Naureen Durrani is a Professor in School Education at the Graduate School of Education, Nazarbayev University (NU), where she directs the Central Asian Research Centre for Educational Innovation and Transformation (CARCEIT). Before joining NU, she worked at the Centre for International Education, University of Sussex.Hélène Thibault is Associate Professor of Political Science and International Relations at the School of Sciences and Humanities at Nazarbayev University, Kazakhstan.