On May 14th an amazing lecture was delivered by Professor Edward P. St. John from the University of Michigan, which was held at the College of Education, Zhejiang University.

The lecture focused on equal education opportunities in higher education in the United States, and was titled Higher Education and Social Justice: Rethinking the Role of Research. The three parts of the lecture consisted of Globalization as a Context for Education Reform, Using Actionable Research to Address Critical Challenges, and Focusing on Critical Issues. Professor John stressed that actionable research could help to reduce the gap between what we aimed to do with respect to fairness and social justice and actual behavior and outcomes.

With the progress of globalization and modernization, the right of education has become an important component of human rights and civil rights in modern society. Therefore, education equality has become a key goal for countries to achieve. Professor John analyzed what researchers could do in the process of improving education equality. He pointed out that improving education equality in the United States was a process of arguing, debating, conflicting and game playing under the American political system. Also, he encouraged Chinese researchers to use actionable research to address similar issues in China.

After the presentation, Professor John discussed other important issues with the audience.