Category: Learning
Supporting adolescents’ learning in Nairobi’s informal settlements: Lessons from a community-based education intervention
Across sub-Saharan Africa, the global learning crisis continues to undermine the promise of universal education. Millions of children attend school but leave without mastering basic literacy and numeracy skills. This challenge is particularly acute in disadvantaged urban contexts, such as informal settlements, where poverty, overcrowding and limited resources undermine the…
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Unlearning gender: Rethinking social and emotional learning in education
SEL is widely recognised as essential for promoting wellbeing, cooperation and young people's meaningful participation in their communities. Frameworks often assume that emotional development unfolds similarly for all learners, regardless of gender, culture or identity. Yet emotional expression and regulation are deeply shaped by social norms that define which feelings…
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Working towards equality in computing education
When the pandemic closed schools in Pune, in the state of Maharashtra, India, two teenagers — Jayantika (age 16) and Ruturaj (age 14) — turned to coding.
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Why are we silent? 9 out of 10 children in Sub-Saharan Africa are not learning, and the elephant in the classroom is still being ignored
This is not just a learning crisis; it is a massive fiscal one. Teacher absenteeism costs India and Uganda an estimated US$1.5 billion every year. In Uganda alone, this represents a 12% loss of total public education expenditure.
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An innovative approach to improving teaching: Lessons from India
Teaching children to learn to read, write and do basic mathematics are vital building blocks learnt in the early years. These basic skills are essential to continued learning, staying in school and thriving.
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International Mother Language Day 2026
International Mother Language Day is celebrated on 21 February to underscore the role of languages in promoting inclusion and achieving the SDGs.
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Streaming too soon: Rethinking subject pathways in secondary education in Nigeria
In the final year of junior secondary school, school told her it was time to choose a stream: science, arts or commerce. Drawn to mathematics and the practical, experimental side of science, but also loving writing and literature. “That’s not how it works.” By the next term, she was placed…
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Emancipatory teaching in social studies: Lessons from Paulo Freire
Social studies, as a field of education, carries the responsibility of preparing young learners to understand their societies and to participate meaningfully as active citizens. However, in many classrooms, social studies is limited to the memorisation of facts, dates and state-approved narratives that give preference to obedience to rote learning…
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Learning together to prevent violence in education: Reflections from UKFIET 2025 conference
My aim for attending the conference was to share findings and lessons from a recently concluded study on school-related gender-based violence (SRGBV) from the perspectives of children with disabilities in Sierra Leone. My second objective was to learn from what other researchers and practitioners were doing to understand violence in…
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Teaching Social Studies in an International Baccalaureate (IB) School in Pakistan
This blog presents a reflective analysis based on my observation of a Social Studies class in an International Baccalaureate (IB) school in Pakistan. The aim of this observation was to understand how Social Studies is taught, how students engage with concepts such as society, culture, identity, citizenship and civic responsibility,…
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Relational ecologies of knowledge and practice
Struggles for cognitive justice continue to shape everyday practice in education and research. A workshop envisioned new, reparative ways of knowing and being together that prioritize community knowledges and contextual epistemologies, equitable resource distribution, and ethical funding and publication pipelines.
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Removing the Extra from Extracurricular: Reimagining Activities as Core Catalysts for Classroom Connection
Extracurricular activities (ECAs) have long been seen as add-ons to schooling. But what if these activities are actually the key to forging deeper peer connections, boosting student participation, and creating classrooms where every voice is heard and valued?
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