Research

Project 1

Critical Participatory Action Research:

Student Learning Experience and Voice in Higher Education Change during COVID-19, the case for the Harvard Graduate School of Education

CPAR_Student Experience in Higher Ed. during COVID

This work entailed:

  • Conducted a year-long Critical Participatory Action Research (CPAR) project with students at of the Harvard Graduate School of Education on: Student Experience and the Effect of Student Voice for Institutional Change. In CPAR, there are no "subjects" of research. Researchers and researched are both part of a collaborative process of designing the research question, methods, data collection and analysis as well as designing actions for change based on the research process. Often the process is transformative in and of itself for all those involved even before applying actions as a result.

  • Methods:

    • interviews and focus groups with around 100 students of diverse identities and representation (Black, Indigenous, People of Color, Queer as the sample and White Students as a control group),

    • literature reviews

    • Qualitative data analysis

    • a phenomenological and an action-based approach to organize students into taking the action they need for institutional change based on the research process

  • Produced a 5,000-word research paper and a visual website

  • Presented the paper at End of Year Student and Faculty conference to a panel of reviewers from professors and doctoral students as well as to the Student Success Team and Deans at the Graduate School of Education. Research generated advocacy action work among constituents and research team

  • Project duration: 9 months

  • The project was conducted at the Harvard Graduate School of Education

Project 2

Egypt's EDU 2.0 K-2 Education Reform

This work entailed:

  • Collaborated with the Research and Documentation Project (RDP) at the American University in Cairo as well as Harvard Policy Analysis classrooms to produce an 7,500-word policy analysis paper of the Egyptian education reform policies 2018-2030.

  • Methods:

    • Oral history interviews

    • Literature reviews

    • Analysis of primary and secondary data.

  • I presented the paper in a global education development conference organized annually by the Graduate School of Education at Harvard inviting 100+ policy makers, international development professionals and organizations like UNESCO. The paper was discussed by the Director of the National Institute of Education in Singapore: Oon Seng Ta

  • The paper is now in press for publication as part of a volume on education reforms around the world.

  • Project duration: 4 months, with 1 year undergoing the peer review process for publishing

  • The project was conducted at the Harvard Graduate School of Education

Project 3

From the University to the Pluri-versity: The Case for the Need of Epistemic Belonging and Equity of Knowledge Representation in Higher Education through Decolonial Pedagogy and Praxis

This work entailed:

    • Methods used:

      • surveys

      • literature reviews

  • Wrote a 11,000-word research paper and a multimedia presentation (link here)

  • Presented to the Harvard Graduate School of Education 20 members of the Academic Committee and Student Support Services to advocate for Academic change within the university

  • Project duration: 4 months

  • The project was conducted at the Harvard Graduate School of Education

Project 4

Taking the Humanities on the Road (THoR): Collaborative Learning in Decolonizing History and Anthropology

This work entailed:

  • An untraditional research process inquiring into decolonizing the disciplines of history and anthropology, to bring more epistemic equity into knowledge production. It took place between students in higher education from the Global North and the Global South

  • I was both a co-designer of the experience/project lead and a research participant

  • Methods used:

    • ethnography through collaborative learning experiences, common readings, discussions and commoning (gathering as we walk and talk)

  • Produced written and artistic contemplations from this collaborative research and learning experience. Products were collectively produced by all participants as well as individual works

  • Project duration: 3 years as semester long experiences

  • The project was conducted between the University of Bern, Switzerland and the Cairo Institute of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Egypt

Research Skills & Methods

As a researcher, besides using my skills broadly, I am interested in the following topics:

  • Politics of Education and Politics of International Aid

  • Culture, identity and education

  • Social Justice-centered education

  • Decolonizing/indigenizing education

  • Epistemic politics and politics of epistemology

  • Popular education and alternatives to education in basic and higher education (de-schooling, alternatives, post-development education, futures of education as it relates to the political economy of education)

  • Education within and for social movements

  • Learning cities, lifelong learning, civic and non-formal education

Methods used:

  • Critical Participatory Action Research (CPAR)

  • Oral History methods

  • Ethnographic methods

  • Interviews and focus groups

  • Surveys design, administration and analysis (offline and online)

Tools used:

  • Dedoose and other qualitative analysis software

  • Basic R software

  • Microsoft Excel and Google Spreadsheets