New Scholars Sponsored Panel on Family Life and Academic Stress with
Vandra Masemann, OISE University of Toronto.

One of the goals of the CIES New Scholars Committee is to focus on outreach in an effort to reach a wider population of emerging scholars in the Society.  To accomplish this, the New Scholars Committee is organizing a number of activities such as academic panels at the 2009 CIES Annual Conference in South Carolina, collaboration across gender, UREAG, and other special interest groups, and website development to facilitate communication.  At the 2008 Annual Conference in New York City, we coordinated a unique opportunity along with the support of Dr. Vandra Masemann and Dr. Sandra Stacki titled, “Family Stress and Academic Life” (please refer to Outreach Activities for further information on this panel).

This section also contains helpful information for prospective students, current students, and recent graduates.  For example, frequently asked questions, current lines of research, publishing information, and development opportunities in the field of comparative and international education.

 

 

Current Activities


For the first time at the CIES Annual Conference, Dr. Masemann and Dr. Stacki led discussion on Family Stress and Academic Life, geared toward new, emerging scholars in the field.  This unique presentation provided a comparative approach to resolving issues of family and academic intersections.  It included an enlightening exploration on the family lives of great scholars such as Margaret Mead, Bertrand Russell, and Charles Darwin, who wrote the Origin of Species while raising eight children.  The discussion also included reference to issues of every phase of the life cycle and alternative lifestyles and family arrangements.

 

Vandra Masemann is an anthropologist who has worked in the fields of comparative education, multicultural and anti-racist education, and international and global education.  Her Ph.D. thesis was an ethnography of a girls’ boarding school in West Africa, and she has devoted a considerable portion of her career to advocating the uses of ethnographic and other qualitative methods in research in comparative education.  She has taught at the Faculty of Education, University of Toronto, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the University of   Pittsburgh, the State University of New York at Buffalo, and the Florida State University, and is presently Adjunct Associate Professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto.  She was President of the World Council of Comparative Education Societies (1987-1991) and its Secretary General (1996-2000), the Comparative and International Education Society (1990-1991, and the Comparative and International Education  Society of Canada (1985-1987).  Dr. Masemann will be joined by colleague, Sandra Stacki of Hofstra University.  Dr. Stacki also comes from a wealth of professional and personal experiences.  Among these include knowledge of AAUP, which discusses family, women, and issues related to academia.

 

Information for Prospective Students

 

 Frequently Asked Questions by Prospective Students

(Click on any of the following questions for the answer.)

Why pursue a degree in Comparative and International Education?

My reply to the question of why pursue a degree in comparative and international education begins with my answer to a more basic question: why study comparative education? Even those who do not pursue a degree in this field can benefit from systematic exposure to it. You don't have to be a trained comparativist to derive value from comparative education.

Comparative study is a natural human activity. From infancy we learn to distinguish good from bad, benefit from harm through trial and error, which is a basic form of comparison. As we advance in intellectual development, we may engage in scientific observation, which is no less a form of comparison, as when we contrast an experimental effect with a controlled effect. Much of educational research involves comparison, but comparative education greatly expands the range of observations open to scholars and therefore extends our ability to explain educational activity and its effects. By studying education comparatively, educators improve their capabilities by gaining a global perspective on their craft.

There are three fundamental reasons for pursuing a degree in comparative education. First, comparativists are better able to learn from others to improve education at home. As Michael Sadler put it in a famous lecture he gave in 1900, "The practical value of studying in a right spirit and with scholarly accuracy the working of foreign systems of education is that it will result in our being better fitted to study and understand our own." Second, comparativists, as individuals having a global command of knowledge, as well as expert observers who exercise dispassionate judgment, are better able to help others understand the nature and consequences of their own education.

Finally, a degree in comparative education gives access to a large range of satisfying jobs. Degree holders can be professionals not only in higher education and in school systems, but can also work in private-sector consulting firms, government and non-governmental agencies, and in international organizations such as UNESCO and the World Bank. Comparative education also furnishes the platform for specialists in international education, especially those who direct study abroad and scholar exchange programs.

 Submitted by: Erwin H. Epstein, Ph.D., Professor, Chair, Leadership, Foundations, and Counseling Psychology, Loyola University - Chicago.

back to top

 What are some current lines of research in the field?

Case studies are likely to continue to be the most commonly used approach to studying education-society relations. Given the limited resources of most researchers working in the academy, the tendency of most individuals is to study that with which they are most familiar. More than just convenience, Ragin argues that the comparative method is essentially a case-oriented strategy of comparative research.51 In case studies, "Outcomes are analyzed in terms of intersections of conditions, and it is usually assumed that any of several combinations might produce a certain outcome.52 By contrast, "Sometimes quantitative cross-national studies have an unreal quality to them--countries become organisms with systematic distress, for example--and the data examined have little meaningful connection to actual empirical processes. More concrete questions--relevant to the social bases and origins of specific phenomena in similarly situated countries and regions--do not receive the attention they deserve."53

Ragin's orientation is toward macro-level comparative studies and causal analysis. Others, such Bradshaw and Wallace, view the value of case studies as residing in their contribution to the refinement and modification of extant theory, and ultimately to the creation of new theory where existing explanatory frameworks are not applicable. They find much of existing social science theory, formulated in a few select countries of the North, to be inappropriate to much of the world.54 Their concern is not so much with achieving generalizable propositions concerning causal relationships as with understanding, much in the tradition of Weber, the patterning of relationships in different types of historical and social configurations.55

Some recent examples of promising studies along the lines suggested by Bradshaw and Wallace are those by Slaughter and Leslie, Mundy, Brock-Utne, Janssen, Saldanha, Christina, Levinson, and Demerath. In these studies, different levels of government, the relationship between the state and the private sector, the interplay of the global and the local are brought out.

One of the most sophisticated studies of what is occurring in higher education in developed industrial countries is Slaughter and Leslie's examination of the "entrepreneurial university" in Australia, Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom. In addition to focusing on common patterns as well as variations within the four countries with regard to strong cross-national forces promoting privatization of universities and gearing them more closely to market demands, the researchers examine two very different cases within Australia to determine how closeness to the market affects research funding, program development, and faculty rewards.56

Mundy's study of the nature of literacy programs and their outcomes in Tanzania, Zimbabwe, and Botswana critically examines extant theories in the light of world-systems theory. As she impressively documents, the extent of literacy provision and achievement is greatly influenced by the degree of incorporation of each country into the global economy at the time of their independence and the subsequent development paths chosen by their governments.57

Within the context of Southern Africa, Namibia represents an interesting case of issues arising over what shall be the official languages of instruction in schooling and literacy provision. Brock-Utne provides a compelling case for the codification and use of indigenous languages for instructional purposes despite the emergence of English as an official language that will help overcome the colonial legacies of Germany and South Africa, bridge internal ethnic divisions, and facilitate communication with the outside world.58 Brock-Utne's study of language policy in Nambia articulates with Janssen's use of four case studies of curriculum reform to illustrate the "tensions between change and continuity since 1990 when 'Africa's last colony' won independence." Jansen's study is notable for its combining historical analysis with theoretical perspectives from the "politics of transition," (which take into account "changes in global superpower politics at the end of the 1980s and their impact on late-colonial states such as Nambia"),59 and "the politics of curriculum," (which views school knowledge as the outcomes of contestation among groups to have their values and knowledge validated). The Namibian case illustrates (with regard to the country's post-independence curricular, language, and examination policies, "The critical importance of regional and global factors in conditioning the ways in which transition unfolds in particular settings, even while these may be governed by broader political and theoretical frameworks which apply across nations."60

Christina, using a world-systems analysis, examines how current international notions concerning early childhood education are implemented at the state and local levels in the West Bank and Gaza, and how policies result from the interactions between nongovernmental organizations and the Palestine National Authority. We are able to view how these multiple forces affect the decisions of individual, institutional, and group actors in specific contexts. Studies, such as Christina's, are an example of the alliance and bridge building that comparative educators can engage in to improve educational access, curriculum development, and teacher upgrading among other things.61

Levinson, based on a decade of ethnographic research on a junior high school in Mexico, examines how general notions of adolescence and the role of schooling in the socialization of citizens have changed over time in relation to global economic forces, the response of the Mexican state to this international context, and the continuing impact of the history and ideology of the 1910 Revolution on differently situated populations. The interplay of international, national, and local forces shape not only state curricula but also how teachers, students, and their parents view schooling and its role in promoting social solidarity and equality. His research points out that schools may not necessarily be agencies of cultural and social reproduction; rather, they have the potential to counteract strong international tendencies towards stratification.62

How these tendencies are dealt with at the local level is examined in Demerath's case study of "Cultural Production of Social Utilit in Pere Village, Papua New Guinea." Demerath's sophisticated case study (which won the George Bereday Award for the best article in the Comparative Education Review in 1999) examines the varied, and often conflictive, practices, attitudes, and motivations of both parents and students with regard to schooling within the context of contemporary political and economic conditions in Papua New Guinea. Ambivalent attitudes towards schooling reflect the tension between the possible, but limited, chances of upward mobility into the cash economy through formal education versus the valorization of traditional culture which, in itself, involves "a creative cultural production." Ultimately, the accommodations of the Pere villagers to their marginalization within an increasingly stratified world economic system reflect, in the words of Demerath," a cultural response to preserve worth in this context and . . . a way of addressing tensions between capitalism, democracy, and citizenship in the contemporary world." 63

Case studies, however, have their limitations and pitfalls. Ragin, Bradshaw and Wallace, and others are well aware there is a danger in attempting to generalize from one case to other instances that are not appropriate and to view the world only from the lens of that which is most familiar. Major funding agencies for international research also tend to favor quicker, quantitative studies that meet the exigencies of immediate decision-making and which present the facade of being more scientific.64

Large-scale variable-oriented studies, whatever their limitations, also have great value in contributing to theory-building as well as more informed and enlightened policy-making. I see great utility in studies such as those conducted as part of the International Evaluation of Educational Achievement. As Husen and others have pointed out, the great range of examples provided by such studies enables researchers and policy makers to examine the effects of introducing different subject matter (for example, foreign languages) at certain points in the curriculum, of permitting early specialization in certain disciplines (such as mathematics and sciences), or taking different pedagogical approaches to instruction (for example, inquiry-oriented versus more didactic science education).65 Large-scale research can reveal, for example, what conditions favor the educational careers and life chances of females,66 or successful literacy and adult basic education program.67 While such studies are useful in illuminating general patterns, I also believe the general tendencies revealed by them need to be studied in greater detail through individual cases of educational institutions and programs within their unique contexts.68

50. See, for example, Rosemary Preston, "Integrating Paradigms in Educational Research: Issues of Quantity and Quality in Poor Countries," in Crossley and Vulliamy, eds. Qualitative Research; Charles C. Ragin, The Comparative Method: Moving Beyond Qualitative and Quantitative Strategies (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1987); and Robert K. Yin, "The Case Study as a Serious Research Strategy," Knowledge: Creation, Diffusion, and Utilization 3 (1981): 97-114.
51. Ragin, Comparative Method, 16.
52. Ragin, Comparative Method, x.
53. Ragin, Comparative Method, ix.
54. York Bradshaw and Michael Wallace, "Informing Generality and Explaining Uniqueness: The Place of Case Studies in Comparative Research," International Journal of Comparative Sociology 32 (January-April, 1991): 154-71.
55. Max Weber, "The Fundamental Concepts of Sociology," in Max Weber: The Theory of Social and Economic Organization, Talcott Parsons, ed. (New York: The Free Press, 1964), 87-157.
56. Slaughter and Leslie, Academic Capitalism.
57. Karen Mundy, "Toward a Critical Analysis of Literacy in Southern Africa," Comparative Education Review 37, no. 4 (November 1993): 389-411.
58. Birgit Brock-Utne, "The Language Question in Namibian Schools," International Review of Education 43,, no. 2/3 (1997): 241-260.
59. Jonathan D. Jansen, "Understanding social transition through the lens of curriculum policy: Namibia/South Africa," Journal of Curriculum Studies 3 (1995), p. 246.
60. Ibid., p. 258.
61. Rachel Christina, "State-NGO Dynamics in Palestinian Early Childhood Education: Local Innovation in an Internationalizing System," unpublished paper, School of Education, Indiana University-Bloomington, 1998.
62. Bradley Levinson, "'Una etapa siempre dificil': Concepts of Adolescence and Secondary Education in Mexico," Comparative Education Review 43, no.2 (May 1999): 129-161.
63. Peter Demerath, The Cultural Production of Educational Utility in Pere Village, Papua New Guinea, Comparative Education Review 43, no. 2 (May 1999), p. 192.
64. See, for example, Michael Crossley and J. Alexander Bennett, "Planning for Case-Study Evaluation in Belize, Central America," in Crossley and Vulliamy, eds., Qualitative Research, 221-243.
65. Tosten Husen, "Policy Impact of IEA Research," Comparative Education Review 31, no. 1 (February 1987): 29-46, in the special issue of the Review on "The Second IEA Study"; also see, David A. Walker with C. Arnold Anderson and Richard M. Wolfe, The IEA Six Subject Survey: An Empirical Study of Education in Twenty-One Countries (Stockholm: Alquist & Wiksell International; New York: J. Wiley, 1976); T. Neville Postlethwaite and David E. Wiley with the assistance of Yeoh Oon Chye, William B. Schmidt, and Richard G. Wolfe , The IEA Study of Science II: Science Achievement in Twenty-Three Countries, lst ed. (Oxford, England: Elmsford: New York: Pergamon Press, 1992); and John W. Meyer and David P. Baker, "Forming Educational Policy with International Data: Lessons from the Sociology of Education," Sociology of Education 69 (Extra Issue, 1996): 123-30.
66. Abigail J. Stewart and David G. Winter, "The Nature and Causes of Female Suppression," Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 2 (Winter 1977): 531-55.
67. Warwick B. Elley, ed., The IEA Study of Reading Literacy: Achievement and Instruction in Thirty-Two School Systems, 1st ed. (Oxford, England: Pergamon, 1997).
68. On the need to contextualize IEA data, see Gary L. Theisen, Paul P.W. Achola, and Francis Musa Boakari, "The Underachievement of Cross-National Studies of Achievement," Comparative Education Review 27, no. 1 (February 1983): 46-68.

Derived from introductory essay to "Reframing Comparative Education: The Dialectic of the Global and the Local," in Robert F. Arnove and Carlos Alberto Torres (eds.), Comparative Education: The Dialectic of the Global and the Local (Lanham, Maryland: Rowwan & Littlefield, 1999, 1-23).

Submitted by: Robert F. Arnove, Ph.D., Professor, Educational Leadership & Policy Studies, Indiana University Bloomington.

 

back to top

 

  When was the Comparative and International Education Society founded?

The Comparative and International Education Society, then called the Comparative Education Society, evolved from annual conferences on comparative education organized by William W. Brickman at New York University from 1954 to 1959. These New York University conferences, reflecting Brickman's concern over the plight of comparative education in an era of "junketlike tours abroad" and the resultant courses taught by amateurs, had a pragmatic and prescriptive focus. The first concern was to find a practical remedy for malaise in the field, a concern Brickman himself addressed at the first conference in "A Plan for the Training of Professors of Comparative Education," a paper that recommended a rigorous program of post-doctoral study, research, foreign language training, and school visitation designed to ensure professionalism.

The Comparative Education Society was formed in 1956 at the close of the third New York University Conference, with Brickman as President, Gerald Read as Secretary-Treasurer, and George Z.F. Bereday as editor of Comparative Education Review, a new journal that would eventually replace Brickman's annual reports. This new organization had an immediate pragmatic function: to sponsor a program of seminars and study tours in Western Europe planned by Brickman, Gerald Read of Kent State University, and Bess Goodykoontz of the United State Office of Education. During the summer of 1956 a distinguished group of educators and academics led by Brickman and Read visited schools and universities in Denmark, Germany Switzerland, France, the Netherlands and England; and in subsequent years similar programs took place in Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Ecuador, the Soviet Union, Japan, Korea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanganyika, the Republic of South Africa, the Congo Republic, Nigeria, Ghana, and Liberia. During the first six years of the Comparative Education Society's existence, Brickman and Read led tours to five continents and twenty-four countries. Comparative education had defined the scope of its focus and activities.

Another accomplishment of those early years is reflected in the roster of distinguished international scholars who served on the Board of Directors of the Comparative Education Society or the editorial board of Comparative Education Review: Edmund J. King, Joseph A. Lauwerys, Nicholas Hans, and Vernon Mallinson of Great Britain; Franz Hilker and Friedrich Schneider of Germany; Pedro Rossello, Switzerland; Joseph Katz, Canada; Irma Salas, Chile; Philip J. Idenburg, the Netherlands. The Comparative Education Society became a forum where citizens of the world could exchange ideas; and the experience of this international group subsequently provided impetus for the creation of similar organizations in Europe, with sections in Britain, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and Dutch-speaking Belgium, France and French-speaking Belgium, Australia, Canada, Japan, Korea, India, and elsewhere - a practical exercise in educational borrowing that was not part of the initial design.

 Adapted from Elizabeth Sherman Swing, "In Memoriam: William W. Brickman, 1913-1986," Comparative Education Review 31, no. 1 (February 1987): 1-6.

 For additional information about the origins of CIES, see:

  1. William W. Brickman, "Ten Years of the Comparative Education Society," Comparative Education Review 10, no. 1 (February 1966): 4-15.
  2. William W. Brickman, "Comparative and International Education Society: An Historical Analysis," Comparative Education Review 21, nos. 2/3 (June/October 1977): 396-404.

Submitted by: Elizabeth Sherman Swing, CIES Historian.

 

back to top

 

How do I become a member of the Comparative and International Education Society and why would I want to join?

         Go to the CIES website and become a member on-line! By doing this you not only become a member, but receive the journal as well.

This organization has much to offer students and new scholars in the comparative and international education field.  You are able to attend stimulating conferences, meet and talk to well-known scholars in the field at conferences (yes, they are VERY approachable), and you will be able to meet and form friendships and research partnerships with up-and-coming scholars, such as yourself, that will endure for the remainder of your professional career.

You also get to be an official member of this committee - a group that is committed to helping you out and representing your voice in the Society!

 Submitted by: Katherine Schuster, Ph.D., Northeastern Illinois University.

 

back to top

What would be a good Comparative and International Education reading list?

Note: This is a very good example of a reading list, it is not meant to be a definitive list, the New Scholars Committee welcomes submission of other lists, as well as additions to and comments on this list. Please send them to the Chair of the New Scholars Committee.

 Comparative & International Education Program Reading List

 Helpful Encyclopedias (good introduction to the field)  

  1. International Encyclopedia of Education T. Husen & T. Neville Postlewaithe, eds. (Elsevier, 1994), 12 volumes.
  2. World Education Encyclopedia G.T. Kurian, ed. (Facts on File, 1988), 3 volumes.
  3. International Encyclopedia of National Systems of Education T. Neville Postlewaithe, ed. (Pergamon, 1995).
  4. International Encyclopedia of Economics of Education Martin Carnoy, ed. (Pergamon, 1995).


Comparative Methods

  1. Jurgen Schriewer and Brian Holms (eds.), Theories and methods in comparative education (New York: Peter Lang, 1988).
  2. Leo Goedegebuure and Frans Van Vught (eds.), Higher education policy: an international comparative perspective (New York: Pergamon, 1993).
  3. Charles C. Ragin, The comparative method: moving beyond qualitative and quantitative strategies (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1987).
  4. Robert Arnove, Philip Altbach and Gail Kelly (eds.), Emergent issues in education: comparative perspectives (Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1992).
  5. George and Louise Spindler (eds.), Interpretive ethnography of education at home and abroad (Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum, 1987).

Investment in Education and Economic Development

  1. Theodore W. Schultz, Investing in People: The Economics of Population Quality (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981).
  2. Mary Jean Bowman, "Through Education to Earnings?" Proceedings of the National Academy of Education, 3 (1976), 221-92).
  3. Peter A. Easton and Simon M. Fass. 1989. "Monetary Consumption Benefits and the Demand for Primary Schooling in Haiti." Comparative Education Review 33:176-193.
  4. George Psacharopolous, "Returns to Education: An Updated International Comparison," Comparative Education 17(1981), 321-41.
  5. Estelle James, "Public Policies Toward Private Education, An International Comparison," International Journal of Educational Research 15(1991): 359-75.
  6.  Roger Geiger, Private sectors in higher education, structure, function, and change in eight countries (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1986).
  7. The Expansion of Formal Education as a Worldwide Institution.
  8. Ronald Dore, The Diploma Disease: Education, Qualification, and Development. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976).
  9. John W. Meyer and Aaron Benavot, "Knowledge for the Masses, World Models and National Curricula, 1920-1986," American Sociological Review 56(1991): 85-103.
  10. Bruce Fuller and Richard Rubinson, The Political Construction of Education (New York: Praeger, 1992).
  11. Tobin, Joseph, David Wu, and Dana Davidson, Preschools in Three Cultures: Japan, China, and the United States (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989).
  12. John W. Meyer and Michael T. Hannan (eds.), National development and the world system, educational, economic, and political change, 1950-1970 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979).

Educational Alternatives to Formal, "Western" Schooling

  1. Ivan Illich, Deschooling Society (NY: Beacon, 1970).
  2. Martin Carnoy, "Education for Alternative Development," Comparative Education Review 26(1982):160-77.
  3. Thomas Rohlen and Gerald LeTendre (eds.), Teaching and Learning in Japan (NY: Cambridge University Press, 1996).
  4. Thomas LaBelle, "From Consciousness Raising to Popular Education in Latin America." Comparative Education Review 31(1987):201-217.
  5. Ronald Dore, Education in Tokugawa Japan (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1965).

Politics of Education: Roles of the State and Interest Groups in the Administration of Schooling

  1. Hansen, E. Mark. 1984. "Administrative Reform in the Venezuelan Ministry of Education." International Review of Education 30:119-140.
  2. Hedley Beare and William L. Boyd (eds.) Restructuring schools: and international perspective on the movement to transform the control and performance of schools (London: Falmer Press, 1995).
  3. William Boyd and David Plank, "Education policy studies: an overview." International Encyclopedia of Education, 2nd edition (Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1993).
  4. David Plank and William Boyd, "The politics of education." International Encyclopedia of Education, 2nd edition (Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1993).
  5. Guy Neave and Frans A. van Vught (eds.), Prometheus bound, the changing relationship between government and higher education in western Europe (New York: Pergamon Press, 1991).
  6. V. Lynn Meek (ed.), The mockers and mocked: comparative perspectives on differentiation, convergence, and diversity in higher education (New York: Pergamon, 1996).
  7. Richard Rubinson, "Class Formation, Politics, and Institutions: Schooling in the United States," American Journal of Sociology 92(1986): 519-48.
  8. David P. Baker and David Lee Stevenson, "State Control of the Curriculum and Classroom Instruction," Sociology of Education 64(1991): 1-10.

The School System as a Vehicle for National and Group Identity

  1. Immanuel Wallerstein. 1987. "The Construction of Peoplehood: Racism, Nationalism, Ethnicity," Sociological Forum 2:373-388.
  2. Roland Paulston. 1976. "Ethnic Revival and Educational Conflict in Swedish Lapland." Comparative Education Review 20:179-192.
  3. Erwin Epstein. 1971. "Education and Peruanidad: Internal Colonialism in the Peruvian Andes", Comparative Education Review 15:188-201.
  4. Suet-ling Pong, "Preferential Policies and Secondary School Attainment in Peninsular Malaysia." Sociology of Education 66(1993):245-61).
  5. John E. Craig, Scholarship and nation building: the universities of Strasbourg and Alsatian society, 1870-1939 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984).
  6. E. Patricia Tsurumi, Japanese Colonial Education in Taiwan (Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press, 1977).
  7. Myron Weiner and Mary Fainsod Katzenstein, India's Preferential Policies. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981)
  8. Molefi Kete Asante and Diane Ravitch. 1991. "Multiculturalism: An Exchange". The American Scholar 60:267-276.
  9. David Post, "Through Joshua Gap: curricular control and the constructed community," Teachers College Record 93(1992):673-96.
  10. C. Frisby, "Issues and problems in the influence of culture on the psychoeducational needs of African-American children," School Psychology Review 21(1992): 532-551.

Gender and the Domestic Economy 

  1. Nelly Stromquist, "Recent Developments in Women's Education: Closer to a better social order?" in Rita Gallin et al. (eds.) Women and International Development Annual, vol. 1, pps. 105-130.
  2. Jane Gaskell, "Course Enrollment in the High School: the Perspective of Working Class Females", SOE 58:48-59 (1985).
  3. Myron Weiner, The Child and the State in India (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991).
  4. Cochrane, Susan Hill. Fertility and Education: What Do We Really Know? (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1979).
  5. Elizabeth King and Ann Hill (eds.), Women's Education in Developing Countries (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993).
  6. John Knodel and Gavin Jones, "Post-Cairo Population Policy: Does Promoting Girls Schooling Miss the Mark?" Population and Development Review 22(1996).
  7. Gail Kelly and Carolyn Elliott (eds.), Women's Education in the Third World, comparative perspectives (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1982).

Educational Attainment and Social Mobility

  1. Paul Willis, Learning to Labor: How Working Class Kids Get Working Class Jobs (NY, 1977).
  2. Ralph H. Turner, "Sponsored and Contest Mobility and the School System," American Sociological Review 25:855-67 (1960).
  3. Brian Graetz, "The Reproduction of Privilege in Australian Education", The British Journal of Sociology 39:58-75 (1988).
  4. Philip Foster, "Education and Social Differentiation in Less Developed Countries," Comparative Education Review 21(1977):211-229.
  5. Janice Currie, "Family Background, Academic Achievement, and Occupational Status in Uganda," Comparative Education Review 21(1977):14-28.
  6. Stephen P. Heyneman, "Influences on Academic Achievement" A Comparison of Results From Uganda and More Industrialized Societies", Sociology of Education 49(1976):200-211.
  7. Jonathan Kelley and Herbert Klein, Revolution and the Rebirth of Inequality: A Theory Applied to the National Revolution in Bolivia (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981).

Submitted by: David Post, Ph.D., Associate Professor and Chair, CIED committee, Penn State University. 

 

 back to top

 

How do I publish an article?

  1. Make sure that you have a strong personal sense of the worth of your work. Be able to answer to yourself how your work makes a contribution to the field, what is the source of its originality, and why this is work worth pursuing.

  2. Gradually expand your sources for receiving critical (not always positive feedback). If you have written a paper for a graduate seminar that you would like to have published, consider presenting it at a conference and take note of the resulting responses to your work. If you've received positive feedback from your professor or from some fellow colleagues at your own institution, but want more specific feedback, consider sending it to a trustworthy person who you may respect but have less intimate contact. When doing this though, always state that your work is not for attribution without your consent. Take note of such feedback as you attempt to strengthen the manuscript.

  3. When you are ready to formally publish your work, look closely at appropriate venues. Is the place you have in mind the best place to exhibit your work? Have similar articles been published there in the past? Or has the same topic already been covered in a recent issue? Will the audience for this venue be in a position to appreciate your work? Are they used to an article similar in type, form, theoretical orientation, and data collection technique to the work you are proposing to publish?

  4. Think carefully about the selectivity and the speed with which a decision will be made regarding your work. If a publication is overly selective and also takes a long time to make a decision, would you be better served by soliciting another publication that has significant circulation but perhaps less prestige?

  5. When you have decided where you want to send your work for publication, make sure that the work conforms exactly to editorial guidelines listed on the back cover of the journal, including the number of copies required for submission, sourcing and footnote formatting, pagination, etc.

  6. You will usually receive a response noting that the manuscript has been received, and you will then receive notification of acceptance, rejection, acceptance with revision, or rejection with an invitation to resubmit. If the response requires revision or rejection with an invitation to resubmit, look closely at the editor's comments (and reviewer's comments if they are included), and answer questions that arise directly in your response, noting how you have strengthened the original manuscript by taking into consideration these suggestions. If there are suggestions that are made that you choose to ignore, state this fact up front and explain why you have declined to make such changes.

  7. If you receive a negative response to your manuscript, keep looking for ways of improving your work while soliciting a more suitable place for publication. Even the most prestigious scholars have suffered manuscript rejection, so don't feel overly discouraged and remember that (1) there are many opportunities to exhibit your work professionally, and that (2) when it does become available to the general public, it will provide an important function of enhancing discourse in our field.

Submitted by: Irwin Epstein, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Education Studies, Illinois Wesleyan University

 

 back to top 

 Where do I find grant/fellowship information?

 

 The Boston College Center for International Higher Education has compiled a very good list of resources on this issue.

 

 

 

Information for Recent Graduates

 

CIES Award

Gail P. Kelly Award for Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation  Each year the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) recognizes an outstanding doctoral dissertation with its Gail P. Kelly Award. Created to honor the distinguished comparative educator Gail P. Kelly and her many contributions to CIES, the Gail P. Kelly Award honors a doctoral dissertation that addresses social justice and equity issues in an international context.  The Award is conferred upon an outstanding Ph.D. or Ed.D. dissertation that manifests academic excellence, originality, methodological, theoretical, and empirical rigor, and deals with issues of social justice and equity in international settings. Those issues may include gender, race, class, ethnicity, and nationality among others.  The dissertation should reflect the scholarly purpose of the Society: comparative, cross-cultural, interdisciplinary and international studies contributing to the interpretation of developments in education in their broad and interrelated political, economic, and social contexts. Any Ph.D. or Ed.D. dissertation written in English and defended at an accredited institution of higher education from July through August (the year prior to the award being given) is eligible for consideration.  Any CIES member in good standing, including its author, may nominate a dissertation. nominations should include one unbound copy of the dissertation, a copy of form signifying departmental and university approval of the dissertation, and a cover letter requesting that the dissertation be considered for the Gail P. Kelly Award.  The recipient of the Gail P. Kelly Award will be honored at the CIES Annual Meeting and will receive a travel voucher to defray the cost of attending the Meeting. The award recipient will present a brief summation of the outstanding dissertation. Nominations, applications, and queries should be sent to: David P. Baker, Chair; Penn State University.

 

 back to top

 Frequently Asked Questions by Recent Graduates

 

(Click on any of the following questions.)

 

How do I begin to turn the big "D" into a book?

 

This is a good question, and I will try to share some thoughts that I hope can be helpful. I think the first consideration is who you see as the readership of the book that will come out of your dissertation. Are you looking at specialist scholars in the related area, whether it be specialists on a particular country/region, or a particular area or aspect of education? If so, you may want to strengthen either the literature review or the original research aspects of the thesis in preparing it as a specialist scholarly publication, perhaps considering a university press. One common pattern in traditional scholarship in North American universities is for the doctoral graduate to spend one or two years upgrading the thesis in terms of the scope and substance of the research findings before submitting it for publication. Typically a university press would submit such a manuscript to three scholars in the field for a blind peer review, before coming to a decision about publication.

If, however, the expected readership of the book is a more general one, perhaps undergraduate or graduate students studying in related areas, policy makers, or a wider public audience, then different considerations would come into the revision of the dissertation for publication. A major concern would be to reorganise the material in a way that is more attractive and readable, and present the research findings in ways that are less technical and more general than is often the case in the dissertation itself. Many dissertations have a literature review chapter, while a book of general interest should integrate the different dimensions of this literature throughout the volume as a whole. This type of volume is probably more suitable for submission to a commercial publisher that specialises in educational or broader social issues, rather than a university press.    In grappling with the issue of what kind of book you would like to develop out of your dissertation, it is a good idea to read widely and look at the various types of books that are published by university presses and commercial presses in areas related to your field of research. Examine critically how the chapters are organised, how research results are presented, and the forms used for footnoting, bibliographical material, other types of illustration etc. Try to reach a judgement as to the kind of book you would like to produce, and make a note of possible publishers you may wish to contact with a proposal.         

Mentorship can be of crucial importance in preparing one's work for publication. There are quite a few senior scholars who take on responsibility for editing book series, both for commercial publishers and university presses. You should consider contacting such scholars for advice, and also to explore the possibility that your dissertation might be turned into a book that could be considered in a series they are editing. In my own personal experience, Professor Philip Altbach was instrumental in encouraging me to develop some of my research into both an edited book, with Pergamon Press in 1992, and a monograph, with Garland Press in 1996. I am also aware that Professor Edward Beauchamp has been very active in guiding and overseeing book series to which younger scholars have contributed, often on the basis of completed dissertations.          

Finally, let me say that it is most important not to be discouraged by initial difficulty in finding a publisher, but to persist until you find the right match between the work you are doing, and the publisher's interest and willingness to commit to a publishing contract. Again, let me share a personal experience. My first monograph was based on my doctoral thesis, though I was ready to submit it for publication only several years after completing the thesis, and had added material from subsequent research. I submitted it to a university press in Canada, and it took almost two years to go through a peer review process, which involved my responding to criticism and further developing the manuscript. After all that, the book was turned down, and I will never forget the sense of discouragement I felt. On the day I received the final letter of rejection, I had lunch with a friend, who made the comment that success is always easy to deal with, but it is how one deals with failure that is the real test of character. After that lunch, and on the very same day, I resolved to continue my search for a publisher, and sent off a letter to a commercial press well known for both China and education related publications. The book was accepted for publication, and I remember the sense of satisfaction I felt at an annual meeting of the Association for Asian Studies some time later to see how much higher profile this commercial publisher had at the event than the university press that had turned me down!        

I hope these rather personal reflections and the sharing of my experience will be helpful to you as you take up the challenge of developing your dissertation or thesis into a book.

Submitted by: Ruth Hayhoe, Ph.D., The Hong Kong Institute of Education.    

 

 back to top