About the Authors

Monisha Bajaj is Associate Professor of International and Multicultural Education at the University of San Francisco, where she directs the MA program in Human Rights Education. She is also Visiting Professor and Research Fellow at the Institute for Reconciliation and Social Justice, University of the Free State, South Africa. Bajaj is the editor and author of multiple books, including Schooling for social change: the rise and impact of human rights education in India (winner of the 2012 Jackie Kirk Outstanding Book Award of the Comparative & International Education Society), as well as numerous articles. She has also developed curriculum – particularly related to peace education, human rights, anti-bullying efforts and sustainability – for non-profit organizations and inter-governmental organizations, such as UNICEF and UNESCO. She is the recipient of a National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation post-doctoral fellowship (2009), the Teachers College, Columbia University Distinguished Alumni Early Career Award (2015) and the Ella Baker/Septima Clark Human Rights Award (2015) from Division B of the American Educational Research Association (AERA).

Nigel O. M. Brissett holds a doctorate in international education policy from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. His research focuses primarily on how educational policies in postcolonial states are being impacted by national and regional interests, as well as global influences. His work is specifically attentive to the resulting challenges and opportunities facing traditionally marginalized groups with regard to educational access and equity. Dr. Brissett has worked extensively in the Caribbean in the area of tertiary educational outreach. He currently serves as assistant professor in Clark University’s International Development Community and Environment department.

Peter Clegg is Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations at the University of the West of England, Bristol. He has published widely on the international political economy of the Caribbean, and the territories of the non-sovereign Caribbean. Recent publications include Grenada: Revolution and invasion (with P. Lewis and G. Williams) and Governance in the non-independent Caribbean: Challenges and opportunities in the 21st Century (with E. Pantojas-Garcia).

Kristina Hinds holds a PhD in International Relations, which she received from the London School of Economics in 2007. She also holds an MA in International Relations (University of Kent) and a BA in International Development Studies (St. Mary’s). She is currently a lecturer in Political Science and International Relations at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, where she has worked since 2006. During her time at the Cave Hill Campus she served as the coordinator for the MSc Integration Studies from 2007 to 2013 and spearheaded the introduction of the BSc International Relations at the Campus in 2015. She has published works on the role of civil society in Caribbean regional integration; Caribbean civil society and Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs); political protest in the Caribbean Community; and women/gender in Caribbean politics and political economy. She continues to conduct research on Caribbean civil society in governance; gender in Caribbean politics; and regionalism in international politics.

Tavis D. Jules, is Assistant Professor of Cultural and Educational Policy Studies and International Higher Education at Loyola University Chicago. His research focuses on the impact of regionalism upon small island developing states and small (and micro) states in the Caribbean and education in transitory spaces with a geographic focus on the Maghreb Region. Dr. Jules held a variety of positions internationally. From 2009 to 2011 he was of Head of Knowledge and Communication for the Globally Responsible Leadership Initiative (GRLI); from 2008 to 2009 he worked as a curriculum specialist for Freedom House, and from 2013 to 2014 as an education specialist at the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). He is also a Visiting Professor at the University of Tunis in Faculté des Sciences Humaines et Sociales de Tunis, Tunisia. He is the Book Review Editor of the Caribbean Journal of International Relations and Diplomacy. He is also the author of numerous books and articles including Neither world polity nor local or national societies: Regionalization in the Global South – the Caribbean Community (Peter Lang Press, 2012); Educational transitions in post-revolutionary spaces: Islam, security and social movements in Tunisia (with Teresa Barton, Bloomsbury Press, 2017); and Is ‘small’ always small and ‘big’ always big? Re-reading educational policy and practice in small states (with Patrick Ressler, Peter Lang Press, 2017).

Halima-Sa’adia Kassim holds a PhD in History from The University of the West Indies (UWI) and publishes on women/gender in the Muslim community in Trinidad and Tobago. She is currently a Senior Planning Officer at the University Office of Planning and Development at UWI and has previously held the positions of Deputy Programme Manager for Gender and Development at the Caribbean Community (CARICOM); Head of Continuing Studies at Cipriani College of Labour and Cooperative Studies; Lecturer, College of Science Technology and Applied Arts of Trinidad and Tobago (COSTAATT); and Special Advisor to the President of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. Her research interests are gender and multiculturalism with particular reference to the Muslim community and gender and higher education.

Huma Kidwai is an education consultant with the World Bank’s East Asia and Pacific and Sub-Saharan Africa Divisions. She recently graduated with a doctoral degree (Ed.D.) from Teachers College, Columbia University, where she was studying the relationship between the state and madrasas in India. In 2013, she was awarded the American Institute of Indian Studies fellowship for her study. Her professional experience includes working at the World Bank in New Delhi as a research analyst with the Poverty Reduction Group, supporting projects related to health, education, and other civil rights at the Praxis Institute for Participatory Practices in New Delhi, and overseeing the educational programs and research at Columbia University’s Global Center in Mumbai on their Model Districts Education Project.

Alexandra McCormick has been a lecturer in teacher education programs in the University of Sydney’s Faculty of Education and Social Work since 2008, and supervises masters and doctoral students in areas of Comparative and International Education. She also teaches on the Development Studies Masters in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Alex previously taught in schools for extended periods in China and Japan, and has been a creative writing teacher on the University’s Refugee Language Program. Alex has published research on policy processes and education for all in Southeast Asia and the South Pacific, and is finalizing ‘post-2015’ research on education and development agendas in the South Pacific. She is convenor of the University of Sydney Comparative & International Education (CoInEd) research network, and the Secretary of the Oceania Comparative & International Education Society.

Tore Bernt Sorensen is doctoral researcher at the Graduate School of Education, University of Bristol, United Kingdom. His project concerns the mechanisms, outcomes, and contexts in the global educational policy field, focusing on the political construction of the OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS). Tore graduated as a teacher in Aarhus, Denmark, in 2000. In 2001–2004, he taught young migrants and refugees, and 2004–2009 he worked with professional development for school teachers at University College UCC in Copenhagen and contributed to R&D projects about language-across-the-curriculum and intercultural education. In 2011, Tore completed a MA in Educational Sociology at the Danish School of Education, Aarhus University. His MA dissertation “The bias of markets: A comparative study of the market form and identity politics in English and Danish compulsory education” was published in 2011. Before starting as doctoral researcher in Bristol in 2013, Tore worked in the Analysis and Studies Unit of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Education and Culture in Brussels, Belgium.

Gita Steiner-Khamsi is Professor of Comparative and International Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, New York. Her research deals with globalization, policy borrowing and lending, and school reform. Her most recent book was entitled “The Global Education Industry,” published in 2016 by Routledge, and was co-edited with Antoni Verger and Christopher Lubienski. She is a past president of the Comparative and International Education Society.

Sadie Stockdale Jefferson, Director of Education and Youth Policy for Mayor Rahm Emanuel, oversees Chicago’s high school strategy, youth programming and youth workforce development. Prior to this role, Sadie served as a Director of Teach For America, a non-profit that is aimed at promoting educational equity in the United States. She led efforts in Washington DC to increase funding for native students as part of Teach For America’s Native Alliance Initiative. Prior to her time at Teach For America, she was an English teacher and head girl’s track coach in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In addition, Sadie was a graduate fellow for Education Pioneers, a Policy Fellow at Chicago Public Schools, and a Research Fellow with the National Science Foundation. Sadie holds a B.A. from Oklahoma State University and a M.Ed. from the University of Missouri. She is currently working part-time on her PhD in Educational Policy at Loyola University.

Rolf Straubhaar is Assistant Research Scientist and the Assistant Director for Research at the University of Georgia’s Center for Latino Achievement and Success in Education. He is a former elementary school teacher and Freirean adult educator. Trained as an anthropologist of education, his research focuses on education policy throughout the Americas and Lusophone Africa and the educational experiences of Latino students in the United States. His dissertation work on education reform in Rio de Janeiro was given the Council on Anthropology and Education’s 2014 Frederick Erickson Outstanding Dissertation Award, and his work has been widely published in peer-reviewed journals such as the Comparative Education Review, Latin American Perspectives, International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, Education and Urban Society, Compare, Comparative Education, Education Policy Analysis Archives, and Ethnography and Education, among others.

Emel Thomas is Senior Lecturer in Education, Children, and Young People at the University of Northampton. She obtained her doctorate in education at the University of Cambridge in 2013. She has written and presented papers for various international conferences on education and migration. Her most recent edited publication is entitled Education in the Commonwealth Caribbean and Netherlands Antilles. Emel received her MSc in Comparative and International Education from the University of Oxford in 2008. Prior to this, she taught in a variety of schools in England and has also conducted research for charities that support disengaged young people. Current research projects involve inspiring languages within higher education and evaluating special educational needs provision in Georgia. Her main teaching and research interests include migration, identity, race, intercultural teaching and learning, and education in small states.