University of Oxford

Graduate Student, Department of International Development

Research Associate, Young Lives Project

Oriel College

Thesis Title: "Making the grade": effects of school policies on children's schooling achievement in Ethiopia

About

MPhil Development Studies (dist), University of Oxford
BSocSci (Hons) Economics (cum laude), University of Cape Town

Procter Fellowship, Princeton University (2012/13)
Wingate Scholarship (2011)
Herbert and Ilse Frankel Studentship in Economics and Political Economy (Oriel College, 2010)
Skye Foundation Research Grants
Rhodes Scholarship (South-Africa-at-large and St Antony's, 2007)
Anglo American Open Scholarship (2003)

Working towards a DPhil in Development Studies
My DPhil examines the effects of three school-level factors on schooling participation and achievement. I examine these policies because they are highlighted by children and teachers in qualitative work but not are a focus of the economics of education literature. The factors examined include teachers’ knowledge and pedagogical methods, the language of instruction and the length of the school day. I use three waves of household data from the Young Lives survey, augmented with one wave of data on Young Lives’ children’s schools from a survey I designed as part of a team (collected Mar-May 2010, see http://www.younglives.org.uk/what-we-do/research-methods/research-into-policy-and-practice). I also collected qualitative data in three sites with children, parents and teachers (collected Jul-Aug 2008 and Mar-May 2010) and with officials at five regional education bureaux (collected May 2010).

Before coming to Oxford, I worked in two basic education NGOs in informal settlements outside Cape Town. I ran SHAWCO (http://www.shawco.org/), a 1200-volunteer organisation which runs academic support programmes in Maths and English. I also co-founded and ran the Township Debating League (http://ubunye.org.za/about/), which supports student-run debating clubs for high school students, aiming to improve students' critical thinking, current affairs awareness and confidence in communicating through an interactive, non-academic activity.