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Quality Education

About the Goal

quality educationThe United Nations aims to ensure inclusive, equitable and quality education for all by 2030. 

Northwestern is engaged in a broad range of research projects and other initiatives aimed at realizing this goal, from the development new models of international education amid COVID-19 to work aimed at illuminating the relationships between health and education.  Northwestern researchers are also designing and examining educational settings for youth from low-income, first generation and underrepresented backgrounds—from emphasizing second language acquisition and pragmatics to the development of cross-cultural, global opportunities for student learning and engagement with Northwestern’s international partner institutions.

Northwestern Experts and Initiatives

Ofer Malamud

Ofer Malamud is an economist focused on education policy from an international perspective. His research is concentrated in three substantive areas: educational investments over the life course, the role of technology in the formation of human capital, and the effect of general and specific education on labor market outcomes. He has studied these topics in a wide range of institutional settings across countries such as Chile, England, Israel, Mexico, Peru, Romania, Scotland, and the United States.  His current research focuses on the interactions between family and school environments, gender differences associated with labor market returns and childhood socio-emotional behaviors, and technical and vocational education training in Mongolia.

Ofer Malamud
Sally Nuamah

Sally Nuamah

Sally Nuamah's research sits at the intersection of race, gender, education policy, and political behavior. Her work is focused on using both quantitative and qualitative methods to examine the political consequences of public policies across the United States, as well as in Ghana and South Africa.  Her current work focuses on the politics of public-school closures in cities such as Chicago and Philadelphia, and the political consequences of punishing black women and girls in criminal justice and education systems. In addition to her work as an academic, she is the founder of the TWII Foundation, which provides college scholarships for low-income girls in Ghana.

Shirin Vossoughi

Shirin Vossoughi is an Associate Professor of Learning Sciences whose research integrates macro-political concerns (the roots of educational inequity, transnational migration, neoliberalism) with detailed studies of educational settings that imagine and enact alternative social relations. Vossoughi’s research centers on hybrid learning environments that blend formal and informal elements and support young people to engage in sophisticated forms of disciplinary thinking while questioning and expanding disciplinary boundaries. Her work examines the relationships between apprenticeship and joint activity; language and literacy practices; play and creativity; the subjective experience of educational dignity and indignity; the tensions and possibilities of political education; and the micro-genetic (moment-to-moment and day-to-day) development of scientific, social analytic and artistic discourse and practice.

Shirin Vossoughi

Featured Course

Youth Development & Mentoring (The Cities Project), Special Topics (251-0-21)

This course serves as a starting point for students interested in learning and serving in a city-wide youth mentoring project during the 2022-23 school year. Through this course and a complementary one-on-one weekly mentoring session with local middle school students, participants will learn about youth development, education policy, and the potential impact of quality mentoring support. Class sessions will examine strategies for cultivating cultural humility and understanding of the strengths and needs of low-income urban communities within a critical mentoring framework.

Explore the course