Deadline is midnight on Sunday 24^th January, 2016

• The prize of £500 is for a paper presented by a student member at the ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ Conference (12-14 September 2016) and fully written up afterwards.
• Entrants will be asked to provide a letter from their department that attests to either their student status or that they have completed a postgraduate course within the last 6 months prior to the deadline for submission.
• The paper should deal with a subject relating to comparative or international education, and may be conceptual or empirical in nature.
• No senior scholars or supervisors should have co-authored the paper. It should be the student’s own work.
• The prize will be shared in the event of a jointly presented/written paper. All co-authors must conform to the same criteria as regards student status.
• The length of the paper should be 5,000-7,000 words.
• Papers and supporting information should be submitted in a single Word or Pdf file to the ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ Secretary, Anneke Newman (ku.ca.ECIABobfsctd-5bd509@yraterceS) by midnight on Friday, 20^th January 2017.
• Judgment criteria are found in the document below.Ìý Papers must score at least 24 out of 30 points in order to be considered for the prize.
• The Association will not enter into correspondence with students who have not been awarded a prize. The decision of the judges, endorsed by the Executive, will be final.

Jing Kun Bai: Citizenship education in China: an analysis of the university textbooks of a compulsory ‘Politics’ course. What does this tell us about possible development towards democracy in China?Ìý

ÌýJing Kun is using the bursary to supplement her textbook analysis and undertake classroom observations and interviews in Chinese higher education institutions. She is assessing whether democratic values of critical thinking, multi-culturalism, pluralism and tolerance are being encouraged. Her research is focusing on traces of democratisation which have emerged in the context of economic growth and the one-party political system in China’s reform era as well as the possibilities for democratisation which may emerge in the future.

Ìý

Sayaka Hashimoto: Local government involvement in education for ethnic minority children in post World War II Japan

Sayaka’s fieldwork is based across four areas of Japan and is exploring how education reforms aim to cater for diversity, particularly in relation to migration and ethnic minorities. She is focusing on Japan’s distinctive bottom-up policy development process, the conditions under which these policies are initiated and the ways in which these locally-driven policies are taken up at the national level.

Nozomi Sakata: Learner-centred pedagogy (LCP) in Tanzanian primary schools: mixed methods vertical case study to investigate LCP implementation and its effects on pupils

Nozomi’s PhD is exploring how Tanzania is implementing LCP in primary schools through a lens focusing on national historical and ideological contexts. Her fieldwork took place in Tanzania at the end of 2015. She distributed questionnaires, and conducted lesson observations, interviews and focus groups with teachers and pupils in 13 public and private primary schools in two regions. She also visited the hometown of Tanzania’s first president Julius Nyerere to explore his influence on educational priorities.

Over the coming months, the award winners will submit a report to ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ on their fieldwork, and highlights of these reports will be available on the ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ website.

The deadline for the second round of funding for ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ Student Travel Bursaries is May 1^st 2016. More information is available on the ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ website. Please share widely!

Alison Buckler, ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ Executive Committee

Summary of the student report submitted to the AGM at New College, Oxford, 16^thÌýSeptember 2015

ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ has been, as always, supportive of student research community and we are committed to help early career researchers improve their research capacity. Two successful activities were held in 2014/15.

• The Annual ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ Student Conference, this year held at the University of Cambridge on 17^thÌýJuly 2015, themed:ÌýMethodological Challenges in Comparative and International Education: Doctoral Perspectives.
• The Student Forum at the UKFIET/ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ 2015 Conference in Oxford. PhD students and even some academics from various institutions joined us for talks, snacks, and drinks. We were able to network and exchange research ideas in an informal but lovely atmosphere.

In 2015/16, we aim to build an even more active community and planning for ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ Student Conference 2016 and a doctoral writing retreat. Watch this space for further details.

There is currently a vacancy for a new student representative to replace Yuwei Xu (University of Glasgow). The new rep will work with Arif Naveed (University of Cambridge), who stays in post for another year. If interested please emailÌýku.ca.eciabobfsctd-2ccd91@stnedutsÌýfor more details.

For more information on ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ Student membership and activities please emailÌýku.ca.eciabobfsctd-50ed21@stnedutsÌýor check theÌýwebsite.

July 17, 2015, Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, UK

Keynote Speakers

Professor Qing Gu, University of Nottingham,
Professor Pauline Rose, University of Cambridge,
Dr. Abdulai Abukari, Middlesex University, London

Concept note

There is a consensus that knowledge creation critically depends upon the creative potential and rigor of research methods and their appropriateness to the research context. The complexity and heterogeneity of the social world and the social, cultural and historic specificity of research sites and subjects raise a wide range of methodological challenges well known to educational researchers. The assumption that methodological apparatus developed in one context, often Global North, can be equally productive in the other, usually Global South, is not only strong one but also widely held given the geography of knowledge. Additionally, harnessing the potential of interdisciplinarity, the new-normal, in extending our understanding beyond disciplinary confines also requires addressing methodological dilemmas and tensions underlying different epistemological traditions. Such methodological pitfalls are further problematized by the emerging tradition of Southern Theory which casts serious doubts over transposeability of the mainstream theoretical frameworks in Global South. The evolving discourse under this broad tradition uncovers the hierarchies and power relations embedded in, and advanced through, the mainstream discursive practices, thus increasingly making the case for decolonising methodologies and developing emancipatory frameworks. While the available critical perspectives inform us about the risks associated with uncritically deploying the mainstream conceptual toolbox in the South, they do not sufficiently guide us on methodological choices for forming alternative frameworks. International and comparative educational researchers, by virtue of their research tradition, are exposed to these challenges perhaps more than some others. There is nonetheless an unmet need for a sustained debate for a better understanding and appreciation of these methodological challenges and anxieties.

The conference will bring together a variety of perspectives on these challenges faced by doctoral researchers and offer them an opportunity to interact with and learn from each other’s experience. It will offer them an opportunity to interact with other more experienced researchers. The conference is expected to cover a range of issues pertinent to theoretical frameworks, research designs, methods and techniques in international and comparative educational research. This will include but not limited to: a) critical perspectives arising from southern theory;b) research ethics – tensions between universal and local;c) ‘messiness’ of the fieldwork;d) sustaining methodological rigor in mixed methods research designs;e) communicating research across diverse audiences and in variety of formats;and other issues related to research process. While this conference under the given theme is a standalone activity, we hope it will contribute to a sustained debate by fostering a community focused on these issues (as already seen on the ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ Thematic Forum on methodological issues in disability research and the more recently established thematic forum).

Conference aims

The ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ Student Conference 2015 will:

• Facilitate creative and critical dialogue amongst research students and with more experienced and established researchers in the field of international and comparative education, particularly with regard to issues around research methodology;
• Offer a combination of specialist input from a keynote speakers and panel members, and the opportunity for ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ student members to share their own research experiences;
• Provide ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ student members and other participants with a comfortable and supportive environment to present their research and receive constructive feedback;
• Develop enhanced personal and professional connections between ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ student members across the UK.

Target participants

Postgraduate research students and potentially postdoctoral researchers engaged in international and comparative education research across the UK.

Registration

Registration is free but preference will be given to ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ student members. For membership, please visit www.baice.ac.uk

Submission

Please submit the abstracts by June 18th, 2015 at ku.ca.eciabobfsctd-318e96@stneduts

Post-conference

We aim at publishing a special issue of the Cambridge Open-Review Educational Research e-Journal (CORERJ) corerj.educ.cam.ac.uk inviting full length papers from the conference participants.

Organising committee

ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ Student Representatives
Arif Naveed, University of Cambridge, email: ku.ca.macobfsctd-576647@84nam
Yuwei Xu, University of Glasgow, email: ku.ca.alg.hcraeserobfsctd-68da79@1.ux.y

Supported by ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ Executive Committee and advised by:
Nidhi Singal, University of Cambridge
Lizzi Milligan, University of Bath

Poster

Download and share this document.

ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ is pleased to announce that the Student Prize for a paper presented at the 2014 ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ Conference has been awarded to Yun You for her paper, “Imagining high-performing education systems: East Asia as a source of policy referencing in England” .

Yun You is a PhD student at the Institute of Education, University College of London, awarded with Centenary Scholarship. Her research focuses on education policy borrowing from East Asia in England;more specifically, whether the English representation of East Asian education systems accords with the policies and practices within East Asia, and how the UK Government have informed, legitimated and promoted its preferred policy agendas based on the selective evidence of ‘world-class’ education systems. She is also interested in understanding the policy ‘borrowing’ flow from East to West within postcolonial framework.

Paper Abstract

Education reform is increasingly based on emulating the features of those ‘world-class’ systems which top international surveys such as PISA and TIMSS. East Asian societies have been referenced as the ‘inspiration’ for education reforms in England. However, the extent to which the features identified by the UK Government accord with the situation within East Asia is problematic. This paper examines the relationship between the English representation and the ‘reality’ of East Asian education systems using school autonomy as an illustrative example. We focus on Singapore, Hong Kong and Shanghai which are cited extensively to legitimate policies designed to provide greater autonomy for schools in England. We argue firstly that the English representation has been largely discursive and inaccurate;failed to recognise the variations across the region;and been selected to endorse the Government’s policy preferences. Secondly, we argue that the scope, form and nature of school autonomy vary markedly, and are operationalised in each society in ways which reflect the prevailing socio-political priorities.

ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ is pleased to announce that the Student Prize for a paper presented at the 2013 UKFIET Conference has been awarded to Bronwen Magrath for her paper, ‘Information Politics and Transnational Activism in the Education for All Movement’.

Bronwen obtained her PhD from the University of Toronto in November 2013. ÌýShe completed a collaborative doctorate in Comparative, International and Development Education at theÌýOntario Institute for Studies in EducationÌýand theÌýDynamics of Global Change Program at theÌýMunk School of Global Affairs.

Her broad research interests surround the role of non-state actors in global governance, the construction of transnational advocacy networks, and the emergence of the human-rights based approach as a global development norm.ÌýHer dissertation,ÌýentitledÌýAdvocacy as Political Strategy,Ìýexamined the emergence of political advocacy as a preferred organizational strategy for non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the development education field.

Paper Abstract

This paper explores transnational activism within the “Education for All” (EFA) movement, looking specifically at the strategic use of information and research by transnational advocacy organizations. Through a comparative case-study examination of two international NGOs within the EFA movement – the Asia South Pacific Association for Basic and Adult Education (ASPBAE) and ActionAid International – I discuss how information about education is gathered, generated and disseminated for advocacy purposes, and what this tells us about the internal dynamics and strategies of these organizations. In particular, I focus on the ways these organizations translate grassroots evidence into regional and global policy fora, and raise questions about how this translation process impacts the legitimacy of advocacy NGOs and the power structures between NGO headquarters and their grassroots membership.

ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ welcomes Yuwei Xu to the position of ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ Student Representative!

Yuwei Xu is a PhD student at the University of Glasgow, School ofÌýEducation. His research focuses upon gender and ECCE, specifically male early childhood teachers. Contact: ku.ca.alg.hcraeserobfsctd-7957f5@1.ux.y

Yuwei takes over fromÌýSajjadllah Alhawsawi who has just completed his PhD at the University of Sussex.Ìý Many thanks to Sajjad for his years of service to ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½.Ìý Good luck, in your future endeavours and and welcome, Yuwei!

If you are a ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ Student Member and have given a paper at the UKFIET/ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ Conference in Oxford, you are invited to submit your paper for the ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ student prize.Ìý

Deadline is Friday 3 January, 2014

• The prize of £500 is for a paper presented by a student member at the Conference (10-12 September 2013) and fully written up afterwards.

• Entrants will be asked to provide a letter from their department that attests to either their student status or that they have completed a postgraduate course within the last 6 months prior to the deadline for submission.

• The paper should deal with a subject relating to comparative or international education, and may be conceptual or empirical in nature.

• No senior scholars or supervisors should have co-authored the paper. It should be the student’s own work.

• The prize will be shared in the event of a jointly presented/written paper. All co-authors must conform to the same criteria as regards student status.

• The length of the paper should be 5,000-7,000 words.

• Papers should be submitted by 17.00 hours on Friday, 3^rd January 2014 to the ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ Secretary, Lizzi Milligan (Secretary@ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½.ac.uk).

• Judgement criteria are found below.Ìý Papers must score at least 24 out of 30 points in order to be considered for the prize.

• The Association will not enter into correspondence with students who have not been awarded a prize. The decision of the judges, endorsed by the Executive, will be final.

ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ student prize 2013

Friday 7 June, 2013

University of Sussex

Postgraduate students were invited to take part in this conference that aims to raise student awareness of and participation in the debate on envisioning a post-2015 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) framework. The conference aimed to engage postgraduate researchers in communicating their views on current progress on the MDGs in relation to education.

Thirty two participants from six universities participated in the day conference, a synthesis of which will appear in the Special Issue of the Compare Forum on the post-2015 education and development agenda, to be released in December 2013.

The conference was jointly organized by ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ and UKFIET, and was hosted by the University of Sussex Centre for International Education.

Conference materials

ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ UKFIET student conference poster_07_05_13_SA

Report on ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ UKFIET student conference 11.07.13 for web.doc

Video Links:

• : ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ Student Representatives, Sajjad Alhawsawi and Helen Hannah;UKFIET Conference Convenor, Terra Sprague
• , University of Sussex Centre for International Education: Professor Mairead Dunne
• , Education and the post-2015 development agenda: overview of the process, priorities and goals: Dr Yusuf Sayed, University of Sussex
• : Bridging the Gender Gap in Education in Mozambique: Francesca Salvi, University of Sussex. Followed by
• : Recent Developments for Minority Language Communities in Thailand: Katherine Dooley, University of Sussex. Followed by
• Developing goals and indicators for the enactment of sustainability-related values in education:Ìý Gemma Burford, University of Brighton. Followed by
• : A perspective on the post-2015 education agenda: Professor Keith Lewin, University of Sussex
• : Dr Yusuf Sayed, University of Sussex

 Monday, 9 September, 2013

Compare Writers’ Workshop

New College, 10:00 – 4:00

Wednesday 11 September, 2013

ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ Presidential Address by Professor Elaine Unterhalter

Main Conference Venue, Oxford University Exam Schools, 4:00 – 5:30

ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ AGM

New College, Lecture Room 6, 6:00 – 7:30

Open Student Forum hosted by ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½

New College, Room TBC, 8:30 – 9:30

ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ offers a £30 registration reduction to its members. It is possible to register for one day only, should you wish to attend on Wednesday, the day of the ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ activities, but are unable to attend the balance of the UKFIET Conference. You do not need to be registered for the conference in order to attend the Compare Writers’ Workshop, the ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ AGM or the Open Student Forum at.

Education & Development Post 2015: Reflecting, Reviewing and Re-visioning

10-12 September, 2013

University of Oxford, UK

Tweet #ukfietconf

ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ is pleased to announce that the Student Prize for a paper presented at the ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ conferenceÌý at Cambridge in 2012 has been awarded to Lizzi Milligan for her paper, ‘Using Participatory Insider Techniques in Cross-cultural Educational Research in Kenyan Secondary Schools‘.

Lizzi is a PhD student at the University of Bristol on ESRC scholarship. She is an active member of the University of Bristol Graduate School of Education Research Centre for International Comparative Studies and a Project Administrator of the ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ Thematic Forum on Revisiting Insider Outsider Perspectives.

Lizzi’s doctoral research focuses on the Free Secondary Education initiative in Kenya and the lack of local voice in conceptualisations of quality in education. This is within a postcolonial framework which critiques the role of international agendas and development theories in education policy planning in low income countries.

Paper Abstract

Using Participatory Insider Techniques in Cross-cultural Educational Research in Kenyan Secondary Schools

This article reflects on the use of participatory techniques with final year secondary school students in one rural community in Western Kenya as an enabling tool for an outsider to both gain insider perspectives and develop a more ‘insider’ role in that community by privileging and legitimating participant-driven data. The article first describes the research context and participatory methods used – diary and photo linked interviews. Discussion then turns to the rationale for using such methods to challenge the ‘image of Africa’ and explore students’ lived educational realities. Conclusions consider how using this nuanced participatory approach allowed the researcher to enter the ‘third space’ between insider and outsider, build meaningful relationships in the field and formulate authentic participative knowledge (co-)construction.

ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ welcomes Helen Hanna to the position of ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ Student Representative!

Helen is a PhD student at Queens University Belfast, School ofÌýEducation. Her research compares citizenship education and educationalÌýrights in Northern Ireland and Israel.

Helen takes over from Lizzi Milligan, University of Bristol.Ìý Good luck, Lizzi in your future endeavours and welcome, Helen!

If you are a ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ Student Member and gave a paper at the ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ Conference in Cambridge you are invited to submit your paper for the ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ Student Prize.

Deadline is Friday, 4 January, 2013

• The prize of £500 is for a paper presented by a student member at the ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ Conference (8-10 September) and fully written up afterwards.
• Entrants will be asked to provide a letter from their department that attests to either their student status or that they have completed a postgraduate course within the last 6 months prior to the deadline for submission.
• The paper should deal with a subject relating to comparative or international education, and may be conceptual or empirical in nature.
• No senior scholars or supervisors should have co-authored the paper. It should be the student’s own work.
• The prize will be shared in the event of a jointly presented/written paper. All co-authors must conform to the same criteria as regards student status.
• The length of the paper should be 5,000-7,000 words.
• Papers should be submitted by 17.00 hours on Friday, 4th January 2013 to the ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ Secretary, Lizzi Milligan (Secretary@ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½.ac.uk).
• Judgement criteria are found below.Ìý Papers must score at least 24 out of 30 points in order to be considered for the prize.
• The Association will not enter into correspondence with students who have not been awarded a prize. The decision of the judges, endorsed by the Executive, will be final.

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