About

The Comparative and International Education (CIE) Research Group is an internationally-recognised interdisciplinary group dedicated to the study of educational systems, practices, and policies around the world.

Since its inception in the 1990s, the group has advanced research and public dialogue about the challenges to educational transformations in low and middle-income countries, and the crises and changing faces of educational systems in other parts of the world.

The CIE research group members work in different global contexts, including Africa (Yousef Khalifa Aleghfeli, Kamal Armanious, David Johnson, David Mills, Brooks Newmark, Natasha Robinson, Karen Skilling), Asia and the Pacific (Arathi Sriprakash, Aliya Khalid, Arzhia Habibi, Jiayi Li, David Johnson, Joonghyun Kwak, Simon Marginson, Maria Teresa Tatto, Zhe Wang, Xiujuan Wang, Xin Xu), Europe and Central Asia (Yousef Khalifa Aleghfeli, Maia Chankseliani, Antonin Charret, Darta Drabovica, Liam Gearon, Natalya Hanley, Lucy Hunt, Lavinia Kamphausen, Simon Marginson, David Mills, Olga Mun, Elena Tsvetkova, Xin Xu, Yuliya Zayachuk), the Middle East (Ahmad Akkad, Yousef Khalifa Aleghfeli), and Western Hemisphere (Mercedes Crisostomo, Joonghyun Kwak, Simon Marginson, Maria Teresa Tatto).

Thematically, we have developed expertise in education and international development (Maia Chankseliani, David Johnson, Alya Khalid, David Mills); global, international and comparative higher education (Antonin Charret, Maia Chankseliani, Darta Drabovica, Arzhia Habibi, Aliya Khalid, Jiayi Li, Lavinia Kamphausen, Simon Marginson, David Mills, Olga Mun, Maria Teresa Tatto, Elena Tsvetkova, Xin Xu); international mobility and societal development, international higher education (Ahmad Akkad, Cora Blau, Maia Chankseliani, Mercedes Crisostomo, Natalya Hanley, Joonghyun Kwak, Zhe Wang); education, radicalisation and international terrorism (Liam Gearon, David Johnson); research on research and science, academic publishing, research governance, doctoral education (Maia Chankseliani, Vedika Kedia, David Mills, Olga Mun, Elena Tsvetkova, Xin Xu); education, ethnicity, and conflict (David Johnson, Liam Gearon); educational and social theory (Maia Chankseliani, Simon Marginson); ethics, epistemic justice, moral philosophy and education (Liam Gearon, Arzhia Habibi, Olga Mun, Xin Xu); technical and vocational education and training (Kamal Armanious, Maia Chankseliani); STEM & mathematics education (Karen Skilling); education for refugee children and youth, stateless children and youth, undocumented child and youth migrants (Yousef Khalifa Aleghfeli, Lucy Hunt); postcolonial theory (Lavinia Kamphausen, Olga Mun); global citizenship education (Arzhia Habibi, Natalya Hanley); European higher education (Antonin Charret, Maia Chankseliani, Yuliya Zayachuk); sociology of education (Joonghyun Kwak, Arathi Sriprakash); reparations and reparative justice in education (Arathi Sriprakash); social justice and gender in education (Aliya Khalid); employability and skills acquisition (Xiujuan Wang); teacher education (Maria Teresa Tatto).

The CIE research group brings together diverse methodological perspectives, ranging from ethnographic case studies, interview-based studies, critical discourse analysis, critical policy analysis, and synthetic-historical analysis to surveys, systematic reviews, and bibliometric analysis. Our ongoing studies also use qualitative and social network analysis, diary method, oral history, archival research, narrative enquiry, participatory methods, focus groups, grounded theory, participant observation, and creative visual methods.

Our approach to the study of education is highly interdisciplinary. The group has engaged in collaborations with academics working at Oxford, across the UK, and globally; and significantly, with international agencies like ActionAid, BAICE, the British Council, Center for Global Development, European Commission, Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, NORRAG, OECD, Open Society Foundations, Templeton World Charity Foundation, UKFIET, UNESCO, UNDP, UNICEF, UNRWA, UNHCR, World Bank.

Some of the recent funders of research include UKRI, the British Academy, Malala Fund, U.S. Department of State, the Council for At-Risk Academics, Hill Foundation, U.S. National Science Foundation, and Tinker Foundation. In this way the group benefits from a wide spectrum of thought and the contributions of economists, political scientists, historians, geographers, and anthropologists as it seeks to gain a richer and deeper understanding of the social, cultural and political fabric of educational systems across world regions and areas, or the new insights into relationships between education and society.

International, cross-university and college collaboration has resulted in a number of seminars, conferences and significant publications. The Global Public Seminars in Comparative and International Education address themes of major interest to academics, practitioners, and policy-makers working in the field of education globally. These seminars aim to illuminate the role of education in societal development, with a focus on understanding changes in education policy, discourse, and practice, and how these changes influence individual opportunities and shape the development of educational institutions around the world. Seminars will zoom into the local and zoom out into the national and supranational spaces, flows, and influences on education.

The Comparative and International Education Research is convened by Dr Maia Chankseliani, Associate Professor of Comparative and International Education.

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Find out about the MSc in Education – Comparative & International Education pathway

Events

Global Public Seminars in Comparative and International Education address themes of major interest to academics, practitioners, and policy-makers working in the field of education globally.

These seminars illuminate the role of education in societal development, with a focus on understanding changes in education policy, discourse, and practice, and how these changes influence individual opportunities and shape the development of educational institutions around the world. Seminars zoom into the local and zoom out into the national and supranational spaces, flows, and influences on education.

 

Seminar Programme 2024

All seminars take place online via Zoom at 3pm GMT.

20 March 2024

‘Society is fragmenting!’: discourses of migration and education in the press in France and England

Professor Oakleigh Welply, Durham University

Registration link

 

24 April 2024

Internationalizing Education Research: Bridging National and Global Perspectives in Japan’s Education and Comparative Education Research

Professor Akiyoshi Yonezawa, Tohoku University, Japan

Registration link

 

22 May 2024

Using, misusing, and abusing education research journals

Professor Gustavo Fischman, Arizona State University, USA

Registration link

 

26 June 2024

An international survey study exploring teachers’ perceptions on using mathematical storytelling: The case of England

Dr Natthapoj Vincent Trakulphadetkrai-Techavijit, University of Reading

Registration link

 

PAST SEMINARS

The recordings of past Global Public Seminars in Comparative and International Education can be accessed by following these links:

Perception of uncertainty by the participants of the educational process under state of war in higher education institutions of Ukraine, Professor Oksana Bodnar, Ternopil Volodymyr Hnatiuk National Pedagogical University, Ukraine

Higher education in Ukraine at a time of war: state of the network, legislative support, educational process organisation peculiarities, Professor Olena Lokshyna, Dr. Sc., Institute of Pedagogy of the National Academy of Educational Sciences of Ukraine, Borys Grinchenko Kyiv University, Ukraine

Adapting the University (of Lviv) in time of war, Professor Roman Gladyshevskii, Dr. Sc., Academician of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Vice-Rector for Research, Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Ukraine

Internationalisation as one of the key components of Ukrainian university activities in times of Russia’s military invasion, Dr Yuliya Zayachuk, Academic visitor at the Department of Education, University of Oxford, UK, and Associate Professor, Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Ukraine

Giving epistemic due to the educational experiences of young women with disabilities in Palestine, Dr Alison Mackenzie and Dr Mohammed Owaineh, Queen’s University Belfast, UK

New Kids on the Block: Features, Trends, and Regulation of For-profits in Higher Education Worldwide Speaker: Dr Dante Salto, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, USA

Revisiting Social Reproduction Theory: An empirical study based on the data of PISA 2018 Speaker: Yan Luo, Tsinghua University, China

From Perpetrator to Peacebuilder: Rethinking Education in Conflict-Affected Societies Speaker: Professor Tejendra Pherali, UCL, UK

Understanding Dynamic Influences of Educational Reform in Ethiopia Speaker: Professor Ricardo Sabates Aysa, University of Cambridge, UK

Rurality in Globalised Higher Education: Comparative Perspectives from International Doctoral Research Theses Speaker: Professor Catherine Montgomery, Faculty of Social Sciences and Health, Durham University, UK

Re-imagining Intellectual Leadership in Post-Soviet Higher Education Speaker: Professor Anatoly Oleksiyenko, Department of International Education, the Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK), Hong Kong

Toppling Statues? Complicity, Whiteness and Reckoning in Comparative and International Education Speakers: Professors Robin Shields & Julia Paulson, University of Bristol, UK

Why does educational tracking lead to greater inequality in political engagement? Zooming in on France Speaker: Professor Germ Janmaat, UCL Institute of Education, UK

Education in Emergencies & the Implicated Subject: Imperial Pasts and Presents Speaker: Professor Mario Novelli, Professor in the Political Economy of Education, Centre for International Education, University of Sussex, UK

Tiger parenting under globalization: Social class, ethnicity and culture Speaker: Dr Nutsa Kobakhidze, Assistant Professor in Comparative and International Education, Faculty of Education, the University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Overview of Education In Africa: How the Implementation of the CESA And SDG4 Agendas is Progressing? Speaker: Dr Carolina Alban Conto, Research and Development Manager, IIEP – UNESCO Africa Office, Dakar, Senegal

At The Crossroads: Rethinking the Role of Education in Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism Speaker: Thomas Koruth Samuel, Consultant, Terrorism Prevention, Southeast Asia and the Pacific, Regional Centre for East Asia and the Pacific, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)

Social Distance, Teachers’ Beliefs and Teaching Practices in a Context of Social Disadvantage: Evidence from India and Pakistan   Speaker: Dr Rabea Malik, CEO and Fellow, Institute of Development and Economic Alternatives; Assistant Professor, School of Education, LUMS, Pakistan

‘Breaking gender, sex and sexuality borders: The case of comprehensive sexuality education in South Africa’ Speaker: Thabo Msibi, Dean and Head of School, School of Education, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Global Middle-Class families – comparative study of travel trajectories and imagined futures’ Speaker: Miri Yemini, Senior Lecturer, Tel Aviv University, Israel

‘Equal’ Transnational Partnerships in Higher Education: Sino-Foreign Case Studies’ Speaker: Miguel Antonio Lim, Senior Lecturer in Education, University of Manchester, UK

‘Why did policymakers in India and Mexico adopt the Germanic model of dual apprenticeships?’ Speaker: Oscar Valiente, Senior Lecturer University of Glasgow, UK

‘Governing education by partnership: the GPE in the context of other sectors’ global financing partnerships.’ Speaker: Moira V. Faul, Executive Director, NORRAG, Graduate Institute for International and Development Studies, Geneva, Switzerland

‘A comparison of the transition of returning scholars to domestic research environments in Kazakhstan, Malaysia and Cambodia.’ Speaker: Aliya Kuzhabekova, Associate Professor, Nazarbayev University, Kazakhstan

‘Methods and Findings from OECD’s Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) Video Study of Teaching’ Speaker: V. Darleen Opfer, Vice President, RAND Education and Labor Research Division; Distinguished Chair in Education Policy, USA

Renegotiating the Public Good: Education Policy Responses to Covid-19 in England, Germany and Italy Speaker: Dr Peter Kelly, Reader in Comparative Education, University of Plymouth, UK

The Divided World of Comparative Research on Pedagogy Speaker: Michele Schweisfurth, Professor of Comparative and International Education, School of Education, University of Glasgow, UK