This page presents a group of international educators who form a vital part of CARDE. Many are current and former MBA Educational Leadership (MEL) students, informally known as the “WildCARDEs”, though we welcome all educators who are concerned about the impacts of digitalisation.
These international educators are working all over the world in a variety of roles including educational leadership and teaching. What connects them, and everyone else in the CARDE group, is the urge to dig deeper into what the digitalisation of education is and its impact, and to communicate those findings for raised awareness.
Emma Avila
I have been working as a Drama, Arts and Literary teacher for over eleven years in international schools and am currently Head of Drama at a bilingual school in Colombia. My interests are in the arts and service learning and I hold a M.Ed in Drama in Education from Trinity College Dublin. I am currently studying for an MBA in Educational Leadership. The Covid-19 pandemic has made me rethink about how and why digital platforms are used in educational settings and how they can help to stimulate learning and engagement. I am also interested in the safety, ethos, and principles of online digital learning.
Julia Briggs
I have been a science and chemistry teacher for the past 10 years, more recently I have been the Head of Chemistry, living and working in an international school in Bogotá, Colombia. In addition to teaching I am a certified trainer in teaching for conceptual learning transfer and have travelled around the world to consult with schools and teachers. Currently, I am studying an MBA in Educational Leadership, as a result of my experience as a teacher and this master’s programme I have become increasingly interested in the relationship between education and technology, and specifically the ethical implications of digitalisation within this context.
Ana Paula Camargo
I have been working in the field of educational for 20 years, and I currently work as head of projects related to quality education to low income gifted students in a social institute in São Paulo, Brazil. After graduating from an MBA in Educational Leadership, in which I focused on digitalization in basic education, my interest is increasingly related to concerns about the use of digital platforms to develop soft skills, especially in relation to the inequalities and complexities of a Latin American context.
Dr Kathy Charles
I am the Executive Dean for Learning and Teaching at Nottingham Trent University. My background is in higher education in the UK and I began teaching in 2003. My academic discipline was Forensic Psychology but I now have a central service role. I am responsible for creating and sustaining a culture of high-quality teaching, and promoting continuing professional development and the scholarship of learning and teaching. I provide strategic leadership of learning, teaching, and curriculum design services across NTU. I am interested in learning spaces, digital pedagogy, learning analytics, and the use of student data and the related ethical issues. I am always happy to connect and collaborate with MEL alumni.
Alexandra Corr
I have been teaching as a primary school teacher for five years in Dublin, Ireland. In my first year of teaching I worked as a resource teacher, working with children with varies special educational needs (SEN). I had previously completed a special needs course. I now mainly teach fifth and sixth class students but also work a second job as a special needs home tutor for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. I have been doing this for six years now and really enjoy it. Before I studied the HDip in Primary education, I completed a BA in Human Development, English and Geography. During my studies, I worked in different settings, for example, teaching English in an Irish women’s prison, volunteering in ASD units and in a school in Zambia, Africa.
I have an interest in the areas of special education, human rights and equity and inclusion in education. I am interested in the use of digital platforms for students with SEN. I would like to evaluate the efficacy of an online platform for children with SEN.
Charlotte Dawson
I have been teaching in UK and international primary schools for 12 years. I am currently based in a Dubai private school, whilst studying for an MBA in Educational Leadership at TAMK. I joined the CARDE research group due to my concerns regarding the datafication of children, particularly how applications are used to modify student behaviour. I am also interested in following the development of online learning platforms and associated content in private schools.
Aminah Ottosdotter Davidsson
Aminah is a licensed educator with an MA and a BA in Education from Sweden. She has experience in general education programmes as well as higher ED in Sweden, the UK, Denmark and Saudi Arabia. For the past six years, Aminah has been teaching at a university in Saudi Arabia where she has also been involved in mentoring, work shop development and curriculum & test item design. Prior to teaching, she worked with product and interior design and ran her own business for ten years.
Aminah has a strong passion for equity in education and raising the educational system to a high level. She is also thrilled with the challenge of dealing with different cultural and educational backgrounds where a one-size-fits-all solution is not applicable. Rather she supports the idea of tailored solutions to tackle grassroots problems and challenges. After joining MEL, Aminah has gained a growing interest in education technology specifically related to critical digital pedagogy, power relations in a digital world, decolonization of education and agency
Boglárka Ivanegová
I have explored the various aspects of environmental education and education for sustainable development for 10 years. In February 2020 I co-founded SUSTO-Sustainability tools, an interdisciplinary consultancy through which we focus on corporate social responsibility, education for sustainable development, and impact management, based in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. My goal is to help others learn to become agents of positive change within their environment. Before SUSTO, I worked as a policy officer at the Slovak Ministry of Environment, as an assistant at the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome, co-founded an urban garden, and worked at a Natural History Museum. I hold a BA in Human Ecology from College of the Atlantic and a Masters Degree in Food Security and Human Development from Università degli Studi Roma Tre. Currently, I am studying for an MBA in Educational Leadership. I am interested in rhizomatic learning and in creating digital learning environments that empower learners, nourish agency, and foster collaboration.
David Keating
David hails from Cork City in the Republic of Ireland and has been working in education since 2012. His experience includes teaching in the Republic of Ireland, three international schools and a short stint as an Education Consultant. He is currently working as a secondary school English and Theory of Knowledge teacher in a not-for-profit school in Dubai. David is particularly interested in teacher observation culture in schools, the topic on which he based his Master’s thesis as part of the MEL19 MBA cohort at Tampere University of Applied Science in Finland. This program also inspired him to investigate the impact of technology in the classroom and digital pedagogy. David is a featured author for TES.com and has published articles on topics ranging from fostering successful classroom culture to financial advice for international teachers.
Nathalie Lossec
Nathalie is a Modern Languages Faculty leader at the secondary school level, whose career was forged in the UK and internationally. Her main research interests are on the socio-digital future of Education, especially on data ethics and data safeguarding linked to Technology implementation in secondary schools, but also on analysing the evolution of humanism in education.
Nicholas Millar
Nicky is from a small town in Ireland but has lived in the Czech Republic for the past six years. He graduated from Queen’s University Belfast with a bachelors in education and from Tampere University of Applied Sciences with an MBA in educational leadership. He has taught in high schools in The Netherlands, China and Slovakia. He is currently working as a high school environmental sciences teacher in an international school. Nicky’s areas of interest are based in child safeguarding, welfare at the post-primary level and in particular, novel issues that arise from new technologies.
Dr Cristina Obae
I have been working as a French teacher since 2004, at the university level and in the IB system. IB examiner, Head of Section, and MYP International Projects Coordinator I am currently studying for the Educational Leadership MBA at TAMK, Finland. My biggest passion has always been the usage of technology in education and I am convinced that, if used properly, it can significantly improve the learning process.
Mira Perämäki
Originally a nurse and a vocational teacher I’ve worked for the healthcare sector for most of my career. I stumbled into online learning almost by accident 8 years ago and a few months ago made a career change and now work as a trainer and project manager for a company that offers e Learning solutions for different organizations. I’m currently studying for an MBA in Educational Leadership.
I’m interested in helping organizations make the best of their LMS and since my experience is mostly in instructional design, helping teachers and trainers make their content engaging and motivating for their students.
Mark Rasi
I teach curriculum, pedagogy, and digital literacy to education students across two institutions in Brisbane, Australia. I am concerned with practices that utilise digital technologies to drive change agendas, demand adoption, increase accountability, and promote school and personal achievements. I would like to connect with researchers, teachers or leaders to develop principles and practices that promote openness, trust and professionalism.
Maria Ruuskanen
I’m a Finnish social scientist specialized in the Latin American region where I have spent the last decade working in topics related to development policy and international relations. I’m passionate about human development and social justice with a particular interest in education policy as a means to reduce poverty, inequality, corruption and violent crime. I believe in life-long learning and I try to exemplify that by reading, writing and researching as much as I can. I currently work as an Adviser at the Finnish Embassy in Lima and I teach part-time at a Peruvian university called UPC. I am also finishing my Master’s thesis for the MBA in Educational Leadership program at TAMK. My thesis is focused on Peruvian employers’ perceptions of job candidates with an online distance learning background. In general, my research interest include: Critical Digital Literacy, Politics of Education, Access and Equity in Education and Technology in Teaching and Learning.
Mauro Spicci
Mauro is a school leader, a researcher, a published author and a teacher trainer. He holds a PhD in English Studies (University of Milan), an MA in the History of Sciences (Newcastle University) and an MBA in Educational Leadership and Innovation (Tampere University). He is currently based in Milan (Italy), where he co-directs a bilingual school with an innovative approach aimed at promoting critical thinking skills through a transdisciplinary curriculum. His most recent research interests include the analysis of the impact social reading practices have on education, the promotion of new “hybrid” reading practices across schools, the power of “online communities” in co-defining training courses for schools, and the effective promotion of equity in both the digital and the real world of education.
Stewart Utley
Greatly intrigued by his own experiences of online learning and the spectrum of which his personal experiences lay within – spanning from distanced and sterile to stimulating and empowering, Stewart has consistently found himself drawn to the human experience embodied in educational technologies. Based in an international university in Vietnam for the past five years, he has witnessed the rise of the promise of ed tech in various educational contexts, and, as with rising internationalism of education sectors across the world, often finds himself reflecting on the socio-cultural appropriacy of the format, delivery and pedagogies these technologies often inherently promote when applied to diverse environments.
Jamie Walker
I have been working as a teacher for the past 11 years, with the first five working in Further Education colleges in The United Kingdom. Having moved into internationally in 2015, first to Lusaka, Zambia then to Sao Paulo, where I currently serve as the Head of English in an international school. Having joined the TAMK Educational Leadership MBA cohort in 2020, I find myself increasingly interested in the relationships that exist between the digitalisation of learning and the growing equity gap in provision of and access to education.
Marie Whitehead
Originally from Austria, I have worked as a language acquisition teacher (French, Spanish and German) in various countries, age levels and school systems. I am currently a grade level leader and teacher in Vietnam. During the studies for the MBA in Educational Leadership, I have realized that education can be bridged with many other areas, such as technology or business. This is where my interest lays at the moment and where I see an important opportunity for growth in education. Especially Social Emotional Learning in Online Education has caught my attention, because I have seen the struggle that students went through when our school moved teaching and learning online during Covid19.
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