Elena Aydarova received the Outstanding Dissertation Award from the American Educational Research Association’s Division K (Teaching and Teacher Education) for her dissertation entitled “Teacher Education Reforms as Political Theater: Modernization Dramas in the Russian Federation.” This award recognizes dissertations of exemplary conceptual, methodological, and literary quality on an important topic in teaching and teacher education. Conducted as a multi-sited critical ethnography with the support from the Fulbright Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship, Elena’s dissertation examined how globally circulated policy scripts become the foundation for national education reforms. More information about Elena’s scholarship can be found at https://olenaaydarova.com
Olga Mun received the award for her master’s thesis titled "(Re)imagining National Identity in Early Literacy Textbooks in Kazakhstan" from the Central Asian Analytical Network in partnership with the Central Asia Program and the Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies at the George Washington University. The award is given to one young scholar from Central Asia recognizing the outstanding quality of academic work on a socially important issue in the region. Funded by Lehigh University Faculty of Education, Comparative and International Education Program graduate research funds and supervised by Professor Iveta Silova, Olga's thesis examined the issues of national identity construction in Russian and Kazakh language primary school textbooks. The Russian and English versions of the study can be accessed at http://caa-network.org/archives/5620
