Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere

Russia is often described as an authoritarian country under President Putin’s tight control. Yet this perception obscures policy activities of those who work under the shadows of powerful leaders and public institutions. Focusing on a recent wave of educational reforms in Russia, Aydarova will share a story of how a small group of Russian academics orchestrated a set of reforms using the President and the Ministry of Education as the mouthpieces to justify their pursuits. The transformations pursued, however, capture the inner-workings of authoritarianism not only in the way that reforms are introduced but also in the futures that they seek to engineer. Drawing on the work of an obscure Soviet philosopher Shchedrovitsky, Russian reformers reoriented the country’s educational system away from its commitments to equity towards service to the corporate sector. While some aspects of this story are uniquely Russian, reformers’ positions in global policy networks and the support they receive from global “edupreneurs” demonstrate the relevance of this account for other parts of the world.

Dr. Aydarova is an Assistant Professor of Social Foundations at Auburn University. Her interdisciplinary scholarship lies at the intersections of teacher education, educational policy, and anthropology of education. In her research, she examines transformations in the work of teachers, teaching, and teacher education through the lens of equity, diversity, and social justice.