Dr Margaret Ebubedike

Professional biography

I am a Research Fellow in International Education at the Open University UK, and I hold a Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA). Additionally, I serve as the Grand Union Doctoral Pathway and Training (GUDPT) Lead for Innovation and Learning. My academic background includes a BSc in Business Education (Accounting), an MSc in Educational Leadership and Management, a Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice (PGCAP), and a PhD (Doctor of Philosophy).

With over 15 years of experience in teaching, training, and educational research, my focus revolves around children's access, retention, and completion of education. Within this sphere my interest is in exploring gender equality, and development across diverse cultures, particularly in marginalised communities. My expertise lies at the intersections of Gender, Equity, and Social Justice. I’m also actively involved in research focusing on teachers' continuous professional development in Sub-Saharan Africa. Here, my focus is on practitioner-based co-creative research methods that involve educators collaboratively co-creating contextually relevant pedagogical approaches that improve learner outcomes by tailoring educational strategies to the unique experiences and needs of students in each specific context.

I participated in the Community Help for Inclusive Learning and Development (CHILD) research, which investigated the effectiveness of a community-volunteer-led emergency out-of-school education program in Zimbabwe, led by World Vision.

I was the UK the UK Principal Investigator (PI), for the Voices of the Children of Lake Chad project, an international, participatory, interdisciplinary research initiative funded by the Global Challenges Research Fund. This project focused on educational interventions in protracted armed conflict and crisis contexts across four nations in the Lake Chad region—Nigeria, Niger, Chad, and Cameroon. By involving community stakeholders in shared learning workshops, the study aimed to explore localised strategies that could be employed to support the continuous education and learning of children and young people, with a particular emphasis on girls affected by the crisis.

Currently, I’m the project lead of a three-nation Girls’ Rehabilitation, Empowerment, Agency, and Transformation (GREAT) research. This project aims to collaborate with diverse stakeholders, including female trafficking survivors in Nepal, Nigeria, and Uganda, to investigate how stakeholders across sectors can work together to improve support strategies and practices for aiding female trafficking survivors. The goal is to explore how these efforts can contribute to fostering the agency and aspirations of survivors. Early engagement with stakeholders in Uganda through GREAT project, lead to the successful establishment of a parliamentary forum for human trafficking in Uganda.

Additionally, I am a co-investigator on the Catch-Up Programme (CUP) research, designed to support the most vulnerable learners in early grades, developing foundation literacy and numeracy skills in community-based CUP clubs in Ethiopia, Chile, and Zimbabwe.

Presently, I am the PI of a two-nation project in Ghana and Nigeria. The project is exploring the Power of Parents (POP), and caregivers in strengthening language development and literacy acquisition for children ages 3-12 in Sub-Saharan Africa.

In recognition of the research I led in Nigeria and Nepal focusing on empowering female survivors of human trafficking, I received the OU's 2022 People's Choice Award.

I am also the author two children's picture books: 'Speak UP,' teaching girls to find their voices, and 'Career Day at School,' inspiring them to discover their passions, build confidence, and embrace a world of possibilities.

Research interests

My research focuses on girls’ access, retention and completing education, gender equality and development across cultures and contexts, particularly, in low income contexts. My PhD focused on gender and leadership the influence of cultural contexts on women HE leaders in Nigeria. My current work focuses on girls’ education in conflict and/or post-conflict settings, through stakeholders’ views and perspectives, I will explore different experiences, ideas and attitudes related to educational up-take by girls. The study will seek to develop locally conceptualised and context-specific intervention strategies, and it hopes, to inform an intersectional policymaking perspective in response to gender inequality in education.

Teaching interests

During my doctoral study at the University of Worcester, I contributed to the Creative Approaches to Educational Leadership (MAED 4026) Level 7 module and I also helped to develop, and work on, the Educational Inquiry (Research) (EDST 2101) Level 6 module.