Short biography
Tanya Khavenson is an educational sociologist with expertise spanning several areas in education. Her research interests include social inequality in school performance and access to higher education, innovations in education, and educational policy. Currently, I am researching the topic of youth empowerment and activism from a comparative perspective.
I hold a PhD in Education from the Higher School of Economics, in Russia. Thesis “Methodology of using large-scale assessment studies in education for educational policy”, advisor: Prof. Martin Carnoy, Stanford University.
I have been an Associate Professor and Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Education, National Research University – Higher School of Economics, Moscow, since 2012. My work includes conducting full-cycle academic research at both school and university levels, writing research papers for peer-reviewed journals, and teaching courses in research methods, statistics, and educational policy. I have also supervised master’s and PhD students and served on various academic councils and boards. From 2019 to 2022, I served as the Head (Dean) of the Graduate School at the Institute of Education at the Higher School of Economics. In this role, I managed multiple master’s degree programs, developed new strategies for the School, and oversaw the academic progress of graduate students.
My expertise lies in sociological and educational policy perspectives on education, with extensive experience in international studies. This has given a comparative perspective to many of my studies.
Research areas
I explored the factors contributing to inequality in school performance and the subsequent access to higher education, the ways social structures, family cultural and social capital, and education policy form students’ educational trajectories. My work in Educational Performance and Policy Measures focused on identifying factors of academic performance of school and university students and interconnections of educational policies and countries’ outcomes in international large-scale assessments (such as TIMSS, PISA, PIRLS). For some period, I was involved in the research on innovations in education, understanding the role and dissemination of innovations from the sociological perspective. I developed several scales for measuring motivation and readiness to incorporate innovative approaches into the professional lives of various educational actors in Russia.
My current research interests lie in the sphere of youth activism, youth empowerment, and global citizenship education in different educational, social, and political contexts. I am also interested in the methodology and approaches of conducting comparative international research.
Participating in projects: STUDACT
Hobby: long-distance walking, sightseeing
