Course Descriptions

Course Descriptions

International and Comparative Education

This course provides students with an opportunity to read, think, talk and write broadly and deeply about educational issues across systems and national contexts. The intent is to expose students to a range of ideas and issues in international and comparative education. By providing resources and a class structure, it is hoped that students may construct a substantial foundation in the theories, vocabulary, preoccupations, and concerns of comparative and international education. By examining different approaches to common problems across systems, it is hoped that students will acquire a good sense of educational practice internationally. Believing the maxim that nothing is as practical as good theory, emphasis will be placed on discussing the variety of theoretical and empirical approaches to comparative education, enabling students to make sense of the practices seen in the world of education and to envision alternatives.

Typically Taught Fall Semester

International Higher Education

This course focuses on the current global trends, issues and pressures that define the landscape of international higher education today. The course begins with an outline of the history, theory, and definitions that explain the general phenomenon of the internationalization of higher education. It then shifts focus to examine many of the challenges and responses of higher education

institutions primarily in the United States, Europe, and Asia but also in some of the countries of Oceania, Africa and Latin America. You will read and discuss the work of leading scholars in the field, study government and research policy documents, review press reports, and analyze university promotional literature to investigate the challenges and opportunities that today’s global higher education players are facing.

We will look at the following issues: growing competition presented by international rankings; developments in mobility and student exchange; efforts to secure top-level faculty and increase student enrollment; brain-drain, brain gain, and brain-circulation; the growth of private and for-profit education providers; corruption and ethical issues around massification and the challenges it presents to access, equity and quality; cross border educational expansion and university branding through joint- and dual degree programs and satellite and branch campuses; and the broad range of inequalities that permeate a world knowledge system that has clear North-South, resourced-under resourced and core-periphery imbalances. You will learn how these new pressures also bring with them opportunities higher education systems and institutions in various geographic regions are utilizing to respond in unique and interesting ways. Finally, you will look critically at a variety of notions that are ubiquitously used in international education rhetoric, including the meaning and practice of ‘education for global competency,’ ‘horizontal, vertical,

and virtual mobility,’ ‘internationalization at home,’ ‘global citizenship,’ and how intercultural and comparative perspectives are changing instruction, the learning environment, and program development in different institutions and global contexts. This course provides a foundation for further study in international exchange, comparative higher education, and the internationalization of higher education.

Typically Taught Fall Semester

Migration & Mobility: Citizenship and Education in the Global Era

This course examines a range of perspectives on education, culture, and citizenship, exploring how and to what extent education has called into question “technologies of nation, nationality, and nationalism” in favor of a more global or cosmopolitan outlook (Luke, 2006). The aim is to provide students with opportunities to study national and international conceptions of citizenship, and examine key concepts of identity, diversity, culture, nationalism, and cosmopolitanism, as they relate to education and schooling in different local, national (including the US), and regional settings around the world, in different organization contexts – universities, schools, business, government and different sub-sectors of education, including policy, curriculum, and teacher development. Individually and in collaborative groups, students will explore issues and case studies related to the internationalization of education and the potential for global (citizenship) education.

Typically Taught Fall Semester

Policy Issues in International Education

This class provides a survey of educational policy issues in developing countries, serving as a foundational class for students in educational development. Initially, we discuss the background and status of education in low- and middle-income countries; primary actors in educational development; theories of change and their manifestation in development activities. The main part of the class consists of a survey of policy levers by which education can be managed and improved: curriculum, teachers, instruction, testing and assessment, decentralization, community involvement, finance, initiatives to reach marginal(ized) groups, data and information, technology, innovation. The class is organized in seminar style. Students will be asked to synthesize and present material (beyond required readings) on particular policy issues for the class; prepare policy briefings; interview policy actors; and prepare an analytic case study of a policy issue in a particular context.

Typically Taught Fall Semester

Managing International Student and Study Abroad Programs

Within major themes in the internationalization of universities today as the backdrop, this course looks closely at the issues related to appropriately planning, managing and carrying out study abroad programs and integrating international students on campus. Students learn about different types of study abroad and exchange programs, international student advising, services and programs, and the training and resources program managers need to do their work proficiently. Along with providing a broad view of the wider issues that are related to university internationalization today and managing study abroad and international students and programs, this course also provides hands-on, practical training and advice for students considering careers in administration and development of international student populations.

Typically Taught Fall Semester

Internationalizing U.S. Education

This course will explore the introduction and development of globally-oriented curricula, policy, and practices in US schools. The course will address key concepts of international education, including internationalization, globalization, global citizenship, and global competence, exploring how these ideas and theories play out in education policy and practice within the US context. The first aim is to explore some of the theoretical underpinnings of internationalization and globalization in education and education policy. This helps students better understand both the rationale for internationalization and ways to bring about change in systems. The second aim is to explore the impetus or rationale for internationalization of US schools. It will also examine recent policy trends in US education related to global education and internationalization. The third aim is to identify practices and ways into the US education system to internationalize schools, including transformative initiatives, curricula, standards, language learning, and teachers and teacher training. This course will be taught online.

Typically Taught Summer Semester

Planning for Education Reform in Developing Countries

This class examines the processes of planned change in nationally-directed school systems in low and middle-income countries. The class will consist of five sections. The first will provide background on the development of national education systems as well as the global actors and agendas that influence them. Section 2 will consider ways in which the change process is conceptualized, and the types and roles of change agents in different parts of the system and outside. Section 3 will look at national level assessment and planning activities, including sector assessments, education sector strategic plans, poverty reduction strategies; the rationales for sector planning and critiques. Section 4 will examine local and bottom-up planning and development strategies. Section 5 will look at implementation. The class will compare cases of assessment, national planning activities, local/bottom-up initiatives, and implementation. Class assignments will consist of reading and active participation in class and on line as well as preparation of case studies.

Typically Taught Fall Semester

Designing and Implementing Intercultural Training Programs

This hands-on class will overview theories of cross-cultural communication and the development of cross-cultural competence in a variety of contexts with diverse groups of people as well as provide training in program design and implementation.

Typically Taught Spring Semester

Education in Emergencies

The Ebola Crisis, Syria, and New Orleans in 2005. Three “types” of crises expose chronic and underlying root causes of conflict and vulnerabilities. The course will explore questions policy makers and practitioners face on a daily basis:

What role does education play in the immediate and long term recovery process? How does education, or the lack of education, contribute to crises?

What policies exist to guide humanitarian and community preparedness, response and recovery actions?
What practices and resources best support education initiatives in the chaotic space during a crisis and how does one plan the transition into recovery?
Who are the key players, structures and institutions involved in education in emergencies and what roles do and should they play?

This course will combine theory and the examination of resources with a scenario that provides an opportunity to apply analytical and creative skills in designing responses to current crises. We will listen to the voices of students and teachers who have lived through emergency situations to understand the lived experience and the learning challenges faced. We will also call on experts from the US government, Non-Governmental Organizations, and researchers who are leaders in policy and technical innovations. Together, we will identify opportunities, breakthroughs, unexpected possibilities which emergency education work reveals, and challenges we face in mainstreaming such glimmers when normalcy returns.

Typically Taught Summer Semester

International Program Design

This course offers students practical experience and new skill sets in designing international exchange and training programs. The course will empower students with new knowledge on how to conceptualize, design, develop and monitor short-term international exchange and training programs that are both U.S.-based and are to be applied as follow-on activities in participants’ home countries. The core of the course content will focus on developing skills and knowledge on how to construct international programs under three major modules used by the U.S. Department of State that include, International Visitor Leadership Exchange Program (IVLP), exchange programs for young leaders (a model that anticipates a U.S.-based short-term component and a follow-on activity program); and youth exchange programs. A special training session will introduce students to concepts and tools applied at the Foreign Service Institute (FSI) to design training programs for Foreign Service Nationals (FSN) of the U.S. embassies worldwide. Each student or a group of two to three students will practice how to design a U.S.-based exchange program (IVLP model); a U.S. based youth exchange program and an exchange program for young leaders with a focus on follow-on activities in participants’ home countries (U.S. Department of State, Citizen Exchange Office Programs). Specifically, students will develop practical skills on how to set up program goals and objectives, to write a program narrative, to select program themes, to estimate program budget, and to use a program grid in order to balance professional resources while constructing each component of the program.

From a theoretical perspective, students will be introduced to the body of knowledge in international education as a field; they will explore the role of different types of exchange in international higher education and in the institutionalization of international knowledge as well as gain perspectives on exchanges as one of the major tools of carrying out U.S. foreign policy objectives in the field of public diplomacy. The readings will also include articles on different types of exchanges and student and faculty mobility as one of the key indicators for internationalization of higher education in a global context. A special emphasis will be given to the cross-cultural aspects of international program design and program management.

Typically Taught Summer Semester

Evaluation in International Education

This course will provide the theoretical and practical aspects of program evaluation as a field of study. From a theoretical perspective, students will learn about different types and approaches in evaluation and discuss diverse evaluation models that are applied in international settings. Students will gain knowledge about the strengths and limitations of various approaches and explore different methods of data collection and data analysis. The course will address how evaluation practice is constrained by the applied nature of evaluation, its political nature and explore the complex world of evaluation in light of different stakeholders' interests including donors, contracted organizations and beneficiaries in the field.

From a practical perspective, the course will engage students in developing evaluative skills by constructing evaluation instruments that include building monitoring and evaluation plans (M&E), creating Logic Models (Results Framework), designing and critiquing surveys and questionnaires, and practicing how to conduct in-person and focus group interviews. The course will study the logic and flow of the evaluation process and teach students how to plan evaluation studies, collect and analyze data, and report results.

All practical class and home assignments are based on real-life international programs funded by the U.S. federal government and the EU, including programs for professional and youth exchange, science and technology programs (S&T), training programs and programs for development. The role of cross-cultural awareness in program M&E will be explicitly discussed in class as well as ethical issues that influence the evaluation practice.

Typically Taught Fall Semester

Education and Economy in International Perspective

The primary objectives of this course are twofold – a) to understand the role of education for economic development; and b) to develop an understanding of the economic concepts and approaches for education policy making and strategic planning. Topics of discussion include: a) the impact of human capital accumulation on economic growth; b) the effects of schooling on labor participation and wages; c) rates of return to education investment; d) externalities of education; e) issues related to education access, quality, internal efficiency, and equity; and f) public finance on education linked with governments’ macroeconomic policy frameworks. Moreover, major international initiatives on education, including the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Education for All: Fast Track Initiatives (EFA: FTI), Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper/Credit (PRSP, PRSC), and Sector-Wide Approaches are discussed.

Typically Taught Summer Semester

Education in Islamic Asia

Since 9/11, the Western world has grown more interested in the Islamic world and demand has grown for analyses of education systems in Islamic countries that go beyond criticizing madrassas. This course explores education systems in four Asian countries that have been the focus of major increases in education development funds from countries in both OECD and Middle Eastern countries--Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia—as well as another country that has funded much of its own development: Malaysia. The objectives of the course include:

to gain a general understanding of the sociologies of education and religion and variations in their relationship across time and countries;
to become familiar with education systems in five of the six countries with the largest Islamic majority populations in the world: Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Indonesia;
to be able to compare and contrast current issues surrounding Islam and education in these countries, including efforts to achieve Education for All and other global goals; and
to expand students’ skills in conducting country and regional studies.

Typically Taught Fall Semester

Gender in International Education and Development

Gender is a pervasive dimension of human life, in and beyond schools, socially used to organize opportunities in education and the larger society. In many cases, girls and women have fewer and different opportunities for participation in education, economic activity, and political life than men, despite the well-documented intergenerational, economic, health, and social benefits of educating girls. This new class will explore gender dimensions of education, including: gender based differentials in access and progression in schooling; gendered dimensions of educational quality; gender analysis of development assistance; gender in higher education; gender-based violence; gender, traditional norms, and the role of schooling; gender and non-school based educational efforts; gender, conflict, and education; research in gender.

Typically Taught Fall Semester

Education and Modernization in East Asia

This course will provides an overview of East and Southeast Asian education and human resource development with a primary focus on the following:

What are the historical and cultural origins of education?
To what extent is there something that can be characterized as “Asian” education? What is its nature (or natures)?
How has education in East and Southeast Asia developed over the past 100 years?
What are some of the characteristics of the more “successful” systems in Asia?
How do these systems relate to the local, national and international setting?
What might “we” learn from Asian examples?

The course will often rely on a seminar style with student presentations, guest speakers and discussions. Each student will be expected to make at least one presentation and to prepare a final paper (either a literature review or a research paper). Efforts will be made to include voices from Asia as well as voices about Asia.

Typically Taught Fall Semester

UNESCO Topics of the 21st Century

In this seminar students learn about the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) unique role within the wider scope of international organizations and global agendas and challenges today. The seminar centers around selected academic literature on UNESCO, historical texts that date back to its inception as a post-WWII organization. Most importantly, invited speakers each week bring in unique perspectives on the organization’s work and its position in relation to political and economic realities facing the organization today and its mandate and responsibilities in the twenty first century.

Typically Taught Spring Semester

Educating Those Out Of School

I worry sometimes that, in trying to do a good job at the micro level, comparative and international educators are, in recent years, wasting our legacy as big thinkers who work on big messy social problems. In trying to bring about education for all, we run the risk of enmeshing ourselves in the institutional constraints of formal schools. In reacting to the failures of centralized planning, we may have thrown out the babies with the bathwater. Despite the fact that we rhetorically throw education at our biggest and messiest social problems, we do not know much about to solve those problems. This course aims at providing a forum for students, faculty, and visitors to learn and think about the larger purposes and consequences of education - understood in its broader sense - in relation to some of the more intractable dilemmas of the times-conflict and nation building; employment, income, and work; disease; and appropriate social and economic places for youth. This is all relatively new as an area of emphasis. Little is known about how to do it. This course provides the opportunity to get into a new field, claim a niche, and help all of us get a handle on the issues, their conceptualization and operation. The field lacks a textbook or an established body of knowledge. It is also not a how-to course, a basic premise being that we need to know what to do before we can learn how.

Typically Taught Every Semester

Internship/International Experience in International Education

Please be aware that you must choose the number of credits for this course when registering – otherwise the default setting of 1 credit will remain. It is suggested that students who wish to register for more than 3 internship credits should consult the instructor.

Supervised internship in an international education organization. Students will develop a knowledge and skill foundation for the formation of professional capabilities in international education by working on tasks that are relevant to the field, and by building networking linkages and exposure to existing international education projects. Meetings and study plan arranged with instructor.

Typically Taught Every Semester

Capstone/Thesis

This class, typically taken near the end of master’s degree in International Education, aims to: 1) help students revisit and synthesize the work they have done during the course of graduate study; 2) support and challenge students as they complete a major culminating piece of work—a thesis, publishable journal article, or project defined and carried out for a professional client or with such a client in mind; and 3) help students think about their futures as international educators. The purpose of this class is thus to synthesize, consolidate, and build on existing knowledge rather than add substantially to that knowledge. At the same time, the process of consolidation will enable student participants to develop considerable expertise in specialized areas; thus, sharing of that expertise is an important part of the class. The class will draw on the expertise of capstone students, of IEP alumni as well as the instructor.