Faculty and Staff Directory

David P. Baker, Ph.D. (Johns Hopkins), Director of Graduate Studies, Education Policy Studies Department; Professor of Education; and Professor of Sociology. Dr. Baker studies the role of education in the social construction of modern society. He publishes widely on the comparative and historical analysis of schooling and higher education. He frequently assists in the planning of large cross-national studies of academic achievement for multi-national agencies (OECD, UNESCO, World Bank) and national governments.

Thomas Bruening, Ph.D. (Iowa State), Associate Professor Emeritus of Agricultural Extension Education. Dr. Bruening's research interests include the impact of international study abroad programs; agricultural education in developing and emerging countries of Eastern Europe, Russia, China, South Africa, Bangladesh, and Latin America; and, CTE Teacher Education.

Soo-yong Byun, Ph.D. (University of Minnesota-Twin Cities), Assistant Professor of Education. Dr. Byun received a Ph.D. in Educational Policy and Administration from the University of Minnesota at Twin Cities with specialization in Comparative and International Development Education. He had his internship at the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (2006 summer) in Montreal, Canada, and worked as a research associate survey / psychometric specialist for the Teacher Education Study in Mathematics (TEDS-M) at Michigan State University (2007-2008). He is interested in investigating cross-national variation in mechanisms and processes of social stratification using large-scale national and international data, especially TIMSS and PISA. While his early work focuses on South Korea, his recent work is not limited to South Korea but increasingly focused on other East Asian countries such as Japan and Hong Kong.

Edgar I. Farmer, Ed.D. (Penn State), Professor of Education and Director of the Postsecondary Technical/Community College Leadership emphasis in the Workforce Education & Development program. He has recently served as Department Head of Learning & Performance Systems in the College of Education. Internationally, he has conducted research in Career & Technical Education and presented papers in Australia, China, Finland, Hong Kong, Japan, and Turkey. He has worked extensively as a consultant with agencies in Ecuador, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. Other professional experience includes service as a member of the 173rd Airborne Brigade in the Republic of South Vietnam. During such time, he was awarded the Army Commendation and Bronze Star Medals.

Matt Kaplan, Ph.D. (CUNY), Professor, Intergenerational Programs and Aging in the Department of Agricultural Economics, Sociology, and Education. Dr. Kaplan’s work focuses on intergenerational programs and practices from an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural perspective. He has published several books including one for teachers and community educators, entitled “Side-by-Side: Exploring Your Neighborhood through Intergenerational Activities,” and two that explore the international dimension of intergenerational work: “The Role of Intergenerational Programs for Supporting Children, Youth and Elders in Japan” and “Linking Lifetimes: A Global View of Intergenerational Exchange.” He also teaches an online course (AYFCE 845; cross-listed as CI ED 845) which introduces students from departments across the university to the intergenerational studies field.

Gerald LeTendre, Ph.D. (Stanford), Professor of Education. Dr. LeTendre has conducted research on teaching and school organization, and his current research focuses on adolescent decision-making and the institution of schooling in cross-national perspective. He has authored several books on Japanese and U.S. education. He is the recipient of a Spencer Post-Doc, a Jacobs Foundation Young Scholars Fellowship, a Fulbright Fellowship, and a Rockefeller Fellowship from Harvard University.

Beverly Lindsay, Ph.D. (American) and Ed.D. (University of Massachusetts, Amherst), Professor and Senior Scientist of Higher Education and International Policy Studies. Dr. Lindsay is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Recently, she has been an Invited Visiting Professor at the Institute of Education, University of London and Inaugural University Fellow and Professor in the Office of the President at Dillard University, New Orleans. She has held Distinguished Fulbright Fellowships at the University of Eduardo Mondale in Maputo, Mozambique. As a Senior Fulbright Specialist at the Institute for Peace, Leadership, and Governance and at Africa University in Zimbabwe, Dr. Lindsay engaged in peace and conflict resolutions with executives and civic leaders, initiated executive and faculty development, fostered strategic planning, and delivered media presentations. She was an Executive Fellow at the Institute for Multi-Track Diplomacy and served as an interim CEO when the chairman was on special missions. As the first American recipient of a new Senior Fulbright Specialist Grant to Korea in 2002, she facilitated and structured executive and faculty development design at Woosong, Seoul National, and Hong-Ik Universities. Other Fulbright endeavors included presenting key addresses, enhancing strategic planning processes, fostering academic program evaluation in liberal arts and professional schools, and briefing the American embassy on endeavors in other settings. Formerly, Dr. Lindsay was Dean of the University Office of International Programs at Penn State and Dean of International Education and Policy Studies at Hampton University. She has produced seven books and more than 100 articles, chapters and essays in major domestic and international journals and academic publishing houses.
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Suet-ling Pong, Ph.D. (Chicago), Professor of Education, Demography, and Sociology. Dr. Pong worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica, California, and as an Assistant Lecturer at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. A former Spencer Fellow, her research interests include comparative sociology of education, including family-school relationships, ethnic and gender stratification, and immigrant children's schooling. In addition, Pong has conducted cross-national comparisons of education and family policies and their impact.

David Post, Ph.D. (Chicago), Professor of Education and of Human Development and Family Studies. Dr. Post, a past chair of the CI ED committee, currently co-edits the Comparative Education Review, the oldest scholarly journal in the field. He has taught as a Fulbrighter in Hong Kong and in Mexico, and in the U.S. at the University of California-Riverside and the University of Pittsburgh. Post's interests in child labor are reflected in a multi-national case study he directed, with support from the Ford and Spencer Foundations, culminating in his book, Children's Work and Schooling in Latin America (published in English by Westview and in Spanish by the F.C.E.) His teaching interests include social stratification and ethnic/national identity as they affect and are affected by education policy. He also teaches a seminar on child labor issues.

Kai Schafft, Ph.D. (Cornell), Associate Professor of Education (Educational Leadership). Trained as a rural sociologist, Kai Schafft’s work focuses broadly on the intersection between social inequality and spatial inequality. His most recent area of research has examined the interrelationship between poverty, housing, insecurity and chronic residential mobility within rural areas and how that affects schools and school districts through student transiency. His other work has examined processes of participatory community development in rural New York communities, political mobilization and social exclusion within Hungarian Gypsy (Roma) communities, and population redistribution in post-socialist Hungary. Dr. Schafft is the director of Penn State’s Center on Rural Education and Communities, and an editor for the Journal of Research in Rural Education.

Ladislaus Semali, Ph.D. (California, Los Angeles), Associate Professor of Education (Learning and Performance Systems). Dr. Semali specializes in Language, Media, and Literacy education. He also directs a Consortium for the Study of Indigenous Knowledges (ICIK). His research explores cross-cultural literacy curricula, languages, and critical media literacy. His work has been published in the Comparative Education Review and the International Review of Education, and he also has authored Literacy in Multimedia America and Postliteracy in the Age of Democracy, and co-edited What is Indigenous Knowledge: Voices from the Academy.

Roger C. Shouse, Ph.D. (Chicago), Associate Professor of Education (Educational Leadership). Dr. Shouse’s research examines the meaning and impact of school organization and leadership. His work explores the formal and informal dimensions of life in schools as related to goals and effectiveness, school reform, power and authority, and how the meaning and impact of these elements are distinctively shaped by social, cultural, and political realities at the local, national, and global level. Currently, in addition to completing a book on Taiwan school reform, Dr. Shouse writes articles and teaches a course on using popular cinema as case studies for understanding leadership in schools and other social settings.

Clemente Abrokwaa, Ph.D. (University of Alberta), Assistant Professor of African Studies. Dr. Abrokwaa holds a Ph.D. in International/Intercultural Studies from the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada. He also received his Master's Degree in African/Third World Studies from the University of London, England and a B.Ed. from Cape Coast University, Ghana. He also holds a Diploma in African Music. His research interests include Science and Technology in Africa, Biotechnology and Agriculture in Africa (Genetically Modified Organisms), Science in African Education, Economic Development in Africa, Education in Africa, Globablization, African Politics, Multiculturalism, and Peace and Conflict Studies.

Talat Azhar, Ph.D. (Penn State), Outreach Coordinator for the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program, and affiliate faculty member in Educational Theory and Policy. Prior to joining the College, Azhar worked with Penn State Outreach for 12 years as senior market research associate. She received her doctoral degree from Penn State in Educational Theory and Policy and Comparative and International Education in 2009. Azhar is interested in issues of social justice and the focus of her research is on education of women in developing countries. Azhar also holds an MBA from Smeal College of Business and a Master's of Architecture from the College of Arts and Architecture at Penn State. Azhar came to the United States from Pakistan as a Rotary Foundation Ambassador of Goodwill to attend graduate school at University of California Los Angeles. Azhar has travelled extensively and lived and studied in Malaysia, Pakistan, and the United States.

Leila Bradaschia, Ph.D. (Indiana University), Director of International Programs. Dr. Bradaschia received her Ph.D. in History, Philosophy, and Policy in Education with a concentration in International and Comparative Education. While completing her degree, she was an associate instructor in the university’s School of Education Cultural Immersion Projects, a program that allows education majors to conduct part of their student teaching in another country. Previously, she was Program Director at International Visitors Council in Columbus, Ohio and an intern with the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs in Washington, D.C. She speaks Spanish and Portuguese, has completed graduate coursework in international and cultural studies and traveled extensively. Bradaschia’s dissertation research was on non-governmental organizations (or NGOs) working in public primary education in Nicaragua. As Director of International Programs, Dr. Bradaschia directs the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program and also coordinates the development of new relationships between the College of Education and institutions in other nations, including, but not limited to, student and faculty exchange programs.

Liza Conyers, Ph.D. (University of Wisconsin-Madison), Associate Professor of Counselor Education and Rehabilitation. Dr. Conyers received her Ph.D. in Rehabilitation Psychology and her areas of research and scholarship include psychosocial aspects of disability, disability culture, HIV/AIDS, and employment issues of people with disabilities. Dr. Conyers has worked in a number of clinical settings including non-profit community rehabilitation programs (where she helped facilitate the transition of individuals with disabilities from sheltered to competitive employment), office of students with disabilities, inpatient physical medicine and rehabilitation, college counseling centers, and in community psychiatric rehabilitation. She was the recipient of the 2004 Rehabilitation Educator of the Year Award and the 2005 Rehabilitation Researcher of the Year Award. Dr. Conyers is a board member and Chairperson of the Research Working Group for the National Working Positive Coalition and has co-edited a special issue of the Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation on HIV and Employment issues. In 2007, Dr. Conyers was awarded a Mary Switzer Fellowship from the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research to identify the vocational development and employment needs of individuals with HIV/AIDS, which is the focus of her current research.

Roger Geiger, Ph.D. (Michigan), Distinguished Professor of Higher Education. Dr. Geiger is head of the Higher Education program and a past chair of the CI ED committee. His study, Knowledge and Money: Research Universities and the Paradox of the Marketplace, was published by Stanford University Press in 2004. Also in 2004, his volumes on American research universities in the 20th century, To Advance Knowledge: the Development of American Research Universities, 1900?1940, and Research and Relevant Knowledge: American Research Universities Since World War II, were published in new editions by Transaction Publishers. In 2000 he published The American College in the Nineteenth Century. He edited the section of the Encyclopedia of Higher Education on the Institutional Fabric of Higher Education. Among his other comparative publications are: Private Sectors in Higher Education: Structure, Function, and Change in Eight Countries and Research in Higher Education: the United Kingdom and the United States, which he co-edited. Geiger has edited The History of Higher Education Annual since 1993 and is senior associate editor of the American Journal of Education. He is principal investigator for an interdisciplinary NSF project: "Nanotechnology and Its Publics," which is examining public opinion, state policies, and commercialization.

Dennis Jett, Ph.D. (University of the Witwatersrand), Professor, International Affairs. Dennis Jett's experience and expertise focus on international relations, foreign aid administration, and American foreign policy. Dr. Jett joined the inaugural faculty of Penn State's School of International Affairs in July 2008. Immediately prior to joining Penn State, he was dean of the International Center at the University of Florida for eight years. This followed a 28-year career as a career diplomat. In that capacity he served in Argentina, Israel, Malawi and Liberia. He has also served as Ambassador in Mozambique and Peru. On the National Security Council he served as special assistant to the president and senior director for African Affairs. The author of two books, he has written dozens of opinion articles for major newspapers. He is a member of the Council of Foreign Relations.

James Johnson, Ph.D., Professor of Education. Dr. Johnson is currently the Program Coordinator of Early Childhood Education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction in the College of Education at Penn State. Professor Johnson's scholarship areas include play, culture, early schooling, parent-child relations, and contemporary approaches to early education curriculum. He is series editor of Play & Culture Studies, co-editor-in-chief of the Handbook of the Study of Play, past president of The Association for the Study of Play, former Senior Fulbright Research Scholar (Taiwan), and USA Representative to the Scientific Committee of the International Council for Children's Play.

Sinfree Makoni, Ph.D. ( University of Edinburgh, Scotland ), Associate Professor, Applied Linguistics and African and African American Studies. From 1999-2001 Dr. Makoni was the Dubois-Mandela-Rodney Fellow at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. He is a native of Southern Africa, did his graduate work in Ghana and received his Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. He has extensive professional experience in Southern Africa, including Chair of Linguistics at the University of the Western Cape and associate professor of language and literature at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. He is former president of the Southern African Applied Linguistics Association and an Executive Board member of the International Applied Linguistics Association. He has research in the socio-historical construction of African urban languages, agrammatism and language in health in multilingual communities in the US and Africa. Dr. Makoni's recent Co-edited books include: Black scholars on Black languages: problems and possibilities, ( London:Routledge in press). Ageing in Africa: Sociolinguistic and Anthropological Approaches ( London:Ashgate 2002), Freedom and Discipline: Essays in Applied Linguistics from Southern Africa, Bahri, India (2001), Language and Institutions in Africa, ( Cape Town: Centre for Advanced Studies of African Society in Africa (2000)), Improving Teaching and Learning in Higher Education in Southern Africa. ( Johannesburg, Witwatersrand University Press, 2000).

Kyle Peck, Ph.D. (University of Colorado), Associate Dean for Outreach, Cooperative Extension, International Programs, and Technology and Professor of Education (Learning and Performance Systems). Dr. Peck served as the head of the Learning and Performance Systems Department from 2000 to 2004. He was the co-founder of the innovative, technology-rich Centre Learning Community Charter School in State College, Pennsylvania. Dr. Peck is a member of the Board of Direction of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) and is a past president of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) and its Pennsylvania affiliate, PAECT. Before coming to Penn State, Dr. Peck taught middle school math and reading for seven years and was involved in corporate training for five years, including two years as Director of Training for NBI, Inc., in Boulder, Colorado. He has been on the Penn State faculty since 1987 and is co-author of two books, more than 40 book chapters and journal articles, and four education-related software programs. He is a popular speaker and has made more than 250 presentations at professional conferences, in the U.S. and abroad. He has been a featured speaker and has studied educational systems, technology use in schools, and educational change in the former Soviet Union (Leningrad), The Sudan, Canada, Mexico, Thailand, Czechoslovakia, Ecuador, Taiwan, and Finland.

Madhu Suri Prakash,Ph.D. (Syracuse), Professor of Education and recent Outreach Scholar for the College of Education in the Department of Education Policy Studies. She is the recipient of The Eisenhower Award for Distinguished Teaching. She has co-authored two books in comparative and international education: Grassroots Postmodernism: Remaking the Soil of Cultures [London : Zed Books, 1998] and Escaping Education: Living as Learning Within Grassroots Cultures [Peter Lang Publishing, 1998]. Her forthcoming publications draw upon her research in India and Mexico on indigenous approaches to cultural initiation among peoples with diverse cosmovisions.

Esther Prins, Ph.D. (Cornell), Assistant Professor of Education and Co-Director, Goodling Institute for Research in Family Literacy, Institute for the Study of Adult Literacy. After receiving her B.A. in Sociology from Wheaton College ( Illinois), Esther coordinated an adult education program and taught ESL classes to Latino/a immigrants in Chicago. Her academic work has taken place in educational and community settings in New York, California, Washington, and Latin America, including an adult literacy program in rural El Salvador, Literacy Volunteers of America (NY), an after-school program at a low-income school, school-based community development projects with Latinos/as, a community-university partnership, computer classes for children and adults at a migrant housing center, a union- and university-sponsored adult education program for Cornell employees, ecumenical community development and organizing coalitions, and Cooperative Extension at Cornell, UC-Davis, and Washington State University. Esther's research interests include adult and family literacy, civic engagement, gender and adult education, and participatory approaches to education, community development, and research. In particular, she seeks to understand how gender, class, race, and culture shape how people participate in and benefit from adult education, and the ways in which adult education both reproduces and diminishes social inequalities. Esther has published articles in Adult Education Quarterly, Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, Journal of Extension, Journal of Planning Education and Research, and Convergence, and is a peer reviewer for the Journal of Extension. Esther was a Professors for the Future fellow at UC-Davis (2003-04), and the recipient of the Women’s Studies Dissertation Fellowship ( Cornell University, 2001), the Julian and Veta S. Butterworth Doctoral Research Prize ( Cornell University, 2000), and the Tomorrow’s Leaders Today Award (Public Allies, 1997).

Edwin Rajotte, Ph.D. ( Rutgers), Professor of Entomology. Dr. Rajotte’s research focuses on resistance management of agricultural pests, social and economic issues in integrated pest management, and bee management and pollination. He helps design and implement integrated pest management programs for all fruit crops except grapes. He also contributes to various publications, including production guides, newsletters, and fact sheets; presents education programs for fruit growers; and develops expert system computer programs to aid in production decision making.

William J. Rothwell, Ph.D. (University of Illinois), Professor of Education (Workforce Education and Development). Dr. Rothwell's research focuses broadly in the area of workplace learning and performance and organization development. Dr. Rothwell is best known for his work on succession planning, talent management, and competencies of workplace learning and performance professionals. He has authored, coauthored, edited or coedited 68 books. His work has been translated into Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Thai. He teaches courses on organization development and human resource management of trainers.