Anna Becker is Visiting Lecturer in the School of Education at North Dakota State University. Her scholarly expertise lies in Comparative and International Education (CIE), with particular attention to multilingual education, language policy, migration, academic mobility, and qualitative research methods. She teaches graduate courses in Educational Leadership and Educational, Organizational & Policy Studies, drawing on extensive international teaching experience in comparative education, educational policy, leadership, and qualitative research methods. Before entering higher education, she taught in public secondary schools in Germany and Switzerland, an experience that continues to inform her research and teaching across educational contexts.
Her research has appeared in leading international journals, including TESOL Quarterly, Applied Linguistics, International Journal of Multilingualism, European Journal of Education, European Education, and Research in Comparative and International Education. She is the author of Identity, Power, and Prestige in Switzerland's Multilingual Education (Transcript, 2023) and Language Policy and the Paradox of Multilingual Harmony in Switzerland (Palgrave Macmillan, 2026), with additional book projects under contract with Cambridge University Press, Multilingual Matters, and Oxford University Press. She also co-edited Decolonial Epistemologies in Comparative and International Education: Anticipating the Cultural Turn? (Emerald, 2026), alongside tavis d. jules, Florin D. Salajan, and Benjamin Scherrer.
From 2023 to 2025, Anna was a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at the Polish Academy of Sciences, where she served as principal investigator of a Horizon Europe-funded research project examining higher education policy, migration, and international academic mobility. Her scholarship has been recognized with several honors, including the Comparative and International Education Society's (CIES) Elizabeth Sherman Swing Award (2023) and Innovative Curriculum Design Award (2022).
Beyond her research and teaching, Anna is Founder and Director of the International Scholars Alliance, an organization dedicated to supporting international scholars through advocacy, mentorship, and collaboration. She serves on the Advisory Board of Comparative Education Review and as Section Editor of "Focus on Practice" at Language Awareness. She also serves as the elected Awards Chair of the Language Issues Special Interest Group of CIES.
Areas of Study & Research
- Comparative and International Education
- Multilingual Education
- Language Policy
- Migration and Academic Mobility
- Qualitative Research Methods
Awards & Honors
- Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship (2023–2025) — European Commission and Polish National Science Center fellowship supporting international, interdisciplinary research
- Elizabeth Sherman Swing Award (2023) — Comparative and International Education Society, for outstanding contributions to research on language policy, multilingualism, and multiculturalism in Europe
- Swiss National Science Foundation Open-Access Publication Grant (2022) — competitive funding supporting open-access publication of dissertation
- Innovative Curriculum Design in Comparative and International Education Award (2022) — Comparative and International Education Society, for an open-access learning platform for school leaders featuring practice cases from seven countries
Links
Education
- PhD, University of Fribourg, Switzerland, 2022
Publications
Selected publications are listed below. For a complete publication record, please see my CV.
Books and Edited Volumes
Becker, A. (2026). Language policy and the paradox of multilingual harmony in Switzerland. Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-18683-6
jules, t. d., Salajan, F. D., Becker, A., & Scherrer, B. (2026). Decolonial epistemologies in comparative and international education: Anticipating the cultural turn? Emerald. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80686-569-7
Becker, A. (2023). Identity, power, and prestige in Switzerland’s multilingual education. Transcript.
Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles
Becker, A., & Salajan, F. D. (2026). ‘Whose language counts?’ Linguistic racism, Gen-AI, and unequal access to education for Roma and refugee students in Poland and Romania. International Journal of Applied Linguistics. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijal.70378
Becker, A., & Pentón Herrera, L. J. (2026). The ethical work of openness in qualitative L2 research. Studies in Second Language Acquisition. https://doi.org/10.1017/S027226312610196X
Becker, A. (2026). Soft coloniality of English: Linguistic justice and epistemic pluralism in comparative and international education. Nordic Journal of Comparative and International Education, 10(1), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.7577/njcie.6403
Becker, A. (2026). From English as a lingua franca to Englishes as Linguae Harmonicae: A critical framework for ethical and relational language education. Revista Brasileira de Linguística Aplicada, 26(1), e59747. https://doi.org/10.1590/1984-6398202659747
Pentón Herrera, L. J., & Becker, A. (2026). The hidden curriculum of gender identity in L2 classrooms: Considerations for teachers, textbooks, and students. TESOL Quarterly, 60(1), 446–462. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.70039
Zakharova, Y., & Becker, A. (2026). Academic mobility and identity in transition: Comparative insights from multilingual scholars across higher educational systems. International Journal of Comparative Education and Development, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCED-01-2026-0014
Kéri, A., Şahin, B. B., Voda, A. I., Chelishvili, A., Becker, A., Eriçok, B., et al. (2026). Socio-cultural integration of international students in Europe: A systematic review. Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad, 38(1), 138–166. https://doi.org/10.36366/frontiers.v38i1.1128
Becker, A., & Zakharova, Y. (2026). Bridging cultures in academia: A duoethnography of cross-cultural collaboration and self-reflexivity in Warsaw, Poland. European Education, 58(1), 15–28. https://doi.org/10.1080/10564934.2025.2516715
Becker, A., & Zakharova, Y. (2025). Bridging policy and training gaps: Language policy and instructor preparedness for English-medium-instruction in Polish universities. European Journal of Education, 60(4), e70305. https://doi.org/10.1111/ejed.70305
Becker, A., & Salajan, F. D. (2025). The politics of academic legitimacy: Governance and epistemic justice in Poland and Romania. Journal of Educational Sciences, 26(2), 18–32. https://doi.org/10.35923/JES.2025.2.02
Salajan, F. D., & Becker, A. (2025). Strategic horizons: Comparative lessons on higher education internationalization from Romania and Poland. Educația 21 Journal, 32, 16–27. https://doi.org/10.24193/ed21.2025.32.02
Becker, A., & Zakharova, Y. (2025). Balancing acts: Polish language teachers navigating identity, language promotion, and multilingual education. Journal of Education for Multilingualism, 2(2), 167–192.
Becker, A., & Salajan, F. D. (2024). Materializing global academic mobility through the eyes of program coordinators: Comparative insights from a Romanian-U.S. institutional Erasmus+ agreement. Research in Comparative and International Education, 19(4), 402–419. https://doi.org/10.1177/17454999241291400
Becker, A. (2024). Applied linguistics Communities of Practice: Improving the research-practice relationship. Applied Linguistics, 45(2), 272–286. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amad010
Magno, C., Becker, A., & Lötscher, S. (2024). Decolonial archeology of migration spaces. Critical Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies, 25(3), 185–193. https://doi.org/10.1177/15327086241256071
Becker, A. (2024). ‘[English as a lingua franca] is absolutely out of question!’ – The struggle between globalization and (neo-)nationalism in Switzerland’s upper secondary schools. Language & Education, 38(3), 329–343. https://doi.org/10.1080/09500782.2023.2174805
Salajan, F. D., Barnes, T., & Becker, A. (2024). Comparative regionalism cases of artificial intelligence governance in education: The CARICOM and the EU. The Round Table, 113(1), 71–85. https://doi.org/10.1080/00358533.2024.2307793
Becker, A. (2024). “I’m also trying to figure out the identity of my students.” – Teachers’ multilingual identity negotiation in the heritage language classroom. International Journal of Multilingualism, 21(1), 574–587. https://doi.org/10.1080/14790718.2022.2078328
Magno, C., Becker, A., Batkhuyag, B., Denman, B., Kazimzade, E., Mikayilova, U., & Schädeli, D. (2024). Learning through leadership: Capturing practice architectures. International Journal for Academic Development, 29(1), 34–47. https://doi.org/10.1080/1360144X.2022.2073447
Magno, C., & Becker, A. (2024). Postcritical school leadership encounters. Prospects, 54, 377–382. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11125-023-09648-7
Knoll, A., & Becker, A. (2023). Agency in interactions: How children use language(s) and contribute to the language ecology in Swiss bilingual German-English daycare centers. International Journal of Multilingualism, 20(4), 1304–1318. https://doi.org/10.1080/14790718.2023.2225857
Magno, C., Becker, A., & Imboden, M. (2022). Educational practice in Switzerland: Searching for diversity-engaged school leadership. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 52(3), 740–756. https://doi.org/10.1177/17411432221086225
Becker, A., & Knoll, A. (2022). Establishing multiple languages in early childhood. Heritage languages and language hierarchies in German-English daycare centers in Switzerland. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 25(7), 2561–2572. https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2021.1932719
Becker, A. (2021). “I’m always in this conflict” – Students’ struggle of plurilingual identity expression, linguistic insecurity, and assimilation in Switzerland’s higher education. European Education, 53(1), 15–30. https://doi.org/10.1080/10564934.2021.1971542
Book Chapters
Becker, A., & Salajan, F. D. (2026). AI-powered multilingual assemblages in comparative and international education. In F. Dervin & H. R’boul (Eds.), Lingua ex machina: AI, multilingualism, and interculturality (pp. 47–58). Routledge.
Magno, C., & Becker, A. (2025). Intersecting challenges in the CELL: Toward more equity and inclusion through digital education. In J. E. Torabian, A. Hadjar, & A. Toom (Eds.), Digitalisation, inclusion, and exclusion in higher education: Reflections on theory and practice (pp. 19–37). Cambridge Scholars Publication.
Becker, A. (2024). (Inter)national mobility in Swiss higher education: Bilingual policies, multilingual students, and ‘Englishization.’ In T. Mammadova (Ed.), International student mobility: Towards new goals and challenges (pp. 37–47). Routledge.
Magno, C., & Becker, A. (2023). Educational leaders becoming: A virtual community of practice as assemblage(s). In F. D. Salajan & t. d. jules (Eds.), Comparative and international education (re)assembled: Post-foundational reconceptualizations of an interdisciplinary field (pp. 167–182). Bloomsbury.
Becker, A., & Magno, C. (2022). Cognitive migration through language: Capturing linguistic movement and barriers in language portraits. In C. Magno, J. Lew, & S. Rodriguez (Eds.), (Re)Mapping migration and education: Centering methods and methodologies (pp. 134–157). Brill.
International Policy and Public Scholarship
Becker, A. (2026). From Global English to pluriversal voices: Rethinking multilateral cooperation in education through linguistic justice. UNESCO LAB ideas. Read publication