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ANNUAL REVIEW OF COMPARATIVE AND INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION 2020

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INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES ON EDUCATION AND SOCIETY

Series Editor: Alexander W. Wiseman

Recent Volumes:

Series Editor from Volume 11: Alexander W. Wiseman

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INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES ON EDUCATION AND SOCIETY VOLUME 40

ANNUAL REVIEW OF COMPARATIVE AND INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION 2020

EDITED BY

ALEXANDER W. WISEMAN

Texas Tech University, USA

United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India – Malaysia – China

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Howard House, Wagon Lane, Bingley BD16 1WA, UK

First edition 2021

Editorial matter and selection © 2021 Alexander W. Wiseman. Published under exclusive licence. Individual chapters © 2021 Emerald Publishing Limited.

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ISBN: 978-1-80071-908-8 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-80071-907-1 (Online)

ISBN: 978-1-80071-909-5 (Epub)

ISSN: 1479-3679 (Series)

Contents

Acknowledgments

The purpose of Annual Review of Comparative and International Education is to provide a forum for reflective practice in the field among both scholars and professionals. The field itself is a combination of comparative and international education, which are both distinct as well as symbiotic areas of study and professional practice. As such, the collaborative and professional effort of comparative and international education specialists in the field and in research and teaching contexts worldwide is an important goal of the Annual Review. Not surprisingly, the planning, development, and publication of each volume of the Annual Review of Comparative and International Education is the result of a vibrant professional collaboration among the Annual Review’s editorial team. This team is comprised of Dr. Petrina M. Davidson, Maureen F. Park, Nino Dzotsenidze, and Obioma Okogbue. This team has collaborated productively on several volumes of the Annual Review of Comparative and International Education as well as scholarly presentations, academic publications in peer-reviewed journals, grant proposals, and many other pursuits. But, it is their commitment and tireless service to the Annual Review that makes each volume both a work of high scholarly caliber as well as a cohesive narrative and review of the research published in the field of comparative and international education.

It is because of Petrina, Maureen, Nino, and Obioma’s diligence and scholarly rigor that there is ongoing data collection, which provides the basis for the introductory chapter analysis of publishing trends in the field. They have committed to planning, collecting, and participating in the analysis of comparative and international education research publication data that is now in its sixth year of data collection and expands in scope annually. This team of incredible researchers also contribute their time and effort to working one-on-one with chapter authors to ensure that each chapter contributed to the Annual Review is accurate, eloquent, and impactful for individual readers as well as the field at large.

2020 has been a difficult year to work on the Annual Review of Comparative and International Education for many reasons, and this team has sacrificed time with their families and work on other projects in order to bring the 2020 Annual Review to fruition. As both the International Perspectives on Education and Society series editor and the editor of the Annual Review of Comparative and International Education, I would like to not only acknowledge the irreplaceable contributions that these four women have made to the volume, but also thank them for being fun to work with, trustworthy and independent, and the most intelligent and insightful team I could have ever asked to have working on the Annual Review. It is with the most sincerity that I acknowledge and thank Dr. Petrina M. Davidson, Maureen F. Park, Nino Dzotsenidze, and Obioma Okogbue.

Alexander W. Wiseman

Volume and Series Editor

About the Volume Editor

Alexander W. Wiseman, PhD, is a Professor of Educational Leadership & Policy in the College of Education at Texas Tech University, USA. He holds a dual-degree PhD in Comparative & International Education and Educational Theory & Policy from Pennsylvania State University, a MA in International Comparative Education from Stanford University, a MA in Education from The University of Tulsa, and a BA in Letters from the University of Oklahoma. He conducts comparative educational research on educational policy and practice using large-scale education datasets on math and science education, information and communication technology (ICT), teacher preparation, professional development and curriculum as well as school principal’s instructional leadership activity. He is the author of many research-to-practice articles and books, and serves as senior editor of the online journal, FIRE: Forum for International Research in Education, and as series editor for the International Perspectives on Education and Society volume series (Emerald Publishing).

About the Authors

Fatimah Alhashem is an Assistant Professor at the Gulf University for Science and Technology (GUST), and the Chair for the Center of Teaching, Learning, and Research (CTLR) at GUST. She received doctoral degree in curriculum and instructions in science education from Arizona State University. She worked as a General Manager for Teacher Development Department at the National Center for Education Development (NCED) from 2015 until 2018. She is a strong advocate for supporting teachers in general and supporting women in science education in specific. She is involved in different projects that serve education system mainly clustered around teachers’ development. She led many educational projects as a consultant (UNDP and KFAS). Her professional interests focus on professional development for teachers, teachers’ practices, teachers’ polices, and STEM education. Her current projects are: Teacher effectiveness, Teacher License, and STEM for women. Her researches talk about TPACK model and TIMSS studies. She is a member of National Science Teacher Association (NSTA) and Kuwait Soroptimist.

Ibrahim Alhouti is a Research Assistant at the College of Education in Kuwait University. He is currently working on his PhD dissertation at UCL Institute of Education focusing on educational policies and the policy process of the education reforms in the Arab Gulf States. He holds two master’s degrees from UCL Institute of Education, MA Leadership and MA Comparative Educations, and a BA in education from Kuwait University. He started his career path as a teacher in Kuwait for 5 years. Then, he continued his path academically. He published several articles related to school leadership development and teacher’s professionalism in Kuwait. He worked as a Consultant at the UNDP to prepare the Kuwait National Human Development Report and worked on different academic projects.

Hanaa Almoaibed is a Researcher whose work focuses on youth and education to work transitions. Her PhD research explored the role of structure and agency in young people’s career choices in Saudi Arabia, with a particular emphasis on the vocational education track, and has subsequently published related academic and non-academic work. Prior to that, she managed several multi-stakeholder research projects related to youth, careers and education in Saudi Arabia, building relationships between private and public sector entities.

Na An is a graduate student, Institute of International and Comparative Education, Beijing Normal University. The main research area is international education, including the internationalization of basic education, teacher development in international schools and curriculum construction in international schools.

Courtney Bailey is the Middle School Principal at Cairo American College (CAC). He has been in Egypt for 10 years; before that, he worked in China, Cambodia, Tanzania, Cote d’Ivoire, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Toronto. He is currently working on completing his dissertation. His research topic is, “How do international school leaders cope during times of crisis?” At CAC, he implemented a student wellbeing committee to be the student’s voice. He has been awarded the CAC Community award by the board of trustees for meritorious service to the community. He has always wanted to help others to reach their potential since he started coaching in the Parks and Recreation program back in Toronto. Each day he looks forward to the opportunity to inspire someone and remind them, they have the potential to transform their life.

Carol Benson, Associate Professor at Teachers College, Columbia University, has engaged in educational language issues internationally for 35 years as a technical assistant and evaluator. She now teaches about languages and literacies and researches policy development and innovation in the practice of L1-based multilingual education for speakers of non-dominant languages, with ongoing work in Cambodia and Senegal. In her work and life, she speaks English, Spanish, Portuguese, French and Swedish and tries to demonstrate the importance of a multilingual habitus.

Kara D. Brown is an Associate Professor in Educational Studies at the University of South Carolina. Her ethnographic research focuses on language policy change in schools, the development of dual-language programs, and teachers and principals as language policy actors. Her research examines the potential of early childhood as a space to expand opportunities for dual-language programs, non-dominant language learning, and multilingual instruction. Her decades-long research focuses on Estonian schools as sites of Võro language revitalization. As a policy specialist rooted in the field of Comparative & International Education, she is particularly fascinated by the ways teachers and principals are situated (both historically and culturally) for shifting language policies in schools, examining the semiotic environment, or schoolscape, of educational settings. She currently leads a Spencer Foundation and University of South Carolina-funded longitudinal project focused on institutional and community involvement in transforming pre-primary and primary schools into bilingual (Estonian-Russian) institutions.

Anne C. Campbell, PhD, is an Associate Professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, California (USA). She teaches and conducts research on international higher education, student mobility, international scholarships, social change, and the Sustainable Development Goals. Before joining the Middlebury Institute, she worked at the Open Society Foundations as the Program Manager of the Undergraduate Exchange Program and for Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders as an administrator in Haiti. She holds a PhD in comparative and international development education from the University of Minnesota (USA) and an MA in critical theory and cultural studies from the University of Nottingham (UK).

Max Crumley-Effinger is a PhD candidate in the Cultural and Educational Policy Studies program at Loyola University Chicago, studying comparative and international education. Focusing primarily on higher education, his research interests include international student mobility, international educational exchange, and sustainability in international education.

Petrina M. Davidson completed her PhD in Comparative and International Education (CIE) at Lehigh University, her MS in Teaching, Learning, and Leadership with an emphasis on Curriculum and Instruction from Oklahoma State University, and her BA in English and Education from the University of Tulsa. Prior to moving to Pennsylvania, she worked for one of the largest school districts in Oklahoma, where she taught high school English and served as a district-level English Curriculum Coordinator. She has worked on numerous project teams, including those focused on developing strategic plans for internationalization, monitoring and evaluation, transformative teaching, professional development, and examinations of the field of CIE. Her research interests include the institutionalization of education, curriculum in post-conflict societies, education for refugees and marginalized populations, measures of teacher quality, and the internationalization of higher education.

Nino Dzotsenidze is a doctoral candidate pursuing her degree in Comparative and International Education at Lehigh University. She has 15 years of work experience in formal and non-formal education fields including governmental and non-governmental organizations as well as state and private higher education institutions in Georgia (country) and Kuwait. She earned MEd in International Education Policy and Management from Vanderbilt University in 2010.

Marvin Erfurth is Head of Research at the Sheikh Saud bin Saqr Al Qasimi Foundation for Policy Research. He has a background in research, secondary and higher education, and consultancy. Previously, he was a Research Associate at Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster’s Institute of Education in Germany, as well as a Visiting Scholar at University of Oslo’s Department of Education, Norway, and at the Foundation. He is currently working on his PhD in comparative and international education, focusing on education policy and the economics of education. His work explores the UAE’s and Singapore’s economic and social development in which higher education and research have become central in recent years, in particular in Singapore.

Roxana Maria Ghiațău is an Associate Professor at the Teacher Training Department, Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Iaşi, Romania. She has an MS in intercultural education and a doctoral degree for the thesis “Code of ethics for the teaching profession.” Her main research interests are professional ethics for teachers, axiology in education, and teacher evaluation. She teaches theory of curriculum, theory of evaluation and professional ethics for future teachers.

Bridget Goodman is an Associate Professor of Multilingual Education at Nazarbayev University Graduate School of Education (NUGSE) in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, and Program Co-Chair of the Comparative and International Education Society Language Issues Special Interest Group. She earned an M.S.Ed. in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) and a PhD in Educational Linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania, USA. She has been a Member of the NUGSE Academic Writing Research Group and a Principal Investigator of the funded project “Development of students’ multilingual competence in EMI postgraduate research programs in Kazakhstan” (2018–2020). Her research and supervision activities focus on the policy and practice of English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI), translanguaging, trilingual education policy, and education in non-dominant languages in Eurasian countries.

Rana Harouny is a Middle School Learning Support Teacher at Cairo American College, Egypt.

Nicole Ifi has been working in international schools around the world since she graduated from the University of Alberta, in Edmonton, Canada, in 2010 with her Bachelor of Education degree. She specialized in Secondary Education with an English Major and Fine Arts Minor. She completed her Masters’ degree in Education at Lehigh University in 2016 with a focus in Globalization and Educational Change. She has taught in Japan, Macao, Hong Kong and is now living in the United States. She has teaching certifications from Alberta Education and the Ontario College of Teachers. Most recently she was certified by the Council of International Schools to be an international school Accreditation Evaluator. She currently teachers grade 7 & 8 English and is the grade 8 team coordinator at her school.

Tavis D. Jules is an Associate Professor of Cultural and Educational Policy Studies at Loyola University Chicago, specifically focusing on CIE and International Higher Education. His vast professional and academic experiences have led to research and publications across the Caribbean and North Africa. He is the President of the Caribbean Studies Association, Book and Media Review Editor for the Comparative Education Review, and an International Institute of Islamic Thought Fellow and NORRAG Senior Fellow. His most recent books include The Bloomsbury handbook of theory in Comparative and International Education (with Robin Shields & Matthew M. A. Thomas, Bloomsbury 2021), The Educational Intelligent Economy: Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and the Internet of Things in Education (with Florin D. Salajan, Emerald 2019); Educational Transitions in Post-Revolutionary Spaces: Islam, Security and Social Movements in Tunisia (with Teresa Barton, Bloomsbury 2018); Re-Reading Education Policy and Practice in Small States: Issues of Size and Scale in the Emerging Intelligent Society and Economy (with Patrick Ressler, Peter Lang 2017); and The New Global Educational Policy Environment in the Fourth Industrial Revolution: Gated, Regulated and Governed (Emerald 2016).

Joe Tin-yau Lo is the Director of General Education, The Education University of Hong Kong. He has published extensively in the areas of comparative education, social science education, history education, citizenship education, and China studies. His recent publications have appeared in Comparative Education, Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, The Pacific Review, Research in Comparative and International Education, Chinese Education and Society, Research in Social Education Series, and Routledge Research in International and Comparative Education Series among others.

Leping Mou is a PhD candidate in Comparative Higher Education in the Department of Leadership, Adult, and Higher Education in Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at the University of Toronto. His doctoral research investigates how liberal arts education could contribute to the cultivation of whole persons with capabilities for the twenty-first century in the East Asian context. He is interested in researching liberal arts education, whole-person education, or general education in different traditions and social contexts.

Obioma Okogbue received her MA in Comparative and International Education from Lehigh University. Her research focuses on horizontal inequality, its reflection in the educational system, and its implications for access, success and opportunity. She has a BA in French and an MEd in Educational Leadership. She has experience in both the classroom as a French teacher and as an educational administrative officer in Nigeria. She currently works as a senior technical assistance analyst at Child Trends.

Edith Mukudi Omwami is an Associate Professor of Comparative and International Education at the University of California, Los Angeles. She teaches the introduction to theories in comparative education course, development education, social context of learners, and research in education courses. Her research focus is on the attainment of sustainable development goals (SDGs) with respect to issues pertaining to education access, participation, education finance, gender and education, empowerment of women, and nutrition and cognition. Her research examines the context for marginalized and vulnerable populations that include children and youth, ethnic minority, women, and populations in rural and those in conflict-impacted spaces. She is also involved in development intervention in the areas of education and food security in Africa. Her most recent publications are on Comparative Perspectives on International Early Childhood Education in the Context of SDGs (United Kingdom: Emerald Publishing Limited) and Globalization, Nationalism, and Inclusive Education for All: A Reflection on the Ideological Shifts in Education Reform (Dordrecht: Springer).

Yakup Oz, PhD, is a Research Assistant in the Department of Educational Sciences at Karamanoglu Mehmetbey University, Turkey. His research focuses on student success, access, dropout, social capital and engagement in both secondary and higher education, and internationalization of higher education, especially the intersection of international student mobility and public diplomacy.

Suyan Pan is an Associate Professor at the Department of Social Sciences, The Education University of Hong Kong. Her research interests include higher education, international relations, citizenship education, and China studies in the comparative contexts. Her publications have appeared in Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, Oxford Review of Education, The Pacific Review, Journal of Studies in International Education, Higher Education Policy, Citizenship Studies, and Routledge Research in International and Comparative Education Series among others.

Maureen F. Park is a PhD Candidate in Comparative and International Education at Lehigh University. Her research focuses on refugee and migrant education, mother tongue-based multilingual education, and gender and education. She has a BA in Political Science and an MEd in Multicultural Education. She has experience in both international development and as an educator; she began her career as a bilingual teacher in the United States and also worked as an international school teacher in Central Asia. She is co-founder of a community-based organization based in Kenya working to combat gender-based violence in schools and provide sexual and reproductive health education. She is currently based in Nepal.

Ashley Parnell is a Middle School Learning Support Specialist at Cairo American College. She holds a PhD in Curriculum Instruction and MEd in Special Education. She is also a credentialed Board Certified Behavior Analyst. She has over 15 years’ experience as a practitioner of special education and applied behavior analysis in a variety of teaching and consultative roles across settings ranging from early intervention to higher education.

Natasha Ridge is the founding Executive Director of the Sheikh Saud bin Saqr Al Qasimi Foundation for Policy Research. Prior to this appointment, she was the Acting Director of Research at the Dubai School of Government. Natasha has over 20 years of experience working in the international education sector including in Singapore and Australia. She holds a Doctorate of Education in International Education Policy from Columbia University, a Master’s in International and Community Development from Deakin University, and a Bachelor of Economics from the Australian National University. Natasha has more than 30 publications, including a book entitled, Education and the Reverse Gender Divide in the Gulf States: Embracing the Global, Ignoring the Local, and another entitled, Philanthropy in Education: Diverse Perspectives and Global Trends. Her latest research focuses on philanthropy and education in the MENA region as well as the nature and impact of father involvement on education in the Arab World.

Veronika Rozhenkova is a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Division of Teaching Excellence and Innovation at the University of California, Irvine. She is conducting research in higher education and STEM education for the Education Research Initiative, which aims to advance knowledge about innovations and policies that have the potential to increase postsecondary success and reduce educational inequality. She received her PhD in Social Sciences and Comparative Education from UCLA, where she held a fellowship as a Conrad N. Hilton Scholar with the WORLD Policy Analysis Center in the Fielding School of Public Health, conducting research measuring various aspects of public policy internationally. Additionally, she worked as a Research Analyst for the BRAID Research Project looking at the issues of diversity and inclusion in higher education. Prior to her doctoral studies, she received a master’s degree in International Education Policy from Harvard University, a Diploma in Philology from Yaroslavl State Pedagogical University, and worked as a university faculty member in Russia. Her research interests are in international comparative education, higher education policy and reform, STEM education, and diversity and inclusion in higher education.

Riho Sakurai, PhD, is an Associate Professor at the Hiroshima University Research Center for Diversity and Inclusion and was previously an associate professor at the Center for the Study of International Cooperation in Education, Hiroshima University, for ten years. She graduated from the Pennsylvania University with a dual-title (PhD) in Education Theory and Policy and Comparative International Education. She devotes herself to investigating diversity and inclusion issues, and her research interests include the following: exploring self-esteem of children and how it relates to family, school, friends, and bullying; inclusive education; and education for minority children, including foreign-born children in Japan. Prior to her current position, she served as a full-time teacher at a Japanese school in Aguascalientes, Mexico, and worked for the UNESCO Global Monitoring Report Team and Kyoto University Graduate School of Education Global COE Program as a postdoctoral researcher, and the Center for the Study of International Cooperation in Education, Hiroshima University.

Florin D. Salajan is an Associate Professor in the School of Education at North Dakota State University, Fargo, USA. He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in teacher education, comparative education, and instructional methods. His areas of research interests include comparative and international education, European higher education policies, European educational policy analysis, teacher education in comparative perspective, comparative e-learning, and information and communication technology in teaching and learning. His research has been published in the Comparative Education Review, Compare, European Journal of Education, European Educational Research Journal, European Journal of Higher Education, and Educational Policy. He co-edited and contributed chapters for the volume titled, The Educational Intelligent Economy: Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and the Internet of Things in Education as part of the International Perspectives on Education and Society volume series (with Tavis D. Jules, Emerald 2019).

Aray Saniyazova is currently a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Institute of Education at the National Research University Higher School of Economics (Moscow, Russia) and a Research Associate at the Center for Studies in Higher Education (CSHE) at the University of California Berkeley (UCB), USA. She holds a Master’s degree in Higher Education Administration from Vanderbilt University (2011), and a PhD in Education from Nazarbayev University (NU) (2017). Her research interests center around the topic of student experience in university including transition from high school to university; student academic and social integration; student well-being and campus climate; student retention and persistence; gendered issues of student experience. Her current research focuses on experiences of graduate student parents and employs data from the Student Experience in Research Universities (SERU) project located at the UCB. She is a member of Comparative International Education Society and Young Researchers Association (Kazakhstan).

Syed Shah is a Lecturer at the Department of Political Science, University of Balochistan, Pakistan. Currently, he is enrolled in a PhD program in the field of International and Comparative Education at Loyola University Chicago. His areas of interest involve textbook analysis, education and social cohesion, and political economy approach to education.

Swetal Sindhvad is former Education Specialist for Asian Development Bank (ADB). During her tenure at ADB, she led the development, management and evaluation of sovereign lending projects in the education and training sector for governments in Southeast Asia. Currently, she is founding Executive Director of i3Development leading education research and capacity development initiatives in emerging economies of Asia. Her research focuses on educational governance, school management and public–private partnerships in education. She also serves as an Adjunct Professor at Drexel University where she has taught courses in education policy analysis and comparative higher education.

Teneshia A. Taylor is a Doctoral student at the University of Northern Colorado where she is studying Education Reform with a concentration in educational leadership. Her interest in international education began when she worked at the international school in Haiti as the instructional coach and curriculum coordinator. She learned the diversity and inclusion efforts were lacking. Inspired by this international experience, she began her work for social justice in educational settings. From there she has lived and worked in 2 other international schools including her current position in Nepal. She aspires to pursue a career establishing social justice policies in international schools. When she is not busy reading about educational equity, she enjoys time with friends viewing the Himalayas and spending time with her husband, two children and dog.

Jun Teng is a Professor and an Associate Dean of the Institute of International and Comparative Education, Beijing Normal University; Finance Committee Member of WCCES; Assistant Secretary General of CESA; Secretary General of CCES. She has long been engaged in comparative education research. Her main research areas include international organization and global education governance, twenty-first century skill, global competence and international schools. She maintains close exchanges and cooperation with UNESCO, the World Bank, the United States, Finland and other countries. She has hosted and participated in more than 30 international, national, and provincial projects and published more than 80 papers in peer-reviewed journals. Her doctoral dissertation – “The Discourse Evolution of UNESCO’s Education Policy” was nominated for the 2012 National Outstanding Doctoral Thesis and her latest monograph “Preparing to Work in International Organizations” was published by Shanghai Education Press in 2018.

Preface

The Annual Review of Comparative and International Education is in its eighth year of serving both as the “collective memory of the field” as well as providing the opportunity to scholars and professionals working in comparative and international education to engage in reflective practice. This is a core activity in the professionalization of the field as well as in the development of comparative and international education as a distinct field of study. Every volume of the Annual Review includes an introductory chapter that reviews the trends in published research in the field, and then this introductory chapter leads into the main content divided into five distinct sections. While trends are important to understand the field broadly speaking, they do not comprise the total voice and vitality of the field. For this reason, Part 1: Comparative Education Trends and Directions contains essays written by individuals from both the academic and professional corners of the field. This is then followed by Part 2: Conceptual and Methodological Developments, which focuses on both new and impactful conceptual developments and methodological approaches in the field. Part 3: Research-to-Practice makes connections between theoretical foundations and field-based projects, including their implementation and evaluation. Part 4: Area Studies and Regional Developments examines educational phenomena, policies, and activities by region and national education system. And, finally, Part 5: New Developments in Comparative and International Education reviews or highlights those areas of the field that are unusual or unique to either a particular year or situation. The goal of Part 5 is to look forward at what the potential of the field is.

The Part 1: Comparative Education Trends and Directions section of the 2020 Annual Review of Comparative and International Education includes essays that address the field of comparative and international education itself as well as international schools, higher education worldwide, the commercialization of education, and the role of language in comparative and international education. This section on comparative education trends and directions provides a voice to diverse perspectives and ideologies involved in unique comparative and international education communities worldwide, and brings them into the global discourse on comparative and international education. Florin D. Salajan and Tavis D. Jules examine ways that professional associations and conferences serves as incubators of academic work in the field. Teneshia A. Taylor confirms and discusses ways that racism is experienced in international schools. Aray Saniyazova discusses the practical significance of comparative and international education research in the Global South. Swetal Sindhvad looks at ways that school leadership capacity can be understood through comparative and international education approaches. Joe Tin-yau Lo and Suyan Pan rethink “Chinese characteristics” in relation to China’s internationalization of its higher education system. Hanaa Almoaibed critiques the global education industry in Saudi Arabia. And, Carol Benson, Kara D. Brown, and Bridget Goodman discuss relevant language issues in comparative and international education.

In Part 2: Conceptual and Methodological Developments research methods, liberal arts education, big data, liberal feminism, brain drain, and the role of language in comparative and international education research are examined more fully. The conceptual and methodological developments section provides a systematic approach to articulating the challenges, concerns, and reflections of both newer and established approaches involved in the development and framing of comparative and international education research. Max Crumley-Effinger, Tavis D. Jules, and Syed Shah discuss sustainable research methodologies in comparative and international education research. Leping Mou looks at the ways liberal arts education has developed in East Asia, North America, and Western Europe. Florin D. Salajan and Tavis D. Jules compare the ways that the European Union (EU) and Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries have used big data in educational analysis. Edith Mukudi Omwami examines liberal feminism through a comparative lens. Veronika Rozhenkova investigates the institutional and national dimensions of brain drain. Carol Benson, Kara D. Brown, and Bridget Goodman review language issues in early twenty-first century comparative and international education research.

The chapters in Part 3: Research-to-Practice explore philanthropy in education and the sustainability of international scholarships. The chapters in this section emphasize the importance of translating research to practical applications and situations in educational systems, schools, youth programs and classrooms worldwide. First, Marvin Erfurth and Natasha Ridge review the emerging field of philanthropy in education. Next, Anne C. Campbell engages the sustainability of international scholarships, which are important both for national development as well as the reproduction of international educational and economic agendas. As these two chapters demonstrate, this section encourages discussion, development, and reflection on the many ways that comparative and international education theories, methods, and the resulting empirical or conceptual evidence are translated to practical applications.

Part 4: Area Studies and Regional Developments includes chapters that examine Bhutan, Japan, Turkey, Romania, Kuwait, and China. The chapters in this section examine the ways that local contexts and national situations shape education as they interact with the pressures and effects of increasingly globalized social, political, cultural, and economic factors. Riho Sakurai reexamines inclusive education in a comparative study of Bhutan and Japan. Yakup Oz analyzes how Turkey has emerged as a regional hub for international students. Roxana Maria Ghiațău reviews international research on academic dishonesty in Romanian universities. Fatimah Alhashem and Ibrahim Alhouti give an incisive review of “endless” educational reform in Kuwait. And, Jun Teng and Na An investigate curriculum development in international schools in China. As the diversity of topics, areas, and regions examined in this section suggest, regional dynamics are constantly shifting and this has unique implications for the development of comparative and international education research and the effects of education in local contexts.

Finally, Part 5: New Developments in Comparative and International Education includes two brief, but insightful, essays examining two key topics in 2020: racism and the pandemic. As 2020 has shown, not only is education constantly changing and developing, but the comparative and international examination of education worldwide and in local contexts is constantly shifting. Sometimes these shifts are purposeful and planned; other times these shifts are unexpected and are accompanied by dire consequences. The two essays in this section look at the challenges that 2020 brought from an international schools perspective. First, Courtney Bailey, Ashley Parnell, and Rana Harouny bring an international schools perspective to the crisis of diversity, inclusion, and equity in education. Next, Nicole Ifi focuses on the intersection of both the pandemic and racial equality protests in international schools. These essays provide a frame for understanding and further examination of the diversification of education worldwide, often due to forces that are unplanned and that evoke a wide variety of responses at every level of education and across communities.

2020 has been a year that will not soon be forgotten. The COVID-19 pandemic changed not only the format of schooling from face-to-face to online only in schools around the world, but also gave in-person education the added challenge of potential infection and the resulting consequences not only for students, but for educators, families, and whole communities. There have been so many different responses to the pandemic from schools, districts, states, provinces, regions, and nations worldwide that summarizing them all is difficult, if not impossible. But, this volume of the Annual Review of Comparative and International Education sets the stage for what 2020 brought to educational systems, schools, educators, and affiliated organizations by showing how the movement of people, ideas, services, and educational products both intranationally and internationally operated and was developing on the eve of the pandemic.

Likewise, 2020 became a year when diversity, racial equality, and the legacies of colonialism came to the foreground. Although the inequalities associated with race and socioeconomic status, in particular, have been a topic of investigate in comparative and international education for decades, the events of 2020 pushed the efforts for equity and equality ahead in many ways. Students and educators were both challenged and encouraged by the changes that this re-awakening presented to them. The events and phenomena documented in this volume provide the foundation for examining the emergence of diversity, inclusion, and equity as key factors in education and society.

Since the inaugural volume of the Annual Review of Comparative and International Education the goal has been to provide content that spurred critical and honest review, examination, and reflection on comparative and international education research and practice by scholars and professionals alike. As mentioned above, encouraging reflective practice and supporting the professionalization of the field of comparative and international education are key objectives for every volume of the Annual Review. In this unique year where so many global events have had an effect on education in every community worldwide, the importance of reflection and examining the preparation and implementation of education from comparative and international perspectives is even more important.

With these goals and objectives in mind, the editorial team and the authors who contributed to this volume have laid the groundwork for understanding how 2020 evolved and the ways that the actions and reactions of educational policymakers, educators, communities, and affiliated organizations either addressed and resolved or exacerbated and ignored the challenges they year brought. Although many new and interesting ideas arose in 2020 only time will tell which of those contributed to or supported the development of productive teaching, learning, policy, and planning in education worldwide, and the 2021 Annual Review of Comparative and International Education will review them all.

Alexander W. Wiseman

Series Editor, International Perspectives on Education & Society

Editor, Annual Review of Comparative & International Education