OISE hosts INEE delegation to discuss improving education in Mexico
December 15, 2014
When it comes to finding expertise on school improvement, education leaders across the globe look to the University of Toronto's Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE). Recently Mexico sent its top representatives from the Instituto Nacional para la Evaluación de la Educación (INEE), an independent agency of the Mexican government with a mandate to evaluate Mexico's national education system.
The three-member delegation came to OISE at the start of a three-day visit to Toronto to learn how Ontario manages its education system and how to better support development of teacher capacity.
Dr. Santiago Rincon Gallardo Santiago, Banting Postdoctoral Fellow at OISE, who acted as interpreter for the delegates, works under the supervision of OISE school improvement expert Steve Anderson. When he heard that INEE were coming, he said, “I felt very excited. I’ve been following their work since 2002 when it was created, and I can say that INEE has become one of the most solid research institutions in Mexico and across Latin America.”
At a general meeting with OISE faculty experts, the group made a presentation about the role of evaluation in furthering educational improvement in Mexico.
INEE representatives were interested in working with OISE faculty, given their expertise and extensive experience and successes in Ontario. They explored potential opportunities to collaborate on research and evaluation initiatives with a focus on research to support the development of teacher capacity in Mexico.
During their stay, the delegates attended two seminars hosted by OISE’s Comparative International Development Centre and Collaborative Educational Policy Program, and held meetings with individual OISE faculty experts to learn more about how Ontario manages its education system: from school improvement to urban education to research, policy, educational change, big data analysis, and higher education.
“Our meeting with representatives of the Instituto Nacional Para La Evaluación De La Educación in Mexico offered a great opportunity to develop research collaboration in areas of assessment and evaluation for OISE faculty members,” said Lana Stermac, associate dean of Research, International and Innovation.
As a globally recognized, comprehensive and research-intensive institution with a distinct leadership role in the study of teaching and learning, OISE is the first stop for many countries looking to improve their education systems. Over the past month, delegations from the Netherlands, Norway, Denmark and Ukraine and Mexico have visited OISE looking for connections to research expertise and professional development and training programs.
