Global Civil Society & Sustainable Development Lab

Global Civil Society & Sustainable Development Lab (GCSSD)

Education

Quality education for all is a goal of sustainable development in its own right, and education is also a tool for creating sustainable societies in other domains such as improved equality, democracy, or environmental outcomes.

Research

World Education Reform Database (WERD)

Launched in 2022, WERD includes over 10,000 education reforms in over 150 countries since 1960. The database enables scholars to study what types of reforms occur, where and why, and to examine the effects of reform. WERD is freely available for download, more information is available here.

Civic Education & Sustainable Development

A long-term study of high school social science textbooks to document and explain emphases on multiple facets of sustainable development (e.g. emphases on human rights, equality, the environment, climate change) in more than 40 countries (including more detailed analyses of California and Texas). Countries with more ties to international-nongovernmental organizations often have higher emphases on sustainable development in their textbooks.

Training

We train PhD students and PostDoctoral scholars focused on the intersection of global education issues and civil society. Learn more about our lab’s current and past scholars.

Education Reform and Nation-State Organizational Expansion, 1960-2018

By Heitor Santos

Human Rights and Human Capital Discourse in National Education Reforms, 1960–2018

By Minju Choi

Data as the New Panacea: Trends in Global Education Reforms, 1970-2018

By Tom Nachtigal, Patricia Bromley, and Rie Kijima

Field Building

World Education Reform Database Mini Workshop

The World Education Reform Database (WERD) research group organized a daylong virtual mini-workshop featuring seven research presentations by GSE students and postdocs using the World Education Reform Database. The workshop gathered 20 in-person participants (by invitation only), and over 50 online participants ranging from Stanford graduate students, Stanford faculty, visiting professors, leaders from civil society organizations, and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Patricia Bromley, Associate Professor in the Graduate School of Education and the Doerr School of Sustainability and faculty director at PACS, opened the workshop with an overview of the WERD project. The workshop also featured the work of postdoctoral scholars, doctoral students, as well as research by other university professors outside of Stanford.