Okada studies how education and technology can help people apply what they learn to address real-world problems that matter to them in their lives and communities, across local, national and global scales.
Too often, learners gain knowledge without the purpose, judgement or opportunity to act on it. Technology can widen this gap or help close it. Her work addresses this challenge, especially for learners who are most often left behind.
At the heart of her research is CARE–KNOW–DO, a framework she developed in 2015:
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Care: Learners start with issues that matter to them and their communities.
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Know: They investigate those issues and build an evidence base.
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Do: They act on what they have learned with others — and through action, their care and commitment deepen.
She works with schools, universities, organisations and governments across Europe, Latin America and Africa to put this meaningful, engaging approach into practice and evaluate its impact.
Her current work includes METEOR, a European Commission project supporting around 300 researchers across sectors to develop research on the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
She holds BSc Computer Science · MBA Knowledge Management · MSc and PhD in Education.
What she researches, and what has changed
1. Making learning matter to young people's lives. Okada developed a measure of how young people connect science to their own lives, validated with over 2,000 students aged 11 to 17 and used with 12,000 students in five countries (JRST, IJED, Sustainability). Her findings show that when students tackle real issues through CARE-KNOW-DO, they value science, yet few take action on their own initiative. Her inquiry-skills framework reached 18,000 teachers and is built into AQA's science programme with Sheffield Hallam University. In Brazil, the São Paulo State Government credits CARE-KNOW-DO in Alfabetiza Juntos, a programme helping around 360,000 children learn to read at the right age through meaningful contexts.
2. Learning in crisis. With World Vision, Okada designed a participatory evaluation of catch-up programmes for more than 17,000 children in Ethiopia, Zimbabwe and Chile, drawing on children's, educators' and caregivers' voices. Progress was shown for 70% of learners. Three connected ingredients emerged: emotional safety (care), embodied dialogue (know) and growing agency (do). Programmes also need to differ by type of crisis, and the findings shaped World Vision's catch-up learning (NORRAG).
3. Digital technology, learning and wellbeing. Her OLAF study of online learning and fun involved 7,450 students and 866 tutors in six countries (Frontiers in Education). It found that students' learning habits and beliefs influence how much they enjoy learning online. The findings now inform tutorial practice for over 29,000 OU students and staff. She now leads an OU team studying how digital technology affects the lives of children and young people.
4. AI for lifeworthy learning. Okada addresses this gap by treating AI literacy as an ethical and purposeful practice, rather than simply a technical skill, working with Indigenous and riverine communities in the Amazon, rural Greek schools and UK schools with many pupils on free meals. In a study of 330 students (IJAIED), science aspiration was linked to sustainability and purpose, not just enjoyment: students valued science as a way to act on issues that matter to them. In her Knowledge Cartography for Young Thinkers collection with cases across the world (Springer, three volumes), learners use AI mapping tools to investigate and design solutions to problems that matter to them. The latest volume had over 25,000 downloads in its first year. In the book, students used evidence-based dialogue mapping to turn real-world problems into scientific arguments and action — linking purpose to practice.
5. Preparing researchers to work beyond universities. Early-career researchers are expected to work with industry, government and communities but are rarely prepared for it. Through CONNECT and METEOR, Okada designed upSKILL.map, a reflective tool that guides METEOR researchers across four OU faculties. A pilot with 40 researchers suggests that research skills are best understood as a worldview, where technical expertise goes together with commitments to sustainability, equity and justice, rather than as measurable outputs alone. It also gives universities a low-cost way to see where researchers need support (Open Research Europe). The European Commission-funded project METEOR, with 13 partners, is supporting around 300 researchers in 50 groups to prepare more than 50 proposals on the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Leadership and roles
- Funded research: leading roles in 7 European Commission projects (4 as Principal Investigator, 2 as Co-Investigator and 1 as research evaluation leader). Combined value €24.6M, of which €1.96M was won for The Open University.
- Funders and partners: European Commission, World Vision, the Hewlett Foundation, the Telefónica Foundation and Brazilian federal funding agencies (CAPES, CNPq). Partners include universities and organisations across Europe and Brazil, the São Paulo State Education Secretariat, Mastery Science and Exus AI Lab. Partnerships across Portuguese-speaking countries through the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP). She has developed proposals and workshops with Nestlé, UNICEF, the International Labour Organization (ILO), the Catalan National Education Centre and Brazil’s Bank.
- UNESCO and UN: Representative Member, UNESCO UNITWIN AI Unplugged in Education (since 2025). Expert Member, UNESCO Inclusive Policy Lab. The OU’s representative in the UNESCO Global Education Coalition, brokering partnerships on responsible AI in education. Her framework informed the Open Schooling Curriculum presented at the UN SDG Summit (2023). Invited speaker, UN General Assembly Education House (UNGA80, 2025). Author of a UNESCO-published article with Amazonian Indigenous communities.
- European Commission and evaluation: Expert Adviser to the European Commission since 2014. Expert evaluator for UKRI, FAPESP and the Luxembourg National Research Fund.
- Editorial: Associate Editor, Discover Sustainability (Springer Nature), The Curriculum Journal (Wiley) and e-curriculum (PUC-SP).
- At the OU: founder of the Global Education and Digital Transformation Network; co-director of Rumpus, a research group on fun in learning.
- Publications and supervision: 158 publications, 45 in the last 6 years (71% as first or sole author). 11 PhD completions supervised.
Recognition
Five Open Education Global recognitions: three awards (2017, 2019, 2025) and two finalist nominations (Open Researcher and AI in Education). The 2025 award was selected from 196 nominations across 42 countries. Her World Vision work was nominated for the UNESCO Confucius Prize for Literacy.
Invited to the UN General Assembly Education House, UNESCO Digital Learning Week, the World Economic Forum in Davos, the Skoll World Forum and the UN Global Dialogue on AI Governance.
Career
Okada began as a computer scientist at Johnson & Johnson and IBM in Brazil, then worked as a teacher educator and ICT curriculum designer in São Paulo schools, lectured at FGV, PUC-SP and Mackenzie University, and has been a consultant to the Brazilian Government's Ministry for Women. In the UK she has been a consultant for the Association for Science Education, AQA, Sheffield Hallam University and the University of the Arts London. At The Open University she completed her PhD in 2006, contributed to the launch of OpenLearn LabSpace, then built a portfolio of funded projects, proposals and consultancy, and was appointed Research Professor in 2026. She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Research interests
Inclusive learning; scientific literacy; digital wellbeing; AI and ethics; climate education; sustainable development; researcher development.
Work with her
- Funders and donors: evaluation and impact design for learning programmes
- Governments and ministries: putting CARE-KNOW-DO into education systems
- Industry and charities: school, community and researcher-skills partnerships
- Doctoral applicants: [OU application link]
- Academic partners: UNITWIN AI Unplugged in Education, Global Education Coalition, UNESCO Inclusive Policy Lab, European Commission Horizon Europe and Erasmus +
