My academic & research interests have centered around the following topics: theory and practice in nonformal & popular education; educational planning in developing countries; teacher education in third world countries; use of spreadsheet-based models for educational planning; gender issues & girls' education in developing countries; and educational policy formulation and implementation for developing countries. Other interests have included: simulation and gaming for NFE learners; models and simulations for education system management; and cross-cultural training. Current research interests center around alternative approaches to systems of teacher education in low-resource contexts; the political economy of educational statistics; the challenges of policy formulation in decentralizing national systems.
For the past five years I have been involved in various capacities in the development of education in Afghanistan, serving as the Principal Investigator for a series of contracts for CIE. Most recently this has involved managing CIE's component in a five-year, multi-million dollar higher education project to develop the capacity of the Faculties of Education in Afghan universities to train secondary school teachers. I was also P.I. of a large education project in Southern Sudan that combined a variety of NFE and alternative school approaches to meeting the immediate needs of children in that post-conflict setting.
In my 40 plus years at the Center for International Education, I have been involved in a wide variety of academic and practical activities. During this time period I have been directly involved in the design and management of dozens of educational projects in Latin America, Asia and Africa. I have also been a consultant on education projects. My extended field experience is largely in anglo-phone Africa, with over five years of experience as a teacher and researcher in Uganda. My most recent experience has been in Malawi, Afghanistan and Southern Sudan. Over the years I have developed an understanding of the development philosophy and the procedures used by the major development agencies like UNESCO, IBRD, USAID, UNICEF as well as international NGOs like CARE and Save the Children.