Concentrations

Study in Comparative, International, and Global Studies in Education (CIGSE) prepares researchers, teachers, practitioners, advocates, and policymakers who are interested in education around the world and across nations, states, and cultures. Various modes of inquiry and the intellectual orientations of several disciplines are used to investigate, often from a comparative and/or cross-cultural perspective, aspects of education in one or more geographical regions of the world. Students and faculty engage in topically, geographically, and positionally diverse research on topics such as: educational policy in practice; educational inequality, change, and social justice; the politics of education and educational reform; international development and educational planning, policymaking, and institution-building; the interactions among education, gender, migration, language, religion, race, ethnicity, rurality/urbanicity, epistemologies, class, and nationality; and development (social, political, health, economic); and, the interrelationships of particular aspects of schools, societies, and cultures.

The Concentration has close ties with other units within the broader University community, including Area Studies programs, social science departments, University Centers and Institutes, and other School of Education departments. Core EPS courses commonly taken by students within this Concentration include: EDPOL 675: Introduction to Comparative and International Education; EDPOL 677: Education, Health, and Sexuality in Global Perspectives; EDPOL 760: Critical Development Studies and Education; EDPOL 761: Migration and Education; EDPOL 780: Multiple topics, such as the State and Educational Policy in Comparative Perspective; EDPOL 805: Gender Issues in International Educational Policy; EDPOL 860: Proseminar: Theory and Method in Comparative Education; EDPOL 962: Seminar in Cross-National Studies of Educational Problems; and special seminars.

Students completing this Concentration take positions in academia in the United States and around the world, in international education and policy agencies, in educational research organizations and think-tanks, in Foundations and other international development organizations; and in national and sub-national ministries of education.

Upcoming and related comparative and international education activities on campus:

International Comparative Education Research Group (ICERG)

Students in the Social Sciences and Education (SSE) concentration apply disciplinary perspectives, theories and methodologies to the study of issues in educational policy. Faculty members in this concentration utilize sociological, anthropological, political, and economic perspectives. SSE members aim to inform public discourse and educational policy and practice.

EPS students choosing to concentrate in SSE will develop a program of study that combines deep exploration of a particular educational problem, theoretical perspective, methodology, or disciplinary approach with broad grounding in social foundations of education and in key substantive fields relevant to educational policy and/or practice. Programs of study will be individually designed (with the support and approval of an EPS advisor) to reflect students’ prior knowledge, skills and experience as well as their current educational goals. Students in this concentration are expected to become well-versed in methodological approaches common to social science research, and specifically are required to take a methodology course and two research methods courses.

Students who successfully complete this Concentration are well-prepared for careers as faculty, researchers, policy analysts, and advocates in academic, governmental, or non-governmental settings.

The SSE concentration requires that a student take at least one methodology course and at least two methods courses, with a strong preference that these be distributed among quantitative and qualitative methods. Students should make decisions about specific courses in consultation with their advisor, but the list of courses in Annex 3 is intended to provide uniform guidance both to students and advisors. Because courses are constantly changing, the list is never exhaustive. Students are welcome to bring ideas for new or alternative courses to their advisor to determine whether they are likely to be generative courses particular to students’ own studies and research plans. Watch in particular for special topics courses, including in those EPS, which may meet a methods requirement.