Yong Zhao

Yong Zhao is an influential education scholar and Foundation Distinguished Professor in the School of Education at the University of Kansas, where he also holds a courtesy appointment in the School of Business. He is concurrently a professor of educational leadership at the Melbourne Graduate School of Education in Australia and an elected member of the National Academy of Education and fellow of the International Academy of Education. Born in Sichuan Province, China, he earned his BA in English Language Education from Sichuan International Studies University (formerly Sichuan Institute of Foreign Languages) and later completed his AM and PhD in Educational Psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.

Zhao has published over 100 articles and approximately 30–40 books on globalization and education, educational policy, and innovation in schooling, and has received multiple honors, including an Early Career Award from the American Educational Research Association and recognition as an Outstanding Public Educator by the Horace Mann League. His books include Learners Without Borders: New Learning Pathways for All Students and Agents of Impact: How Education Can Empower Students to Change Themselves, Their Communities, and Their World, as well as Fix the Past or Invent the Future: Moving Beyond One-Size-Fits-All Education, which critiques standardized, one-size-fits-all approaches and advocates transformative, student-centered learning