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Stephanie Nowack

Postdoctoral Researcher

stephanie.nowack@education.ox.ac.uk

About me

Dr Stephanie Nowack is a Postdoctoral Researcher from South Africa whose research explores culturally sensitive methods to understand how students conceptualize hope for higher education in contexts of political and environmental precarity.

Stephanie has a decade’s experience leading large-scale, multi-stakeholder research projects in Global South contexts, using participatory and emancipatory methodologies. Broadly, her research interests are underpinned by a social – & epistemic justice lens and related to: contextually-grounded, decolonial understandings of playful learning, teacher professional development, and gender – & disability inclusive education, in Global South contexts, including emergency settings.

As a LEGO Foundation and Cambridge Trust Scholar, Stephanie holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge (Faculty of Education), within the PEDAL and REAL Centres, focusing on how play can find expressions across neurodivergent and geo-political dimensions. In particular, her doctoral research explored a South African pedagogy of play for autistic learners.

Stephanie is a convenor for the Crisis, Education, and Epistemic Justice (CEEJ) Network and an Organiser for the Cambridge Network for Disability and Education Research (CaNDER). She is a 2019 Harvard Graduate School of Education Project Zero Classroom Fellow and an Advisory Council Member of the Winford Centre for Children and Women in Nigeria.

Research Projects

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

Institution: University of Oxford, Department of Education

Funder: John Fell Fund

Research team: Dr Aliya Khalid, Dr Joonghyun Kwak, Dr Stephanie Nowack

Status: Ongoing

Toward a South African Pedagogy of Play

Institution: Harvard Graduate School of Education, Project Zero (Pedagogy of Play)

Funder: Lego Foundation

Research team: Prof Benjamin Mardell, Dr Lynneth Solis, Dr Stephanie Nowack, Kgopotso Khumalo

Status: Complete

Collaboration for Comics and Autism

Institution: University of Cambridge, Faculty of Education

Funder: Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)

Research team: Prof Jenny Gibson, Dr Joe Sutliff Sanders, Dr Stephanie Nowack, Lily Rose Fitzmaurice

Status: Complete

OECD & PISA Creative Thinking 2021 South Africa Pilot; LEGO Foundation Tinkering Study; Six Bricks & Playbox Evaluation; Experience Tool Pilot

Institution: Care for Education

Funder: Lego Foundation

Research team: Dr Stephanie Nowack, Jonathan Klapwijk, Kgopotso Khumalo

Status: Complete

Right to Play’s Play to Grow Flex Pilot Evaluation

Institution: Oxford MeasurEd

Research team: Paulina Valenzuela, Dr Terese Cregan, Dr Rachel Outhred, Dr Stephanie Nowack

Status: Complete

How can emotionally healthy workplaces support emotionally healthy families?

Institution: University of Cambridge, Faculty of Education (PEDAL Centre)

Research team: Dr Stephanie Nowack, Dr Beth Barker, Sally Hogg

Status: Complete

Watch, Play, Learn Early Learning Videos: A Practitioner’s Toolkit, Watch, Play, Learn Toolkit Overview

Institution: Sesame Workshop

Funder: Lego Foundation

Status: Complete

Independent Evaluation of the Girls’ Education Challenge Phase II – Evaluation Study 4: Educating Girls with Disabilities in GEC II

Institution: University of Cambridge, REAL Centre, and Tetra Tech International Development Europe

Funder: FCDO

Status: Complete

Research

Blog posts

Nowack, S. K., Barker, B., & Hogg, S. (2025, March 10). How can emotionally healthy workplaces support emotionally healthy families? Centre for Research on Play in Education, Development, and Learning, University of Cambridge.
Courtois, S. L., Ezeugwu, C. R., Fajardo-Tovar, D. D., Nowack, S. K., Okullo, D. O., Bayley, S., Baker, S., & Ramchandani, P. (2024, August 15). Learning through play in Global Majority countries: reflections from the PEDAL centre on understanding and adapting the concept in four different contexts. Centre for Research on Play in Education, Development, and Learning, University of Cambridge.
Jha, N., Nowack, S, K., Chaudhary, C., Deka, S., Razaq-Shuaib, B., & Singal, N. (2024, November 25). Seeking the ‘Just’ in Liminal Spaces: Rebordering Conception, Definition, and Praxis of Education in the Global South. British Association for International & Comparative Education.
Nowack, S.K. (2023, May 3). Play in South African autism schools: why are formalised ethical processes important? Centre for Research on Play in Education, Development, and Learning, University of Cambridge.
Nowack, S. K. (2021, April 4). Autism and culture: culturally safe research in South Africa. Faculty of Education Research Students’ Association, University of Cambridge.

Reports

Nowack, S. K., Barker, B., & Hogg, S. (2024). How can emotionally healthy workplaces support emotionally healthy families? A review of the evidence and the case for action. PEDAL Centre (University of Cambridge) and Centre for Emotional Health.
Solis, S., L., Khumalo, K. T., Nowack, S. K., Blythe-Davidson, E., & Mardell, B. (2019). Toward a South African Pedagogy of Play [White paper]. Project Zero at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Valenzuela, P., Cregan, T., Outhred, R., & Nowack, S. (2025, January 9). Play to Grow Flex Pilot Evaluation. Oxford MeasurEd.

Journal articles

Courtois, S. L., Ezeugwu, C. R., Fajardo-Tovar, D. D., Nowack, S. K., Okullo, D. O., Bayley, S., Baker, S., & Ramchandani, P. (2024). Learning through play in Global Majority countries: reflections from the PEDAL centre on understanding and adapting the concept in four different contexts. International Journal of Play, 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/21594937.2024.2388952