Position/Status

University Associate Professor

E-mail Address

heg38@cam.ac.uk

Qualifications

• 2019 – PhD (Education) – Institute of Education, University College London (UCL)
• 2015 – MA (Hons., Science Education) – State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Brazil
• 2010 – BSc (Hons., Chemistry with Teaching Qualification) – State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Brazil

Membership of Professional Bodies/Associations

• British Educational Research Association (BERA)
• European Science Education Research Association (ESERA)
• International History, Philosophy, and Science Teaching Group (IHPST)
• European Network on Thoughtfulness in Biology Education
• Qualified Teacher Status (QTS, England)
• Qualified Teacher Status, Full registration – Science with Chemistry (GTC Scotland)

Profile

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.

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.

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.

Academic Area/Links

• Science, Technology and Mathematics Education
• Teacher and Professional Education
• Teaching and Pedagogy
• Knowledge, Power and Politics

Research Topics

• Science Education: Decolonial Curriculum; Nature of Science; Socio-scientific issues and emergencies.
• Science and Technology Studies: Decolonial perspectives on History, Philosophy and Sociology of Science; Global History and Sociology of Science.
• Teacher Education: Radical and Critical Teaching and Social Justice; Researcher-Teacher/School-University partnerships; Teachers Identities and Professional Development.
• Curriculum and Pedagogy:  Decolonial and Critical Pedagogy and Curricula.
• Youth and social action: youth’s engagement with socio-environmental issues.

Prospective PhD Applications

Haira would welcome informal contact from prospective PhD students on the following research areas

• Science Education: particularly the links with social justice, social-political dimensions, nature of science, socio-scientific issues (and, more broadly, with History and Sociology of Science).
• Decolonial Education: curriculum and pedagogy in school settings.
• Teacher Education and Development: radical and critical teaching.

Current Research Project(s)

• “Going against the grain”: amplifying school-based practices for a socio-political turn in science teaching
• Radical Teachers and Teaching in England

Teaching

• Postgraduate
  • MPhil: Education Leadership and Improvement; Research Methods Strand
  • MEd: Transforming Practice

• Undergraduate
  • Secondary PGCE: Professional Studies

Principal and Recent Publications

Gandolfi, H., Rushton, E. A., Silva, L. F., Carvalho, M. B. S. S. (2024). Teacher educators and environmental justice: conversations about education for environmental justice between science and geography teacher educators based in England and Brazil. Cultural Studies of Science Education.

Gandolfi, H. (2024). Decolonisation and socio-political arenas in science education: reflecting on the role of biological education. Journal of Biological Education, 58(2). [Invited editorial]

Gandolfi, H., Glowach, T., Walker, L., Walker, S., & Rushton, E. (2024). Exploring decolonial and anti‐racist perspectives in teacher education and curriculum through dialogue. The Curriculum Journal. https://doi.org/10.1002/curj.246

Gandolfi, H. (2023). Transnational conversations about science education: Paulo Freire, interculturality and socio-political transformation. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 18, 159–173. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11422-023-10163-6

Gandolfi, H., & Rushton, E. A. (2023). Guest editors: Special Issue – Decolonial and anti‐racist perspectives in teacher training and education curricula in England and Wales. The Curriculum Journal, 34(1), 1-172. https://doi.org/10.1002/curj.200

Gandolfi, H., & Rushton, E. A. (2023). Editorial: Decolonial and anti‐racist perspectives in teacher training and education curricula in England and Wales. The Curriculum Journal, 34(1), 1-7. https://doi.org/10.1002/curj.200

Gandolfi, H. (2023). Teaching in the age of environmental emergencies: a “utopian” exploration of the experiences of teachers committed to environmental education in England. Educational Review. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131911.2022.2163378

Park, W., Cullinane, A., Gandolfi, H., Alameh, S., & Mesci, G. (2023). Innovations, challenges and future directions in nature of science research: Reflections from early career academics. Research in Science Education. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-023-10102-z

Daly, C., Glegg, P., Stiasny, B., Hardman, M., Taylor, B., Pillinger, C., & Gandolfi, H. (2023). Mentors as instructional coaches for new teachers: lessons learnt from the early career framework in England. International Journal of Mentoring and Coaching in Education, 12(4), 350-365. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJMCE-10-2022-0090

Gandolfi, H., & Mills, M. (2022). Teachers for social justice: exploring the lives and work of teachers committed to social justice in education, 49(5), 569-587. Oxford Review of Education. https://doi/full/10.1080/03054985.2022.2105314

Gandolfi, H. E. (2021). Decolonising the science curriculum in England: bringing decolonial science and technology studies to secondary education. The Curriculum Journal, 32(3), 510-532. https://doi.org/10.1002/curj.97

Gandolfi, H. E. (2021). “It's a lot of people in different places working on many ideas”: Possibilities from global history of science to Learning about nature of science. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 58(4), 551-588. https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.21671

Gandolfi, H. E. (2020). “I didn’t know how that could come to this curriculum”: teacher’s growth through the development of materials about Nature of Science. Journal of Science Teacher Education, 31(6), 610-630. https://doi.org/10.1080/1046560X.2020.1730049

Gandolfi, H. E. (2019). In defence of non-epistemic aspects of nature of science: insights from an intercultural approach to History of Science. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 14, 557–567. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11422-018-9879-8.

Gandolfi, H. E. (2019). História Global da Ciência: uma estratégia intercultural para o ensino de Natureza da Ciência. In: S. F. M. Figueiroa (ed.), História e Filosofia das Ciências da Natureza e da Matemática: ensino, pesquisa e formação de professores. Sao Paulo/Brazil: Hipótese. ISBN: 9786580428090. [book chapter: Global History of Science: an intercultural strategy for NOS teaching; book title: History and Philosophy of Natural Science and Mathematics: teaching, research and teacher education – in Portuguese]

Gandolfi, H. E. (2018). Different People in Different Places: Secondary School Students’ Knowledge About History of Science. Science & Education, 27(3–4), 259–297. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11191-018-9971-1.