Interest Groups

Africa Interest Group (AIG)

Who We Are & Our Focus

We are graduate students, within CIDE, who have an interest in the Africa Continent and its issues.

Purpose:

We are hoping to be a platform for those aiming to improve or share research interests relating to Africa.
Our goal is to raise educational issues experienced in Africa (lack of literature, equity, equality, conflict, etc.)
Provide a platform to support and discuss the struggles of young scholars conducting research on the region

Eurasia Education Research Group

Research Team: Dr. Sarfaroz Niyozov, Dr. Stephen Bahry, and CIDE students: Spogmai Akseer, Rahat Zhodolshalieva, Srehyi Kovalchuk, and CIDE visiting fellow Anna Rzhevska

EERG’s activities in 2012-2013 included applications for grants, publications, presentations and networking. Dr. Niyozov with a group of scholars (some from EERG) applied for a SSHRC grant for comparative study of Afghan and Somali students’ experiences of public schooling in Toronto. His paper Exploiting Globalization While Being Exploited by It was published in the Canadian and International Education, Special Issue in the fall of 2012. On Jan 22, 2013, Dr. Niyozov gave a presentation at CIDEC, “Encountering Globalization in Central Asia: Is There an Alternative to Neoliberalism?”. In addition, he has three chapters in press in related to Central Asian education and culture (see faculty publication list below). Dr. Niyozov also gave several key note and invited lectures in Pakistan in 2012 on Globalization and Education in Central Asia. In May –June 2013, Niyozov will be teaching a course of Sociology of Education in Central Asia (part 2) organized by the Open Society Institute, Dushanbe. Dr. Niyozov is working with several visiting scholars including Mehmet Durmus from Turkey who is exploring Gullen-inspired schools in Pakistan, Turkey and the USA.

Dr. Bahry is a member of several CIES SIGs: Eurasia, Indigenous Knowledge, and Language Issues, and is on the Language Issues Panel Organizing Committee for CIES 2014. His recent work related to the research group focuses on the place of language issues in educational quality and equity in west China, Afghanistan and Ukraine. Dr. Bahry is now working with Prof. O. Falenchuk and SLE graduate student, Max Antonenko, on the Standardized External Testing in Ukraine (secondary subjects exit examinations), examining results across factors such as region, language, rural/urban residence and school type, parallel to a similar study of EQAO results in Toronto and GTA. Dr. Bahry’s publications are listed on p.33 and he is currently reviewing two books relevant to language issues in education in the region, for the peer-reviewed journals, Language Policy, and Frontiers of Education in China.

Rakhat Zholdoshalieva is currently working on her doctoral research thesis on rural Kyrgyz high school students’ educational, learning and work experiences in post-Soviet conditions of Kyrgyzstan. She is active member of the Eurasia Special Interest Group at the CIES. She has several relevant publications listed on p.33 and is currently writing up her dissertation, supervised by Dr. Peter Sawchuk, on the aspirations of rural youth in Kyrgyzstan for education and employment.

Dr. Anna Rzhevska is currently back in Ukraine, teaching and Luhanks Pedagogical University. She is expected to return and present at CIDEC in May 2013.

Serhiy Kovalchuk’s research interests lie within areas such as: citizenship education, initial teacher education, and educational policy analysis. He explores these topics within the context of Ukraine and other post-Soviet countries. Serhiy has been an active member of the Eurasia Special Interest Group (SIG) within CIES. This past year he served as a member of the SIG election committee, he organized a multidisciplinary panel entitled “Youth in Post-Soviet Contexts: Exploring Political, Social and Psychological Conditions of the Next Generation,” and in 2012, Serhiy was a recipient of Helen Darcovich Memorial Doctoral Fellowship (Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies) and Global Supplementary Grant (Open Society Foundations). Serhiy had several co-publications in 2012, one with Prof. Kathy Bickmore, on classroom communities for constructive discussions of conflict, and one with C. G. Robbins on pedagogies of punishment and neoliberalism, and has a forthcoming review appearing in the Journal of Peace education. Serhiy is now doing fieldwork in for his thesis on how teacher educators in Ukraine understand democracy, citizenship and education, and teacher education in the context of Ukraine’s transition to democracy.

CIDEC East Asia Interest Group

East Asia Interest Group is to promote knowledge sharing and knowledge production related to the issues occurring in East Asia and Southeast Asia. We are hoping to engage in academic activities including conferences (CIES, AERA, Congress etc…) and publications individually and collectively. The purpose of this interest group is not only to create a research interest group, but also to promote a support group within the CIDEC and OISE.

Email: oiseeastasiaIG@gmail.com

CIDEC South Asia Interest Group

Who We Are:

The South Asia Interest Group (SAIG) is a strong community of researchers, students, faculty, and visiting faculty whose research highlights the challenges and issues of development and education within South Asia and its diaspora across the world.

What We Do:

SAIG is an active platform of academic engagement and the group members has made panel presentations at international conferences such as Congress (the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences ), CIES (Comparative and International Education Society), and CASID (The Canadian Association for the Study of International Development). SAIG has also organized a mini conference within the 10th International Labour and Employment Relations Association, Regional Congress for the Americas (ILERA). Recently, some SAIG members have collaboratively written journal articles to highlight the challenges of development and education within the region.

What We Plan To Do:

Besides the on-going activities, our future activities include the organization of an international conference under CIDE, a virtual repository of scholarly work, guest speaker sessions, webinar, podcast series and social events.

SAIG Contact information:

Email: southasiainterestgroup@gmail.com

Website: https://southasiainterestgroup.org

Grupo de Estudios Latinoamericano-OISE (GELO) – OISE’s Latin American Study Group

This is a group of faculty and students who have scholarly and practical experience and interest in education in the Latin American context. The Latin American Study Group (GELO) seeks to promote a place of encounters for students, teachers, researchers and other stakeholders to explore, discuss and socialize experiences, research and education proposals related to Latin American

countries, as well as Latin American diasporic communities living around the globe. Our intention is to share the variety of themes, visions, issues and approaches about education emerging from Latin American countries (Abya Yala) that OISE and Toronto have to offer. We hope to enrich each other’s work and to create collaborative networks between our learning communities. The group meets during the regular academic year to read and discuss articles (journal articles, technical reports, media reports, etc.) in

Spanish / Portuguese (English).

We invite those who are from Latin America (Abya Yala) or are doing research / interested in this context to join us.

Email Address: oisegelo@gmail.com

Immigration and Refugee Education Research Group

Group Purpose and Focus:

Create a forum and space for multidimensional exploration, deeper understanding of and production of new knowledge on and research approaches to educational experiences (broadly understood) of Immigrant and refugee students, families and communities in Canada and internationally. These include research, discussions, policy dialogues, media analysis, reviews;
Develop suggestions for education programs, policies and practices on improving the holistic education of IR students (e.g., courses at graduate levels, practical suggestions and guides, as well as workshops and trainings for teachers, principals, and community educators)
Link with Canadian & international scholarly, policy and community networks working on IRE

Email: ireresearchgroup@gmail.com

Teachers InCIDE

We are a group of graduate students and professors from different departments at OISE who share an interest in teacher education, teacher development/learning, and comparative, international and development education. We meet twice a month at OISE. During our meetings, we share updates about our research, lives, thesis works/progress; discuss common issues of interest; exchange resources; and learn from each other. If you are interested in joining the group, please contact Yishin Khoo yishin.khoo@mail.utoronto.ca or Sardar Anwaruddin s.anwaruddin@mail.utoronto.ca.

The Education, Conflict and Peacebuilding (ECP) Interest Group

The Education, Conflict and Peacebuilding (ECP) Interest Group began in November 2020 and represents a thematic interest group with diverse regional expertise. Members are a mixture of current graduate students, doctoral candidates, faculty, alum, and practitioners, who are all exploring the intersection between education, peace, conflict, and development. ECP conducts monthly meetings that involve a deep exploration into a current issue or topic within the field. Any participant can volunteer to facilitate and lead a monthly session or share their own research or practitioner experience with the group. Though focused on critical dialogue and community-building, ECP also aims to host Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) meet ups, invite frontline practitioners to ground discussions in practice, and co-write and present in future. We welcome anyone with an interest in this topic to join a monthly meeting or our mailing list by contacting Myuri Komaragiri at the below email address.

Email: ecp.oise@gmail.com

Gender and Education Interest Group

The purpose of the Gender and Education Interest Group is to offer a welcoming intellectual space for scholars, researchers, and practitioners to share work on gender in educational contexts, promote awareness of concepts and contemporary debates and expand networking opportunities. Participants may also engage in gender-related research and activities to develop the field through knowledge translation and dissemination. Given the complexities of gender issues, innovative theoretical and methodological approaches, and transformative practices, we believe that providing a venue for critical dialogue on gender and education at CIDEC is both timely and valuable for CIDE students. We encourage and welcome the participation of faculty, students, and staff who share interests in the broad and multi-faceted field of gender and education in comparative and international perspective.

Email: cidec.gender.ig@gmail.com