Doctoral Students

We have invited some of our commonwealth students to give a brief summary of their PhD topic and current activities.

Name

Topic

Maria Mama

Exploring the relationship between Cypriot primary teachers' practices and beliefs about ICT in schools

Maria recently completed her doctoral study at the Faculty of Education. Her thesis explored the complexities of the integration of ICT in Cyprus primary education through teachers' beliefs and practices. The purpose of her multi-case study was to indicate implications for change with ICT and provide recommendations for practice to the involved parties. One of the main outcomes of her research was the development of a typology of teacher use of ICT informed by their pedagogical beliefs, towards a better understanding of teacher response. Moreover, the study identified both teacher-related and external factors influencing the uptake of technology in the classroom. In fact, it revealed fundamental issues affecting the interrelationships between the agents at all levels (teacher/classroom, school, ministerial/system), highlighting the cultural impact on the implementation of the ICT initiative. The messages are generalizable to other contexts, where, as in Cyprus, the integration of ICT in education is still in the early stages.

Maria plans to continue her research in the field focussing on teachers' in-school support with technology uptake.

Moses Orwe

Moses is a PhD candidate at the Faculty of Education and his thesis is on educators' preparation to teach about HIV and AIDS. Other research interests include exploring ways to improve science teaching and use of assessment for learning.

Prior to enrolling for a PhD programme, Moses was a lecturer at the Aga Khan University - Institute for Educational Development, Easter Africa - where he worked with practitioners to explore improvement of science teaching, assessment for learning and integration of HIV and AIDS issues into the curriculum.

Moses taught Biology and Chemistry in secondary schools in Kenya for 14 years and worked as a school based professional development teacher (PDT) which involved working with practitioners in exploring ways of improving teaching and learning through interactive approaches.

Juhi Sidharth

Juhi undertook an undergraduate degree in psychology (Maharaja Sayajirao Unversity of Baroda), Masters in Social work (Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai) and an M Phil in Developmental Studies (University of Cambridge). Juhi is currently pursuing a PhD at the Faculty of Education. Her research explores sexual learning and sexual behaviour among adolescent girls living in urban India. Juhi has also worked on a Population Council project on Reproductive health among rural women in northern India and Health and Awareness programs among HIV positive sex workers in Mumbai. Her research interest lies in youth sexual behaviour in the global south, formal and informal sexuality education and the inter-linkages between gender, power and sexuality among urban poor.

Commonwealth students currently studying for PhDs at the Faculty. They represent 13 countries and their research covers a wide range of topics across all the academic groups:

Name	Topic	Nationality
Manzoorul Abedin	Malfeasance, absence, silence? Exploring the policy sociology of English language education in Bangladesh (supervisor: Nidhi Singal)	Bangladeshi
Nitu Duggal	Investigating effectiveness of approaches to teaching reading comprehension (supervisor: Dominic Wyse)	Indian
Angela Githitho-Murithi	Education for all and child labour in Kenya: an ethnography (supervisors: Madeleine Arnot and Nidhi Singal)	Kenyan
Wei Shin Leong	Singapore Teachers' Conceptions and Practices of 'Holistic Assessment' (supervisors: Pam Burnard, Sue Swaffield)	Singaporean
Louiza Mallouri	National identity in visual texts in Cyprus (supervisor: Morag Styles)	Cypriot
Rabia Malik	School choice and parental participation: a mixed methods study of determinants of school quality in Punjab, Pakistan (supervisor: Christopher Colclough)	Pakistani
Maria Mama	Exploring the relationship between Cypriot primary teachers' practices and beliefs about ICT in schools (supervisor: Sara Hennessy)	Cypriot
Thabo Msibi	Identity, sexuality and the politics of teaching: a life history study of black South African male teachers (supervisor: Jo-Anne Dillabough)	South African
Siza Mtimbiri	A case study: Exploring the relationship between HIV/AIDS and schooling with a focus on rural primary school children's perspectives (supervisor: Colleen McLaughlin)	Zimbabwean
Lee Eric Nordstrum	Beyond the doors of learning: school finance, user fees and education demand in the new South Africa (supervisor: Christopher Colclough)	American
Georgina Oduro	Gender relations, sexuality and HIV/AIDS education: a study of Ghanaian youth cultures (supervisors: Colleen McLaughlin and Madeleine Arnot) (Completed)	Ghanian
Shirley Ong	Investigating the effect of incorporating explicit contrasts between educational mother tongue and foreign language into English-language classes in Brunei (supervisors: Michael Evans and Andrie Yiakoumetti (Completed)	Bruneian
Moses Onyango	Exploring educators' preparation to teach about HIV/AIDS effectively: a case of a teacher preparation college in Kenya (supervisor: Colleen McLaughlin)	Kenyan
Manasi Pande	The impact of poverty on the lives and education of adolescent carers (supervisors: Madeleine Arnot and Shailaja Fennell) (Completed)	Indian
Azlin Zainal	The impact of a Malaysian government sponsored ICT training programme on secondary school English language teachers' attitudes towards ICT and classroom practice (supervisor: Michael Evans)	Malaysian

Commonwealth students receive funding from a variety of sources including the Cambridge Commonwealth Trust, ESRC, Dr Manmohan Singh Scholarship, Cambridge Australia Trust Scholarships, RECOUP, Overseas Student Bursary. Other links: Financial Aid for Overseas Students and www.gradunion.cam.ac.uk/altprosp/funding/overseas