I am the Course Director for the MSc in Comparative and International Education and a Junior Research Fellow at Lady Margaret Hall. As a researcher, my work is guided by the principles of epistemic justice. Across my research, teaching, and practice, I engage reflexively with critical questions: whose knowledge is recognised and valued? What do silences signify, both when imposed upon individuals and when maintained by those navigating life at the margins? I explore how educational systems can be reimagined to centre the perspectives of knowledge communities.
My research examines how intersecting forms of marginalisation, such as gender, class, ethnicity, migration, and displacement, inform educational aspirations, experiences of exclusion, and expressions of agency. My work spans post-crisis education in Pakistan, and educational recovery following COVID-19 in the UK. I work closely with young people, families, teacher-educators, and community members in Pakistan and the UK, with the aim to contribute to more inclusive and responsive educational practices by learning from their experiences.
It continues to be a privilege to learn alongside colleague-scholars, particularly through the development of the Crisis, Education and Epistemic Justice network (CEEJ-Link: https://ceejnetwork.com/). The aspiration is for the network to serve as an open and inclusive space for dialogue and discussion on issues of epistemic justice, welcoming all who are concerned with these questions.
I welcome DPhil students with interests in:
- Young people and aspirations
- Hope theory and education
- Epistemic justice and diverse knowledge systems
- Intersectional and community-based perspectives on education
- Educational responses to displacement and crisis
- Gender, particularly girls’ and mothers’ educational aspirations
- Gender, agency and education
- Participatory and qualitative research methodologies
- Negative capability
- The capability approach and social justice
- Policy engagement for educational equity
- South Asia, particularly Pakista
Research Group Membership
- Comparative and International Research Group
- South Asian Approaches to Researching Education Network
- Cambridge Network for Disability and Education Research (CaNDER)
- Race Empire and Education (REE) collective
- Research Equitable Access and Learning Centre (REAL)
- Mahbub ul Haq Research Center
Research Projects
1. Developing a Socially Sensitive Research Approach to Higher Education Aspirations: Exploring the Hopes and Aspirations of British Sixth Form Students of Pakistani and Bangladeshi Heritage
Team members: Aliya Khalid, Joonghyun Kwak, Stephanie Nowack
Funder: John Fell Fund
Status: Ongoing
2. Teacher and community perspectives: missing links in language planning and policy in multilingual settings
Team members: Aliya Khalid, Fauzia Shamim, Hafiz Inamullah
Funder: DARE-RC, FCDO
Status: Ongoing
3. From Policy to Practice: Understanding Teachers’ Experiences with Student Learning Outcomes-Based Education
Team members: Aliya Khalid, Nasir Jalil, Hafiz Inamullah
Funder: DARE-RC, FCDO
Status: Ongoing
4. ‘Understanding the impact of COVID-19 on learning experiences of secondary school going age children among Bangladeshi and Pakistani ethnic minority families’
Funder: Cambridge Humanities Research Grants Scheme
Research team: Professor Nidhi Singal and Dr Aliya Khalid
Status: Complete
5. Gendered Inequalities in Education and Capability Spaces for Women/Girls (and others) in Pakistan: Education and reconstruction after 2022 floods in Pakistan
Funder: British Association for International and Comparative Education (BAICE) Seedcorn Fund
Research team: Aliya Khalid, Soufia Siddiqui, Aditi Chidambaram, Indrani Sigamany
Status: Complete
6. Bridging the Local and Global: Women’s Spaces and Collectives’: On becoming caregivers and teachers: Immigrant mothers’ identities and philosophies of education in England during COVID
Team members: Aliya Khalid, Jane Rooney and Ruth Houghton, Lavinia Kamphausen, Kate spencer-Bennet, Alana Farrel
Funder: The British Academy
Status: Complete
7. Collaborative development of faculty for Pakistan undergraduate Teacher Education Colleges: Durbeen and Oxford knowledge exchange project
Team members: Aliya Khalid, Ann Childs, Trevor Mutton, Ian Thompson, Jenni Ingram and Katharine Burn
Funder: Malala Fund
Status: Complete
