{"id":113,"date":"2026-04-22T14:45:36","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T14:45:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/ilahabaghirova\/?page_id=113"},"modified":"2026-04-29T12:39:56","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T12:39:56","slug":"research-overview","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/ilahabaghirova\/research-overview\/","title":{"rendered":"About the Researcher"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/experts.exeter.ac.uk\/44220-ilaha-baghirova\">Ilaha Baghirova<\/a> is a doctoral researcher in Education at the University of Exeter and a Teaching Associate in the Department of Politics. Her research focuses on\u00a0<strong>identity formation among adolescents from post-Soviet Muslim-majority country backgrounds in secondary schools in England,<\/strong>\u00a0particularly those from Central Asian and Azerbaijani contexts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She holds an MA in Political Sciences and an MRes in Politics. Her work takes an interdisciplinary approach, drawing on education and political sociology to examine the relationship between&nbsp;<strong>social and personal identity,<\/strong>&nbsp;and how this relationship is negotiated through school experiences. A central focus of her research is how adolescents make sense of Muslimness in relation to other social categories, and how these understandings develop within school contexts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Professional Training and Certifications<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Mental Health Awareness in Adolescents<\/em>&nbsp;(Croydon College)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Supporting Challenging Behaviour and SEND in Educational Settings<\/em>&nbsp;(Aspire Education)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Teaching Activities<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ilaha Baghirova is a Teaching Associate in the Department of Politics at the University of Exeter. She contributes to undergraduate teaching on&nbsp;Early Modern Political Thought (POL1026_A_2_202526), Power and Democracy (POL1019_A_1_202526), and Introduction to Research Design in Politics (2025\/6).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She also acts as a mentor to master\u2019s students in the Education Department.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ilaha Baghirova is a doctoral researcher in Education at the University of Exeter and a Teaching Associate in the Department of Politics. Her research focuses on\u00a0identity formation among adolescents from post-Soviet Muslim-majority country backgrounds in secondary schools in England,\u00a0particularly those from Central Asian and Azerbaijani contexts. She holds an MA in Political Sciences and an [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3107,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-sidebar-boxed-feature-img.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>About the Researcher - Research in Education and Identity<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/ilahabaghirova\/research-overview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"About the Researcher - Research in Education and Identity\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ilaha Baghirova is a doctoral researcher in Education at the University of Exeter and a Teaching Associate in the Department of Politics. 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