Goodbye to Reform: Improving Education for a More Equitable World

Although educational reform takes place often in many systems, authentic improvements have remained scanty worldwide. Reflecting on such a global reality and based on the transdisciplinary emergence of educational improvement science, I advocate an alternative field, new and open to advancement in education, that is, comparative and international educational improvement science. There are at least five characteristics articulated for the new framework, including a novel concept of education as improvement, with a scopes, improvements, and problems (SIP) model in its replicable 3I process (identification, implementation, and improvement). With a neo-improvementalist philosophy that improvability is a genic nature of education and that improvement is of education, by education, and for education, I reclaim the idealism of equity and social justice as a renewed ultimate value and mission for the new field, continued from the 67th Comparative and International Education Society Annual Conference theme, “Improving Education for a More Equitable World.”

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Publication Details

Journal
Comparative Education Review
Published
2026-02-01
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1086/739368
Primary Topic
Global Educational Policies and Reforms
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00
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article

Goodbye to Reform: Improving Education for a More Equitable World

Jun Li
Comparative Education Review
Global Educational Policies and Reforms
article

Goodbye to Reform: Improving Education for a More Equitable World

Jun Li
article en

Abstract

Although educational reform takes place often in many systems, authentic improvements have remained scanty worldwide. Reflecting on such a global reality and based on the transdisciplinary emergence of educational improvement science, I advocate an alternative field, new and open to advancement in education, that is, comparative and international educational improvement science. There are at least five characteristics articulated for the new framework, including a novel concept of education as improvement, with a scopes, improvements, and problems (SIP) model in its replicable 3I process (identification, implementation, and improvement). With a neo-improvementalist philosophy that improvability is a genic nature of education and that improvement is of education, by education, and for education, I reclaim the idealism of equity and social justice as a renewed ultimate value and mission for the new field, continued from the 67th Comparative and International Education Society Annual Conference theme, “Improving Education for a More Equitable World.”

Comparative Education ReviewVol. 70(1)
Quality Education
Openalex Percentile: Top 69%
Global Educational Policies and Reforms
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