The Teachers College Symposium invited scholars to rethink culture, context, and comparison in educational research. In his response to these questions (this volume), Joe Tobin promoted comparative ethnographies to understand how social, cultural, and political processes play out across multiple locations and time periods. He urged careful…

This paper presents a vertical case study of the history of universalizing education in postcolonial Sierra Leone from the early 1950s to 1990 to highlight how there has never been a universal conception of universal education. In order to unite a nation behind a universal ideal of schooling, education needed to be adapted to different…

This article explores the approach to transformative education utilized by Sadaka Reut, a binational civil society organization in Israel that works with Jewish and Palestinian youth. I examine three central tools Sadaka Reut uses to achieve its goal of educating youth for social change: using personal experiences as the basis for discussion;…

Established in 2011, the Online School of Civic Education (the Online School) is intended to give Iranian teachers and educators the opportunity to reflect, experiment, and create classroom experiences aimed at teaching their students how to think, rather than what to think. The Online School was developed to provide teachers and educators inside…

In this paper I describe and analyse the socio-educational significance of a theatre arts approach to learning for young adults in Jamaica, implemented by the Area Youth Foundation (AYF). Briefly outlining the genesis and development of the AYF, I provide snapshots of the experiences and destinations of some of its young participants. The paper…

This article enters into contemporary debates regarding methodology and training in comparative and international education by addressing epistemological questions about "what" can be known of the world and how it can be known through comparative research. We contend that debates over qualitative versus quantitative methods or area studies versus…

Throughout history the United States has been constantly confronted with the responsibility of integrating diverse groups of people into its society. This paper uses current and historical ideas about the complex nature of indigenous groups, globalization, and education as vehicles for promoting the adoption of cosmopolitanism, a paradigm that…

Various approaches have been advocated and practiced to address sustainable development. Among these, education has been recognized as one of the key measures to achieving sustainability. In Nishinomiya, Japan, education for sustainable development (ESD) has been established through the Learning and Ecological Activities Foundation for Children…

Social entrepreneurship, with its focus on innovative leadership, mirrors current interest in leadership for change in the field of education. In countries where national governments lack the resources to meet the educational needs of their populations, social entrepreneurs can develop innovative ways of providing access to education, and…

This paper examines social entrepreneurship in a Burmese refugee community as it strives to provide primary education to its children. Despite facing discrimination and fearing Thai authorities, our project leaders exemplified social entrepreneurship, most notably building social capital and agency within the refugee community, and surprisingly…