Did you know that it’s American Education Week? Don’t forget to thank your favorite teacher and make sure to also check out our Source of the Week tweets. We’ve been threading some great folks who can be sources on various education topics.

This week we add to our roster of education sources two individuals who can offer unique perspectives on international comparative education as well as the intersection of psychology with the STEM achievement gap. 

Pilar Mendoza is an associate professor in the educational leadership and policy analysis department at the University of Missouri. Her work is centered on the globalization and development of higher education in Latin America. She analyzes education through the lens of decoloniality, neoliberalism, & academic capitalism and knowledge of industry-academia collaborations.

She is the founder and director of the International Research Center for the Development of Education (CIIDE is its acronym in Spanish), a partnership between the MU College of Education and UNIMINUTO in Bogotá, a private higher education system in Colombia serving marginalized students. Her international work with college student retention as well as equity, diversity and inclusion in higher education attracted around $1 million in external grants from USAID, the Ford Foundation, the Fulbright program and the U.S. State Department.

Jonathan Wai is an assistant professor and the Endowed Chair in Education Policy in the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas, with a joint appointment in the school's psychology department.
Wai’s research interests include STEM achievement gaps, the development of prodigies, the educational background of leaders, educational inequality and the value of higher education. 

Wai serves on multiple boards, including the research advisory board of the College Board Admissions Research Consortium, the board of directors of International Society for Intelligence Research and the MATHCOUNTS Foundation. He leads the education working group of the Association for Psychological Science Global Collaboration on COVID-19.

Other sources of interest this week.

Two of the world’s superpowers, U.S. and China, met on Monday amid rising tensions. Here are two sources on the economics of China and the democratic movement within Hong Kong:
 
Sung Won Sohn is a professor of finance and economics at Loyola Marymount University and president of SS Economics, an economic consulting firm. His interests include the international economy, especially Pacific-Rim countries, and China’s impact on the global economy.
 
Wilfred Chan is a contributing writer at The Nation. Previously, he worked in Hong Kong for CNN International covering the 2014 Umbrella Movement and its aftermath. He can offer insight on the future of protest, free speech and democracy in Hong Kong under the effects of China’s national security law.

Sources of the Week on the news

Read:

• Trans activist Precious Brady-Davis was listed by PinkNews as one of the top 10 trans leaders with a world impact. 
• Julianne Malveux wrote an opinion in The Philadelphia Tribune, "Why won’t Democrats fight?"
• The Guardian reported on allegations of a “toxic” workplace culture at Amazon Web Services and quoted labor law professor Veena Dubal.
• Tressie McMillan Cottom wrote “How Kyrsten Sinema Uses Clothing to Signal Her Social Class” in The New York Times.

Watch:

• Brittany Packnett Cunningham spoke on MSNBC’s American Voices about Kyle Rittenhouse’s trial.

Listen:

• On TED Radio Hour, Phillip Atiba Goff speaks to reimagining our approach to public safety.