Selection of previous projects
The Tauwhirotanga team: MEL partner
Between 2020 and 2023, with a team of six colleagues, representing the Tauwhirotanga team – or T-team – we formed the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) partner team in a large-scale global philanthropic programme from Porticus focused on holistic learning outcomes in Education in Displacement (EiD) – called All Eyes on Learning (AEoL). Mieke Lopes Cardozo collaborated in this team together with Ritesh Shah, Julie Chinnery, Jennifer Flemming, Kayla Boisvert and Tarek Tamer.
Outputs
The T-team produced a series of (internal) M&E oriented outputs, as well as publicly available reports, case studies and reflection pieces, listed below.
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Flemming, J., Shah, R., Chinnery, J., Lopes Cardozo, M.T.A., Tamer, T. and Boisvert, K. (2021), Dynamics and Dilemmas within the Education in Displacement ecosystem, Report commissioned within Porticus’ All Eyes on Learning Global Programme for Education in Displacement, Porticus/Tauwhirotanga, June 2021, available online at https://hdl.handle.net/2292/55435 and https://bit.ly/3qQAD5K
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Boisvert, K., Chinnery, J., Tamer, T., Shah, R., Flemming, J., Lopes Cardozo, M.T.A.(2021), Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) Framework All Eyes on Learning, Education in Displacement, prepared by Tauwhirotanga Ltd
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Lopes Cardozo, M.T.A., Shah, R., Chinnery, J., Flemming, J., Boisvert, K. and Tamer, T. (2023), Learning as Ecosystems: Reflective Learning Partnerships in Philanthropic Programming in Education and Displacement, UKFIET – The Education and Development Forum, Blog publication, 5 December 2023: https://www.ukfiet.org/2023/learning-as-ecosystems-reflective-learning-partnerships-in-philanthropic-programming-in-education-and-displacement/
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Lopes Cardozo, M.T.A., J., Flemming, Shah, R., Chinnery, J., Boisvert, K. and Tamer, T. (2023), What does it take to support transformational change for education systems in contexts of displacement? Tauwhirotanga, online medium publication, https://medium.com/@rshah_10463/304c7596039b or a shorter version published by Porticus, https://www.porticus.com/en/articles/what-does-it-take-to-support-transformational-change-for-education-systems-in-contexts-of-displacement
This collaborative research project examined the complex relationship between education, conflict and peacebuilding in post-conflict Aceh, Indonesia. It explored how education can either reinforce or mitigate economic, social, religious, political and environmental tensions, with particular attention to the agency of teachers and (female) education leaders.
The project brought together researchers and postgraduate students from the University of Amsterdam, the University of Auckland and IACOS in Bandah Aceh, using an interdisciplinary approach to investigate education governance, curriculum, teaching practices and Islamic schooling in Aceh following decades of conflict and the 2004 tsunami.
Selected outputs
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Journal articles
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Lopes Cardozo, M. T. A., Affiat, R. A., Zaman, F., Maida, I. & Srimulyani, E. (2022), Silent struggles: women education leaders’ agency for peacebuilding in Islamic schools in post-conflict Aceh, Journal of Peace Education. DOI
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Lopes Cardozo, M. T. A. & Srimulyani, E. (2018), Analysing the spectrum of female education leaders’ agency in Islamic boarding schools in post-conflict Aceh, Indonesia, Gender and Education. DOI.
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Lopes Cardozo, M. T. A. & Shah, R. A. (2016), ‘The fruit caught between two stones’: the conflicted position of teachers within Aceh’s independence struggle, Globalisation, Societies and Education. DOI.
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Shah, R. & Lopes Cardozo, M. T. A. (2014), Education and Social Change in Post-Conflict and Post-Disaster Aceh, Indonesia, International Journal of Educational Development. DOI.
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Conference papers
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Research presented at international conferences including ICAIOS, UKFIET and WCCES, addressing women’s leadership, education and peacebuilding, and the politics of education in post-conflict Aceh.
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Master’s theses
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Five master’s theses explored topics including future teachers as peacebuilders, scholarships and peacebuilding, participatory education reform, gender justice, and teaching the history of conflict in schools.
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Between 2014 and 2016, this consortium examined how education contributes to peacebuilding across Myanmar, Pakistan, South Africa and Uganda. It focused on policy integration, teachers’ roles, and youth agency in conflict‑affected contexts.
Co‑directed by Mieke Lopes Cardozo (University of Amsterdam), Mario Novelli (University of Sussex), and Alan Smith (Ulster University), in partnership with UNICEF’s PBEA programme.
I served as PI in this part of the project, which explored how formal and non‑formal education can enhance youth agency in peacebuilding processes. It draws on the consortium’s 4Rs framework (Reconciliation, Redistribution, Recognition, Representation).
Connected to the Research Consortium on Education and Peacebuilding, involving the University of Amsterdam, University of Sussex, Ulster University, and UNICEF.
Since 2006, I have conducted research in Sri Lanka in the field of education for peace(building). In this (post-)conflict, multi-ethnic, multilingual and multi-religious society, the education sector is perceived as important to promote (and achieve) social cohesion. However, this research strand aims to contribute to the wider debate on the complex role of education in situations of conflict in working from critical theory. Topics concern peace education, teacher education, teacher agency, segregation of schooling. Various Master thesis projects have been carried out in the context of Sri Lanka.
Selected publications include:
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Duncan, R. and Lopes Cardozo, M.T.A. (2017) ‘Reclaiming Reconciliation through Community Education for the Muslims and Tamils of post-war Jaffna, Sri Lanka’, Research in Comparative and International Education, 12:1, pp 76-94
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Lopes Cardozo, M.T.A. & Hoeks, C.M.Q. (2014) Losing ground: a critical analysis of teachers’ agency for peacebuilding education in Sri Lanka. Journal of Peace Education.
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Lopes Cardozo, M.T.A., & May, A. (2009) ‘Teaching for peace – overcoming division? The potential contribution of peace education in reconciliation processes in the cases of Sri Lanka and Uganda’, Chapter 15 in: Opportunities for Change, edited by Susan Nicolai, UNESCO-IIEP, pp. 201-217.
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Lopes Cardozo, M.T.A. (2008) ‘Sri Lanka: in peace or in pieces? A Critical Approach to Peace Education in Sri Lanka’, Research in Comparative and International Education, 3 (1), pp. 19-35
Between 2007 and 2011, I worked on my PhD research in La Paz and Cochabamba, Bolivia. My work focused on the challenges and opportunities of the envisioned transformation of the Normales (teacher training institutes) under Evo Morales presidency, and demonstrates a range of structural obstacles as well as the emerging potential niches for change. By locating Bolivian teacher education – and Bolivian future teachers – in a broader (inter)national socio-political, economical and cultural context, this research explores how Bolivian pre-service teacher education institutes and actors develop strategies for, or against, the societal transformation that is envisaged by the Bolivian Plurinational constitutional regime.
Selected publications:
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Shah, R. A., & Lopes Cardozo, M. T. A. (2016) ‘Transformative teachers or teachers to be transformed? The cases of Bolivia and Timor Leste’, Research in Comparative and International Education.
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Lopes Cardozo, M.T.A., Sawyer, J., Talavera Simoni, M.L. (2015). Machismo and Mamitas at school: exploring the agency of teachers for social gender justice in Bolivian education. European Journal of Development Research 27, pp. 574–588. doi:10.1057/ejdr.2015.51
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Bolivian teachers’ agency: Soldiers of liberation or guards of coloniality and continuation? Education Policy Analysis Archives, 23(4).
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Lopes Cardozo, M.T.A. (2013). A Critical Theoretical Perspective on Education and Social Change in Bolivia: A Contested Alternative Pedagogy. Chapter 5 in: S.C. Motta and M. Cole (Eds.), Education and Social Change in Latin America, New York, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 89-106.
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Lopes Cardozo, M.T.A., & Strauss, J. (2013). ‘From the Local to the Regional and Back: Bolivia’s Politics of Decolonizing Education in the Context of the ALBA–TCP’, chapter 12 in: T. Muhr (ed), Counter-Globalization and Socialism in the 21st Century: The Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America, London, Routledge, pp. 203-218.
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Lopes Cardozo, M.T.A. (2012). Decolonising Bolivian education: Ideology versus reality, in: T. G. Griffiths and Z. Millei (eds), Logics of Socialist Education: Engaging with Crisis, Insecurity and Uncertainty. Dordrecht: Springer.
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Lopes Cardozo, M.T.A. (2012). ‘Turbulence in Bolivia’s Normales: Teacher education as a socio-political battle field’. Propects – Quarterly Review of Comparative Education, Online publication November 2012, journal publication March 2013.
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Lopes Cardozo, M.T.A. (2012). Los futuros maestros y el cambio social en Bolivia – Entre la descolonización y las movilizaciones, PIEB (Programa de Investigación Estratégica en Bolivia) & Universiteit van Amsterdam, La Paz.
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Lopes Cardozo, M.T.A. (2012). Transforming pre-service teacher education in Bolivia: from indigenous denial to decolonisation?’. Compare, Special issue edited by S. Aikman, 42(5), pp. 751-772.
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Lopes Cardozo, M.T.A. (2011). Future teachers and social change in Bolivia – Between decolonisation and demonstration, Eburon publishers, Delft: http://www.eburon.nl/future_teacher_and_social_change_in_bolivia
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Lopes Cardozo, M.T.A. (2009). Teachers in a Bolivian context of conflict: potential actors for or against change?, special issue on ‘New perspectives: Globalisation, Education and Violent Conflict’, Globalisation, Societies & Education, 7 (4), pp. 409-432
This short (24 minute) documentary tells the story of Ramiro, a Bolivian teacher and taxi-driver who is determined to leave a life of poverty and discrimination. He is about to finish his 5-year teacher education programme, a study career he could only pursue with the financial support of his family and his work as a taxi-driver. There are many challenges to being a teacher in present day Bolivia – a context of radical social and political transformations, as is illustrated in the film by the commentaries of Bolivian academic and education expert Maria Luisa Talavera.
This film is an IS Academie production. Produced and directed by Mieke Lopes Cardozo and Rikjan Scholten, 2012. It was produced in the context of a 5 year long research project on teacher education and social transformation in Bolivia.
Ramiro – A teacher’s journey was presented at the PILAS (Postgraduates in Latin American Studies) Conference, University of Liverpool, UK (19-21 June 2013).