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The aim of this paper is to reflect on what the changing context brought about by the Pandemic mean and can mean for the repositioning and reinvigoration of Comparative and International Education in 2023. The paper commences with the Sustainable Development Goals and the Incheon Declaration, as the vision humanity has set for itself for 2030. The paper then maps out the gap between the reality of education globally in 2015, when the goals were set, and the vision for 2030. The intervention of the COVID-19 Pandemic increased that gap. This paper argues that at the same time the Pandemic brought with it an opportunity to redesign education in the world, benefitting from the opportunities offered by technology. The paper further argues that in effecting such a redesign of education in the world, the scholarly field of Comparative and International Education has a pivotal role to play to -- to connect to the theme of this book and of the conference of which this volume is the proceedings of papers presented -- to use education experiences of the Pandemic and post-Pandemic times, to learn to not only recover education to its pre-Pandemic state, but to ensure the recovery has enough momentum to move beyond the pre-Pandemic level, surging towards the goals set for 2030, i.e. building new better education systems. [For the complete Volume 21 proceedings, see ED629259.]

This volume contains selected papers submitted to the 21st Annual International Conference of the Bulgarian Comparative Education Society (BCES), held in Sofia, Bulgaria, in June 2023. The Conference theme was "Recovering Education: Using the Experiences and Learning Acquired to Build New and Better Education Systems." The theme focuses on the current post-pandemic period which provides excellent opportunities for looking at the past three to four years, filled with disappointments, damages, and lessons learnt, and direct attention to hopes, efforts, and prospects to recover. This volume includes 41 papers -- an introductory piece and 40 papers divided into 6 parts representing the BCES Conference thematic sections: (1) Comparative and International Education & History of Education; (2) International Education Issues; (3) School Education: Policies, Innovations, Practices & Entrepreneurship; (4) Higher Education & Teacher Education and Training; (5) Law and Education; and (6) Research Education & Research Practice. [Individual papers are indexed in ERIC.]

Various internal and external determinants influence an education system. External determinants include language, demographics, geography, technology, politics, and financial and economic trends. Religion is also one of these external determinants that can influence an education system, as well as the education systems of the. The BRICS member countries consist of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. The BRICS member countries are one of the most organized and supportive international cooperation organizations that currently exist. Religion is considered a controversial and sensitive topic. This research aimed to determine how religion as an external determinant influences the education systems of the BRICS member countries. The study focused on the differences and similarities that can be identified based on religion as an external determinant of the various education systems in the BRICS member countries. The BRICS member countries were deliberately chosen for this study because each member state is considered a secular country in terms of religion, yet each member state treats religion differently in their country. The comparative method was used during this study to identify the best practices from the BRICS member countries. The interpretive research paradigm was used during this study using the qualitative research approach. The document analysis was used during the study to analyse the content of policies, legislation, articles, and government publications using content analysis to be able to identify themes to be able to perform the comparison between the different education systems of the BRICS member countries. The findings from this study are as follows: Religion as an external determinant of an education system does have a significant influence on the education systems of the various BRICS member countries. It is very important to observe and describe these findings from the context of the various member states. [For the complete Volume 20 proceedings, see ED622631.]

This paper aims to demonstrate how a South African secondary school responded to the negative impact of COVID-19 and still ensures quality education. This paper's final objective is to link this experience to the theme of this book focusing on the next epoch of education. The paper commences with an orientation and autobiographical reflection on the case study-school (cs-school). The findings revealed how this school adopted and established an online digital education solution to ensure the continuation of effective teaching and learning amid, as well as after the pandemic. However, the findings also indicate challenges that this school experienced. [For the complete Volume 20 proceedings, see ED622631.]

The aim of this paper is to tease out the caveats in the much vogue exercise of drawing lessons from foreign systems of education -- the theme of this book, with the final objective that this will point to the parameters appropriate for the discourse and for the reader when reflecting on the topics touched upon in this book. The paper commences with a survey of the historical evolution of the field of Comparative and International Education, demonstrating how the motivation for extracting "lessons" from other education systems has been a key feature of the field, and increasingly so in contemporary times. The caveats to exercise, related to the salience and complexity of context, to the nature of the act of education, and to the undermining of the professional autonomy of the teacher are then pointed out. These parameters should be respected in any discourse on taking education lessons from around the world. At the same time, these parameters present scholars of Comparative and International Education an opportunity to prove their value in the twenty-first century world. [For the complete Volume 19 proceedings, see ED613922.]

Both Seychelles and South Africa are experiencing serious challenges with regard to providing for the need to employ the required number and quality of teachers -- needs that are differentiated according to specific areas of competencies. In the paper, it is argued that each of the education systems of these two countries should have a well-planned recruitment strategy and particular attention should be paid to preparing a recruitment message that will attract possible candidates. Each of the education systems has been found to be lacking in several aspects of the recruitment message, such as the social status of the teaching profession and the comparison of teachers' remuneration. It has been found that South Africa is better placed than Seychelles in respect of only two factors, namely teacher training opportunities and better comparable remuneration packages of teachers in South Africa. It is clear that all of the stakeholders should be involved in the recruitment of teachers. Other developing education systems can learn from the experiences of the two countries.

The aim of this paper is to map the tide of education reforms worldwide and to spell out the implications thereof for the field of Comparative and International Education -- the field of scholarship tasked with assessing and guiding the global education project. In the field the notion of the Global Education Reform Movement (GERM) has gained currency. In this paper the deficiencies of that concept are identified. These include its non-exhaustiveness, its lack of a theoretical underpinning, and its lack of a normative dimension. It is argued that the field of Comparative and International Education, with its theoretical construct of the education system, its basic theorem of education systems being shaped by societal contextual forces, and the comparative method for approaching education issues and challenges, appears most promising in providing a theory as well as a method for a scholarly as well as a public discourse about education. The most salient societal trends of the twenty-first century world are enumerated, as well as how these have precipitated in changed education objectives, educational management and administration, teachers and students, and curricula.

"Glocal" has become a catchword in Comparative and International Education, as the compelling force of globalization has forced the Comparative and International Education scholarly community to reconsider their field. This paper traces the strong hold that the nation-state as level of analysis has had on scholars in the field, and how that notion and attendant conceptual tools have come under pressure. The variety of theoretical or paradigmatic responses to the global versus "local" in the field is surveyed. The paper concludes that the concept of "glocal" is a rather naïve escape from a complex situation, and such a response has the potential to incur great damage to the field. In conclusion a new theoretical framework, encompassing not only both the global and the "local", but the entire hierarchy of contexts creating an evolving new global tapestry of education systems is suggested to render the field of Comparative and International Education streamlined to fulfill its mission in the twenty-first century. [For the complete Volume 17 proceedings, see ED596826.]

Taking the example of post-1989 teacher education reform in Lithuania, and comparing that with teacher education reform in South Africa, a country that also underwent a total societal reconstruction at the same time as Lithuania, this paper defends the thesis that the configuration of education at grass roots level, is the outcome of a dialectical play of forces at various geographical levels, including the global, the regional or supra-national, the national and the sub-national or local. [For the complete Volume 17 proceedings, see ED596826.]

The aim of this paper is to clarify the concept and to recapture and to reassess its value to the field of Comparative and International Education at the present point in time. Despite the vision of founding father Jullien, from the interwar "factors and forces stage", the field of Comparative and International Education got a strong tradition of focusing on the past. In the social science phase of the 1960s, Modernisation Theory made a forceful appearance in the field, and became the principal theoretical framework in the field. However, this trend was reversed during the next phase in the historical evolution of the field, the phase of heterodoxy in the 1970s. In this decade and subsequent times, Modernisation Theory fell out of fashion and even became discredited, as rival paradigms such as Dependency Theory, World Systems Analysis, and Neo-Colonialism, and finally Postmodernism became vogue. In view of the momentous societal changes currently taking place globally, calling for a reconceptualization of education, a future-orientation for the field Comparative and International Education is argued for. In this scheme of things, a re-appraisal of Modernisation Theory is called for. Rather than summarily discarding this theory, or on the other hand embracing it uncritically, a more nuanced place for Modernisation Theory in a Comparative and International Education relevant to and valuable for the twenty-first century world seems to be apt. [For the complete Volume 16 proceedings, see ED586117.]

The aim of this paper is to map this place of economics in the field of study of Comparative and International Education. Interrelationship between economy and education is concerned, two broad lines of enquiry lie within the scope of Comparative and International Education: economy as shaping force of education systems and the effect of education on the economy. In the interwar "factors and forces" stage of Comparative Education, the economy as a shaping force of national education systems came to the fore. In the social science phase of the 1960s the focus shifted to a study of the effect of education on the economy. This was reversed again in the 1970s, when socio-economic reproduction theories assigned a deterministic place to socio-economic stratification of society. In recent years neo-liberal economics dictated the research agenda of Comparative Education. In conclusion recommendations for a future research agenda in the field are made. [For the complete Volume 15 proceedings, see ED574185.]

This is a comparative study focused on the internationalization of teacher education in three countries--Bulgaria, Switzerland, and South Africa. The authors stress on the fact that on the one hand, teacher education is exposed to the increasing imperative to internationalize but on the other hand, teacher education is traditionally to a very large extent nationally shaped. The classical fields of internationalization of teacher education--individual mobility of students and staff, program and provider mobility, internationalization of the curriculum, internationalization of the campus, international cooperation--are used as a basis for constructing the chapter. The authors present these fields in teacher education in Bulgaria, Switzerland, and South Africa. Then, comparing the three different national contexts, some common features, similarities and differences between the countries are analyzed. Finally, the study ends with synthesizing two main challenges that illustrate how an appropriate internationalization of teacher education is still to be developed. [For the complete Volume 15 proceedings, see ED574185.]