Notes on Contributors
Joanne Ailwood
is a teacher, researcher and Associate Professor in the School of Education, University of Newcastle, Australia, and her research sits across the fields of early childhood and primary education, children and families. She has published in the fields of history and policies of education, early childhood education, and teacher education. Joanne’s research is qualitative, making use of document analyses, case studies, and ethnographies. Her research is underpinned by the postfoundational theoretical perspectives of Michel Foucault and Rosi Braidotti. Joanne is a member of the Executive Leadership Board for the University of Newcastle’s Centre for African Research, Engagement and Partnerships.
Stephanie Allais
is Research Chair of Skills Development and Professor of Education at the Centre for Researching Education and Labour at Wits University. Her research is located in the sociology and political economy of education, focussed on relationships between education and work. She was a fellow at the Centre for Educational Sociology at the University of Edinburgh, and prior to that, managed and conducted research into qualifications frameworks in 16 countries for the International Labour Organisation. She has worked in government, distance education, trade union education; taught high school and adult basic education and training; and led a student organisation. She served on many committees by appointment of Ministers of Education in South Africa and has been involved in numerous policy processes.
David Archer
is Head of Participation and Public Services with ActionAid, having been Head of Education for many years. In the 1990s, he developed the Reflect approach to adult learning and social change, which has won five UN International Literacy Prizes. Since the late 1990s, David has worked with ActionAid on human rights-based approaches to development and the building of civil society coalitions on education across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. He is Chair of the Board of the Right to Education Initiative (https://www.right-to-education.org), was a cofounder of the Global Campaign for Education (https://www.campaignforeducation.org), and is Chair of the Strategy and Impact Committee of the Global Partnership for Education (https://www.globalpartnership.org).
Bilal Barakat
is a researcher, lecturer, and consultant whose main research interests and expertise are in the area of educational policy modelling and statistics, including demographic, economic, and methodological aspects. Currently Senior Policy Analyst for the Global Education Monitoring Report, Bilal taught and researched these topics based principally at the Austrian Academy of Sciences. In addition, he regularly acted as a consulting expert for international development organisations. His research has been published in leading international journals and featured in major international reports, including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Bilal holds a Habilitation in Education and Demography from the Vienna University of Economics and Business, a DPhil in Education from the University of Oxford, and Master’s degrees in Mathematics from the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford.
Aaron Benavot
is Professor of Global Education Policy in the School of Education at the University at Albany-SUNY. His scholarship has explored diverse educational issues from comparative, global, and critical perspectives – most recently, the proliferation of learning assessments; the conceptualisation and monitoring of lifelong learning; teacher enactment of mathematics curricula; and the mainstreaming of education for global citizenship and sustainable development. During the 2014–2017 period, Aaron served as Director of the Global Education Monitoring Report, an independent, evidence-based annual report published by UNESCO, which monitors global education trends and analyses progress toward international education targets in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Aaron has also coauthored or coedited five books, including PISA, Power, and Policy (with H.-D. Meyer) and School Knowledge for the Masses (with J. Meyer and D. Kamens).
Stephanie Bengtsson
is a researcher, educator, and consultant, specialising in international education policy and planning, education in emergencies and forced displacement, teachers and teacher education, inclusive education, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Education for All (EFA) agenda. Currently, Stephanie is a project officer at the International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP-UNESCO), supporting the Institute’s work on crisis-sensitive planning and effective teacher management in refugee contexts. Before joining IIEP-UNESCO in 2018, Stephanie worked as a research scholar at the Wittgenstein Centre for Demography and Global Human Capital (a collaboration of IIASA, VID/ÖAW, and WU) and as an independent education consultant. Stephanie holds a Doctorate of Education from Teachers College, Columbia University, and an MPhil in Inclusive Education from the University of Cambridge.
Carol Benson
is currently Associate Professor in International and Comparative Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. During her 30-year career, which has focussed on language issues in educational development, she has worked as a technical assistant at education ministries in multilingual countries including Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Bolivia, Guatemala, Vietnam, and Cambodia. As a researcher, she has contributed to published work documenting policy and practice in bi/multilingual education based on learners’ own languages. Her current research interests include the role of medium of instruction in gender equity, decision-making in multilingual education policy, and the development of assessments that demonstrate the full range of learners’ multilingual repertoires.
Zubeida Desai
was Dean of Education at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) in South Africa from 2007 to 2016, after which she formally retired. She is currently attached to the Department of Language Education in the Education Faculty at UWC in an extraordinary capacity. Zubeida has extensive experience working with teacher trainees, specialising in language teaching. She has published widely in the field of language in education policy and was the South African coordinator of the 10-year LOITASA Project (2002–2011), which explored the use of isiXhosa as a medium of instruction in geography, mathematics, and science in grades 4–6. She has also served on numerous advisory panels to the post-apartheid government on language policy matters.
Alexandra Draxler
is Senior Advisor to NORRAG and an education specialist. She spent many years at UNESCO and continues to work as an independent consultant for public and private entities. She was Executive Secretary of UNESCO’s Delors Commission (1993–1996). She has written about technologies in education, public-private partnerships, and education policies and strategies for development. She is a member of several professional associations, is Associate Editor of the International Journal of Educational Development, and a Critical Friend of Education International. She has been involved for a number of years with NORRAG’s programme of work, which includes critical review of EFA, the post-2015 process, and global governance.
Naureen Durrani
is a Professor at Nazarbayev University Graduate School of Education. She previously worked at the University of Sussex, Northumbria University, the University of Central Lancashire, and the University of Peshawar. Naureen’s research interests lie in the social, cultural, political, and economic influences on education policy formulation and enactment, and the outcomes of education on identity formation and gender relations. Her research is underpinned by poststructural and postcolonial theories. She has published widely on identity construction and gender. Her recent publications include a coauthored book titled Troubling Muslim Youth Identities. Nation, Religion, Gender, published by Palgrave Macmillan. Naureen is currently leading a three-year study on gender and schooling in Kazakhstan. Contextually, her research has focussed on Pakistan, Nigeria, South Africa, Rwanda, Senegal, Occupied Palestinian Territories, Lebanon, the United Kingdom, and Kazakhstan.
Clara Fontdevila
holds a degree in sociology from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and is currently a PhD candidate in the Department of Sociology at the same university, with a thesis research project on the negotiation and crafting of the post-2015 global education agenda. She has previously collaborated with Education International and the Open Society Foundations, as well as on the 2012 evaluation report of the Civil Society Education Fund. Her areas of interest are private-sector engagement in education policy, education and international development, and the global governance of education.
Viktor Grønne
spent 10 years in the Danish and European (school) student movements before graduating with a MSc in International Business and Politics from Copenhagen Business School in 2018. As first its Human Rights and Solidarity Coordinator and later a member of its Executive Committee, he represented the European Students’ Union (ESU) during much of the education post-2015 negotiations between 2014 and 2016. During his years in ESU, he was also responsible for rebuilding ESU’s global cooperation liaising with national and regional student movements around the world. Previously, he also represented the Danish VET students at the European level, helped establish a Danish-Zimbabwean student partnership, and acted as a youth representative in the Danish National Commission for UNESCO. He currently works for Plan Denmark.
Anjum Halai
is a Professor and international education expert with long standing experience in education in low and middle income countries like Pakistan and those in East Africa. She obtained her doctorate from Oxford University UK. She was an adjunct professor at the University of Alberta Canada (2011–2016) and a research fellow at the University of Sussex UK. Her research interests include social justice issues in education, girls’ education and gender equity. She has published widely in international journals of repute and co-edited monographs and books on significant issues in education. Currently Dr. Halai is serving as Vice Provost and interim Dean Faculty of Arts and Sciences at the Aga Khan University Pakistan.
Colleen Howell
is Research Associate in the Centre for Education and International Development at the Institute of Education, University College London, working in the area of higher education. She has been extensively involved over the last 20 years in education research and policy work in South Africa, particularly focussed on issues of equity and diversity in higher education and the building of inclusive education and training systems. She has lectured and published on these issues and contributed to a number of national policy initiatives in South Africa. Between 1998 and 2014, she worked at the University of the Western Cape in Cape Town, initially as a researcher in the Centre for the Study of Higher Education and then as Director of Institutional Research in the Institutional Planning Division.
Christopher J. Johnstone
is Assistant Professor of Comparative and International Education at the University of Minnesota. His research interests focus on inclusive education, inclusive development, and international higher education. Johnstone’s interest in the topic of this chapter was sparked by early career experiences as a special education and later inclusive education teacher. Johnstone’s current projects include a global consultancy on inclusive education policy with UNICEF, research support for an inclusive employment project in Bhutan, and a forthcoming book on the intersection of inclusive education and inclusive development.
Mamusu Kamanda
is a senior researcher with significant experience in international development, particularly in postconflict and marginalised contexts. Her research experience ranges from international education to health and demographic population surveillance in low- and middle-income countries. Between 2014 and 2018, she worked with research institutions across sub-Saharan Africa to provide robust evidence to decision makers to support national and global development goals. In September 2018, she joined the Department for International Development, UK, as Research and Evidence Specialist for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Research Hub in the Evidence Department. In this role, she champions the effective use of evidence to improve value for money and impact of programme design within country offices in the MENA region.
Hikaru Komatsu
is Research Associate at Kyoto University, Graduate School of Education. He holds a doctorate in forest sciences from the University of Tokyo. His research interests lie in the scientific and philosophical study of human–nature interactions. His most recent publications include “Refuting the OECD-World Bank Development Narrative” (in press, Globalisation, Societies and Education), “Stereotypes as Anglo-American Exam Ritual?” (2018, Oxford Review of Education), “Is Exam Hell the Cause of High Academic Achievement in East Asia?” (2018, British Education Research Journal), “Did the Shift to Computer-Based Testing in PISA 2015 Affect Reading Scores?” (2017, Compare), and “A New Global Policy Regime Founded on Invalid Statistics?” (2017, Comparative Education).
Allyson Krupar
is the Senior Specialist at Save the Children US in Learning Research and was formerly the Senior Associate on the Right to Education Index at RESULTS Educational Fund. She holds a PhD in Education focussed on adult education and comparative and international education from the Pennsylvania State University. Her research and work on RTEI included project management as well as data analysis and investigating how RTEI could be of use in the post-2015 education policy and programming environment. She developed the cross-cutting theme within the 2016 RTEI data to begin monitoring SDG 4.
Lizzi O. Milligan
is Lecturer in Education at the University of Bath. She obtained a PhD in Education from the University of Bristol in 2014. Her research focusses on issues of social justice, rights, and educational quality in low-income countries. She particularly explores the disjuncture between policy and practice, and the impact this has on inequalities in learning experiences and outcomes. Her recent work has considered this in relation to language of instruction, educational resources, and gender. Dr Milligan joined the editorial board of the journal Compare in 2016.
Palesa Molebatsi
is a doctoral student in education and development. She is based at the Centre for Researching Education and Labour in the University of the Witwatersrand’s School of Education, South Africa. Palesa’s role at the REAL Centre is also that of a research associate. Her research looks at the contribution that South African universities make toward the development of the South African society and economy.
Kate Moriarty
is a specialist in global education policy, advocacy, and human rights education. Kate started her career at Amnesty International, where she worked for a number of years and went on to lead human rights education globally. She has since worked for a number of NGOs, including Save the Children, the Malala Fund, and Theirworld, focussing on research and advocacy to support action on quality education for children in countries affected by conflict and crisis, girls’ education, and early years education. She also worked for UNESCO as Chief of the Section of Education for Peace and Human Rights. Kate is a qualified teacher. She holds a BSc in Sociology from the London School of Economics and an MA in Politics and Development from the Institute of Latin American Studies. She has recently completed a Doctorate in International Education from the University of Sussex; her research provides a critical examination of the Sustainable Development Goal for Education (SDG 4).
Tanvir Muntasim
is working as a specialist on civil society and mutual accountability at the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) Secretariat. He provides technical advice to support stronger engagement of CSOs, teachers’ organisations, and other national stakeholders in education sector policy, monitoring and management processes – including in the areas of budget tracking/education financing, effective joint sector review processes, and independent monitoring – and social accountability initiatives. Prior to joining GPE, he was the International Policy Manager, Education, for ActionAid. His role entailed monitoring and engaging with key global policy debates and policy networks on education. He previously worked for the Asia South Pacific Association for Basic and Adult Education as their Policy, Advocacy, and Campaigns Coordinator.
Lerato Posholi
is a PhD candidate and Research Associate at the Centre for Researching Education and Labour, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. She holds an MA in Philosophy from the University of the Witwatersrand. Her research interests are in epistemology and curriculum studies. Her PhD project broadly looks at the question of power and knowledge, and implications for curriculum.
Jeremy Rappleye
is Associate Professor at Kyoto University, Graduate School of Education. He holds a PhD from the University of Oxford. He is interested in overcoming divisions between philosophy and empirical social science, on the one hand, and Western (predominantly Anglo-American) perspectives and non-Western perspectives, on the other. His most recent publications include “Refuting the OECD-World Bank Development Narrative” (in press, Globalisation, Societies and Education), “Stereotypes as Anglo-American Exam Ritual?” (2018, Oxford Review of Education), “Is Exam Hell the Cause of High Academic Achievement in East Asia?” (2018, British Education Research Journal), “Did the Shift to Computer-Based Testing in PISA 2015 Affect Reading Scores?” (2017, Compare), and “A New Global Policy Regime Founded on Invalid Statistics?” (2017, Comparative Education).
Yusuf Sayed
is a global international education and development policy specialist. His research focusses on education policy formulation and implementation as it relates to concerns of equity, social justice, and transformation. Yusuf Sayed is the Professor of International Education and Development Policy at the University of Sussex and the South African Research Chair in Teacher Education, and the Founding Director of the Centre for International Teacher Education, at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, South Africa. He is also Honorary Professor at the Institute of Social and Economic Research, Rhodes University, South Africa. Previously Yusuf was Senior Policy Analyst at the EFA Global Monitoring Report, UNESCO; Team Leader for Education and Skills, the Department for International Development UK; and Head of Department of Comparative Education at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa.
Matthew J. Schuelka
is Lecturer of Inclusive Education at the University of Birmingham. His primary area of scholarship concerns sociocultural understandings of disability and education, and a focus on design and systems of schooling for all students. Dr Schuelka has been involved in education, research, and development projects all over the world, including Zambia, Serbia, Malaysia, Japan, Denmark, India, United States, United Kingdom, and particularly in the Himalayan country of Bhutan. At the time of this writing, he is Primary Investigator on three major research projects in Bhutan for the Toyota Foundation, ERASMUS+, and the ESRC Global Challenge Research Fund.
Luke Shore
is an advisor to private foundations and impact funds. Previously, he was a Programme Officer at the Education Support Programme of the Open Society Foundations and Board Member of the Organising Bureau of European School Student Unions. He has a BA in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics from Christ Church, Oxford.
Iveta Silova
is professor and director of the Center for Advanced Studies in Global Education at Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University. She holds a PhD in Comparative Education and Political Sociology from Teachers College, Columbia University. Her research focusses on globalisation and postsocialist education transformations, including intersections between postcolonialism and postsocialism after the Cold War. Iveta’s most recent research engages with the decoloniality of knowledge production and being, childhood memories, ecofeminism, and environmental sustainability. Her latest books include Childhood and Schooling in (Post)Socialist Societies: Memories of Everyday Life (2018, coedited with Millei and Piattoeva), and Reimagining Utopias (2017, coedited with Sobe, Korzh, and Kovalchuk). She is a coeditor of European Education: Issues and Studies and an associate editor of Education Policy Analysis Archives.
William C. Smith
is a teaching fellow at the University of Edinburgh, and former Senior Policy Analyst at UNESCO’s Global Education Monitoring Report and Thomas J. Alexander Fellow with the OECD. He holds a dual title PhD in Education Theory and Policy and Comparative International Education from Penn State University. Prior to earning his PhD, William worked for six years as a secondary social studies teacher in the United States. His research strands, which include addressing education’s role in international development and the relationship between teachers, testing, and accountability, have resulted in over 30 academic and policy publications, including his edited book, The Global Testing Culture: Shaping Education Policy, Perceptions, and Practice.
Ghada Swadek
is a PhD candidate at the University of Minnesota. Her research focus is on inclusive education policy and practice in Morocco. She is currently involved in educational consulting specialised in supporting children with learning differences and an inclusive Arabic reading programme project. Her research interests include sociocultural understandings of inclusion and disability, inclusive education in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), and early intervention in the MENA.
Anjela Taneja
is an education specialist with 20 years of experience with specialisation in education governance. For the last three years, she was the Head of Policy for the Global Campaign for Education, where she led the SDG processes within the Secretariat. She has worked for ActionAid, Oxfam, and CARE India, and was the Oxfam International Southern Education Lead. She is also one of the founding members of the Right to Education Forum, India’s largest education network. She currently works on essential services and inequality with Oxfam India.
Elaine Unterhalter
is Professor of Education and International Development at University College London, and co-Director of CEID (the Centre for Education and International Development). She has published widely on gender and education, and on global frameworks, including the MDGs and the SDGs. Her most recent book, written with Amy North, is Gender, Education and Global Poverty Reduction Frameworks, published by Routledge. Elaine was joint Principal Investigator with Stephanie Allais on the project on higher education and the public good in Africa, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, the Newton Fund, and the National Research Foundation of South Africa.
Volker Wedekind
is Associate Professor of Vocational Education in the Centre for International Education Research at the University of Nottingham and is Coordinator of the UNEVOC Centre at Nottingham. He is an honorary Associate Professor at the University of the Witwatersrand. His research has focussed on education policy from an historical-sociological perspective, on policy effect on teachers and curriculum, and more recently on vocational education policy in Africa, vocational pedagogy, and the role of vocational education for migrants. He has had extensive experience working on policy processes in South Africa as a member of a number of ministerial committees and on statutory bodies.
Joel Westheimer
is University Research Chair in Democracy and Education at the University of Ottawa and an education columnist for CBC Radio (the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation). Author, speaker, and education advocate, he grew up in New York City where he taught grades 6–8 in the NYC Public Schools. In addition to researching the role of schools in democratic societies, Westheimer studies, writes, and speaks widely on global school reform, the standards and accountability reform movements, and the politics of education and education research. His latest critically acclaimed book is What Kind of Citizen? Educating Our Children for the Common Good, which followed the award-winning Pledging Allegiance: The Politics of Patriotism in America’s Schools (foreword by Howard Zinn).
Antonia Wulff
is Coordinator at Education International (EI), the world federation of teacher unions. She coordinated EI’s advocacy and engagement in the intergovernmental negotiations on Agenda 2030 and is now focussing on SDG implementation, monitoring, and financing. Her work covers a broad range of policy areas related to education and the status and rights of education workers. Antonia also represents EI on the Board of the Global Campaign for Education. Prior to joining EI, Antonia managed a project on democratic education in Finland. She has a background in the student movement and is a former Board Member of the Organising Bureau of European School Student Unions and Chair of the Council of Europe Advisory Council for Youth. She has a Masters in Sociology from the University of Helsinki.