On Wednesday, 15 October 2014, Justin J.W. Powell, Professor of Sociology of Education, will hold his inaugural lecture on “Atlantic Transfer: Comparing Institutional Change in Education Systems”. The lecture is open to the public and will take place at 6 P.M. at Campus Walferdange.

Education systems foster and reflect major societal shifts. Despite on-going expansion, they exhibit persistent cultural particularities. As countries compete for cultural influence and economic power, learning from leaders is key. The supranational level and cross-national comparisons have become increasingly significant.

Today, comparisons are applied by policymakers, administrators, and scholars to generate reform goals, to identify standards and good practices, and to verify the effects of policies and programmes. Over centuries across the Atlantic world, countries have translated and enacted policies that attempt to emulate, or are legitimated by reference to, successful foreign models. What mechanisms have facilitated the diffusion of ideas, standards, and policies – and made certain models dominant?

In his inaugural lecture, Professor Justin Powell presents four mechanisms of cross-cultural transfer – educational exchange, “continuous competitive comparison,” policy learning and networks, and supranational coordination – to trace the impact of Atlantic transfers on institutional change in education systems.

An introduction will be given by Prof. Dr. Georg Mein, Dean of the Faculty of Language and Literature, Humanities, Arts and Education and a reception will take place after the inaugural lecture.

More information about the keynote speaker

Justin Powell (1970) is Professor of Sociology of Education in the Institute of Education & Society at the University of Luxembourg. He holds degrees from Swarthmore College (BA, 1992), Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (MA, 1999) and Freie Universität Berlin (Dr. phil., 2004). Before coming to Luxembourg, he coordinated programmes at the Social Science Research Council (New York) and conducted research and taught sociology at the Max-Planck-Institut für Bildungsforschung, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, London School of Economics and Political Science, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung, and Leibniz Universität Hannover.

His comparative institutional analyses of education systems chart persistence and change in special and inclusive education, in vocational training and higher education, and in science and research policy. He has published widely in English and German in the fields of sociology and education and has won awards from Körber Stiftung, the Society for Disability Studies, Fritz Thyssen Stiftung, and American Educational Research Association.

Currently, he is writing "Atlantic Transfer: Models in Higher Education and Vocational Training in Europe and the United States" to be published by Oxford University Press. He is Course Director of the new Master in Social Sciences & Educational Sciences (MASSES).

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The lecture will be taking place at Campus Walferdange, Audimax, route de Diekirch, L-7220 Walferdange on Wednesday, 15 October at 6 P.M.
Please register at decanat-FLSHASE@uni.lu.

Photo: © Université du Luxembourg, Michel Brumat