Claudia Buchmann

Claudia Buchmann is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at Duke University. Her research focuses on comparative education and stratification in international contexts. In previous research she has examined the impact of global economic restructuring on the quality of life of women and children in developing countries and has studied educational inequality in Kenya in order to understand how the educational system and labor market interact with family-level processes to perpetuate gender, class and ethnic differences in educational participation. One of her current research projects, supported by a postdoctoral fellowship from the National Academy of Education and the Spencer Foundation, investigates the sources of racial differences in educational enrollment and attainment in South Africa at the end of apartheid. Recent publications include: “The Consequences of Global Educational Expansion: Social Science Perspectives,” with Emily Hannum; “Interpersonal Influences and Educational Aspirations in Twelve Countries: The Importance of Institutional Context,” with Ben Dalton (Sociology of Education 2002); “Measuring Family Background in International Studies of Education: Conceptual Issues and Methodological Challenges.”(in Methodological Advances in Cross-National Surveys of Educational Achievement, National Research Council, Board on International Comparative Studies in Education. A.C. Porter and A. Gamoran, eds. Washington, DC: National Academy Press 2002); “Education and Stratification in Developing Countries: A Review of Theories and Research,” with Emily Hannum, (Annual Review of Sociology 2001); and “Family Structure, Parental Perceptions and Child Labor in Kenya: What Factors Determine Who is Enrolled in School?” (Social Forces 2000). At Duke, Professor Buchmann teaches courses on the sociology of education, comparative and historical methods, and globalization. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology and African Studies from Indiana University in 1996.