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Data and evidence
20 Feb 2025
Chicago, USA

NORRAG at CIES 2025

In March 2025, NORRAG will be taking part in the 69th annual conference of the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) through different sessions. Stay tuned for more detailed information.

List of NORRAG Sessions: 

Digital futures and Schooling: between Global Debates and Regional Experiences

Panel discussion – In person

Sunday 23rd March 2025, 9:45 to 11:00 am CST / 03:45 to 05:00 pm CET, Palmer House, Floor: 7th Floor, Dearborn 3

This panel is situated at the intersection between the diffusion of global discourses accelerating the digitalisation shift and the review of Latin American experiences, which reflect new theoretical and experienced-based constructions. These serve as a pivot to clarify the achievements and challenges posed by digitalisation while projecting the contributions of empirical research on the changes occurring in schooling. They also help to highlight the risks of widening material and symbolic gaps stemming from particular conceptions of the relationship between digitalisation and education.

Speakers:

  • Felicitas M Acosta, Universidad Nacional de General Sarmiento & NORRAG (Chair)
  • Alejandro Artopoulos, Universidad De San Andrès
  • Chanwoong Baek, Geneva Graduate Institute & NORRAG (Discussant)
  • Moira Faul, NORRAG
  • Oscar Luis Graizer, Universidad Nacional de General Sarmiento
  • Ana Laura Martinez, Cetic.br & NIC.BR
  • Fabio Senne, NIC.BR
  • Daniela Trucco, UN-ECLAC

 

Highlighted Session: Global Governance and the Neoliberal Capitalist Order

Highlighted Paper Session – In person

Sunday 23rd March 2025, 9:45 to 11:00 am CST / 03:45 to 05:00 pm CET, Palmer House, Floor: 3rd Floor, Salon 1

Speakers:

  • Frank Adamson, California State University, Sacramento
  • Susan Lee Robertson, The University of Cambridge (Chair)
  • Hugh McLean, NORRAG
  • Mario Novelli, University of Sussex
  • Maha Shoaib, International Education Policy Department, University of Maryland, College Park
  • Anjela Taneja, Oxfam International


 

Education for Planetary Futures (Part 2): Disrupting, Reimagining, and Co-Designing Pedagogies on the Edge

Panel discussion – In person

Sunday 23rd March 2025, 2:45 to 4:00 pm CST / 08:45 to 10:00 pm CET, Palmer House, Floor: 3rd Floor, Cresthill

While the first part of our transdisciplinary panel creates space to reimagine alternative futures ontologically, this second part concentrates on hands-on empirical data to redesign and redefine formal and informal classroom practices and pedagogies. Specifically, it examines action-oriented, future-focused, citizen-science and more-than-human pedagogies. In these educational alternatives, youth’s voices and choices were given great attention. The shift moves beyond developmentalist and individualistic paradigms to acknowledge youth as the future holders and changemakers of the times to come (Sadler et al., 2007). By dismantling traditional teacher-student and individual-collective dualisms prevalent in contemporary educational philosophies, this panel seeks to reconceptualize youth as an integral part of a social organism that is capable to co-produce impact for sustainable and just futures (Weinberg et al., 2024).

Speakers:

  • Emmanuel Adeloju, Arizona State University
  • Dilraba Anayatova, Arizona State University
  • Rebekah Jongewaard, Arizona State University
  • Michelle E Jordan, Arizona State University
  • Carlos Meza-Torres
  • Hugh McLean, NORRAG (Discussant)
  • Nicole Oster, Arizona State University
  • Iveta Silova, Arizona State University (Chair)
  • Bregje van Geffen
  • Andrea Weinberg, Arizona State University
  • Ruth Wylie, Arizona State University
  • Steven Zuiker, Arizona State University

 

Is Comparative and International Education Imperialist, Racist, and Patriarchal?

Panel discussion – In person

Sunday 23rd March 2025, 2:45 to 4:00 pm CST / 08:45 to 10:00 pm CET, Palmer House, Floor: 7th Floor, LaSalle 4

How does the de-colonialist project differ from traditional comparative education? Whereas traditional comparativists have viewed their field mainly in terms of positivist or contextualist studies or different views of power relations, the de-colonialists consider traditional positivists and contextualists, even those who engage in critical analyses based on various conceptions of the relation between education and power, as caught in a web of white colonialist/imperialist/patriarchal consciousness, so that their approaches serve to further the depredations of white male educational colonialism. Does this assure the decolonization of the field or rather various new forms of colonization of knowledge?

Speakers:

  • Felicitas M Acosta, Universidad Nacional de General Sarmiento & NORRAG (Discussant)
  • Martin Carnoy, Stanford University
  • D. Brent Edwards, University of Hawaii (Discussant)
  • Erwin H. Epstein, Loyola University Chicago
  • David Post, Penn State (Chair)
  • Edward Vickers, Kyushu University

 

Highlighted Session: From afterthought to action: Putting teachers at the heart of the global refugee response

Highlighted Paper Session – In person

Monday 24th March 2025, 2:45 to 4:00 pm CST / 08:45 to 10:00 pm CET, Palmer House, Floor: 3rd Floor, Salon 3

In the lead up to the 2023 United Nations Global Refugee Forum in Geneva, NORRAG brought together 48 researchers, policy makers, and practitioners to reflect on the role of refugee teachers as the heart of the global refugee response. The impetus for a ‘policy insights’ publication on refugee teachers arose from a recognition of the important role and function that these individuals play in emergency response and recovery efforts on the ground, and the concerning lack of attention that has been given to refugee teachers and teachers of refugees amongst states, humanitarian donors, researchers, education policy makers, and practitioners.

This Policy Insights publication, titled Refugee Teachers: The Heart of the Global Refugee Response, is organized by three key themes: the inclusion of teachers’ voices in policy making and practice; policies that address the challenges of teachers’ work and wellbeing; and opportunities to improve teacher professional development. This CIES panel will spotlight the work of four papers from this publication to explore the following two questions:

– Why have teachers been an afterthought in refugee education funding, policy making, and practice?
– What evidence, advocacy, and actions are required to bring teachers to the forefront of refugee education funding, policy, and practice?

In addressing these questions, this panel will critically examine the wider political economy within which refugee teachers’ work is situated. In doing so, the authors will assess the social, political and economic drivers which promote or hinder agendas of refugee inclusion in national education systems (Carvalho and Dryden-Peterson, 2024), and a wider politics of belonging (Yuval Davies et. al, 2019) around refugee resettlement and hosting. Our panel therefore explores how refugee teachers—-as professionals but also as individuals who simultaneously experience displacement—-are both affected by and seeking to alter this terrain

Speakers:

  • Christopher Henderson, Teachers College, Columbia University (Chair & Discussant)
  • Mary Mendenhall, Teachers College, Columbia University
  • Martin Omukuba
  • Celia Reddick, Learning Systems Institute at Florida State University
  • Ritesh Shah, University of Auckland
  • Anne C Smiley, IRC

 

Highlighted Session: Use of outcome mapping and outcome harvesting in the Global Partnership for Education Knowledge and Innovation Exchange: challenges and successes

Highlighted Paper Session – In person

Monday 24th March 2025, 2:45 to 4:00 pm CST / 08:45 to 10:00 pm CET, Palmer House, Floor: 3rd Floor, Salon 2

This panel presents the experiences of a large-scale international development project—the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) Knowledge and Innovation Exchange (KIX)—with using Outcome Mapping (OM) and Outcome Harvesting (OH) to track its progress and results and support its goal of being demand-driven and responsive to the needs of the stakeholders involved in it. In particular, it focuses on the experiences of regional learning hubs, the purpose of which is to facilitate the sharing of knowledge and innovation among GPE partner countries in response to their education priorities. In contrast to traditional monitoring approaches which focus mainly on measuring and demonstrating impact, OM allows us to understand how and why impact occurs, learn from it, and adapt the strategies used (Earl, Carden & Smutylo, 2001). Similarly, OH—which focuses on capturing outcomes defined as a change in the behaviour, relationships, actions, policies or practice of an individual, community, organization or institution—allows us to understand the pathways through which activities have led to specific outcomes and can guide future strategic adjustments, allowing us to implement activities in ways that are responsive and relevant to stakeholders (Wilson-Grau, 2008). While OM and OH have been embraced by donors and implementers, we lack specific examples of how these approaches to monitoring, evaluation, and learning are actually used especially in large-scale international development projects. Drawing on the self-study approach (Bullough & Pinnegar, 2001), participants of this panel present their successes and challenges in using OM and OH for monitoring and learning purposes and for achieving programmatic objectives in GPE KIX, which caters to over 80 low- and middle-income countries and aims to contribute to the improvement of national education systems through evidence and innovation.

Speakers:

  • Mar Botero, GPE KIX LAC – SUMM
  • Jose Luis Canelhas, NORRAG (Chair)
  • Raul Chacon, GPE KIX LAC – SUMMA
  • Marina Dreux Frotté, NORRAG
  • Catalina Godoy, Fundación SUMMA
  • Victoria Kanobe Kisaakye, UNESCO
  • Yvonne Risper Atieno Mboya, UNESCO IICBA
  • Ina-Aissatou Sano, IFEF OIF
  • Maïmouna Sissoko Toure, IFEF OIF

 

Investing in Early Learning: Exploring Innovative Financing in Early Childhood Care and Education

Formal Panel Session – In person

Monday 24th March 2025, 2:45 to 4:00 pm CST / 08:45 to 10:00 pm CET, Palmer House, Floor: 7th Floor, Clark 1

In this panel, organized by the Education Finance Network, we will explore current trends, opportunities, and challenges in innovative financing for ECCE. The session will share insights gained from the implementation of various innovative financing models in ECCE, including outcomes funds, outcomes-based “recognition and rewards” financing to incentivize service quality, and technical assistance to financial institutions in designing loan products tailored for a variety of ECCE providers.

We will present findings from a global review of projects using various outcomes-based financing (OBF) approaches in early childhood care and education (ECCE).

We will also share will share key findings and insights from the design of ECCE outcomes funds, as captured in a series of technical papers on measurement tools, evaluation methods, disability inclusion, and cost analysis.

Finaly, key learnings will be shared from on two blended finance initiatives in ECCE: 1) an outcomes-based financing model supporting access and quality improvements in ECCE, implemented in South Africa and Rwanda; and 2) a collaboration with a commercial financial institution in Tanzania offering a segmented loan product for ECCE providers facing challenges accessing commercial capital.

Speakers:

  • Ozsel Beleli, The Education Outcomes Fund
  • Joseph Di Silvio, The Palladium Group
  • Charlie Habershon, Dalberg Advisors (Chair)
  • Elizabeth Laura Lule, Early Childhood Development Action Network (Discussant)
  • Andrew McCusker, Opportunity International
  • Lauren Pisani, The Palladium Group
  • Arushi Terway, NORRAG

 

Global Education Reforms Across Time and Space: Tendencies, Drivers, and Explanations In Comparative and Historical Perspective (Part 1)

Formal Panel Session – In person

Tuesday 25th March 2025, 2:45 to 4:00 pm CST / 08:45 to 10:00 pm CET, Palmer House, Floor: 7th Floor, Burnham 1

This double panel explores the global diffusion and local adaptation of different education reform scripts—including those related to SAWA, LSAs, gender equality, data use, privatization, etc—, highlighting the diverse temporalities at play and the interplay between time and space. By engaging with the global transfer and evolution of education reforms, this double panel integrates insights from policy diffusion and mobilities, policy feedback theory, and historical institutionalism to explore how local and global forces interact in shaping the temporal trajectories of reforms. These analyses, set across a variety of national and regional contexts, reveal how historical legacies and institutional dynamics influence the adaptability and sustainability of education policies over time. Drawing on different methodological approaches, from statistical analysis of historical panel data on policy reforms, the qualitative comparative analysis framework (QCA), and qualitative contextual comparisons (Steiner-Khamsi & De Morais, 2024), the double panel includes a rich combination of medium-n comparative studies and in-depth case studies. In other words, the diverse methods used to explore traveling education reforms help us unpack the timing and tempo of global reforms as well as their institutionalization across diverse contexts. The temporal dimension analyzed in each presentation is read in light of changing spatialities considering the specific historical, political, and institutional contexts in which policies are adopted and evolve (Steiner-Khamsi & Morais de Sá e Silva, 2024). This theoretical and methodological diversity highlights the complexity of temporal dynamics in adopting, adapting, and recalibrating global education reforms.

Speakers:

  • Felicitas M Acosta, Universidad Nacional de General Sarmiento & NORRAG
  • Alejandro Caravaca, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
  • D. Brent Edwards, University of Hawaii
  • Rodolfo Jose Elias, FLACSO Paraguay
  • Tomas Esper, Columbia University Teachers College (Chair)
  • Patricia Grillet, University of Hawaii / East-West Center
  • Marina López Leavy, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
  • Mauro C Moschetti, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
  • Edgar Quilabert, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, VAT ESQ0818002H
  • Gita Steiner-Khamsi, Columbia University Teachers College & NORRAG

 

Highlighted Session: Awakening CIE Knowledge Production: A Conversation to Revitalize the Field

Highlighted Paper Session – In person

Tuesday 25th March 2025, 4:30 to 5:45 pm CST / 10:30 to 11:45 pm CET, Palmer House, Floor: 3rd Floor, Salon 2

Throughout the past decade, many of us within the Comparative and International Education (CIE) community have been grappling with questions that speak to how the field has been constructed, the types of limitations that have defined its construction, and how it can be re-imagined. Epistemological and well as ontological concerns have been raised in ways that touch upon what comparison means; how it has functioned; how power, privilege, and authority have been and are being invoked to frame comparative discourse; how subjects are represented; how their voices are amplified, marginalized, or erased; and what types of audiences receive the differing sets of ideas that are disseminated within the field. Who gets to speak and who receives one’s thoughts have become implicated in deciphering what it is that has actually been said and what meanings are derived from such interactions. Comparativists are not alone in raising such questions. As social science scholars have looked to Cultural Studies, Feminist theory, and Post-foundational thought to raise and address similar issues, they have engaged in robust critiques that have challenged conventional understandings of identity, consciousness, materiality, and representation.

Speakers:

  • Dilraba Anayatova, Arizona State University
  • Will Brehm, University of Canberra
  • Irving Epstein, Illinois Wesleyan University
  • Carrie Karsgaard, Cape Breton University
  • Hugh McLean, NORRAG (Discussant)
  • Iveta Silova, Arizona State University

 

Postdigital pedagogies in the omnidigital video era: educators and the CIES film festivalette curators discuss films they use and why.

Workshop – In person

Wednesday 26th March 2025, 9:45 am to 12:30 pm CST / 03:45 to 06:30 pm CET, Palmer House, Floor: 3rd Floor, Salon 8

In his 2024 book, Irv Epstein suggests that “Film [is] a vehicle for aesthetic engagement [that] allows for a holistic appreciation of educational concerns that are depicted within larger social spaces.” Since its inception in 2015, the CIES Education Film Festivalette, has attempted to reach beyond the intellectual preoccupations of an academic education conference to engage education and its issues and processes aesthetically, emotionally and vicariously. It presents a persistent invitation to feel and think, to observe and experience, to focus on the personal as much as on policy or politics, and to recognise that fresh insights reside as much where we let our imaginations free as where we bring our minds to focus.

While film relies fundamentally on the digital and technical, in its production, post-production, marketing, distribution and commercialisation, it is also fundamentally aesthetic, social, and personal in its affect and pedagogy. It is in this postdigital sense that contributors to this refereed roundtable discussion will focus on film as a tool for education and pedagogy, as a way of engaging learners, and as a source of knowledge and learning about education and pedagogy. Presenters will discuss the films they use in education and how they use them to shape and reshape pedagogy, learning and knowledge. Participants will be asked to talk about their use of films as part of their pedagogy and their own learning.

Speakers:

  • Batuhan Aydagül, University of Wisconsin-Madison
  • Jorge G Baxter, Universidad de Los Andes (Chair)
  • Cathryn Magno, University of Fribourg
  • Hugh McLean, NORRAG (Organiser)
  • Matthew Schuelka, Fora Education
  • Roozbeh Shirazi, University of Minnesota (Discussant)

 

Global Education Policy: Evidence, Competencies and Interpretations

Paper Session – In person

Wednesday 26th March 2025, 11:15 am to 12:30 pm CST / 05:15 to 06:30 pm CET, Palmer House, Floor: 3rd Floor, The Logan Room

Speakers:

  • Chanwoong Baek, Geneva Graduate Institute & NORRAG
  • Berit Karseth, University of Oslo (Chair)
  • Abhinav Ghosh, Harvard University
  • Johanna Helin, Oise, University of Toronto
  • Kirsten Sivesind, Universitetet i Oslo

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