College of Education and Human Development

Department of Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development

Matthew Schuelka

  • Lecturer

  • Organizational Leadership, Policy And Development
    206 Burton Hall
    178 Pillsbury Dr SE
    Minneapolis, MN 55455-0226

  • schu1168@umn.edu
Matthew Schuelka

Areas of interest

Inclusive education
Critical disability studies
Education in South and Southeast Asia
Anthropology of education
Comparative and international education

Degrees

Ph.D., University of Minnesota, Educational Policy and Administration (Comparative International Development Education)
M.A., Stanford University, International Education Administration and Policy Analysis
M.Ed., University of Vermont, Special Education
B.A., University of Minnesota, Music Education and English Literature

Biography

Profile

I have experience at all levels of education, from kindergarteners to graduate students. I have also lived and taught in several countries around the world: Bhutan, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom. Since 2010, I have worked in higher education, having taught at Stanford University, the University of Minnesota, Royal Thimphu College, the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus, and the University of Birmingham (UK and Dubai campuses). Previously, I was a counselling teacher and special educator at the secondary level in Vermont, special educator at the elementary level in Minnesota, and also a high school band teacher in Minnesota. Currently, I am a lecturer in OLPD as well as a researcher at the Institute on Community Integration.

I am the author or editor of numerous books, chapters, and articles. My books include Global Directions in Inclusive Education (Routledge, 2021), The Sage Handbook on Inclusion and Diversity in Education (SAGE, 2019), and Education in Bhutan (Springer, 2016). I have been primary investigator for large-scale international research projects funded by the Toyota Foundation, the European Union, UKAid, and the British Academy; as well as a consultant with numerous international agencies including USAID, UNICEF, UNESCO, DfID, JICA, and the World Bank. In 2020, I founded Fora Education, a non-profit LLC that specializes in education research, consultancy, technical partnership, products, and services.

Courses Taught

OLPD 3381 – Developing Intercultural Competence
OLPD 5103 – Comparative Education
OLPD 5132 – Intercultural Education and Training
OLPD 5061 – Ethnographic Research Methods
OLPD 5121 – Educational Reform in International Context

Publications

Schuelka, M.J. & Carrington, S. (Eds.) (2022). Global directions in inclusive education: Conceptualizations, practices, and methodologies for the 21st century. Routledge. 

Layachi, A. & Schuelka, M.J. (2022). The impact of the COVID-19 related school closure on the mental heath and well-being of children with SEN and their parents in Algeria. International Journal of Disability, Development and Education. 

Schuelka, M.J. & Kezang Sherab. (2022). Educational values in complex systems: An introduction to the educational values evaluation and design framework and a case study of inclusivity in Bhutan. Current Issues in Comparative Education, 24(1), 114–131.  

Schuelka, M.J. & Engsig, T.T. (2022). On the question of educational purpose: Complex educational systems analysis for inclusion. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 26(5), 448-465. 

Johnstone, C., Schuelka, M.J., & Swadek, G. (2020). Quality education for all? The promises and limitations of the SDG framework for inclusive education and students with disabilities. In A. Wulff (Ed.), Grading goal four: Tensions, threats, and opportunities in the Sustainable Development Goal on quality education (pp. 96–115). Brill | Sense. 

Schuelka, M.J., Braun, A.M.B. & Johnstone, C.J. (2020). Beyond access and barriers: Inclusive education and systems change. Forum for International Research on Education, 6(1). 

Schuelka, M.J., Johnstone, C.J., Thomas, G. & Artiles, A.J. (Eds.) (2019). 
The SAGE handbook of inclusion and diversity in education . SAGE. 

Ware, H. & Schuelka, M.J. (2019). Constructing ‘disability’ in Myanmar: Teachers, community stakeholders, and the complexity of disability models. Disability & Society, 34(6), 863–884. 

Schuelka, M.J., Kezang Sherab & Tsering Y. Nidup (2019). Gross national happiness, British values, and non-cognitive skills: the role and perspective of teachers in Bhutan and England. Educational Review, 71(6), 748-766. 

Schuelka, M.J. (2018). The cultural production of the ‘disabled’ person: Constructing student difference in Bhutanese schools. Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 49(2), 183–200. 

Schuelka, M.J. & Maxwell, T.W. (Eds.). (2016). Education in Bhutan: Culture, schooling, and Gross National Happiness. Springer. 

Schuelka, M.J. (2015). The evolving construction and conceptualisation of disability in Bhutan. Disability & Society, 30(6), 820–833. 

Schuelka, M.J. (2013). Constructing a modern disability identity: Dilemmas of inclusive schooling in Zambia. In A. Azzopardi (Ed.), Youth: Responding to lives (pp. 137–152). In Studies in Inclusive Education (Vol. 25). Brill | Sense. 

Schuelka, M.J. (2013). A faith in humanness: Disability, religion and development. Disability & Society, 28(4), 500–513. 

Schuelka, M.J. (2013). Excluding students with disabilities from the culture of achievement: The case of the TIMSS, PIRLS and PISA. Journal of Education Policy, 28(2), 216–230.