leadership and Development Studies’. Later it was divided into two different departments. This department operates programs that connect development with education by catering to the needs of the development sector. It has streamlined and consolidated demand-driven programs aiming to produce, examine and engage in the global and local development discourse from multiple paradigms and educational perspectives.
The main objective of this department is to create creative, critical, and efficient development professionals who can meet the 21st challenges and needs contributing meaningfully to the development of the nations through various communities and activities. The purpose of the programs under this department is to emphasize the capacity building of potential research of national and international scholars whose research is likely to become a basis for improving practices in their professions and could contribute to the development sector at local, national, and global levels. The program further aims to equip the analytical and practical skills to engage in development issues critically and debates from an interdisciplinary perspective and work across the intersections of development policy, research, and practice. The program objective is to enable students to engage in social transformation processes utilizing research-based expertise and critical and comparative analysis.
The department has now created a larger network of the pass out who have been serving in the development sector significantly through their deserving positions. This pool of experts has always extended their helping hand to the program promotion and collaborative activities or projects with the department. The benefits that the school of education is receiving from them are valuable since it is the major factor for the success of the program within this department.
Programs that are running under Development Education Department.
The department has become a milestone in the areas of education, development, and vocational education and thus has become the hub of learning the developmental needs. This has helped the growth and development of the School of Education.
The department is conducting classrooms online as well as in blended mode. There are community-driven activities such as fieldwork to engage at the community level and apply their knowledge from the classroom to the community. Further, the department has collaborated with development partners such as Nepal Participatory Action Network (NEPAN) regularly for community engagement by conducting occasional discussion series. In the future, it has planned to work with local municipalities and collaborative work for the students’ community development and knowledge implications.