Post-Graduate Course in International Education Policy Studies

The Education Support Program (ESP), OSI Budapest, and Teacher’s College (Columbia University) announce the second joint post-graduate course in international education policy studies to be offered in English. Structured around producing an actual subsector analysis report and a policy brief, this distance course is co-sponsored by the World Bank.

National foundations and members of the Soros education network and their partners are encouraged to make use of this opportunity to:

• continue building foundation and country capacity in policy-related work;
• strengthen capacity of local education organizations (particularly education OSI spin-offs, associated NGOs, "think tanks," policy units/centers, and partner universities) that are involved in the education policy related work.

Instructors:

• Gita Steiner-Khamsi, Ph.D., an Associate Professor of Comparative and International Education, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York. Having worked in a ministry of education for ten years and taught policy studies in an international context, she brings substantial experience and knowledge on education reform trends and strategies to the course.
• Alexandria Valerio, Ph.D., is an expert in Comparative and International Education with a specialisation in economics of education. She is also an Education Specialist and Task Team Leader for the Education Sector Mozambique with the World Bank, Washington, DC, and has an intimate knowledge of education indicators and quality monitoring initiatives. She also provides the participants with access to the large database of the World Bank and other international organisations, which comprise all relevant documents and education statistics on the educational systems in the region.
• Prof. Alexandru Crisan, University of Bucharest and Education Center 2000+, is able to join the team of instructors this year. He has extensive experience in policy work, project management, sector reviews, evaluation studies, and has worked for years for the OSI network, the World Bank and regional banks, as well as other international organizations.

Instructional Design:

• 4-day face-to-face seminar. The seminar will take place in New York from October 27-30, 2004.
• Distance learning component that will be offered through the interactive software (Blackboard). This component will comprise(a) 7 virtual class sessions (synchronous communication); (b) 7 virtual modules on international educational policy studies (see Content section); (c) Weekly 1-hour virtual advising sessions for the policy teams. Each team will consist of 1-2 staff members from national OSI foundations or partner institution, and 2 TC students. (d) 7 discussion board forums (asynchronous communication) discussing and clarifying the modules; (e) Hyper-links to relevant documents and resources in educational policy studies.

Content

This course, on international educational policy studies, is product- and assignment-oriented. The final product is a subsector analysis report (30 pages); several smaller assignments will help the participants to develop a solid final product.

The students/participants learn to develop a policy brief based on a comprehensive needs assessment and sector analysis study. As a prerequisite for developing their policy brief for a particular sub-sector of education (e.g., teacher education reform, curriculum reform), the students learn about and apply the tools of sector analysis (needs assessment methods, etc), get acquainted with the most recent debates in educational reform. In addition, it will be necessary to collect existing analytical work (incl. statistical material), education sector reviews, country education strategy plans that are available in the participating countries.

The course consists of seven modules that cover the following areas:

• Theories and debates in education and development will cover sector-wide approaches (SWAP) and donor coordination, Education for All Initiative (Jomtien), Poverty Reduction initiatives, Fast-Track Initiative, policy documents of international organisations;
• Theories and debates in education reform will cover outcomes-based education, privatisation of higher education, standards in education, high stakes testing, choice, vouchers, accreditation systems, site-based management and school improvement plans, grants for schools programs;
• Comparative education research and evaluation of educational systems (incl. monitoring instruments for development, and system performance) will cover International Standard Classification of Education by UNESCO, education statistics (especially indicators for access, quality, and finance of education), non-educational indicators (development indicators), methods of comparison using OECD studies (PISA), World Bank studies, IEA studies (TIMSS, Civic Education Study), UNESCO studies;
• Policy development techniques will cover both theoretical foundations in policy studies (incl. policy borrowing, best-practices, globalisation and international convergence of educational systems, etc.) and policy development techniques (mostly from IIEP, Unesco, Paris, EU, and World Bank);
• Sector analysis and needs assessment techniques will cover review of sector analyses from various countries; development of a sub-sector analysis (using World Bank standards and guidelines).