If your question does not appear below you can contact the Program Director, Iveta Silovavat ism207@lehigh.edu for further assistance.

THE PROGRAM

What does the CIE program focus on?

Globalization and contextualization are the dual content foci. CIE’s degree programs and coursework examine globalization as either an impetus or an outcome of educational phenomena both in the United States and around the world. However, the dual process of contextualization is equally important. Education is bigger than the formal schooling environment. It occurs in private settings, such as homes and families, and other public settings such as playgrounds and workplaces. Education is also bigger than the phenomena of teaching and learning. It includes political, economic, sociological, historical, psychological, and other phenomena as well. From this perspective globalization has a moderated effect on schools and communities because there are layers of contextual or environmental influence. It has become impossible to analyze phenomena at any level of education or society without considering how these phenomena are locally situated within a global context.

The degree program focuses on multiple theoretical perspectives and methodologies in comparative and international education, globalization’s effect on curriculum, development in education, international educational policy, grant writing and fund raising, and the role of international agencies in education development

How is the CIE program interdisciplinary?
The CIE program transcends disciplinary boundaries in order to understand and address the complex issues of globalization and contextualization. Education and schooling issues are too complex and diverse to be addressed by just one disciplinary perspective. The fact is that education is the product of many converging forces from politics to society to economics to history to business and philosophy. We cannot understand why schools in countries halfway around the world are structured the way they are, or why educational policies in the U.S. deal with the topics they do unless we understand the various factors impacting these decisions. Most education fields already borrow from other disciplines in terms of theory and methodology, but CIE takes this one step further. Working closely with the graduate programs of Lehigh’s College of Arts and Sciences (CAS), in particular, the CIE program breaches the boundaries of disciplines, thus creating an opportunity for students to examine education-related issues from multiple perspectives. We encourage students to build on previously studied disciplinary perspectives when studying CIE.

How does the CIE program bridge theory and practice?
Another hallmark component of CIE is the bridge between theory and practice. Much of education is professional education, which often translates to explicitly practical applications in schools, classrooms, and communities. This is a vital component of Lehigh’s College of Education, and it is important for CIE to support and maintain this professional training component that is so successful in the College of Education. Yet, the field of comparative and international education is also by nature a global program in that it provides educators and policymakers with a way to understand broader, cross-system, and global trends in educational policy and practice. One of the best tools that we have for understanding these trends is through the development and testing of theory. As such, CIE’s programs and courses are at once theoretically grounded, but also practically-oriented. We help our students think about phenomena using theory, but also teach them how to apply this theory to real-world situations.

What is innovative about CIE's instructional design?
Since many of our current and potential students are based abroad, it is important to offer CIE’s academic programs with mixed delivery methods in mind. To do so, we are implementing a “global classroom” to synchronously hold class online and in person. Students in the classroom can interact in real time with students abroad and vice versa. Our goal is to offer a balanced combination of learning experiences, comprising teaching, learning, and advisement opportunities on campus, on site, and online. At the same time, we strive to develop a cohort system among our students that goes beyond geographical location to include all students entering the CIE program.