- William Heard Kilpatrick Professor of Comparative Education, Teachers College, Columbia University | Honorary UNESCO Chair in Comparative Education Policy, Geneva Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies
- Scholarship in comparative policy studies, policy transfer, and global governance of education
- Geographic focus: Central Asia and Mongolia
- Formerly: President of the Comparative and International Education Society, Academic Director of NORRAG, Co-Editor of the World Yearbook of Education
- Iranian by birth, Swiss by upbringing, and American by naturalization
Research
Comparative Policy Studies
The study of reforms that travel across countries. Related research areas include policy transfer, diffusion of innovation, and policy borrowing, particularly system-theoretical studies on externalization, reception, and translation.
Global Governance in Education
How do international organizations govern in the absence of coercive measures and, vice versa, how do governments react to global norm setting? Current research areas: knowledge brokerage as a global governance tool, soft governance by means of international comparison, transnational accreditation of public schools.
Comparative Methodology
Multiple case study methodology, mixed methods design, indicator research, interpretation of social network analysis and bibliometric analyses.
Publications
Students
Masters & Doctoral Students
Wajeeha Hazoor Bajwa
Florida State University, Tallahassee
Kairat Kurakbayev
Nazarbayev University, Assistant Professor
Kazuaki Iwabuchi
University of Tokyo, Assistant Professor
Chanwoong Baek
Geneva Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Assistant Professor
Media
In this video, Gita Steiner-Khamsi, former Academic Director of NORRAG (2017-2022) and Professor of Comparative and International Education at Teachers College, Columbia University talks to Executive Director Moira V. Faul about NORRAG's achievements in the past five years.
Appointment as UNESCO Chair in Comparative Education Policy by the Geneva Institute of International and Development Studies