Global Challenges, Local Solutions: Advancing Equity, Innovation, and Sustainability in Education

By: Fernando Reimers, Margaret Wang-Aghania, Jolyn Chia, Sooty Heng, Nam Nguyen

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

This book presents work undertaken by students in the course "Education Policy Analysis and Research in Comparative Perspective," taught at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This project-based graduate course provides students with the opportunity to learn and conduct education policy analysis for a real-world client in a collaborative setting. Working in teams, students partner with education authorities to analyze policies on issues that are significant to them. This pedagogical approach envisions professional preparation as an induction into a professional community of practice. Throughout the course, students gain insights from lectures and engage in discussions of readings covering comparative education research efforts directed at enhancing educational opportunities as well as readings presenting diverse methodologies for the technical analysis of education challenges such as policy analysis, forecasting and futures scenarios, education sector analysis, program planning and evaluation.
This pedagogy to teach education policy analysis is founded on three core premises. Firstly, learning from experience is essential to professional education. By conducting policy analysis firsthand, students develop not only a solid conceptual foundation but also procedural knowledge, gaining a practical understanding of how policy analysis is done and works in practice. Secondly, leveraging comparative research to identify root causes and options to address them enriches the analytic process. The available knowledge resulting from global education research offers a broader evidence base than that stemming from research in any singular educational jurisdiction and drawing on that rich knowledge base augments students' analytical and problem-solving capacities and expands their creativity and imagination to generate solutions to the challenges. Lastly, the course recognizes learning as a socially situated endeavor, emphasizing the importance of preparing students to enter relevant communities of practice that align with their career aspirations.
The chapters in this book cover a diversity of topics, mostly focusing on how to redress social inequality through education or how to make education more relevant so students are equipped to meet contextual demands. The chapters address the themes of how to close equity gaps including marginalized students, the role of implementation challenges, the role of communities and families, and topics such as bullying and STEM proficiency.
Chapter 1. Educating professionals through communities of practice.
Chapter 2. Bridging the Divide: Addressing Educational Marginalization in Thailand's Deep South
Chapter 3. Empowering Forced Migrants in Thailand: Addressing Educational Challenges and Crafting Solutions
Chapter 4. Closing the gap: Strategies for Vulnerable Schools in Chile
Chapter 5. Improving Learning in Rural Coahuila: Technology and Talent at the Forefront
Chapter 6. Closing the Academic Achievement Gap Across Indonesian High Schools
Chapter 7. School Data Management Systems in Rwanda.
Chapter 8. Increasing Family Engagement in São Paulo’s Secondary Schools
Chapter 9. Addressing antecedents for transient student attendance in Holyoke, MA, USA
Chapter 10. Building Climate Resilience Through Education in Lao PDR
Chapter 11. Improving the Quality of Public-School STEM Education in Punjab, Pakistan
Chapter 12. Addressing Bullying in Finnish Public Schools