Ali A. Abdi is a Somali-Canadian sociologist and educationist. Currently, he is a professor of social development education in the Department of Educational Studies at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, where he previously served as head of department. Before that, he was a professor of International Education and International Development at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, where he also served as the founding co-director of the Centre for Global Citizenship Education and Research (CGCER). He is past president of the Comparative and International Education Society of Canada (CIESC). In addition, he is the founding editor/co-editor of the peer-reviewed online publications Journal of Contemporary Issues in Education and Cultural and Pedagogical Inquiry.

Ali received his B.A. in sociology from the Concordia University in Montreal, where he also pursued and achieved a M.A. in political science with concentration on public policy. He received his Ph.D. in international development education from McGill University. Since then Ali has worked on international research projects in Somalia, Kenya, South Africa, Senegal, and Zambia as a researcher, program director or project contributor. He has written - with different extensity - on Somali politics, Somali education and general education and development education on the wider Africa context, as well as other social and cultural issues pertinent to the continent's social wellbeing and knowledge decolonization contexts.^{[citation needed]}

Authored

Edited (Selection)