The Japan-based alumni of the International and Comparative Education (ICEd) program initiated this semester three conferences on the occasion of Professor Gita Steiner-Khamsi’s six-week visit to Japan. The visit was made possible by alum Professor Keiichi Ogawa (PhD, 1999), who hosted her sabbatical visit and secured funding from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. Professor Ogawa is a Professor and Department Chair at Kobe University’s Graduate School for International Cooperation Studies, an award-winning author of eight books, a member of the Governing Board of the UNESCO International Institute for International Planning (IIEP) in Paris, and an honorary professor in several countries. He has substantially contributed to the growth of the field of international and comparative education in Japan, Southeast Asia, and East Asia. In addition to sharing research, the three events served as a platform to meet up with other alumni based in Japan and internationally.
The first event was on April 12, 2024, and was held in person at the University of Tokyo. It was organized by Professor Yuto Kitamura, with the support of TC-ICEd alum Kazuaki Iwabuchi (PhD, 2022), Assistant Professor, and Dr. Leyla Radjai, University of Tokyo. The presentation of Professor Steiner-Khamsi was held at the Center for School Education and Evidence-based Research (CASEER), University of Tokyo; over seventy researchers attended the event.
Professor Steiner-Khamsi (left) with Professor Keiichi Ogawa (right)
The second event was a hybrid event, held on April 18, 2024. Professor Keiichi Ogawa organized it in collaboration with the Kansai Branch of the Japan Society for International Development (JASID). The hybrid event attracted over 120 researchers from Japan and the South Asian region. Professor Steiner-Khamsi spoke on the topic “Making externally funded reforms stick: Challenges and approaches of international cooperation.” The picture shows the organizer of the event (Keiichi Ogawa, Professor/Department Chair, Kobe University) and the keynote speaker (Gita Steiner-Khamsi, Professor, ICEd) in the foreground and a few researchers participating online.
Finally, the third event of May 9, 2024, 10:00 – 12:00 Japan Standard Time, is an international symposium hosted by Professor Keiichi Ogawa and held at Kobe University’s Graduate School of International Cooperation Studies (GSICS) in a hybrid format. It will be a large event, co-organized with KIX EMAP (funded by IDRC/GPE) and co-sponsored by numerous universities, ministries of education, and think tanks in the United States, Canada, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific region. The speakers are Professors Gita Steiner-Khamsi, TC-ICEd, Rie Kijima, University of Toronto, and Patricia Bromley, Stanford University. The symposium will also feature a panel with the following distinguished speakers: TC-ICEd alum Professor Yume Shinobu Yamaguchi, Director, UN University in Tokyo (PhD, 1999), Professor Kazuo Kuroda, Waseda University and Vice-President of CIES, Dr. Sam Sideth Dy, Cambodia Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport, Dr. Hamoud Al-Seyani, Yemeni Ministry of Education, and Dr. Harry Patrinos, Senior Advisor, World Bank. TC-ICEd alum Dr. Arushi Terway (Ed.D., 2016), NORRAG, will welcome the participants on behalf of the Knowledge and Innovation Exchange Initiative (KIX) EMAP region and moderate the discussion sessions.
Please find more information on the event, including a link for online registration here. Simultaneous translation into Arabic, Russian, and Khmer will be provided.