Education for Inclusive Development

Education is vital if the multiple goals of the sustainable development agenda are to be met. But achieving the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals will require transformational change at system level as well as in the classroom.

Our researchers are seeking to understand how innovations in pedagogy, technology and conceptions of language and culture can be used to increase participation in learning. Our work is wide-ranging, embracing civil society, educational institutions and business organisations.

Current projects

International Distance Education and African Students (IDEAS)

This project examines how far international distance education in South Africa offers equitable access to students in Africa through both supply-side and demand-side analysis.

Inclusive Migration Policy through Evidence Cafes 

Advancing migration research, policy and planning with an online course using ‘evidence café' methodology, freely available for organisations and individuals working on migration policy across the globe.

Inclusive Societies: Migration for Inclusive African Growth

Significant growth in African economies has prompted more migrants to move to, and within, African countries. This project explores the impact this migration is having on growth and how it can be more sustainable and inclusive.

Completed projects

​Peace-building and education: decolonising peace education in Africa

Bringing together academics, NGOs and disadvantaged communities in Africa to develop new meaningful pedagogies and teaching materials for a decolonised peace education.

Learning Pedagogies and Peace Education: an exploratory study of decolonisation in South Africa and Uganda

Using learning design spearheaded by The Open University to develop a decolonial education tool to reduce conflict and promote peace between local communities and foreign nationals in South Africa and Uganda.

Picturing Climate: Participatory Photography and Narrative Storytelling for Climate Change Education

Using arts- and humanities-based methodologies to educate young people in Cuba, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Jordan, about the effects of climate change on food security and livelihoods.

TESS-India

TESS-India (Teacher Education through School-based Support in India) harnesses contemporary ideas on open learning and the increasing availability of mobile technology to generate multilingual Open Educational Resources (OER) toolkits in support of improvements in the classroom practices of teachers in multiple contexts across India. Our associated research adopts a sociocultural approach to understand how the integrated participatory approach of TESS-India and its use of OER enables sustainable transformation in teacher education systems.

English as a Medium of Instruction in Lower- and Middle-Income Countries: Opportunities and Challenges in Ghana and India

The project's main aim is to improve policy and practice so that teaching and learning in primary schools is not compromised by taking place in a non-native language.