Dr Jennifer Agbaire wins Outstanding Early Career Researcher at The Open University Research Excellence Awards

Dr Jennifer Agbaire is joint winner of the Outstanding Early Career Researcher category at the 2024 Open University Research Excellence Awards, a celebration of research across the university. She has been recognised for making significant strides since achieving her PhD three years ago. Notably, she has been shortlisted for a £2m Future Leaders grant from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and has led on major funded activities within the UK and internationally.

Jennifer’s research interests are diverse, with a strong focus on educational inclusion and co-creative approaches across various global contexts. One of her more prominent projects includes Ibali, an Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded project turned network, which uses storytelling to explore educational inclusion in Nigeria, South Africa, and the UK.

Her commitment to community engagement and impact-driven research is evident in her collaboration with marginalised populations, and her work within multi-disciplinary partnerships. Jennifer is currently involved in a project aimed at enhancing the quality and equitable provision of continuous professional development, including for marginalised rural community school teachers in Zambia- an initiative funded by the IDRC and building on the Scottish-government-funded Zambia Education School-based Training (ZEST) project.

Jennifer also holds leadership positions in research and is a key member of the Core Management team at the Centre for the Study of Global Development (CSGD), co-leading Early Career Researcher development and ensuring that emerging scholars are supported in their research endeavours. She is Executive Secretary and Trustee of the British Association for International and Comparative Education and is Co-Editor of the British Educational Research Association Blog. She is a strong advocate for bridging research and practice, a commitment she continues to demonstrate through her leadership roles as Module Chair in the Inclusive Practice pathway and Deputy Chair of the multidisciplinary research dissertation module of the Masters in Education programme at The Open University.

Responding to her win at the Research Excellence Awards, Jennifer said: “It is encouraging that the OU recognises and supports impactful research, appreciating the effort and commitment that researchers bring to their work”

Before joining The Open University, Jennifer held research and teaching positions at the University of Bristol and the University of Sussex. Her academic journey began in Nigeria, where she was a secondary school teacher before becoming a Lecturer and teacher educator at the University of Benin. There, she taught undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Comparative Education, Sociology of Education, Educational Philosophy, and the history of education.

Looking to the future, Jennifer added: “I am very enthusiastic about my upcoming projects which are both co-creative action research that aim to advance our understanding of how multiple and complex identities intersect with gender to cause persistent exclusions in education among the most marginalised, and how youth-led spaces for advancing inclusion in education might be developed and much more effectively supported.”

Jennifer will receive her trophy at the Research Excellence Awards held on 12 September. The awards honour the best in research across the university and will form part of a wider celebration and exhibition of OU research. She shares the win with Dr Keely Duddin at the Faculty of Business and Law.

Watch the video below to learn more about Jennifer and her work