About the Authors
Suzana Andrade has recently completed her M.A. at Teachers
College, Columbia University in International Education Policy
Studies, as well as an Ed.M. from Queen’s University, Canada focusing on Cultural and Policy Studies. Suzana’s interest is in improving the quality of education in developing countries, and in particular in promoting critical pedagogy, social justice, ethics and peace within pedagogy and curriculum so that education in developing countries can contribute towards social reform. Suzana is currently based in New Delhi where she works as a Senior Consultant
to India’s Ministry of Education to help improve the quality
of India’s Education For All (Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan) program. She is also the Assistant Director of Gyanankur School, a school she helped set up in Pune, India to provide quality transformative education to underprivileged children. The Gyanankur School is also involved in teacher training and curriculum development. Her prior experiences have included working with UNESCO in New York, working at an international education consulting company
Chartwell Education Group, and serving on the board of the International Public Policy Institute, an NGO with consultative status at the United Nations. Suzana has presented her research at various conferences in the U.S., Canada, and Central Europe.
Peter Cronin received his Doctorate of Education from Teachers College, Columbia University in 2008 in International Educational Development. He studied under Professor Gita Steiner-Khamsi. His doctoral research focused on the organizational
scaling-up of the Bangladeshi-based NGO BRAC, and how programmatic transfer across international borders within the Global South affect the NGO’s identity. While enrolled at Teachers
College, Peter worked with BRAC for one year as the evaluator to their school of public health. Additionally, he has worked for the International Rescue Committee in Sierra Leone, interned at a gay and lesbian rights organization in Romania to help design sexual education curricula and performed an education evaluation
in Russia. Prior to Teachers College, Peter taught for two years in the state of Chuuk, Federated States of Micronesia with Jesuit Volunteers International.
Tavis D. Jules received his Doctorate of Education from Teachers College, Columbia University in 2008 in International Educational Development. His specialization was in International
Education Policy Studies. He received his Masters of Arts in Peace Education and his Master of Education in Policy Studies
from Teachers College, Columbia University. Tavis has done research on the implications of international polices on education in Brazil, South Africa and Tanzania. His dissertation research focused on the influence of endogenous and exogenous actors on educational policy formation, and policy development within the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and their efficacy upon the Caribbean Single Market Economy (CSME). His research questioned the different policy audiences that the education policies
of CARICOM member states are framed towards within the context of the semantics of regional harmonization. Tavis’ other research interests include educational externalization, policy isomorphism,
human rights and gender parity.
Michelle Morais de Sá e Silva is a Ph.D. student in Comparative and International Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. Her background in Development Studies (MA, Institute of Social Studies, The Hague, The Netherlands) and International Relations (BA, University of Brasilia, Brazil) combined with her past professional experience in international ducation at UNESCO have guided her research interests towards policy transfer, South-South Cooperation in education, and conditional
cash transfers. Her work entitled South-South cooperation,
policy transfer and best-practice reasoning: The transfer of the Solidarity in Literacy Program from Brazil to Mozambique (ISS, 2005) addresses issues of ownership and sustainability in the practice of development cooperation between two countries of the South.
Jeremy Rappleye is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Educational Studies, University of Oxford, United Kingdom. His research focuses on the dynamics of educational transfer with a particular focus on East and South Asia. His recent book, Exploring
cross-national attraction in education (Symposium, 2007) puts forth several new analytical devices that attempt to theorize and describe transfer processes. Before entering the doctoral program, he served as a Yale-China Teaching Fellow (2000-2002) and taught in Japan as part of the JET Program (2003-2005). He is currently at the University of Tokyo on a Japanese Ministry of Education research fellowship as well as teaching international education courses at the International Christian University (ICU), one of the major private universities and main centers for comparative research in Tokyo.
Jen Steele obtained her Masters degree in International Educational
Development with a concentration in Peace Education at Teachers College, Columbia University under the advisement of Dr. Monisha Bajaj. Her research and professional interests relate to the promotion of equitable, relevant and liberatory education
for marginalized children and youth. She has worked in the field of international development and humanitarian assistance for more than seven years, specializing in institutional capacity enhancement. This focus has enabled her to work with nascent and growing civil society organizations, such, as those promoting
access to education in conflict-affected northern Uganda and those providing school-based nutritional supplements to children living in areas of Indonesia most affected by the 1997 financial crisis. Jen’s work has enabled her to consult for small indigenous organizations in Africa and Asia as well as for large intergovernmental
entities, such as the United Nations.
