Michele Schweisfurth
Biographic Data
| ID | 6154374 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Michele Schweisfurth |
| GIVEN NAMES | Michele |
| FAMILY NAME | Schweisfurth |
| SIGNATURE | SCHWEISFURTH M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Glasgow |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5511-4134 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 38 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 283 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 37 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1999 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
Bordering, de-bordering and re-bordering comparative and international pedagogy
Two polarised logics co-exist in international research and programming on quality teaching and learning. One logic understands pedagogy as embedded in its cultural, structural, political and historical contexts. In contrast, an interventionist agenda seeks solutions to the improvement of teaching practice, and isolates it and its influences in order to understand what works to improve learning outcomes. The borders between these two epistemic co…
Comparative and international educations
Based on readings from the archives of the past 70 years of the International Review of Education (IRE), this article considers how some of the divisions in the field of comparative and international education (CIE) have played out in its pages. It focuses on questions of purpose, methodology and discipline, and of context, coloniality and power. The article draws on the concept of epistemic communities to map some of the dividing lines, and it s…
Making Context Matter through Massey’s Relational Space
“Context matters” has been an adage and a mantra in the field of comparative and international education since its earliest days. However, knowing which things matter, how and to whom, and also how they affect each other places challenging demands on comparative researchers. In this article, we outline different ways that comparativists have come to terms with context and consider the limitations of these approaches. We offer a discussion of Dore…
Disaster didacticism
This essay offers a critical perspective on the prevailing language of ‘learning crisis’ and on the solutions widely promoted by international organisations (IOs) active in lower- and middle-income countries. Focusing specifically on pedagogical interventions, it sets out three cases: foundational learning; information technology; and systematic observation of teachers’ classroom practice. Five questions frame the subsequent discussion: 1. What a…
Men’s participation in early childhood education and care (Ecec)
At the global level, prominent narratives about improving the quality of early childhood education and care (ECEC) promote the recruitment of men into the profession. However, comparing across different policy and practice settings demonstrates contrasting expressions and experiences of how men contribute to ECEC. This article presents findings from a study in Edinburgh, Scotland and Tianjin, China. The study explored how male and female practiti…
Revisiting comparative pedagogy
This article provides an analysis of contemporary comparative research on pedagogy, as published since 2000. It explores this sub-field of comparative education inquiry over this period, including how it has responded to new global movements, changing balances of power, and methodological advances. While these have shaped the field in recognisable ways, differing responses to these among researchers from contrasting research traditions have resul…
The social practice of silence in intercultural classrooms at a UK university
The paper offers an examination of the dynamics between silence, agency and power for students and instructors in intercultural classrooms at a UK university. Silent students are often stereotyped as passive learners or incompetent in critical thinking, lacking interest or having insufficient understanding. Despite the devaluation of silence, research reveals its significant role in pedagogy and its foundations in culture. The paper explores seco…
When ‘best practice’ meets the pedagogical nexus
Notions of ‘best practice’ have long dominated studies of pedagogy. It is therefore not surprising that international comparison has historically led researchers and policymakers to cast envious ey
Of myths and monitoring
Prevalent constructions of best practice at the global level include learner-centred education as an emancipatory and holistic approach across the life course. However, competing discourses of standardisation and preparation for the workforce are also at play. As a small state constructing an image and role for itself on a global stage, Scotland draws aspirationally on learner-centredness in its current Curriculum for Excellence governing educati…
Learning, using and exchanging global competence in the context of international postgraduate mobility
The paper offers a theoretically grounded analysis of international postgraduate students’ perspectives on the importance and development of global citizenship knowledge and competences while they are studying, and how these are valued and enacted afterwards. It draws on a series of interviews with non-Western international postgraduates during their studies in the UK and upon return to their home countries. It uses the concepts of social and cul…
Higher education, bridging capital, and developmental leadership in the Philippines
The article presents findings from a research project which explored how experiences of higher education supported – or not – the emergence of developmental leadership and the formation of networks among leaders of three political and social movements in the Philippines in the post-Marcos era. Based on life history interviews with key leaders, the study points to the importance of different forms of social capital, especially bridging capital, in…
International higher education’s scholar-practitioners bridging research and practice
International higher education’s scholar-practitioners bridging research and practice." Comparative Education, 53(2), pp. 307–308
The barriers and enablers to education among scheduled caste and scheduled tribe adolescent girls in northern Karnataka, South India
This qualitative study explored the barriers and enablers to scheduled caste/scheduled tribe (SC/ST) adolescent girls entering into, and completing secondary education in northern Karnataka, South India. In-depth interviews were conducted with 22 adolescent girls, their respective parent/guardian (n = 22) and 11 teachers, recruited purposively from 11 villages within two districts in northern Karnataka. Multiple barriers were identified to disadv…
Child soldiers in the culture wars
Child soldiers have received increasing attention over the last 20 years. The phenomenon does not occur as isolated aberrations but is interwoven in complex economic, political, religious and ideol
Transnational connections, competences and identities
International students constitute a substantial and growing mobile population globally. However, as yet, the experiences of returnees and the ways in which their overseas studies impact on their identity and professional and personal lives over time have been under‐researched areas. In this article we employ concepts from theories of transnationalism as a framework for the analysis of the experiences of Chinese graduate returnees. The empirical b…
Learning, pedagogy and the post-2015 education and development agenda
Learner-centred pedagogy
The 50th anniversary special issue
Among the comparativists
This article imagines the comparative education community as a tribal grouping. Using traditional anthropological categories, it explores how tribal membership is established and the rites and rituals that bind the tribe; questions of kinship among the larger family groupings within the tribe; belief systems; questions of social stratification in relation to the tribal hierarchy; and the persistence of warfare in this relatively peaceful group. W…
Data and dogma
Data and dogma: knowledge and education governance in the global age." Comparative Education, 50(2), pp. 127–128
Learner-centred Education in International Perspective
Is learner-centred education appropriate for all societies and classrooms? Learner-centred education (LCE) is a travelling policy, widely promoted by international agencies and national governments. Arguments in favour of this pedagogical tradition refer to theories and evidence from cognitive psychology, claiming that all learners can benefit equally from its judicious use. Beyond the benefits to the individual however, lie a set of assumptions …
Perennial issues, contemporary variants
The comparative gaze
An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including the role of basic education in recovery of post-conflict situations, evidences on the impact of National Qualifications Frameworks, and the differences in music curriculum in Hong Kong and Taiwan. [Copyright of Comparative Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org…
Beyond converging agendas in education
Learner-centred education in developing country contexts
Learning and growing in a ‘foreign’ context
This paper discusses the background and key findings of a two‐year Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funded mixed‐method research project (2006–2008) which was designed, within the context of university internationalisation, to provide an investigation of the experiences of first‐year international students during their undergraduate study at four UK higher education institutions. The research explored the complexities of international …
Learner-centred education in developing country contexts
Learner-centred pedagogy
Transnational connections, competences and identities
International students constitute a substantial and growing mobile population globally. However, as yet, the experiences of returnees and the ways in which their overseas studies impact on their identity and professional and personal lives over time have been under‐researched areas. In this article we employ concepts from theories of transnationalism as a framework for the analysis of the experiences of Chinese graduate returnees. The empirical b…
The barriers and enablers to education among scheduled caste and scheduled tribe adolescent girls in northern Karnataka, South India
This qualitative study explored the barriers and enablers to scheduled caste/scheduled tribe (SC/ST) adolescent girls entering into, and completing secondary education in northern Karnataka, South India. In-depth interviews were conducted with 22 adolescent girls, their respective parent/guardian (n = 22) and 11 teachers, recruited purposively from 11 villages within two districts in northern Karnataka. Multiple barriers were identified to disadv…
Who Adapts? Beyond Cultural Models of ‘the’ Chinese Learner
From a comparative perspective, this paper analyses Chinese learners' intercultural experiences in Chinese and British educational contexts. In the Chinese context, interview and questionnaire research was carried out in 24 universities that hosted the British Council's English teaching development programmes. The research uncovered perspectives on change in the Chinese teachers, who were the learners in this teacher training programme. In the UK…
When ‘best practice’ meets the pedagogical nexus
Notions of ‘best practice’ have long dominated studies of pedagogy. It is therefore not surprising that international comparison has historically led researchers and policymakers to cast envious ey
Exploring the experiences of international students in UK higher education
This article is based on a two‐year multi‐method research project, funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council, investigating the experiences of international undergraduate students in UK higher education. In investigating the influences on their experiences and the strategies that students employ, the study has also revealed something of the possibilities and limits of interculturality in the context of these universities. The paper us…
Disaster didacticism
This essay offers a critical perspective on the prevailing language of ‘learning crisis’ and on the solutions widely promoted by international organisations (IOs) active in lower- and middle-income countries. Focusing specifically on pedagogical interventions, it sets out three cases: foundational learning; information technology; and systematic observation of teachers’ classroom practice. Five questions frame the subsequent discussion: 1. What a…
Revisiting comparative pedagogy
This article provides an analysis of contemporary comparative research on pedagogy, as published since 2000. It explores this sub-field of comparative education inquiry over this period, including how it has responded to new global movements, changing balances of power, and methodological advances. While these have shaped the field in recognisable ways, differing responses to these among researchers from contrasting research traditions have resul…
Democracy and Teacher Education
This article reflects on the processes and outcomes of a project which sought to develop knowledge and skills in democratic education among lecturers and students at the School of Education of The Gambia College. Over the course of the project, professional development workshops were conducted, and the impact of these was assessed in subsequent research. The research revealed a variety of responses in terms of the degree of impact that the worksh…
The social practice of silence in intercultural classrooms at a UK university
The paper offers an examination of the dynamics between silence, agency and power for students and instructors in intercultural classrooms at a UK university. Silent students are often stereotyped as passive learners or incompetent in critical thinking, lacking interest or having insufficient understanding. Despite the devaluation of silence, research reveals its significant role in pedagogy and its foundations in culture. The paper explores seco…
Men’s participation in early childhood education and care (Ecec)
At the global level, prominent narratives about improving the quality of early childhood education and care (ECEC) promote the recruitment of men into the profession. However, comparing across different policy and practice settings demonstrates contrasting expressions and experiences of how men contribute to ECEC. This article presents findings from a study in Edinburgh, Scotland and Tianjin, China. The study explored how male and female practiti…
Of myths and monitoring
Prevalent constructions of best practice at the global level include learner-centred education as an emancipatory and holistic approach across the life course. However, competing discourses of standardisation and preparation for the workforce are also at play. As a small state constructing an image and role for itself on a global stage, Scotland draws aspirationally on learner-centredness in its current Curriculum for Excellence governing educati…
Learning, using and exchanging global competence in the context of international postgraduate mobility
The paper offers a theoretically grounded analysis of international postgraduate students’ perspectives on the importance and development of global citizenship knowledge and competences while they are studying, and how these are valued and enacted afterwards. It draws on a series of interviews with non-Western international postgraduates during their studies in the UK and upon return to their home countries. It uses the concepts of social and cul…
Among the comparativists
This article imagines the comparative education community as a tribal grouping. Using traditional anthropological categories, it explores how tribal membership is established and the rites and rituals that bind the tribe; questions of kinship among the larger family groupings within the tribe; belief systems; questions of social stratification in relation to the tribal hierarchy; and the persistence of warfare in this relatively peaceful group. W…
Comparative and international educations
Based on readings from the archives of the past 70 years of the International Review of Education (IRE), this article considers how some of the divisions in the field of comparative and international education (CIE) have played out in its pages. It focuses on questions of purpose, methodology and discipline, and of context, coloniality and power. The article draws on the concept of epistemic communities to map some of the dividing lines, and it s…
Child soldiers in the culture wars
Child soldiers have received increasing attention over the last 20 years. The phenomenon does not occur as isolated aberrations but is interwoven in complex economic, political, religious and ideol
Learning, pedagogy and the post-2015 education and development agenda
The 50th anniversary special issue
The comparative gaze
An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including the role of basic education in recovery of post-conflict situations, evidences on the impact of National Qualifications Frameworks, and the differences in music curriculum in Hong Kong and Taiwan. [Copyright of Comparative Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org…
This year's model
Change Forces in Post-Communist Eastern Europe
Gleaning Meaning from Case Studies in International Comparison
This paper considers how case study approaches may be used cross‐nationally. It outlines five key stages in the process of conducting case study research and of learning from it: selection, verification, cumulation, generalisation, and application. The research used to illustrate these principles is a study of teachers’ experiences of changes in education in post‐communist Russia and post‐apartheid South Africa
Gleaning Meaning from Case Studies in International Comparison
This paper considers how case study approaches may be used cross‐nationally. It outlines five key stages in the process of conducting case study research and of learning from it: selection, verification, cumulation, generalisation, and application. The research used to illustrate these principles is a study of teachers’ experiences of changes in education in post‐communist Russia and post‐apartheid South Africa
Democracy and Teacher Education
This article reflects on the processes and outcomes of a project which sought to develop knowledge and skills in democratic education among lecturers and students at the School of Education of The Gambia College. Over the course of the project, professional development workshops were conducted, and the impact of these was assessed in subsequent research. The research revealed a variety of responses in terms of the degree of impact that the worksh…
Change Forces in Post-Communist Eastern Europe
Learning to Live Together
Who Adapts? Beyond Cultural Models of ‘the’ Chinese Learner
From a comparative perspective, this paper analyses Chinese learners' intercultural experiences in Chinese and British educational contexts. In the Chinese context, interview and questionnaire research was carried out in 24 universities that hosted the British Council's English teaching development programmes. The research uncovered perspectives on change in the Chinese teachers, who were the learners in this teacher training programme. In the UK…
Exploring the experiences of international students in UK higher education
This article is based on a two‐year multi‐method research project, funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council, investigating the experiences of international undergraduate students in UK higher education. In investigating the influences on their experiences and the strategies that students employ, the study has also revealed something of the possibilities and limits of interculturality in the context of these universities. The paper us…
What lies beneath
Historically, one particularly divisive debate within the field of comparative education has concerned its capacity to generate ‘law‐like generalisations’ which explain and ultimately predict the s
Children as Decision Makers in Education
Since the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, there has been an increasing recognition globally that children need to have more say in their education. Children as Decision Makers in Education looks at how children can actively participate in decision-making. It builds upon previous research into student voice and decision-making, citizenship education in the school curriculum and work with children as researchers. This insightful collectio…
Learning and growing in a ‘foreign’ context
This paper discusses the background and key findings of a two‐year Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funded mixed‐method research project (2006–2008) which was designed, within the context of university internationalisation, to provide an investigation of the experiences of first‐year international students during their undergraduate study at four UK higher education institutions. The research explored the complexities of international …
Constructing the local and deconstructing the global in education
From a social constructionist perspective, virtually anything worth analysing in education is a fabrication of human imagination and choices. Within a given culture, some of these constructs are su
This year's model
Learner-centred education in developing country contexts
How did we get here? Unintended consequences in education
That is not it at all. That is not what I meant, at all. (T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock) Higher education in the UK is a strange place to be at the moment. The ideals of academic a
Power, politics and process
As Lynn Davies notes in her article in this issue: Education is the most complex and politicised sector in which to attempt change because of its ideological basis as well as its function of decidi
Beyond converging agendas in education
Learner-centred Education in International Perspective
Is learner-centred education appropriate for all societies and classrooms? Learner-centred education (LCE) is a travelling policy, widely promoted by international agencies and national governments. Arguments in favour of this pedagogical tradition refer to theories and evidence from cognitive psychology, claiming that all learners can benefit equally from its judicious use. Beyond the benefits to the individual however, lie a set of assumptions …
Perennial issues, contemporary variants
The comparative gaze
An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including the role of basic education in recovery of post-conflict situations, evidences on the impact of National Qualifications Frameworks, and the differences in music curriculum in Hong Kong and Taiwan. [Copyright of Comparative Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org…
Learning, pedagogy and the post-2015 education and development agenda
Learner-centred pedagogy
The 50th anniversary special issue
Among the comparativists
This article imagines the comparative education community as a tribal grouping. Using traditional anthropological categories, it explores how tribal membership is established and the rites and rituals that bind the tribe; questions of kinship among the larger family groupings within the tribe; belief systems; questions of social stratification in relation to the tribal hierarchy; and the persistence of warfare in this relatively peaceful group. W…
Data and dogma
Data and dogma: knowledge and education governance in the global age." Comparative Education, 50(2), pp. 127–128
Child soldiers in the culture wars
Child soldiers have received increasing attention over the last 20 years. The phenomenon does not occur as isolated aberrations but is interwoven in complex economic, political, religious and ideol
Transnational connections, competences and identities
International students constitute a substantial and growing mobile population globally. However, as yet, the experiences of returnees and the ways in which their overseas studies impact on their identity and professional and personal lives over time have been under‐researched areas. In this article we employ concepts from theories of transnationalism as a framework for the analysis of the experiences of Chinese graduate returnees. The empirical b…
Political science (35 works) · Sociology (35 works) · Global Educational Policies and Reforms (24 works) · Global Education and Multiculturalism (23 works) · Pedagogy (17 works) · Law (15 works) · Social science (13 works) · Higher education (12 works) · Law (12 works) · Psychology (11 works)