CIES 2023 – Washington, D.C.

67th Annual Meeting – (Improving Education for a more Equitable World)

CIES 2023

The meeting ran between February 14-22, 2023, with a break February 16-17.

Conference Theme

Sub-Theme I: Social Justice and Inclusion
  • What gaps in—or challenges to—social justice, equity, and inclusion can we identify in contemporary education settings? How can we amplify voices of the marginalized and minoritized or those who are denied their Indigeneity?
  • How can education best reckon with conflict and war, the fragility of democratic institutions, and the undermining of education as a basic right?
  • How can education best enable an awareness of inter-being, togetherness, compassion, understanding, and a cooperative future in combating social, economic, and political injustice?
Sub-Theme II: Environmental Sustainability
  • How can education best address social justice and sustainability in light of planetary degradation and climate change?
  • What progress has been made on UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4, to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”, including implementable examples from around the world?
  • How can the study and practice of comparative education, teaching, learning, and research facilitate and enable practicing earth-sustaining measures and transition into a just and cooperative planetary future?
Sub-Theme III: School Systems and Educators to Improve Learning and Teaching in Formal or Informal settings
  • How can we go about building lifelong learning opportunities that are socially and ethically just, environmentally conscious, globally oriented, and based on empirical and observational methodological and theoretical approaches?
  • How should we go about preparing teachers to educate students in uncertain, insecure moments, where competing values, pressures, and agendas exceed the traditional scope of the profession?
  • How can school systems (teachers, school directors, school administrators, parents, students, board members and elected officials) be better prepared to adapt to and to combat disruptions such as natural disasters and the COVID pandemic? Under such circumstances, how can they better support and contribute meaningfully to education for all?

Sub-Theme IV: Critical Reflection on the Society and the Field of Comparative and International Education

  • What do we see if we look inwards and critically at the Comparative and International Education Society itself? How could its interrogation of social, political, economic, and cultural systems contribute to the search for solutions across contexts, systems, and communities around the world?
  • How is the field of comparative and international education, which itself is rooted in colonial and post-colonial era engagements, so crucial in working toward improving education for a more equitable world across the global, South-North knowledge transfer, hegemonies, and collaborations?
  • How are practices of CIE teaching, learning, and research across varied academic institutions, journals and publishing houses, governmental and non-governmental agencies, donors, development banks, and foundations shaping and reshaping the field?

Program Highlights

To many, education remains a dream of equal opportunities for all learners, regardless of their backgrounds and contexts. Confucius advocated 2,500 years ago for education without discrimination (有教无类), a dream of education for all. This evolving vision was renewed right after WWII by the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, stipulating that everyone has the right to education. Although pioneers, like minority woman leader Patsy Mink, have long envisioned equal education with persevering efforts for the United States, the realities in the country and worldwide do not reflect this dream.

Our mission for educational improvement to empower learners, educators, and many more on local, national, regional, and global scales continues daily. Our hope is to continue to engage and to inspire one another at CIES 2023, both online (February 14-15) and on-site in Washington, D.C. (February 18-22).

We enthusiastically invite you to contribute by sharing your latest research and transformative ideas on improving education for a more equitable world!

Keynote Speakers

Speaker: Linda Darling-Hammond (Stanford University)
Commentators: Michael Connelly (University of Toronto) and Shijing Xu (University of Windsor)
Chair: Lynn Paine (Michigan State University)

Speaker: Shirley Pan (Adream Foundation)
Commentators: Jinghuan Shi (Tsinghua University) and Scott Rozelle (Stanford University)
Chair: Jun Li (CIES 2023 Chair & President Elect)

Speaker: Jun Li (CIES 2023 Chair & President Elect)
Commentators: Hyeyoung Bang (Bowling Green State University) and Edward Brantmeier (James Madison University)
Chair: Oren Pizmony-Levy (Columbia University)