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Dr. Hanife Akar, is a tenured instructor and researcher in the department of Educational Sciences at Middle East Technical University since 2004, where she also acts as the departmental Erasmus Coordinator. She earned her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction in Middle East Technical University. She was a visiting research scholar (granted the award by the Republic of Poland) in the Pedagogical University of Krakow, Poland in 2000-2001, and Stanford University, Graduate School of Education in 2002-2003 as a PhD. Candidate with a Complimentary Degree awarded by TÜBA. Her research focus was on teacher education policy. She did her post-doctoral Fellowship as a Fulbright Scholar (2013-2014) in Boston College, Research Center for Internationalization of Higher Education, and Northeastern University, NU-Global, where she did comparative research on the internationalization of higher education. Beside the above, for professional development and lifelong learning purposes Dr. Akar received a Diploma for Overseas Teachers of English from Cambridge University, RSA (1994), and holds a certificate from Harvard Graduate School of Education: Leading Educational Systems at National Level (2014).
As a researcher, Dr. Akar’s research mainly focuses on educational policy, migration, equity, contemporary issues in education, civic education, internationalization and higher education curriculum policy and qualitative research. She has coordinated nation-wide and international projects. She coordinated various EU projects at national level on topics dealing with contemporary issues such as “Active citizenship education,” “Climate-friendly management in European schools; and “Bridges between Researchers and Practitioners in University Lifelong Learning.” She published in various refereed international journals related to her research areas. Alongside research projects, Dr. Akar also acted as a consultant for a UN project for lifelong learning of migrants, and some minor consultancy work for EFL Curriculum in a private school.
Dr. Akar offers courses at three cycles as an instructor. At undergraduate level she teaches Introduction to Education and Classroom Management Course. At graduate and post-graduate level she offers courses on Research Methods in Education, Curriculum Evaluation, Educational and Social Policy, Curriculum Policy in Higher Education, and Teaching in Higher Education. Alongside Turkish Language as a native language, Dr. Akar speaks English, Dutch and German language very well.