On September 28th, Professor Gita Steiner-Khamsi delivered a keynote speech on education reform to Iceland’s education research association. The keynote took place during the first day of Menntakvika: Annual Conference of Educational Research in Iceland and was featured as well as livestreamed in Visir, the country’s largest newspaper.   

The presentation, entitled “The use and abuse of research evidence for policy and planning in education,” addressed two interrelated topics: how and why reforms travel and what issues scholars face when conducting policy studies in education. These two issues lie at the crossroads of Professor Steiner-Khamsi’s work in comparative education policy. She discussed the different phases of traveling reforms, what causes cross-national policy attraction and how governments ‘selectively’ borrow global reforms to advance their specific agendas, among other topics. You can watch her presentation, which was livestreamed, through this link. 

Prof. Gita Steiner-Khamsi, keynote speaker (third from right) with Kolbrun Th. Palsdottir, Dean of the School of Education, University of Iceland (right), Ingvi H. Omarsson, Senior Advisor, Icelandic Ministry of Education and Children (second from right), Prof. Berglind Ros Magnusdottir, Chair of the Faculty of Education and Diversity, University of Iceland (middle) and three panelists representing academe and government of Iceland

Photograph: Gunnar Sverrisson, Reykjavik

During her sabbatical leave from Teachers College, Professor Steiner-Khamsi received a Fulbright award to serve as visiting professor during the Fall 2023 semester at the University of Iceland. The host institution is the university’s School of Education, Faculty of Education and Diversity, and she was invited by Professor Berglind Ros Magnusdottir.

As part of her Fulbright project in Iceland, Professor Steiner-Khamsi will (1) support the School of Education in establishing a graduate program in education policy studies; (2) participate in a dissertation committees; (3) co-publish one article with colleagues in Iceland on a policy-related topic, and (4) provide advice on how to strengthen the use of research evidence in policy and planning