Dr Spreen received a PhD in Comparative and International Education from Teachers College, Columbia University. Her work has been in the area of comparative school reform, teacher professional development, and international education policy and planning. In 1998 Dr Spreen was a Visiting Scholar at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, and is Founding Editor of Current Issues in Comparative Education. Her research framework centres on sociocultural studies of classrooms and curriculum change, critical ethnographies of school communities, and examinations of multicultural/intergroup practices.