Education under globalization becomes a contested terrain: while it can reproduce class hierarchies and epistemic hegemonies, it may also be reimagined as a site of empowerment and emancipation through critical pedagogy and intercultural dialogue. This book examines the deepening patterns of global educational inequality and their implications for human rights, offering a framework that connects global structures, national reforms, and everyday educational experiences. It reframes equity as a relational field shaped by intersecting forces, highlighting marginalized groups and peripheral regions as revealing the limits of reform. By linking structure, agency, and normativity, the book provides an integrated account of the production, stabilization, and disruption of inequality, advancing beyond literature that treats these domains separately and offering a forward-looking guide for research and policy committed to human rights and social justice.

Professor Amy Shumin Chen is Associate Professor and Associate Director in the Department of Education and Learning Technology at National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan, and currently serves as President of the Taiwan Association of the Sociology of Education. She previously held the position of Chief Editor of the Taiwan Journal of Sociology of Education. She received her Doctor of Education degree from National Taiwan Normal University. She was a visiting scholar at the Institute for the Study of Social Change at the University of California, Berkeley. Her work in higher education has been recognized through multiple awards for teaching excellence and innovation at both the university and national levels.

Professor Chen has made significant contributions to academic and professional service, including roles as General Secretary of the Taiwan Association of Sociology of Education and the Taiwan Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education. She actively participates in national education policy and serves as a (co)principal investigator for major initiatives on global citizenship education, lifelong learning, education reform, and the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) in Taiwan. She also serves on professional committees related to education and community learning.

Her research focuses on the sociology of education and globalization, with particular interests in global citizenship, comparative education, multicultural education, teaching practices, lifelong learning, and adult education.