Fiona LeachEmeritus Professor (Education)
Research
Her research interests are: gender and education, training for women's empowerment, educational development projects, cultural issues in education, cross-cultural transfer of knowledge and skills, and community participation in education and development. She is best known for her research and awareness raising in the field of gender violence in schools and developed a web site featuring a range of on-line studies about school-based gender violence, an extensive bibliography and links to related websites (). She also developed a website in collaboration with id21 to disseminate findings from research studies on this topic as well as to highlight successful initiatives aimed at counteracting school-based violence (visit and search for 'gender violence in schools'). Fiona has also been involved in researching equity issues at the university level with Professor Louise Morley through a project on widening participation in higher education in Ghana and Tanzania (wphegt).
Recent research
- Widening participation in higher education in Ghana and Tanzania (ESRC/DFID, 2006-9)
- An investigative study of the abuse of girls in African schools (DFID, 2000-5)
- A preliminary investigation of the abuse of girls in junior secondary schools in Zimbabwe (DFID, 1998-2000)
- Gendered school experiences: the impact on retention and achievement (DFID, 2001-4) (with Dr Mairead Dunne)
- The impact of training on women's micro-enterprise development (DFID, 1997-9)
- Linking higher education to basic education (Commonwealth Secretariat, 1996-1999)
Other academic activities
Occasional consultancy overseas; member of the international Editorial Board of the new journal Girlhood Studies; previous managing editor of the journal Compare (1998-2001) and member of the Compare Editorial Board until 2004; previous member of the executive committee of the British Association of International and Comparative Education (BAICE); previous honorary treasurer of the UK Forum for International Education and Training (UKFIET).
Fiona was convenor of the 11th UKFIET International Conference on Education and Development on the theme of 'Global challenges to education: economics, environment and emergency' held in Oxford 13-15 September 2011 (). She was also convenor of the 9th and 10th UKFIET conferences in 2007 and 2009. She also convened the biennial BAICE conference held at the ßÏßÏÊÓƵ 3-5 September 2004 on the theme of 'Education for the 21st Century: conflict, reconciliation and reconstruction' (for further information see )