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FreshEd Podcast with William Brehm

BIOGRAPHY

For the first ten years of my professional life, I worked on multicultural and anti-racist education policies at the Ministry of Education in the Canton of Zurich in Switzerland. By virtue of comparing policies in different countries of immigration (U.K., Canada, USA.), I became involved in comparative education methods and theories. Since then, my experience evolved in three directions:

 

  • Comparative policy studies in education:

Education sector strategies and reviews in a development context, school reform (curriculum; student, teacher and school assessment; governance and social accountability), public-private partnership in education, privatization of public education from a critical perspective and teacher education reform, including teacher salary reform.

 

  • Theories and debates in international and comparative education:

Transnational policy borrowing/lending, globalization, education and revolution/political change, disenfranchised minorities and schooling, social and institutional network analysis of international organizations, colonial and postcolonial studies in education.

 

  • Comparative methodology:

My research relies on multiple case study methodology, mixed methods designs, indicator research, applied program evaluation.

 

Though I see myself as a topical rather than an [geographic] area expert, I happened — due to a series of fortuitous coincidences — to conduct research and initiate applied projects mainly in Europe, in the former Soviet Union and in Mongolia. I anticipate increasing involvement in educational reform in the Middle East.

 

Iranian by birth, Swiss by upbringing, and US citizen by naturalization, I speak and write English, German, French and Persian.

SELECTED PROJECTS

Cover_The State, Business and Education.
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Publications

This section includes the following publication categories: Editor of Book Series, Monographs, Special Issues, Peer-Reviewed Journals, Chapters in Edited Volumes, Contributions to Journals by Invitation, Book Reviews, Encyclopedia Entries and Applied Analytical Work. 

Comparatively Speaking II

This video presents an oral history and reflection of the past 60 years of the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) as told by its former presidents.

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