Syahril, Iwan
A passionate educator, Iwan Syahril has more than 17 years of experience working in the field of education in different areas in Indonesia, Canada, and the USA. Majoring in international relations as an undergraduate, Iwan decided to become a teacher of English in Indonesia for 10 years. He also served as a program manager for an educational foundation in Bandung, Indonesia, with the goal of setting up an educational community inspired by the theory of multiple intelligences. During this time, he was involved in a number of collaboration both with Indonesian progressive-minded educationists and practitioners and also with world educators whom he met during his involvement in East West Center's Best Practice Institutes in summer and fall 2005.
Selected as a Fulbright scholar in 2006-2009, Iwan pursued Master's degree in Teachers College, Columbia University and obtained two master degrees, one in Secondary Education, and the other one in Curriculum and Teaching. During his time in New York City, he also was recruited as Scholar-in-Residence for the high-profile Scarsdale Public School district, where he collaborated with teachers in all grade levels in the district to enrich their global education curriculum.
Before coming to Michigan State University, Iwan served as an Educational Studies Lecturer in Sampoerna School of Education, Jakarta, Indonesia. He designed and developed a number of courses including methods, policy, and language courses for teacher pre-service and in-service programs. Coming to Michigan State University as a doctoral student in Dept of Teacher Education in 2011, Iwan soon realized that he has a strong policy interest in his academic work, which drove him to enroll as a student in the Dept of Educational Policy in 2012. So far in MSU Iwan has worked as a instructor for a number of Master's level courses and worked closely with Professor Mary Kennedy to do some research work. Iwan strongly believes in the power of education for social transformation. His professional interests are teacher quality, quality teaching, and education reform in developing nations. He aims to be a leading scholar and practitioner in the field of Education Policy and Teacher Education.
