She says: “The main innovation that I’ve been pulling together is to start thinking about education as part of a world system rather than as something contained within each nation.”
And: “A school looks like a school almost anywhere you go,” she notes. But while some systems succeed in lifting people out of poverty, other systems do not. She worries about the increasingly skewed global situation: “While it may seem fine if everyone in developing countries gets a primary education, what if everybody in the rich countries gets a university education?” (See boh on IDRC report).
Coming to Canada from the Stanford University USA, she became the chairholder of the Canada Research Chair in Global Governance and Comparative Educational Change, University of Toronto, Tier 2, Social Sciences and Humanities, on October 1, 2002.
Karen E. Mundy – Canada
The Global Campaign for Education (GCE) has designated 24–30 April 2006 as its “Global Action Week” to focus international attention on education as a universal right. It’s a matter close to the heart of IDRC awardee Karen Mundy, a world-renowned scholar of comparative education now based at OISE/University of Toronto.
Recently, the role of education in reducing poverty and increasing health and wellbeing has achieved greater global recognition through its prominence in high-profile benchmarks such as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Despite increased awareness, however, there is a pressing need for greater funding, heightened international coordination, and a strengthened political resolve so that access to education becomes assured in all countries.
Making education a universal right is a matter close to the heart of Karen Mundy, a world-renowned scholar of comparative education now based at the University of Toronto. A decade or so ago, when Mundy was a graduate student, she received an award from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) that enabled her to undertake fieldwork for her doctoral thesis. (Read more of this article on IDRC reports).
A grant was awarded on 2004/2005 to the faculty / Karen E. Mundy for the research Global Governance and Comparative Educational Change.
Research Involves: Collaborative research to determine how international organizations influence domestic educational policy; creation of a unique centre for research on globalization and the comparative study of education.
Research Relevance: Will aid domestic and international policy makers in establishing more effective educational policies in light of increased globalization.
Improving International Policies for Education: see the rest of this presentation on this website of Canada Research Chairs.
Before this time she was an assistant professor of education at Stanford University. She received her bachelors degree in English and History from Concordia University in 1985, and her masters degree (in adult and comparative education) and PhD (in sociology of education) from the University of Toronto in 1992 and 1996 respectively. She was a visiting research fellow at the University of Zimbabwe in1993-1994 and began working in 1994 as a consultant on education and international development. She has been at Stanford since 1996. Her current research is on the implementation of educational reforms in Sub-Saharan Africa; intergovernmental organizations and transnational relations in the field of education; international aid for education; literacy and adult education in comparative perspective; basic education in sub-Saharan Africa. (See childlabor.org).
Further Informations:
Dr Karen Mundy, Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair, Global Governance and Educational Change, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto, 252 Bloor Street West, Toronto, Ontario.
IDRC Doctoral Research Awards, Centre Training and Awards Program, Special Initiatives Division, Program and Partnership Branch, IDRC, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1G 3H9; Email.
links:
draft for a panel on ‘education for all’;
OISE UT – course list;
she received on 2004 her 30 years service award;
Creating connections with women in India;
Comprative, international and development education;
Eduction for global citizenship in a changing world;
Education reforms in sub-sahara Africa;
same for development and evaluation.