Comparative and International Education

Since its inception in the 1990s, the group has contributed to research and public dialogue on the challenges of educational transformation in low and middle-income countries, as well as the evolving nature of education systems globally.

Our members work across diverse global contexts, including:

• Africa (Kamal Armanious, Gardiana Bandeira Melo, Thomas Godfrey-Faussett, David Johnson, David Mills, Brooks Newmark)
• Asia and the Pacific (Zhuohan Chen, Claire (Yu) Hao, Aliya Khalid, Jiayi Li, Simon Marginson, Joonghyun Kwak, Julie Lin, Karen Skilling, Xiujuan Wang, Zhe Wang, Xin Xu)
• Europe (Cora Alina Blau, Rachel Brooks, Maia Chankseliani, Zhuohan Chen, Antonin Charret, Darta Drabovica, Liam Gearon, Natalya Hanley, Lavinia Kamphausen, Simon Marginson, Olga Mun, Karen Skilling, Elena Tsvetkova, Yuliya Zayachuk, Xiujuan Wang, Xin Xu)
• Central Asia (Maia Chankseliani, Natalya Hanley, Simon Marginson, Olga Mun)
• The Middle East (Ahmad Akkad, Reem Alqahtani)
• Western Hemisphere (Claire (Yu) Hao, Simon Marginson, Mercedes Crisostomo, Maria Teresa Tatto)

Areas of Expertise

Thematically, our group has expertise in education and international development (Maia Chankseliani, David Johnson, Alya Khalid, David Mills); international, and comparative higher education (Rachel Brooks, Antonin Charret, Maia Chankseliani, Darta Drabovica, Claire (Yu) Hao, Lavinia Kamphausen, Jiayi Li, Julie Lin, Simon Marginson, David Mills, Olga Mun, Maria Teresa Tatto, Elena Tsvetkova, Zhe Wang, Xiujuan Wang, Xin Xu, Yuliya Zayachuk); and international mobility and societal development (Ahmad Akkad, Cora Alina Blau, Rachel Brooks, Maia Chankseliani, Mercedes Crisostomo, Natalya Hanley, Joonghyun Kwak, Zhe Wang).

Our sociologically focused expertise includes sociology of education (Rachel Brooks, Joonghyun Kwak, Arathi Sriprakash); agency and social theory (Maia Chankseliani, Aliya Khalid, Simon Marginson); displacement, identity, and belonging (Ahmad Akkad); gender equity, family, and community (Aliya Khalid); and educational exclusion and assessment (Maia Chankseliani, Aliya Khalid, Thomas Godfrey-Faussett).

In the domain of teaching, learning, and professional development, we focus on teacher education and professional learning (Reem Alqahtani, Karen Skilling, Maria Teresa Tatto); STEM & mathematics education (Karen Skilling); employability and skills acquisition (Xiujuan Wang); motivation and learning theories (Karen Skilling); and language education and Global Englishes (Zhuohan Chen).

Critical approaches and issues of justice are central to our work, including postcolonial, decolonial, and indigenous CIE (Lavinia Kamphausen, Gardiana Bandeira Melo, Olga Mun, Arathi Sriprakash); reparative studies in education (Olga Mun, Arathi Sriprakash); anti-racist education (Arathi Sriprakash); ethics, epistemic justice, and moral philosophy (Liam Gearon, Olga Mun, Xin Xu); conflict, reconstruction, and displacement (Ahmad Akkad, Liam Gearon David Johnson); and climate change education (Olga Mun).

Additionally, our expertise extends to internationalisation at home (Maia Chankseliani, Jiayi Li, Yuliya Zayachuk); technical and vocational education and training (TVET) (Kamal Armanious, Maia Chankseliani); and research on research, academic publishing, and doctoral education (Maia Chankseliani, Vedika Kedia, David Mills, Olga Mun, Elena Tsvetkova, Xin Xu).

Methodologies

Our research is interdisciplinary, employing diverse methodological perspectives, including ethnographic case studies, interview-based studies, critical discourse analysis, critical policy analysis, and synthetic-historical analysis. We also use surveys, systematic reviews, longitudinal analysis, mixed methods design, and bibliometric analysis. Additionally, we apply qualitative and social network analysis, diary methods, oral history, archival research, narrative enquiry, participatory methods, vignettes, focus groups, grounded theory, participant observation, and creative visual methods.

Collaborations and Funding

The CIE research group collaborates with academics at Oxford, across the UK, and globally, and partners with international organisations such as ActionAid International, BAICE, British Academy, the British Council, Center for Global Development, the Council for At-Risk Academics, European Commission, Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, Friedrich Ebert Foundation Germany, NORRAG, OECD, Open Society Foundations, Templeton World Charity Foundation, UKFIET, UNESCO, UNDP, UNICEF, UNRWA, and UNHCR.

Our work is funded by organisations including UKRI, the British Academy, European Research Council, Malala Fund, John Fell Fund, the U.S. Department of State, the Council for At-Risk Academics, Nuffield Foundation, Hill Foundation, British Council, U.S. National Science Foundation, Australian Research Council, Tinker Foundation, Society for Research into Higher Education, British Educational Reserarch Association, National Union of Students, TASO – Centre for Transforming Access and Student Outcomes in Higher Education, and ministries of education in various countries. This broad funding base enables our research to engage with the contributions of economists, political scientists, historians, geographers, and anthropologists, deepening our understanding of educational systems and their societal impacts.

Professional Engagement

Members of the CIE research group are actively engaged in professional associations and serve in editorial roles. Several members serve as editors at International Journal of Educational Research, Comparative Education Review, British Journal of Sociology of Education, Sociology, Teaching Education Journal, and Humanities and Social Sciences Communications. They are also editorial board members for Higher Education Quarterly and British Journal of Sociology of Education, and advisory board members for Population, Space and Place and Higher Education. Additionally, members hold leadership positions at BAICE, UKFIET, CIES Higher Education SIG, British Sociological Association, Economic and Social Research Council, the British Society for Research into Learning Mathematics, and FreshEd.

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

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

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.

Past Seminars

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

Stretching spatial theories: New ways of thinking of space and time in comparative and international education, Marianne Larsen, Professor Emerita, Western University, Canada

Technologies of Agency: Student Mobility in Era of Digital Internationalization, Chris Glass, Professor of the Practice, Boston College, USA

Action Plan for an Inclusive Education Policy for the State of Qatar, Asmaa Al-Fadala, Assistant Professor, Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Qatar

One size fits all? The role of Hong Kong universities in the emerging Greater Bay Area, Tatiana Fumasolli, Professor of Higher Education Studies, UCL, UK

Learning equity: Some limitations of SDG4, and the potential of marginalization policies, Daniel A. Wagner, Professor and UNESCO Chair, University of Pennsylvania, USA

An international survey study exploring teachers’ perceptions on using mathematical storytelling: The case of England, Dr Natthapoj Vincent Trakulphadetkrai-Techavijit, University of Reading, UK

Using, misusing, and abusing education research journals, Professor Gustavo Fischman, Arizona State University, USA

Internationalizing Education Research: Bridging National and Global Perspectives in Japan’s Education and Comparative Education Research, Professor Akiyoshi Yonezawa, Tohoku University, Japan

‘Society is fragmenting!’: discourses of migration and education in the press in France and England, Professor Oakleigh Welply, Durham University, UK

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