EDU 504 : International and Comparative Education

EDU 504 introduces students to the theoretical, conceptual, and methodological questions and concerns that have animated scholarship and practice in the field of comparative and international education from the early twentieth century beginnings. Students will consider comparisons and borrowing and lending of educational ideas and best practices through historical and contemporary issues from across the world. Seminal questions to be examined: How do ‘global’ forces impact educational development in different settings? What are the transnational concerns surrounding culture and schooling? Who are the key actors and institutions that educate in different systems around the world? Course topics may include the internationalization of higher education, large-scale testing regimes, global mobility, sustainability, and dominant ideologies or cultures that have impacted educational development and outcomes around the world, including reform motivations, meanings, and structures. These seminal questions provide the opportunity to pursue fundamental questions of purpose, theory, method, and various empirical logic in international and cross-national inquiry in educational policy studies.