Dr Haira Gandolfi

Haira is our Director of Studies in Education, and one of our Bye–Fellows.

Biography

Haira joined the Faculty of Education in 2020, having previously worked as a Research Fellow at the UCL Institute of Education/UK, from where she also obtained her PhD in Education in 2019. She teaches on various programmes across the faculty around Decoloniality, Curriculum and Pedagogy; Science Education and Science & Technology Studies; Teachers’ Development and Professionalism; and qualitative school–based research methodologies. Prior to her time in the UK, Haira worked as a Science and Chemistry teacher for 8 years in secondary schools and in post–secondary/technical colleges in Brazil. She also holds a BSc in Chemistry, a BSc in Chemistry Teaching and a MA in Science Education, all from the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP)/Brazil.

Teaching

As part of the Faculty of Education, Haira teaches the Secondary PGCE in Professional Studies. She also supervises for the postgraduate MEd Transforming Practice and the MPhil Education Leadership and Improvement as part of the Research Methods Strand.

Research

Haira’s main expertise is on Science Education and on school–based research around decolonial curricula and pedagogies, and she has worked with practitioners and their students in schools in England and in Brazil throughout the past nine years. She has also been involved with various EEF–funded projects on chemistry teaching, professional development of early career teachers, etc. Haira is also part of several research networks around (Science) Education and Teachers’ Development in Europe and Latin America (especially in Brazil and Chile), with a focus on intercultural and radical teaching, and socio–scientific issues.