Rosemary Preston PhD, AcSS
Rosemary Preston was Director of the International Centre for Education in
Development, at the University of Warwick (1993-2005), specialising in aid,
organisational relations, lifelong learning and community development in low income
states. Over four decades, her interdisciplinary research prioritised the interests of
minorities, notably in Andean America, the South Pacific and southern Africa. Policy
and practice research for international organisations included directing multi-method
studies of: labour and war-related migration; post war reconstruction; technical
assistance, consultancy and partnership. Cross-cutting themes include: HRD, training
and education; gender, ethnicity and civil society. Rosemary Preston has published
widely, is past editor of Gender and education (1994-2000) and Compare (2001-4),
and has 25 years experience of INGO governance. As a linguist, she is fluent in
French and Spanish, with some skill in other languages.
Dr Rosemary Preston, AcSS (Abbreviated 02-10-10)
DEGREES
MA (Oxford, 1989); PhD (Leeds, 1981); BA Hons (Leeds, 1968)
ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL POSITIONS
1991-2005
Research Director, later Director, International Centre for Education in Development,
University of Warwick
1989-1990
Senior Research Fellow in Refugee Studies, Queen Elizabeth House, University of
Oxford.
1985-1988
Lecturer (Research), Educational Research Unit, University of Papua New Guinea.
1981-1984
Lecturer/Post Doctoral Fellow, Department of Sociology/School of Education,
University of Leeds.
1980-1981
Lecturer, Trinity and All Saints College, University of Leeds.
1979-1984
Tutor-Counsellor, Open University.
JOURNALS
2001-2004
2000-2004
1999-2001
1997-1998
1994-2000
1992-1994
Editor, Compare: a journal of comparative education (with C. Dyer)
Member of the Editorial Board, Gender and Education
Editor, Compare (with F. Leach)
Chair, Editorial Board of Compare
Editor, Gender and Education (with C. Hughes)
Member of the Editorial Board, Gender and Education.
GUEST EDITORSHIPS
2005
Measurement and learning beyond the mainstream, International Journal of Educational
Development, 25, 2. [Special issue]
1990
Creating new futures? The education of adult refugees, Convergence, 23, 3.
1989
Refugee Participation Network, 3, Refugee Studies Programme, University of Oxford.
1987
Ideals, realities and relevance: Education in developing countries, Journal of Papua New
Guinean Education
NEWSLETTER EDITORSHIP
2005
Newsletter, Council of Education in the Commonwealth
1978-82 Newsletter, Society of Latin American Studies, Founding Editor.
INVITED/ELECTED POSITIONS
2009-10 Chair, Board of Trustees, UK Forum for International Education and Training
2009
Delegate to the 17th Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers, KualaLumpur,
(Member of policy drafting group)
2008Member of the Working Group, Education, marginalisation and international development.
2008
Commonwealth Secretariat, external member of the panel appointing the Commonwealth
Director of Social Transformation.
2008University of Reading, External Examiner, MA in Organisation, Planning and Management /
MSc in Education and Training for Development..
2006Trustee and Vice-Chair, International NGO Training and Research Centre (INTRAC)
2005Member of the Board of the Council for Education in the Commonwealth
2005Elected to the Academy of Social Science (UK)
2003-05 Executive Chair, UK Forum for International Education and Training (UKFIET)
2003-05 Member of the Advisory Board, Gender, Education and Development: Beyond Access (DFID
funded project)
2002-06 World Council Comparative Education Societies, Chair of the Congress Standing Committee
2001-05 Chair of Trustees, Aviation Health Institute
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
Methods
2001
Contextual and methodological influences on comparative and international educational
research, in K. Watson, Ed. Doing Comparative Education Research: issues and problems,
Oxford, Symposium, 23-42.
2000
Learning from development research in educational contexts, in R.J. Alexander, P.
Broadfoot, D,Phillips (Eds) Learning from comparing, Vol II, Policy, professionals and
practice, Oxford, Symposium Books, 121-137.
1996
Integrating paradigms in educational research: issues of quantity and quality, in M.
Crossley and G. Vulliamy (Eds.) Qualitative research in developing countries: Educational
Perspectives, New York, Garland, 31-64.
Gender
2009
(with M. Sibbons) Celebrating women and education in the Commonwealth, London,
Commonwealth Secretariat.
2008
(with F. Ahmad and J. Oxenham) Islam and the education of women and girls in the
Commonwealth, London, Commonwealth Secretariat.
2004
An evaluation of the Beyond Access project on the education of girls in low income states:
university, INGO and CSO partnerships [DFID]
1993
Gender and relevance: decentralised vocational education in Papua New Guinea, Oxford
Review of Education, 19, 101-115.
Aid, organisation, consultancy and partnerships
2005
Cultures of funding, management and learning, International journal of educational
development, 25, 2, 157-172.
2005
(With Sheila Aikman) Setting the scene: measurement and learning beyond the
mainstream, International journal of educational development, 25, 2 157-172
1999
Partnerships and expertise: implications for communications in complex projects in
international human development. Case studies from Sub-Saharan Africa, Eastern Europe
and Latin America, University of Warwick/ INCED.
1996
(with Linet Arthur) Quality and overseas consultancy: understanding the issues.
Manchester, British Council. pp 86.
1996
(with Linet Arthur) Knowledge societies and planetary cultures: international consultancy
in human development, International Journal of Educational Development, 17,1, 3-12.
1991
Organisational perspectives on the local management of schools: Papua New Guinean
case studies, International Journal of Educational Development, 11, 4, 275-288.
Refugee and post-conflict studies
2002
What was refugee status? Legislating the changing practice of refugee law, in D.Joly (Ed.)
Global changes in asylum regimes: closing doors, Baskingstoke, Palgrave/Macmillan, 179203.
1999
Researching repatriation and reconstruction: who is researching what and why? in R.
Black, K. Khoser (Eds) The end of the refugee cycle, Basingstoke, Berghahn, 18-36.
1997
Demobilising and integrating fighters after war: the Namibian experience, Journal of
Southern African Studies, 23,3, 453-472
1995
(with Susan Quick and Mark Chingono) The social application of refuge law:
repatriation in safety and dignity, Centre for Refugee Studies, York University,
Ontario, Vol I pp90, Vol II, pp83.
1994
States, statelessness and education: post-return integration of Namibians trained abroad,
International Journal of Educational Development, 14, 3, 299-319
1992
The destinations of scholarship holders in Britain after return to Namibia (Africa
Educational Trust, at NISER, Windhoek).
1992
Post-independence destinations of Namibians educated in Britain (ODA).
1992
Refugees in Papua New Guinea: government response and assistance, 1984-1988,
International Migration Review, 26, 2, 843-876.
1992
(with David Simon) Return to the promised land: the repatriation and resettlement of
Namibian refugees, 1989-1990, in R. Black and V. Robinson (eds.) Geography and refugees:
patterns and processes of change, Bellhaven Press, 47-63.
1992
(project co-ordinator) The integration of returned exiles, former combatants and
other war-affected Namibians, Namibia Institute for Social and Economic Research,
Windhoek, pp504
Lifelong learning
2003
(with Caroline Dyer) Human capital, social capital and lifelong learning: an editorial
introduction, Compare, 33,4, 429-437 [Special issue Human capital, social capital and
lifelong learning].
1999
Critical approaches to lifelong education, International Review of Education, 45, 5-6, 561574
1998
Researching lifelong learning, University of Warwick, Final Report of ESRC seminar series.
1992
Continuing professional development and trainer training: overseas students in the UK
(INCED, University of Warwick).
Other reports
2008
Synthesis of studies of madrassas in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, Paris, Unesco,
pp57.
2005
Significant and sustained changes in the lives of people suffering poverty and injustice.
The implementation of OXFAM (2001) Towards Equity Strategic plan 2001-2005,
An evaluation of contributions in the education sector, Oxford, Oxfam International.
[A study of INGO partnerships and the management of decentralised CSO work in
Mozambique]
PART I: The context (pp53).
PART II. An external evaluation of contributions in the education sector (pp79)
1995
Restricting Freedom: international credit transfer and skill recognition in the late
20th century (INCED, Warwick) Conference report, pp12.
RECENT EVENT MANAGEMENT
2007
Islam and the education of women and girls, London, CEC annual conference, 26 June.
2006-7 Going for growth, 9th UKFIET Conference for International Education and Development,
September 2007
2003-5 Learning and Livelihood, 8th UKFIET Conference for International Education and
development, September
2002-4 Education and social justice, 10th World Congress of Comparative Education Societies,,Cuba,
University of Havana, Cuba, October 2004.
2002
Partnerships and Inter-Organisational Learning: Issues for Research (UW, INCED)
2002
Working with Experts: research and learning difficulty (DCE, Warwick, April)
2001 Learning on the road: researching education and occupational travelling (INCED, Warwick,
March )
2000
Learning on the hoof….and after: reflections on coping in disaster (INCED, Warwick, March)
1999
People on the move: education and nomadism in the late 20th century (INCED, Warwick,
March)
1998
Poverty, power and Partnerships (UKFIET, Oxford, September 1999) [Also symposium
convenor: The methodological challenge]
INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE [as adviser, consultant, researcher, teacher, etc (in months)]
Canada (0.5), France (3), Spain (24), Bolivia (29), Ecuador (18), Peru (0.5), Argentina (0.5), Australia
(9), Papua New Guinea (PNG) (42), Belize (0.5), Namibia (14), Zimbabwe (1), Malawi (0.5),
Mozambique (1.5), Kenya (0.5), Cuba (4.0), Brazil (0.5), Bosnia Herzegovina (0.5)