Inclusive Education in a Post-Soviet Context

Dr. Tsediso Michael Makoelle is one of the recipients of the prestigious Nelson Mandela scholarship to the United Kingdom (UK). He holds the degrees of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Inclusive Education from the University of Manchester, UK and a Doctor of Education (D Ed) in Education Management and Leadership from University of South Africa (UNISA). He has been working at Nazarbayev University for nearly five years in the capacities of associate professor, and then Director of Doctoral Studies, General Director for Research and lately the Vice Dean for Research at the Graduate School of Education.
He has written and published extensively on the topics of inclusive education and educational leadership, management, governance and administration for both national and international audiences and readership. Dr Makoelle has supervised many Master and PhD students. He is a member of several international research bodies. He is a reviewer of grants and funding applications for the South African National Research Foundation (NRF), reviewed papers for several international Scopus and Web of Science journals and evaluated research theses for several universities in South Africa and abroad. He has also reviewed post graduate courses and programmes for many universities and serves on editorial boards of several international Journals. He has collaborated with universities from the US, UK, Europe, and Africa. He is passionate about inclusive education with the research interest in conceptualization and operationalization of inclusive pedagogy within disadvantaged South African classroom contexts and beyond. He has devoted his research work within the framework of Participatory Action Research, informed by notions of critical, reflective practitioner and transformative epistemologies
Dr Michelle Somerton is Assistant Professor at the Graduate School of Education and appointed to the position of Academic Program Director of the degree Masters in Leadership Inclusive Education for the past three years. She holds a PhD, Graduate Certificate in Research, and a Bachelor of Education with Honours from the University of Tasmania. Dr Somerton was admitted several times to the Dean's roll of academic excellence, awarded the T.E. Doe Prize in Education, and the recipient of an Elite Scholarship from the University of Tasmania for her PhD studies. She has been working at Nazarbayev University for more than four years and has won numerous teaching awards at the school and university level in recognition of her practice and commitment to the development of inclusive education.
Her current research interests are investigating educational inequity and barriers to education in Kazakhstan including the diagnosis of children with Autism (ASD) and intellectual impairments, the effectiveness of resource centres in developing inclusive education in Kazakhstan, and developing an instrument to evaluate inclusion within higher education institutions. She has researched and published on these topics in international journals and has reviewed programs and courses for several universities based on inclusive practices in course delivery and assessment. Her previous research considered reading comprehension difficulties in students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and the design of educational software for mobile technologies. Michelle currently teaches Inclusive Education leadership, policy, global perspectives, research methods, and inclusive practices for Master's students. She has successfully supervised a number of Masters students to completion and currently supervises several doctoral students in Kazakhstan and Australia.