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.

Go to upcoming events.

Project Leads

University of Birmingham

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

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.

Upcoming Webinars

Webinar 4: Advancing Education Access and Equity: Disability, Language, and Inclusion in Global Higher Education

Webinar Details

Date: May 22, 2026
Time: 8:15am US/ 2:15pm UK / 4:15pm Kenya
Partners:
- Illinois International | Global Relations
- USIU-A
- University of Birmingham

Description

The next webinar of the BRIDGE Webinar Series will feature perspectives from the United States International University–Africa (USIU-A) to explore strategies for advancing equitable access to higher education.

This joint program brings together institutions from Africa, North America, and Europe, united by a shared commitment to advancing inclusive, equitable, and accessible higher education. Featuring academic experts’ presentations on disability inclusion and educational equity, the session will highlight institutional approaches, share research findings, and suggest opportunities for cross-institutional, international collaboration. The discussion will feature perspectives from USIU-A as well as University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and University of Birmingham that enable all attendees to learn more about international approaches to education access and equity.

The webinar aims to serve as a launch point for deeper partnership, connecting faculty and staff working in disability services, language education, and equity-focused programming.

Goals for Discussion:

Share institutional approaches to disability inclusion offices and language support infrastructure
Highlight equitable teaching and administrative practices from international perspectives
Identify collaboration opportunities between USIU and Illinois
- Establishing a joint working group,
- Identifying a pilot/initial project,
- Co-hosting a webinar,
- And work toward a formal MoU

Webinar 4 Presenters and Abstracts

Prof. Edith Amuhaya is an Associate Professor of Chemistry and higher education leader with extensive experience in university teaching, curriculum development, and student mentorship. She currently serves as the Chair of the Disability Inclusion Mainstreaming Committee, where she leads initiatives aimed at strengthening accessibility, inclusive education, and student success in higher education.

Dr Quin Awuor is an Applied Linguist whose work centres on the relationship between language, identity, and access, particularly for communities whose languages and modes of communication have been historically marginalised. She holds a PhD in Applied Linguistics from Kenyatta University, a Master of Arts from Victoria University of Wellington, and a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (AAP) from Michigan State University. At USIU-Africa, among other roles, she chairs the Language Lab Implementation Committee, which develops technology-enhanced, accessible learning environments for the USIU-Africa student community, spanning more than 70 nationalities. Her current research includes corpus-building for low-resource African languages (NLP) and the role of indigenous languages in public health communication, work that sits squarely at the intersection of linguistic equity and inclusive practice. In moderating this webinar session, she brings both scholarly grounding and institutional experience to questions about how language infrastructure can advance or obstruct disability inclusion in higher education.

Dr. Marie Channell is an Associate Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Speech and Hearing Science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She earned her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from the University of Alabama and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, Davis MIND Institute. She has been a faculty member at the University of Illinois since 2015 where she also serves as Regional Co-Director of the Illinois Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and related Disabilities (LEND) program. Her research focuses on how youth with Down syndrome and intellectual disability develop social communication skills and ways to support these individuals through the transition to young adulthood. Her latest NIH-funded research project engages with young adults with Down syndrome as research partners. Together, they co-designed a study to collect the experiences and perspectives of other young adults with Down syndrome and develop community health resources to support their social, mental, and physical well-being.

Presentation

Making College Accessible for All

A vision for developing evidence-based college programming that is accessible to students with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Dr Harry Kuchah Kuchah is Associate Professor of Languages, Social Justice, and Education at the University of Birmingham, UK. His research interests include English Medium Education in schools, Language Teacher Education and Teaching languages to Young Learners. and he has published widely in these areas. He is co-editor of International Perspectives on Teaching English in Difficult Circumstances (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018); Ethical and methodological issues in researching young language learners in school contexts (Multilingual Matters, 2021) and Teacher Research in Africa: Voices from the Africa ELTA Mentoring Project (IATEFL 2022).

Presentation

Language of Learning, gender and opportunities in HE

In this short presentation, I draw from my research on the intersection between language of education and gender to reflect on how this might impact on opportunities in Higher education. I start by examining the ideological complexities around foreign languages in multilingual African contexts, then I describe two language and gender related projects I have been involved in to show how classroom practice might disproportionately disadvantage girls’ opportunities to access and thrive in Higher Education.

Osly J. Flores is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Education Policy, Organization, and Leadership at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research focuses on two main areas: race-conscious leadership in K-12 schools and the persistence of graduate students of color in navigating higher education. In the first area, he explores three themes: equitable leadership practices, leadership ethics, and the experiences of school leaders of color. In the second area, he uses critical frameworks to highlight the successes and resilience of graduate students of color. His work has been published in various journals, including Review of Educational Research, Urban Education, Teachers College Record, AERA Open, and the International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education.

He obtained his undergraduate degree in Psychology from Boston College, his Master of Education from the University of Massachusetts-Boston, and his Doctorate in Education with a focus on School Leadership from the University of Pittsburgh.

Presentation

“Leading for Justice: Race Consciousness Leadership, Educational Equity, and the Persistence of Graduate Students of Color”

In this short presentation, Flores will provide a brief overview of current research on race-conscious school leadership and the persistence of graduate students of color. The remainder of the presentation will focus on a study highlighting the significance of a Latina school leader whose English Learner (EL) identity continues to shape her leadership as the principal of a dual-language school, influence her racial peer networking, and inform her personal journey.

Past Webinars

Webinar 3: Mutual-Learning and Knowledge Co-Creation with the Global South

Date: October 21, 2025
Location: Microsoft Teams
Chaired by Dr. Meng Tian with Dr. Nia Mitchell and Dr. Paul Richardson

Watch the Recording

Webinar 3 Presenters and Abstracts

Dr. Nia Mitchell is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where she teaches qualitative inquiry and program evaluation. She earned her Ph.D. in Qualitative Research and Evaluation Methodologies from the University of Georgia, an M.P.H. from Morehouse School of Medicine, a B.A. in Anthropology from Georgia State University, and a graduate certificate in Program Evaluation from the University of Connecticut. A qualitative and mixed-methods methodologist, Dr. Mitchell’s work is grounded in culturally responsive and critical methodologies and focuses on advancing equity, justice, and human rights through research and evaluation.

Over the past decade, she has implemented and evaluated public health, education, leadership development and civic engagement programs across communities in academic, government, and nonprofit settings. She previously served as Vice President at Reproductive Health Impact, leading its Research and Policy Center, and continues to collaborate with the Black Mamas Matter Alliance as Senior Advisor for Research and Evaluation.

Presentation

In Sisterhood and Solidarity: Advancing Global Reproductive Health in Africa and the African Diaspora

This presentation highlights my participation in the 2024 SEED Exchange: Reproductive and Maternal Health in Accra, a global initiative by REPRA Health that convenes change-makers for cultural immersion and symbiotic learning to advance health equity in Africa and the African diaspora. This experience led to my collaboration with SisterSong on their Global Black (In)Fertility Agenda. We conducted a cross-cultural landscape analysis exploring infertility in Ghana and the U.S., which aims to inform future research, policy, and programming that center Black communities disproportionately affected by infertility. Now as an Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, I am partnering with the University of Ghana to design a pilot study on the intersection of reproductive health, environmental health, and technology in both countries. Building upon a long legacy of Black women in the United States who have worked transnationally in solidarity with women in Africa and the African Diaspora, I situate my own engagement in Ghana as part of this ongoing tradition. I also explore how such exchanges foster mutual learning, innovation, and cross-diasporan partnerships.

Dr. Paul Richardson is Assistant Professor on the Teachers in Educational Equity (Malaysia) programme at University of Birmingham. He is the program lead for the PGCEi International Education (Malaysia) course and the MA in Inclusion, Equity and Transformation (Malaysia) course. Previously, he was Senior Lecturer and co-lead for the Primary English team on the PGCE Primary and Early Years course at Bath Spa University. His previous responsibilities have included leading the primary English component on the Teach First and the Troops to Teachers programs.

His research interests include play-based learning in higher education, co-construction in higher education, and rural education. He currently leads a small international collaborative research project which includes colleagues from Bath Spa University, Nottingham Trent University, and Curtin University in Australia looking at the impact of prescriptive planning on teacher’s professionalism.

Presentation

Building with, not for: a co-constructive teacher development program for teacher’s working with displaced communities in Malaysia

YTL Foundation and the University of Birmingham have co-developed a teacher development program that seeks to be to culturally and contextually responsive our students who work as teachers in alternative learning centers (ALCs) in Malaysia. On this journey, we have reflected on and attempted to decolonize the program’s curricula, pedagogies, and practices, especially as a Global North institution, to better meet the needs of our students located in the Global South (Santos, 2014). We aim to create a co-constructive program that incorporates the unique and valuable perspectives of our students in the design of our program curricula to ensure it better relates to their lived experiences (Giroux, 2012) and establishes a responsive and authentic program that champions inclusive education in ALCs located in Malaysia.

Webinar 2: Researching with Responsibility: Education Access and Innovation in the Global South

Date: August 28, 2025
Location: Zoom
Chaired by Jessica Li with Dr. Linda Herrera, Dr. Helen Neville, and Dr. Sarah Benson

Watch Webinar Recording

Webinar 2 Presenters and Abstracts

Dr. Linda Herrera, professor in the department of Education Policy, Organization and Leadership and leader of the Global Studies in Education program, is a social anthropologist with regional expertise in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Her longstanding interests are in education and power, youth, generations and civic engagement, childhood in global context, and the social effects of technological change. She has authored eight books (as single author, editor, and co-editor) and has worked as a director of social science research initiatives in the MENA region and as an international education policy advisor.

Presentation: Education 2.0: Reflections on Researching, Documenting, and Sharing Resources of a National Reform in Egypt

Dr. Helen A. Neville is the Chair of the Department of Educational Psychology, a professor of Educational Psychology and African American Studies, and a Center for Advanced Studies Professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She is past president of the Society of Counseling Psychology (APA Division 17) and the Society for the Psychological Study of Culture, Ethnicity and Race (APA Division 45) and a fellow of the American Psychological Association. She is active in the Association of Black Psychologists, having served on their Board of Directors and receiving their Distinguished Psychologist award. Her research on race, racism, African American psychology, and radical healing has been published in a wide range of journal articles and she has co-edited 8 books in this area.

Presentation: Decolonizing Research Partnerships: A Case Study of Youth Civic Engagement in Tanzania

Dr. Sarah Benson is an Associate Professor in inclusion and disabilities in the Department of Disability, Inclusion and Special Needs. She is the programme lead for the Inclusion and Special Education Needs PGCert and Masters’ in the UK and Dubai. Dr. Benson has published articles and book chapters on inclusive policy in the Middle East. Her interests lie in not only inclusive policy, but new teacher development and creating opportunities for students with disabilities. She has also spent time writing and researching inclusive science curriculum for primary grade students. Her current research interests lay in the Middle East and Gulf where she is inspired to see the rapid growth opportunities for more inclusive communities.

Presentation: Boundless Community: A Developing Disability Arts Movement

Webinar 1: Education Access and Equity with the Global South

Date: June 19, 2025
Location: Zoom
Chaired by Meng Tian with Thandi Lewin, Philip Anderson, and Hayden Noel

Watch Webinar Recording

Webinar access passcode: *Pq#GB7F

Webinar 1 Presenters and Abstracts

Thandi Lewin is an Associate Professor in the Ali Mazrui Centre for Higher Education Studies in the Faculty of Education at the University of Johannesburg. Prior to joining UJ, she worked in the South African Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) as the Chief Director for Institutional Governance and Management Support in the University Education branch. She worked in a number of roles within the national government departments for education. She has extensive experience in higher education policy and equity in education.

Presentation

Transformations and continuities: (in)equity in higher education in South Africa in 2025

In the 30 years since South Africa’s freedom, the public higher education system has developed from a fragmented system to a unified policy and funding regime suitable for a new democracy. This has included addressing student, staff and institutional inequalities. South African institutions simultaneously faced global pressures impacting higher education. The webinar will provide an overview of the major trends in the transformation of higher education in South Africa from the mid-1990s to 2025, focusing on areas of substantive change and persistent inequalities facing the system. In particular, the talk will reflect on access to higher education in the context of a highly unequal society.

Philip Anderson is an Assistant Professor at the University of Birmingham Dubai in the School of Education. A former secondary school teacher and head of department, Philip has a rich background in creativity and the arts, and brings a blend of practical academic insight to the field of education. His main research interest is music in education, reflected in his current PhD research at the University of Durham. Philip also runs the Action Research Network in the UAE, a community of teachers transforming the classroom experience through intentional systematic inquiry. Philip is an active member of the research committee at the University of Birmingham Dubai and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Presentation

The Action Research Network: A Collaborative Initiative Driving School Improvement in the UAE – Implications for Policy and Practice

This presentation examines the Action Research Network (ARN), a teacher-led initiative launched by the University of Birmingham Dubai in 2022 to drive educational improvement across the UAE. Through a systematic review of 2024 conference presentations, seven key themes reflect regional education priorities: Arabic and Emirati learner interventions, emotionally intelligent leadership approaches, technology integration, information literacy, English language learner support, student wellbeing, and professional development. Empowering educators to conduct classroom-based research creates sustainable school improvement that drives individual practice enhancement and systemic educational change across the UAE.

Dr. Hayden Noel, Clinical Associate Professor at Gies College of Business, researches consumer behavior and information processing. His recent work explores AI acceptance in education, focusing on fairness, trust, and transparency in AI-assisted grading. His findings offer insight into the ethical and effective integration of AI in academic assessment.

Presentation

Beyond the Algorithm: Exploring Student Acceptance of AI Grading Through an Adapted TAM Framework

Artificial Intelligence is increasingly utilized in education, including grading through large language models (LLMs). This study presents findings from an experiment in a business course comparing traditional grading with AI-assisted grading. Students who received AI-generated feedback with human oversight reported greater perceptions of fairness, transparency, and trust. However, concerns about overreliance and its effects on learning have arisen. To interpret these responses, we propose the Technology Acceptance Model for AI Grading (TAM-AIG), which incorporates fairness, transparency, and trust. Results emphasize key factors influencing student acceptance and provide insights for the ethical integration of AI in academic assessment.