Biographical details

Michael Crossley is Emeritus Professor of Comparative and International Education, Founding Director of the Centre for Comparative and International Research in Education (CIRE) and Director of the Education in Small States Research Group, ESSRG, (www.smallstates.net) in the School of Education. He is an Adjunct Professor of Education at The University of the South Pacific, a former Associate Dean at the University of Papua New Guinea and a Research Associate at The University of Hong Kong. In 2017 - 2018 he was elected as President for the British Association for International and Comparative Education (BAICE). Professor Crossley is a former Editor of the journal Comparative Education and former Vice-Chair and Chair of BAICE. He is the Founding Series Editor for the Bristol Papers in Education: Comparative and International Studies (Symposium Books), and is a member of the Editorial Boards for Comparative Education, the International Journal of Educational Development, Small States and Territories, Directions (USP) and Research in Post-compulsory Education, a Corresponding Editor for the International Review of Education, and a former Chair of the Editorial Board for Compare. Between 1985 and 1990 he was Editor for the Papua New Guinea Journal of Education. Professor Crossley has published widely and undertaken teaching, research and consultancy work in countries that include England, Australia, Papua New Guinea, Kenya, Tanzania, Pakistan, China/Hong Kong, Belize, Botswana, Saint Lucia, the Turks and Caicos Islands, The Bahamas, Fiji, Malaysia, Sarawak, Malta and Maldives. Consultancies have been carried out for bodies that include The World Bank, UNESCO/IIEP, the Commonwealth Secretariat, DFID, and various national governments, and he is a former Trustee for the United Kingdom Forum for International Education and Training (UKFIET).

Major research interests relate to: theoretical and methodological scholarship on the future of comparative and international education; the dilemmas of international education policy transfer; research and evaluation capacity and international development co-operation; and educational development in small states.

Professor Crossley has published around 250 articles and books in the field of Comparative and International Education. This work has developed a strong critique of the uncritical international transfer of educational policy, practice and research modalities. In doing so, it is argued that "context matters" more than many policy makers and researchers recognise. Secondly, this trajectory of research points to the potential to be gained from a "bridging of cultures and traditions" within and beyond the Social Sciences if Comparative and International Education is to enhance its contribution to both policy development and the advancement of theory. He was elected as an Academician, now Fellow, (FAcSS) by the UK Academy for the Social Sciences in 2005.

Professor Crossley is a former Director of the PhD Programme in the School of Education and of the Doctor of Education Programme (EdD) in Bristol and Hong Kong, and has long taught popular Masters and Doctoral courses on research methodology, international development and Comparative and International Education. He has supervised 50 doctoral students to successful completion in the field of Comparative and International Education, coming from many countries worldwide.

Research Project

• UN Learning from the Sharp End SIDS Research Partnership and Network
• Revisiting Insider/Outsider Perspectives in Comparative and International Research
• Teachers and Teacher Education in Fiji and the South Pacific
• Strengthening Secondary Education Quality in Tanzania
• Educational Research and Planning Priorities for Commonwealth Small States
• BAICE History and Archive Research
• Research and Evaluation Capacity for Educational Development and the Primary School Management Project in Kenya
• Globalisation and Skills for Development in Rwanda and Tanzania
• The History of the British Association for International and Comparative Education (BAICE)
• The Use and Impact of Treated Mosquito Nets in Papua New Guinea: Combining Education and Health Initiatives
• The History of the Journal Comparative Education in the Light of Changing Research Paradigms, Issues and Identities in Education and the Social Sciences
• Postcolonialism and Comparative Education. Theoretical and Methodological Scholarship for Publication as a Special Issue of Comparative Education
• State of the Art Review of Educational Development in Small States
• Case-study Research and Impact Evaluation for the Belize Primary Education Development Project.