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Theme leader: Dr Caine Rolleston
Education, more than almost any other public investment, is understood to have the potential to reduce poverty, promote growth and prosperity and to reduce inequalities. It is by no means guaranteed, however, that education policies will deliver such benefits. Moreover, education policies can also reinforce inequality.
Intersecting inequalities are pervasive across all phases of education and transitions between them (early years, primary, secondary and tertiary). They are linked to poverty and a range of other markers of disadvantage and discrimination.
How do the various forms, institutions, organisations, structures and delivery mechanisms of education contribute to contemporary inequalities? How do political, economic, social and cultural aspects of historically framed contexts shape education inequalities? What is the role of education in reproducing and transforming these relationships?
We draw on a wide range of methods, working across disciplines to examine the evidence, policy and practice dimensions of these issues. We are particularly interested in furthering understanding of the ways in which education policy and practice can serve to mitigate the effects of intersecting inequalities and to improve social justice within and beyond the sector.
Research projects
- Young Lives: An international study of childhood poverty following the lives of 12,000 children in Ethiopia, India (in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana), Peru and Vietnam over 15 years (funded by DFID and others), with Oxford University. Lead Education Researcher: Caine Rolleston.
- Research on Improving Systems of Education (RISE), with the University of Cambridge and Addis Ababa University in the Ethiopia Country Research Team (funded by DFID and DFAT). Investigators: Caine Rolleston, Moses Oketch.
- Higher Education, Inequality and the Public Good in four African countries: South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria and Ghana (ESRC funded). Investigators: Moses Oketch, Tristan Mccowan, Elaine Unterhalter.
- Pedagogies for Critical Thinking: Innovation and Outcomes in African Higher Education (DFID/ESRC), Dr Tristan McCowan (Co PI), Dr Rebecca Schendel (Co PI), Dr Caine Rolleston, William Nicholas.
- The effects of school-based decision-making on educational outcomes in low- and middle-income contexts: A systematic Review (DFID funded). Investigators: Roy Carr-Hill, Caine Rolleston, Rebecca Schendel, Tejendra Pherali.
- Better learning outcomes in Sierra Leone: Evaluating DFID's Improving Schools programme (with Oxford Policy Management) (DFID funded). Investigator: Caine Rolleston.