Profile

Fernando M. Reimers is the Ford Foundation Professor of International Education and Director of Global Education and of International Education Policy at Harvard University. He teaches courses on the relationship between education policy, democratic citizenship and instructional improvement. His course 'Education Policy Analysis and Research in Developing Countries' focuses on some of the core education challenges in the development field. His course 'Education, Poverty and Inequality in Latin America' is an examination of the options to improve learning opportunities in high poverty schools in Latin America. He recently led a group of 9 faculty at the Graduate School of Education in the design and implementation of a core course on high school reform in the United States. He is advising a cross-national study of democratic citizenship skills and civic education in Chile, Colombia, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, Mexico and Paraguay. He is also conducting a large research project to examine professional development approaches to improve literacy instruction and several studies on civic education in Mexico.

He recently completed a study evaluating a national program to promote literacy instruction in Mexico as part of a large evaluation of major education policies of the Federal Government in Mexico, a project for which he was principal investigator, involving 8 faculty members at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This research led to a recently published book Aprender Mas y Mejor. Politicas, Programas y Oportunidades en Educacion Basica en Mexico (Fernando Reimers editor. Fondo de Cultura Economica) He also served recently on a Panel Review of the National Academy of Sciences evaluating Title VI, Fulbright-Hays and other Federally Funded Programs to promote the Internationalization of American Universities (http://www.nap.edu/catalog/11841.html).

Professor Reimers is also interested in the contributions of education to democratic citizenship. His latest publications include a study of the impact of a large scale School Based Management Program in poor children in Mexico (Who Benefits from School Based Management in Mexico. Prospects, vol. XXXVII, no 1, March 2007); a study of the impact of empirical research on civic education in education policy in Latin America (Civic education when democracy is in flux: The impact of empirical research on policy and practice in Latin America. International Journal of Citizenship Teaching and Learning. Forthcoming); an essay on the implications of Globalization for the purposes of Education (The public purposes of schools in an age of Globalization. Prospects, vol. XXXVI, no. 3, September 2006.); evaluation of the research literature on scholarship programs to support school attendance among low income children (Where is the Education in the Conditional Cash Transfers of Education. With Carol Da Silva and Ernesto Trevino. Unesco Institute of Statistics. October 2006); an article examining gender inequalities in educational management in Mexico (Principally Women. Gender in the Politics of Mexican Education in Randall. L. Ed. The Changing Structure of Mexico. Routledge. 2006); a chapter on the history of education in Latin America (Education and Social Progress in Victor Bulmer-Thomas, John Coatsworth and Roberto Cortes. The Cambridge Economic History of Latin America. Cambridge Press.) an article on education and democratic citizenship (with Eleonora Villegas Educating Democratic Citizens in Latin America in L. Harrison and P. Berger. Developing Cultures. Routledge), an article on education and literacy instruction in Mexico (Teaching Quality Matters: Pedagogy and Literacy Instruction of Poor Students in Mexico Harvard Education Review No 42. 2006); and an article on the civic purposes of education in Latin America (Sobre la Calidad de la Educacion y Su Sentido Democratico. With Eleonora Villegas Revista Prelac 2. Unesco). He has published several books and articles on international education and development. His most recent books include Unequal Schools, Unequal Chances (Editor), Informed Dialogue: Using Research to Change Education Policy Around the World (with Noel McGinn) and Hope or Despair: Primary Education in Pakistan (with Donald Warwick). More information about his academic work is available at http://gseacademic.harvard.edu/~reimers/

He has organized and served on the academic committee of a number of research and policy conferences focusing on the improvement of education in Latin America and other developing regions, some of the most recent include an international conference on public-private partnership in education -Washington, DC September 2006--, a conference on education and corporate responsibility in Latin America -Salvador de Bahia, Brazil June 2006-a conference on Education and Democratic Citizenship in Latin America -Costa Rica, July 2005.

A fellow of the International Academy of Education and member of the Council of Foreign Relations and of the Advisory Board of the Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education, National Academy of Sciences, Professor Reimers is best known for his theory of 'Informed Dialogue', an approach to bridge scientific research and education policy through the mapping and mobilization of social networks.

Professor Reimers is also known for his studies on the quality of education in developing countries and for his research on the relationship between education policy and instructional improvement in high poverty schools. He is the Director and creator of the International Education Policy Program at Harvard University.

Prior to joining the Faculty at the Graduate School of Education in 1997 he was Senior Education Specialist at the World Bank. He also worked as Research Associate, Institute Associate and Fellow at the Harvard Institute for International Development and on the faculty at Universidad Central de Venezuela. He has extensive experience in the area of international development assistance with the United States Agency for International Development, the World Bank, the InterAmerican Development Bank and other Development Organizations. He has worked in Egypt, Jordan, Pakistan and most countries in Latin America.

He serves on a number of advisory boards of educational organizations, including the Advisory Board of the Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education at the National Academy of Sciences; the Advisory Board for the Inter-American Program on Education for Democratic Values and Practices at the Organization of American States the Advisory Board of Primary Source; the Board of Scholars of Facing History and Ourselves; the Advisory Board of the World Computer Exchange. He Co-Chairs the Global Education Advisory Board to the Massachusetts Commissioner of Education. He recently served on the Higher Education Transition Team appointed by Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and on a Task Force to improve K-12 education in Massachusetts. He serves also on the advisory board of the Federal Institute for the Evaluation of the Quality of Education in Mexico.

At Harvard he is a member of the Executive Committee of the David Rockefeller for Latin American Studies, where he is also Chair of the Mexico Studies Committee and Member of the Brazil Studies Program and co-chair of the Social Policy Committee. He is a Faculty Associate at the Center for International Development, John F. Kennedy School of Government, and a Faculty Associate at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. He co-chairs the Institute for Advanced Leadership, an inter-faculty initiative led by Professor Rosebeth M. Kanter at HBS. He serves on the University Committee on Human Rights Studies, the steering Committee of the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, on the Scholars at Risk Committee at the University Committee on Human Rights Studies on the Selection Committee of the Harvard South Africa Fellowship Program and on the University Committee on International Projects and Sites.

He is married to Dr. Eleonora Villegas-Reimers, Dean of Education and Child Life at Wheelock College, who completed her masters and doctorate at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.