Ali A. Abdi is a Somali

Somali people

Somalis are an ethnic group located in the Horn of Africa, also known as the Somali Peninsula. The overwhelming majority of Somalis speak the Somali language, which is part of the Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family...

-Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 sociologist and educationist. He is a professor of Education

Education

Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...

 and International Development

International development

International development or global development is a concept that lacks a universally accepted definition, but it is most used in a holistic and multi-disciplinary context of human development — the development of greater quality of life for humans...

 at the University of Alberta

University of Alberta

The University of Alberta is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford, the first premier of Alberta and Henry Marshall Tory, its first president, it is widely recognized as one of the best universities in Canada...

 in Edmonton

Edmonton

Edmonton is the capital of the Canadian province of Alberta and is the province's second-largest city. Edmonton is located on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Capital Region, which is surrounded by the central region of the province.The city and its census...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, where he serves as the Co-Director of the Centre for Global Citizenship Education and Research (CGCER). He is also a past President of the Comparative and International Education Society of Canada (CIESC). In addition, he is the founding editorco-editor of the peer reviewed online publications Journal of Contemporary Issues in Education and 'Cultural and Pedagogical Inquiry'.

Career

Ali received his B.A.

Bachelor of Arts

A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...

 in Sociology

Sociology

Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...

 with a minor in Anthropology

Anthropology

Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...

 in 1990 from the Concordia University in Montreal

Montreal

Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

, where he also pursued and achieved an M.A

Master of Arts

A Master of Arts is a high academic degree offered at many universities in Europe and the United States.A Master of Arts, Magister Artium, or Magister in Artibus may also refer to:...

 in Political Science

Political science

Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...

 in 1993. He received his Ph.D in international Education from McGill University

McGill University

Mohammed Fathy is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university bears the name of James McGill, a prominent Montreal merchant from Glasgow, Scotland, whose bequest formed the beginning of the university...

 in 1998. Since then Ali has worked on international research projects in Somalia

Somalia

Somalia , officially the Somali Republic and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic under Socialist rule, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. Since the outbreak of the Somali Civil War in 1991 there has been no central government control over most of the country's territory...

, South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

, Senegal

Senegal

Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...

, and Zambia

Zambia

Zambia , officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west....

 as a program director or contributor. He has written extensively on Education in Africa

Education in Africa

Education in Africa began as a tool to prepare the local youth to take their place in their respective societies and not necessarily for life outside of Africa. In some areas, the pre-European colonialism schooling system consisted of groups of older people teaching aspects and rituals that would...

, and other social issues pertaining to the continent's various communities.

Education

• B.A. (cum laude) in Sociology with a minor in Anthropology, Concordia University, Montreal, 1990
• M.A. Political Science, Concordia University, Montreal, 1993
• Ph.D. International Education, McGill University, Montreal, 1998

Books

Authored

• Culture, education and development in South Africa: Historical and contemporary perspectives. Westport, Conn. & London: Bergin & Garvey. 232 pages. (2005)
• Education and the politics of difference: Canadian perspectives. Toronto: Canadian Scholars’ Press. 200 pages. (2004), with Ratna Ghosh.
• Citizenship education and social development in Zambia. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing. 170 pages. (2010), with Edward Shizha and Lee Ellis.

Edited

• Issues in African education: sociological perspectives. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. 320 pages. (2005), with Ailie Cleghorn.
• African Education and globalization: critical perspectives. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. 222 pages. (2006), With Korbla Puplampu and George Dei.
• Educating for human rights and global citizenship. Albany, NY: SUNY Press. 256 pages. (2009)
• Education and social development: global issues and analyses. Rotterdam, Netherlands: Sense Publishers. 262 pages. (2008), with Shibao Guo
  • Decolonizing democratic education: trans-disciplinary dialogues. Rotterdam, Netherlands: Sense Publishers. 220 pages. (2008), with George Richardson.
• Global perspectives on adult education. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. 284 pages. (2009), with Dip Kapoor.

Articles

• Democratic development and prospects for citizenship education: theoretical perspectives on Sub-Saharan Africa. Interchange: A Quarterly Review of Education, 39(2), 151-166.
• Citizenship and its discontents: educating for political and economic development in Sub-Saharan Africa. In M. Peters, A. Britton & H. Blee (Eds.), Global Citizenship Education: Philosophy, Theory and Pedagogy. Rotterdam, Netherlands: Sense Publishers.
• Europe and African thought systems and philosophies of education: ‘re-culturing’ the trans-temporal discourses. Cultural Studies, 22(2), 309-327.
• From ‘education for all to education for none’: Somalia in the careless global village. In A. Abdi & S. Guo (Eds.), Education and social development: global issues and analyses. Rotterdam, Holland: Sense Publishers.
• Oral societies and colonial experiences: Sub-Saharan Africa and the de-facto power of the written word. International Education, 37(1), 42-59.
• Global multiculturalism: Africa and the recasting of the philosophical and epistemological plateaus. Diaspora, Indigenous and Minority Education, 1 (4), 1-14.
• Education and Zambia’s democratic development: reconstituting ‘something’ from the predatory project of neo-liberal globalization. Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 53(3), 287-301.
• Eurocentric discourses and African philosophies and epistemologies of education: counter-hegemonic responses and analyses. International Education, 36(1), 15-31.
• Culture of education, social development and globalization: historical and current analyses of Africa. In A. Abdi, K.P. Puplampu & G.J.S. Dei (Eds.), African Education and globalization: critical perspectives. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
• Apartheid and education in South Africa: select analyses. Western Journal of Black Studies, 27(2), 89-97.
• Reconstructing the Somali state: the promise (and possible pitfalls) of federalism. Horn of Africa Journal, XXI(I), 20-29.
• Searching for development education in Africa: select perspectives on Somalia, South Africa and Nigeria. International Education Journal, 4(3) 192-200.
• Postcolonial education in South Africa: Problems and prospects for multicultural development. Journal of Postcolonial Education. 1(1), 9-26.
• Identity in the philosophies of Dewey and Freire: Select analyses. Journal of Educational Thought 35(2), 181-200.
• Economic liberalization and women's education: Prospects for post-apartheid South Africa. McGill Journal of Education, 33:1, 71-84.