IOCES Founders
Dr. Sunethra Karunaratne, Co-Founder
Sunethra Karunaratne, a native Sri Lankan, was a Research Assistant at Michigan State University from September 1988 to August 1994. She obtained her B.S. in Chemistry, Botany, and Zoology from the University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, in 1971, then received her M.Ed. in Science Education from the University of Bristol, United Kingdom, in 1985. Dr. Sunethra received her Doctorate from the Department of Teacher Education at Michigan State University. She had a long and illustrious career at the Post Graduate Institute of Science (PGIS) at the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka before retiring in 2013. IOCES was blessed to have Dr. Karunaratne as its President during 2011-12.
Dr. Nina Dey Gupta, Co-Founder
Nina's education journey began in1974-1975 when she was offered the privilege of auditing courses at the University of Harvard, Massachusetts on non-credit basis in the disciplines of education, history and political science. After obtaining degrees in M.Ed, MPhil and PhD in Education in India, she taught Comparative Education,Pedagogy of History and Education in developing countries since 1983 till her superannuation.
Nina has been a Keynote Speaker in Beijing on "Geopolitics of Globalization and Education Reforms".She was also an Invited Speaker by the Science Council of Japan at a conference held in Kyoto. She has been a visiting guest faculty at the University of Hong Kong and Beijing Normal University.
Nina is widely travelled professionally in Nepal, Bhutan, Srilanka, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Maldives, Egypt, Ethiopia, Turkey, UK, the USA, Soviet Russia and presented papers at the universities of Capetown, S.Korea, Oxford, Australia and Cuba.
Dr. Giovanni Pampanini, Co-Founder
Giovanni Pampanini (Palermo, 1957) is a disciple of Prof. Lê Thành Khôi (Emeritus of Comparative Education at La Sorbonne University in Paris). A lecturer of Intercultural Education at the Catania University (1999-2004), Giovanni has been the Correspondent from Italy of the International Association for Intercultural Education (1990-1993), a member of the National Council of the Italian Section of the Comparative Education Society in Europe (1991-1996), the founder and first President of the Mediterranean Society of Comparative Education (MESCE) (2004-2006), the Vice-President of the World Council of Comparative Education Societies (WCCES) (2005-2007), the pioneer president of the Indian Ocean Comparative Education Society (IOCES) (2009-2010), the promoter of the Red centro-americana de Educacion comparada (2010), and the Honorary President and Advisor of the Africa For Research In Comparative Education (AFRICE) society (2010-2012). Giovanni has translated into Italian the books by Lê Thành Khôi (Education. Cultures et sociétés; Catania: Latessa, 1996; Education et civilisations. Sociétés d’hier; Roma: Armando, 1999), Brian Holmes and Jürgen Schriewer (Theories and Methods in Comparative Education; Catania: CUECM, 1996), and Robin Burns and Anthony Welch (Contemporary Perspectives in Comparative Education; Catania: Le Nuove Muse, 2001). During his mandate as WCCES vice-President Giovanni inspired the 13th World Congress of Comparative Education, held in Sarajevo in September 2007 on the very theme of the Intercultural Dialogue.
​
In May 2010, Giovanni founded the International Group on the Right to Education that had three Global Meetings, over France (with Samir Amin and Vernor Muňoz), Taiwan (with Thomas Pogge and Kishore Singh), and Morocco (with Abdallah Saaf). All volumes of proceedings of these Global Meetings have been published as Pampanini Reports on the Right to Education (PA.RE.R.E.) by CUECM in Catania ( www.sissu.it ).
​
Giovanni is the recipient of two awards: the honorary citizenship of cultural merits by the Bahia Blanca Municipality (Argentina) 2008 and the Asolapo/UNESCO Prize for educational merits, 2014-2015.