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Increasing school enrolment has been a focus of investment, even in remote rural areas whose populations are surplus to the requirements of the global economy. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted in primary schools and their neighbouring communities in rural areas of Lesotho, India and Laos, we explore how young people, their parents and teachers experience schooling in places where the prospects of incorporation into professional employment (or any well rewarded economic activity) are slim. We show how schooling uses aspiration, holding out a promise of a 'better future' remote from the lives of rural children. However, children's attachment to such promises is tenuous, boosted yet troubled by the small minority who defy the odds and succeed. We question why education systems continue to promote occupational aspirations that are unattainable by most, and why donors and governments invest so heavily in increasing human capital that cannot be absorbed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Qualitative scholars are increasingly arguing in favor of bridging the gap between emic and etic knowledge as well as to become critically reflexive while conducting research, especially in the underserved contexts. Conducting qualitative research in marginalized spaces of the global South often poses unique challenges. In this case, my research took place in rural eastern India where some of the challenges faced were my ethnocentrism and preconceived baggage, trust building challenges, and situated communicative and structural barriers. My field research experiences taught me the importance of unlearning, co-learning, and relearning to meaningfully engage with the underserved populations and their realities. Unlearning involves critically examining our previously acquired knowledge/assumptions toward exploring purviews and avenues for new learning. Co-learning is a process of collaborative learning with and in grassroots communities toward cocreating culturally meaningful knowledge and opening up avenues for social equality. Intertwined with unlearning and co-learning, the relearning efforts are focused on gaining and embodying new knowledge or ways of seeing. Grounded in the examples from my field research experiences, this article discusses the roles and significance of unlearning, co-learning, and relearning in conducting qualitative research in the underserved context of the global South. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]