Leon Tikly

I am UNESCO Chair in Inclusive, Good Quality Education at the University of Bristol. My main research interests include improving access to good quality, lifelong learning for historically disadvantaged groups in Africa and issues of race, ethnicity and education in the English education system. My work is underpinned by theoretical concerns including an analysis of coloniality and of the 'postcolonial condition' as it impacts in Africa and the UK and by a commitment to social, economic, epistemic and environmental justice.

I have been principle investigator on several projects in Africa focusing on issues concerned with improving and transforming the quality of education in areas such as the curriculum, pedagogy, teacher education, school leadership and the language of instruction. I have led a large research programme on Implementing Education Quality in Africa funded by DfID and am currently PI on a GCRF funded network plus on Transforming Education for Sustainable Futures with partners in India, Rwanda, Somalia and South Africa. I have also been PI on several national studies in the area of race, ethnicity and education in the UK with a focus on strategies to raise the attainment of learners of African and African diaspora decent. I have published widely on the empirical and theoretical interests including my latest book on Education for Sustainable Development in the Postcolonial World: Towards a Transformative Agenda for Africa.

I started my career as a science teacher in London comprehensives before teaching at a school established by the African National Congress for refugees from apartheid South Africa in Morogoro, Tanzania. My PhD is on Education Policy in South Africa since 1947. I worked as a policy researcher at the Education Policy Unit, University of the Witwatersrand during the transition form apartheid to democracy before taking up a lectureship at the University of Birmingham. I have worked at the University of Bristol since 1998 and was promoted to a Chair in 2006.