Vassar College

department of education

Faculty

Christopher Bjork

Associate Professor of Education, Coordinator of Teacher Education, and Chair of Education

  • Office: Vassar College Observatory 209
  • Phone: 437-7841
  • Box: 330
  • Email: chbjork@vassar.edu
Christopher Bjork earned his B.A. in English and his M.A. in liberal studies from Wesleyan University. He completed his Ph.D. in educational anthropology at Stanford University. Certified to teach both elementary and secondary school, he has worked as a classroom teacher in public schools in Japan and the United States, as well as at Nishimachi International School in Tokyo.

His research interests include international and comparative education, educational reform in Asia, educational decentralization, and teaching cultures in Indonesia and Japan. He is the author of the book Indonesian Education: Teachers, Schools, and Central Bureaucracy (Routledge, 2005), and the editor of Educational Decentralization: Asian Experiences and Conceptual Contributions (Springer, 2006) and the co-editor of Education and Training in Japan (Routledge, 1997) and Taking Teaching Seriously: What We Can Learn from Educators at Liberal Arts Institutions (Paradigm, forthcoming). His work has also appeared in journals such as Comparative Education Review, Anthropology & Education Quarterly, Phi Delta Kappan, and International Review of Education.