Prelims

Half Title Page

Education and Sustainable Development in the Context of Crises

Title Page

Education and Sustainable Development in the Context of Crises: International Case Studies of Transformational Change

EDITED BY

IRYNA KUSHNIR

Nottingham Trent University, UK

KRISHAN SOOD

Nottingham Trent University, UK

MIRIAM SANG-AH PARK

Nottingham Trent University, UK

HUA ZHONG

Nottingham Trent University, UK

AND

NATASHA SERRET

Nottingham Trent University, UK

United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India – Malaysia – China

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Emerald Publishing, Floor 5, Northspring, 21-23 Wellington Street, Leeds LS1 4DL.

First edition 2025

Editorial matter and selection © 2025 Iryna Kushnir, Krishan Sood, Miriam Sang-Ah Park, Hua Zhong, and Natasha Serret. Individual chapters © 2025 the authors. Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. These works are published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of these works (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode

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ISBN: 978-1-83797-776-5 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-83797-773-4 (Online)

ISBN: 978-1-83797-775-8 (Epub)

Dedication Page

This book is dedicated to the people who live in war zones and suffer from the injustice inflicted upon them. Our thoughts are with them.

Contents

List of Tables and Figures

Tables

Figures

List of Abbreviations and Acronyms

About the Editors

Iryna Kushnir is an Associate Professor at the Nottingham Institute of Education at Nottingham Trent University. Prior to this, she held academic posts at the University of Edinburgh and the University of Sheffield. Her interdisciplinary research combines the following main areas: higher education policy and sociology, European integration and social justice. She is particularly interested, and has published widely, in the area of the higher education policy and politics of the European higher education area. Her interdisciplinary approach has led to empirical and theoretical contributions, which reveal how education policy, on one hand, and Europeanisation processes, on the other hand, are interrelated and mutually shape one another. A wider societal impact of her work is in co-establishing and co-developing the Ukrainian Education Research Association which has become the biggest national research association in Ukraine and a hub for education research and quality.

Krishan Sood is a Senior Lecturer at the Nottingham Institute of Education at Nottingham Trent University (NTU). He has held course leadership roles at NTU on MA Education and the Foundation Degree in Education Policy and Practice since joining NTU. He has leadership and management experience gained across different education sectors, industry and leadership. He started as a Science Teacher in Derbyshire secondary school. He has taught in four universities in England. Currently, he is the Course Leader for Foundation Degree in Education Policy and Practice at NTU. His expertise is in educational leadership for diversity, social justice and inclusion. His research interests and publications are in the areas of leadership and diversity management, English as additional language, gender, early years and leadership, initial teacher training and teaching and learning and has published nationally and internationally. A wider societal impact of his work is in fostering international partnerships with global universities like University of Pretoria and Jyvaskyla, Finland, on researching early years/early childhood education that promotes equity among teachers, leaders, academics, students, parents and the wider community.

Miriam Sang-Ah Park is a Principal Lecturer (Internationalisation and External Partnership) at the School of Social Sciences at Nottingham Trent University, and a major part of her job entails connecting globally with higher education institutions across the world. She is also a research psychologist with a keen interest in topics such as psychological well-being and resilience across generations and works closely with researchers from different disciplines on related topics. She has taught classes on cultural and cross-cultural psychology, positive psychology and social psychology. She has served as Associate and Invited Editors for journals such as the British Journal of Social Psychology and Frontiers in Psychology. She obtained her PhD in Cross-cultural Psychology from Brunel University, UK, and has an international profile. Many of her collaborators are from outside of the United Kingdom, and one of the core areas of her research has been international and decolonial education as her publication record demonstrates.

Hua Zhong is an Associate Professor and Module Leader specialising in building engineering services, sustainable technology and digital construction. With over 20 years of professional experience, her research and teaching interests include low-carbon design, building performance simulation, intelligent buildings and sustainability in the built environment. She has published extensively in her field, with over 30 peer-reviewed journal papers and books chapters. She has generated over £500,000 in research and consultancy income, leading projects for organisations such as the British Council, NERC and the National Trust. Her consultancy experience includes major infrastructure projects like Crossrail, Beijing National Stadium and McArthurGlen Designer Outlets. She provides leadership through committees and boards like the CIBSE Regional Committee, Women in Engineering Society and the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers. She holds qualifications such as Chartered Engineer, Fellow of CIBSE and Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Natasha Serret is a Senior Lecturer and Senior Fellow at the Nottingham Institute of Education at Nottingham Trent University. Previously, she held academic posts at King’s College, London, as a post-doc researcher and senior research officer, working on several large international and national research projects. At the start of her career, she was a primary classroom teacher. Her scholarly research expertise focusses on enabling the pedagogical transformation of classroom teachers in assessment and cognition in science. Pedagogical transformation is embodied in her research in Assessment for Learning and Cognitive Acceleration through Science Education. Her recognised authority in primary science is evident in her long-standing active membership with the National Association for Science Education (ASE). Over the course of 25 years, she has been appointed to a number of roles including Co-chair of the International Committee (2022) and Co-editor of the ASE Guide to Primary Science Education (2018). She is currently the Editor for the ASE Science Teacher Education online hub. Across this work, she has forged purposeful engagement between classroom practice and educational research nationally and internationally. She serves to support communities of science practitioners and uses over-arching themes, such as sustainability in science education, to ensure that a global perspective is maintained in science teachers’ articulation and reflection of their practice. As recognition of her work, she was awarded the ASE Special Service award for her contribution to science education in 2018.

About the Contributors

Munirah Eskander is a Research Operations Associate with J-PAL Middle East and North Africa and the Sheikh Saud bin Saqr Al Qasimi Foundation for Policy Research. She is a former Adjunct Lecturer and Jan Warner Visiting Scholar at the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani, teaching in the English and Social Sciences departments. She is also a Research Fellow with Women Living Under Muslim Laws, a transnational feminist solidarity network based in the United Kingdom. She holds a master’s degree in Modern Middle Eastern Studies from Leiden University in the Netherlands, as well as a dual bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering and International Studies from the American University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates. A recipient of the Mahmoud S. Rabbani Scholarship from the Lutfia Rabbani Foundation, her research focusses on the Gulf specifically, especially Saudi Arabia, and the Middle East and North Africa more broadly, including Iraqi-Kurdistan. Her interests include gender and sexuality, political and Islamic reform, social justice, the intersection between language learning and critical thinking and educational developments in the Arab world.

F. Sehkar Fayda-Kinik is currently a Senior Lecturer at Istanbul Technical University, Turkey. After gaining her master’s degree in Educational Administration and Supervision, she started to work for Istanbul Technical University as a Lecturer embracing teaching undergraduate students and research. Before embarking on an academic career, she received her PhD degree in Educational Administration and Supervision. Her research has embraced educational sciences with a special emphasis on higher education, knowledge management, professional development, technology in education, leadership, comparative education and sustainable development. She has been involved in a number of international projects on education. She is currently a member of the International Study Association on Teachers and Teaching, the British Educational Leadership, Management and Administration Society and the International Academic Forum.

Hayfa Jafar is a distinguished Institutional Effectiveness and Institutional Research Analyst, currently serving as the Manager of Institutional Research at Georgian College in Ontario, Canada. She previously held the position of Director of Institutional Effectiveness at the American University of Iraq - Sulaimani and worked as an Institutional Research Analyst at Centennial College in Canada. Dr. Jafar excels in both quantitative and qualitative research methods, having led numerous projects focused on measuring student retention and graduate outcomes, examining student social and academic experiences, crafting and overseeing strategic plans, establishing course review processes, and conducting preliminary research for new program development. Her doctoral dissertation explores the rationales behind the internationalization of higher education and the establishment of imported universities in post-2003 Iraq. Her research interests are broad, encompassing internationalization of higher education, international student mobility, international graduate outcomes and experiences, and the measurement of universities’ social impact.

Aylin Kirisci-Sarikaya is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Education in Izmir Democracy University, Turkey. She has been teaching undergraduate and graduate educational sciences as well as educational administration courses. Prior to her career as an Assistant Professor, she taught in lower- and upper-secondary schools affiliated with the Ministry of National Education. She earned a master’s degree in Educational Administration and Supervision and completed her PhD in the same field. Her areas of research interest include educational administration, educational policy, professional development, higher education, comparative education and sustainable development. She has managed several international projects, including EU Erasmus+ projects on teachers’ professional development and growth, by engaging in international collaborations on teaching and knowledge transfer. Currently, she is a member of the Association of Educational Administrators and Experts.

Sang-Seok Moon is an Assistant Professor at the School of Social Sciences at Kangwon National University. He majored in historical sociology at the Department of Sociology at Yonsei University and in development theory at the Department of Sociology at the University of Texas at Austin. He is interested in the identity of the people who make up the society and the making of citizens who will be the subjects of the future society from Kookmin (National Subjects) formed during the dictatorship years of the past in South Korea. His current research projects focus on ways to invite and increase social participation from different age groups, including the youth as well as the older adults who make up a larger proportion of the population than before. He has published sole-authored and edited books including Vestiges of Park Chung-hee’s Mobilization System and the Formation of Modern Civil Society in Korea.

Jennifer Swinehart is the Deputy Head of School at American School of Bombay, an international school in Mumbai, India. In this role, she works with staff, students and parents to help guide strategic educational and operational priorities in alignment with the school mission. She believes that all students should be empowered to pursue their passions as inquirers, collaborators and innovators to grow into self-directed learners. In over 20 years of experience in K-12 public and international schools, she has held various instructional and leadership roles through which she has advocated for expanding diverse and inclusive learning environments. In addition to providing a wide range of professional development experiences within her school community, she is a Principals’ Training Center facilitator and Adaptive Schools Agency trainer and regularly creates and delivers workshops on coaching and adaptive leadership. Her doctoral research used Habermas’ theory of communicative action as a lens through which to explore the influence of culture, society and person on students’ learning lifeworlds.

Abdishakur Tarah is a Senior Lecturer and Researcher at the Nottingham Institute of Education, Nottingham Trent University, UK. He has extensive experience in educational management, and research areas in education in conflict and post-conflict context. His teaching practice focusses on special educational needs and disability, educational management and policy and social justice in education at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. He has a number of published works, including recent chapters, academic papers and educational resources in areas of action research, special educational needs, social justice and school leadership. He also served as Principal Advisor to FPENS, largest umbrella association of private schools in conflict-affected Somalia. He has worked as independent education consultant and worked with many basic and higher education (HE) institutions in Somalia as well as in other countries including Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Ethiopia. He is a member of global known education network and partnerships including Education in Crisis and Conflict Network and Higher Education Learning Network. His current initiatives are professionalisation of school principals in post-conflict Somalia and the role of HE institutions in post-conflict context.

Phil Wood is now a Professor of Education at the Nottingham Institute of Education. He began his career in education as a Geography and Geology Teacher in Lincolnshire secondary schools where he initially developed his interest in sustainability and environmental education. During this time, he was involved in national pilot curriculum projects before moving into teacher education at the University of Leicester. While leading teacher education and master’s programmes, he developed a deep interest in how we understand and undertake change. Having spent five years at Bishop Grosseteste University, he was researcher development lead. Here, he continues to develop research into the nature of change, teaches on several undergraduate and postgraduate programmes and supervises a number of doctoral researchers.

Nuve Yazgan is a Research Consultant at Full Fact. She previously worked as a Researcher at Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham Institute of Education, and at University of Essex, Department of Government. She completed her PhD studies in December 2021 at University of Surrey, Department of Politics. Her research interests include European Public Policy, Greek Politics and Greek–Turkish Relations. She has previously published articles and book reviews in various journals.

Acknowledgements

We, the editors, would like to express our gratitude to all chapter authors in this book who have contributed their valuable chapters.