Education Access and Equity

Education Access and Equity: Empowering Education with the Global South

This Signature Initiative aims to create an inclusive environment for scholars from the University of Birmingham and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign to collaborate with educators, policymakers, researchers, and practitioners from the Global South and beyond. This project is founded on the principle of valuing all participants as knowledge contributors and knowers sharing an equal epistemic status. This initiative enables participants to discuss, design, experiment with, and implement innovative and culturally-responsive approaches that enhance education access and equity in Global South contexts. In particular, the project focuses on empowering marginalised communities, building capacity, amplifying their voices, and activating their agency in leading positive changes both in their local communities and on a global stage.

This Signature Initiative will generate research-informed evidence that contributes to policymaking, education planning, curriculum development, pedagogy, student and staff mobility, and professional development. The outputs will include academic publications, policy papers, teaching and learning resources, and the establishment of a global network. We invite everyone who has a passion for advancing education access and equity in the Global South to join this Signature Initiative and become an affiliated member of our network.

Project Leads

University of Birmingham

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Upcoming Events

BRIDGE Education Access and Equity with the Global South: Signature Initiative Webinar 1
  • Date: January 28, 2025
  • Time: 14:30-16:00 (GMT)
  • Location: Zoom (Meeting ID: 899 2449 2124, Passcode: 198000)
  • Agenda (GMT):
    • 14:30-14:40 Welcome and introduction (MT)
    • 14:40-15:00 Meng Tian and Naima Qureshi on Global citizenship education project in Pakistan
    • 15:00-15:20 Allison Witt on iGLOBAL project 
    • 15:20-15:40 Francesca Peruzzo and Eleni Stamou on Malaysia project 
    • 15:40-16:00 Discussion 

Focus Areas

Focus area 1: Teacher Development and Capacity Building in Global South Context

  • Illinois College of Education faculty who work on curriculum and instruction will collaborate with the Birmingham team on the project Teachers for Educational Equity (TEE) in Malaysia. As part of this wider project Dr Eleni Stamou and Dr Francesca Peruzzo from the Birmingham will work with colleagues from Illinois to further examine issues of Equity and Inclusion in the creation of Learning Communities through decolonial perspectives, bringing together insights from the Global South and the Global North.
  • Dr Meng Tian (Birmingham), Dr Allison Wit (Illinois), and Dr Naima Qureshi (University of Education, Pakistan) are collaborating on a project titled Global Citizenship Education in Pakistan K-12 and Initial Teacher Education. This project leverages our research on global citizenship education, teacher capacity building, and arts-based methods to translate theoretical frameworks into tangible teacher competencies, global citizenship activities, and an increased sense of global awareness and collective responsibility among youth and teachers in Pakistan.

Focus area 2: Democratising Education Systems and Enhancing Opportunities for Underrepresented Groups in the UK and US

  • Professor Christopher Millward and Dr Eleni Stamou (Birmingham) are collaborating with Professor Jon Hale and Professor Gabe Rodriguez (Illinois) on the YOUTH for Open Democratic Education project. Young people in the US and the UK alike, face the challenges of pronounced place-based inequalities and interwoven race, gender, and class barriers to democratic participation. Now more than ever, there is a need for putting young people at the forefront of authentic dialogue across the two sides of the Atlantic about reviving democracy and agency through education. The Youth-ODE project involves collaboration between young people, researchers, and informal education groups to re-make the boundaries between education and democratic engagement.  
  • Dr Meng Tian (Birmingham), Professor Jessica Li (Illinois) and Ms Sanam Yaqub (Birmingham campus in Dubai) are conducting the project Minoritised Staff Leadership Opportunities and Career Trajectories. This project investigates the leadership opportunities and career trajectories of minoritised academic and professional service staff working in higher education institutions in the UK, the US, and the UAE. It explores various conceptions of minoritised staff, uncovers both overt and covert racial prejudices they face, and examines how these experiences affect their opportunities and willingness to lead. The findings will reveal both institutional and personal motivators and inhibitors of career advancement and contribute to equity, inclusion, and a democratic culture in the higher education sector.

Process

Year 1 Plan (July 2024 through June 2025)

  • Confirm project membership and project-specific subgroups.
  • Create a website for project updates and information dissemination.
  • Launch quarterly research webinars and newsletters for all interested parties.
  • Establish an organizing committee to lead a conference at the Birmingham campus in Dubai in November 2025.
  • Organize bi-monthly meetings to explore external funding opportunities and co-create educational and research resources, capacity building, and impactful work with global south partners.
  • Engage in bilateral visits to strengthen research collaboration, collect data, deliver lectures and workshops, and produce joint publications.

Year 2 Plan (July 2025 through June 2026)

  • Deliver quarterly research webinars and newsletters for all interested parties.
  • Organize bi-monthly meetings to explore external funding opportunities and co-create educational and research resources, capacity building, and impactful work with global south partners.
  • Engage in bilateral visits to strengthen research collaboration, collect data, deliver lectures and workshops, and produce joint publications.
  • Present key research findings and network with collaborators at the conference at the Birmingham campus in Dubai in November 2025.

Projected Outcomes

  • Within the first two years, we will establish a network of experts consisting of Birmingham, Illinois, and Global South academics, policymakers, policy implementers, practitioners, and stakeholders.
  • Within the first three years, we will generate a minimum of 2-3 research publications as a result of the Signature Initiative.
  • Within the first three years, we will prepare and submit a minimum of 2-3 external funding bids as a result of the Signature Initiative.
  • The project group will actively disseminate information and showcase the achievements through university social media platforms, newspapers, magazines, and media interviews/podcasts.
  • Through this collaboration, our aim is to facilitate increased tri-party staff and postgraduate research (PGR) student mobility.