Penn Graduate School of Education professors and programs are engaged in more than 150 international partnerships and projects in over 60 countries around the globe to enact positive change through education.
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The International Educational Development Program is one of the globally focused programs at Penn’s Graduate School of Education (Penn GSE), alongside the 2-year-old, fully online master’s in Global Higher Education Management. “We are the most internationally diverse program at GSE,” says senior lecturer Ameena Ghaffar-Kucher. “Every year, we have at least a dozen countries represented, and those dozen countries change every year. I would say our students have come from 30 or 40 countries, easily.”
But academic programs aren’t the only way the School embodies its international commitment. It’s enrolling students from over 30 nations, conducting research with partners in more than 60 countries, and creating innovative solutions for education worldwide.
A key priority in Penn GSE’s strategic vision, “Together for Good,” emphasizes collaboration with local, national, and global communities. To further this, the Global Engagement Office, led by senior fellow Alan Ruby, recently launched a five-year strategy, building on over 150 international activities and partnerships from the last academic year. The plan aims to advance meaningful research, quality education, and increased capacity for international service.
Technology, trade policies, and political transitions have highlighted the interconnectedness of the global community, says Ruby, and a school like Penn GSE that is committed to consequential research and real-world impact must, therefore, engage in work beyond its borders.
“There’s no doubt that we live in a globally connected world—that’s been true now for a long time,” says Sharon Wolf, an associate professor in the Human Development and Quantitative Methods division. “We can’t think of our education systems in isolation. The education of children around the world has direct impacts, actually, on us. … We also have so much to learn from other countries and what they have figured out through their own education systems.”
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