Graduate School of International Cooperation Studies (GSICS), Kobe University
I conducted Internship at the Washington, D.C. Office of FHI 360 for about six weeks from July 15 to August 23, 2013. FHI360 is a nonprofit human development organization, which has more than 4,000 employees conducting research and implementing programs in various practice areas including health and education. During the period of Internship, I served as a visiting scholar in the Education Policy and Data Center (EPDC), a research and analysis unit within FHI360’s Global Learning Group (GLG). Collecting information and developing my skill of data analysis to further my dissertation research, I worked on four main types of activities in EPDC: (1) attending study sessions and conferences held at FHI360, (2) conducting Informational Interview with experts at FHI360, (3) participating in a research project, and (4) contributing website management for the EPDC online resource.
First, I attended a workshop aiming at introducing FHI360 staffs the procedures for ensuring ethics in research which they are supposed to go through in starting their projects. I also attended an event organized by FHI360, International Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) and Save the Children, aiming at launching Conflict Sensitive Education (CSE) Pack in USA. Unfortunately, I could not attend very many events because there were relatively few events during the period of my internship. Nevertheless, each event gave me a precious opportunity to learn new ideas in the field of international educational development.
Second, I conducted Informational Interviews with three FHI360 specialists whose areas of expertise are related to the theme of my dissertation research. From each interview, I could acquire a lot of useful knowledge and information related to my both research and professional interests. I could also get suggestions on future directions for my research and career development.
Third, I got involved in the research project under the supervision of Dr. Carina Omoeva, the Technical Advisor of EPDC. I conducted data analyses using statistical software, made step-by-step documentations, and submitted a report which contains an outline of basic findings, figures, and tables.
Fourth, I involved in data uploading work in EPDC. Through this task, I could gain a better skill for managing online education database. Besides, it is also a good opportunity for me to review publicly available datasets and various types of statistical-analytical approaches applied in education policy analyses.
Overall, Internship at EPDC in FHI360 was very rewarding. Through this experience, I could learn several basic and important perspectives which professional quantitative researchers in the education studies must keep in mind to conduct rigor analyses. Moreover, I could learn many important points to handle numerous tasks correctly as a team and yield a high quality result in a short period of time. Furthermore, I could create a precious network in FHI360 and establish a firm foundation for my future research and career.
My deepest gratitude goes to my academic advisor, Professor Keiichi Ogawa, for providing me with this precious opportunity and Mr. John Gillies, the Senior Vice President and Director of GLG, for accepting me to serve as a visiting scholar. I would also like to express my sincere appreciation to my supervisor, Dr. Carina Omoeva, for her continuous support and invaluable advice throughout the whole period of the program. My special thanks also go to Ms. Rebecca Potts, the Program Officer of GLG, and all the staffs and my dear colleagues in GLG for offering warm supports for me.
Katsuki SAKAUE
Doctoral Student
