How does a country go from copying American education models to banning international organizations from its schools? We studied it using the case of Russia. Our research team analyzed policy documents, public statements, and expert interviews spanning 1992 to 2025 to trace how Russia’s relationship with the international education community changed over time. We show how Russia moved through four distinct phases: from eagerly borrowing ideas and funding from the World Bank and OECD in the chaotic 1990s, to positioning itself as a global education leader in the 2010s, to declaring “sovereign education” and cutting ties with Western frameworks after 2022. Using this case, we show how the same global tools that once helped Russia modernize its schools were later repurposed to serve nationalist goals.
Contribution
Hungary, Turkey, and other countries are showing similar patterns of opening up to global education standards, then pulling back as politics shift. Understanding how and why this happens is the first step to predicting it. This research gives policymakers, international organizations, and educators a practical map: what are the warning signs? What can international partners do to maintain educational ties even when political relations deteriorate? Does ideological education necessarily mean abandoning economic logic, or can a country weaponize global tools for nationalist ends?
Link to the full article: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/14749041251393354
Authors: Margarita Kiryushina, Miri Yemini, Claire Maxwell
Research group’s website: https://yeminilab.technion.ac.il/
