Professor Janina Brutt-Griffler, Director
Welcome to the Center for Comparative and Global Studies in Education (CCGSE) in the Graduate School of Education of the University at Buffalo..
The Center is an interdisciplinary research center that brings together scholars and students who use the methods of the social sciences and the humanities to study educational issues that have a global dimension. At the CCGSE, we locate the study of education in a broad-based social, cultural and linguistic context to understand the global issues that affect educational practices and outcomes in schools, communities, and educational systems on the local and global levels. We are particularly interested in making quality education more equitable and prominent in discussion and educational policy around the world. As such, the Center is interested in promoting scholarly work and practice in such areas as educational policy, governance, economics and educational development, higher education and financing, multilingualism in schools, gender, class, and ethnic equality, innovative schools and leadership development, and digital media and teacher quality assurance.
The Center collaborates with a number of academic departments and offices at UB and internationally to sponsor lectures, seminars, conferences, and research initiatives that advance this intellectual mission. It provides a home for visiting scholars who wish to conduct their research projects at UB’s Graduate School of Education and to connect with the scholarly community in comparative and international/global education.
The Center is actively engaged in a number of major initiatives. My inaugural project as director is The Future of Global Education: Toward Education for All in 2050, which involves taking stock of global education and competencies in a comparative perspective, from the vantage point of the critical role of language policy and its implications for the post-Millennium Development Goals schooling of the world’s children. Other research projects that the Center is engaged in include such major initiatives as the UB’s research program A Human Capital Agenda for Educational and Economic Development, joint research and learning programs to enhance education and economic development that bring together the College of Arts and Sciences and Graduate School of Education. Another set of initiatives of the Center’s faculty is in the domain of multilingual education, including a collaboration with the Confucius Institute to launch a new Master’s program in Chinese Language Pedagogy and teacher certification. The International Comparative Higher Education Finance and Accessibility Project has compiled a database of theoretical, empirical, and descriptive country studies on the worldwide shift of higher education costs from governments and taxpayers to parents and students and the array of government and non-governmental policies designed to maintain higher educational accessibility in the face of this shift.
Students can pursue coursework and multiple paths in Global Education. International and US students with international interests and career objectives can take courses with international comparative content within most of the masters or doctoral program in the Graduate School of Education. Many of the recent international students, for example, have pursued programs in:
- Higher Education
- Educational Administration
- Educational Culture, Policy and Society
- Education Studies Focus Area in Comparative and Global Education
- Foreign and Second Language Education and Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages
- Early Childhood Education
Those who receive a University at Buffalo Masters or Ph.D. Degree in a Comparative and Global Education concentration, course work, and research experience, especially in masters or Ph.D. dissertations, typically take jobs in:
- Colleges and universities—as faculty/researchers of comparative education or other fields and/or as administrators in international, “study abroad,” or other programs;
- Schools–often as supervisors, teachers, or school or system administrators;
- Government ministries–as policy makers and analysts;
- International development or human service agencies–as analysts, program officers, and administrators;
- Non-governmental agencies—as researchers, analysts, and program officers or administrators.
Overall coordination of the concentration in Comparative and Global Education is through the Center for Comparative and Global Studies in Education, which is housed within the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy and directed by Dr. Janina Brutt-Griffler, Professor and Chair of the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy, and also Professor of Second and Foreign Language Education in the Department of Learning and Instruction. Dr. Namsook Kim serves as Assistant Director in the Center.
For additional information about the Center, admission to the concentration, and the Center’s academic programming, please contact the Assistant Director (Email: nkim3@buffalo.edu; Phone: 716-645-1094).
Janina Brutt-Griffler, Ph.D.
Professor
Director, Center for Comparative and Global Studies in Education
