Current Areas of Research Interest: my current international educational development research interests and writing are primarily focused around one core question: how can rural, traditionally marginalized student populations actually benefit from increased enrollment rates in the developing world? What are the most effective policies which address both teacher training and motivation, materials development, curriculum development, and community monitoring/information flows in these rural areas? In addressing this broader topic, I have several specific research questions that I am working on at the moment:
-Feasibility of implementing private schooling in rural areas of LDC's: What is the "tipping point" for population density requirements before low cost private schooling can be introduced as a competitive mechanism in rural educational systems?
-Schooling Materials: What are the implications for the nationalization and standardization of schooling materials on historically marginalized student populations? How can localized development of schooling materials be nationally recognized and nationally implemented?
-Systemic Distortions in Nationalized School Curriculum: What are the historical and social conditions that create the systematically distorting nationalized pushes for school curriculum? What is the "tipping point" in which localization of learning objectives, localization of language instruction, and localization of schooling materials to compliment curriculum redesign is both practical and implementable?
-Training and Motivation: What are the most effective delivery mechanisms for the training of teachers in progressive pedagogical theory and techniques, including ICT, critical thinking, and child-centered instruction? Are the best training techniques centralized, or decentralized, and traditional or technology/ICT based? What are the historical and social conditions which create value and prestige in the teaching field? How can these historical and social conditions be manipulated in enhancing the social position of teachers, in increasing teacher motivation and subsequent educational outputs?
"We have schools, but we lack education." -Unknown
-Feasibility of implementing private schooling in rural areas of LDC's: What is the "tipping point" for population density requirements before low cost private schooling can be introduced as a competitive mechanism in rural educational systems?
-Schooling Materials: What are the implications for the nationalization and standardization of schooling materials on historically marginalized student populations? How can localized development of schooling materials be nationally recognized and nationally implemented?
-Systemic Distortions in Nationalized School Curriculum: What are the historical and social conditions that create the systematically distorting nationalized pushes for school curriculum? What is the "tipping point" in which localization of learning objectives, localization of language instruction, and localization of schooling materials to compliment curriculum redesign is both practical and implementable?
-Training and Motivation: What are the most effective delivery mechanisms for the training of teachers in progressive pedagogical theory and techniques, including ICT, critical thinking, and child-centered instruction? Are the best training techniques centralized, or decentralized, and traditional or technology/ICT based? What are the historical and social conditions which create value and prestige in the teaching field? How can these historical and social conditions be manipulated in enhancing the social position of teachers, in increasing teacher motivation and subsequent educational outputs?
"We have schools, but we lack education." -Unknown
