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Dr Shalini Bhorkar

Postdoctoral Researcher - Education

Dr Shalini Bhorkar

About Research

Email: shalini.bhorkar@stmarys.ac.uk

Biography

Shalini has a diverse profile in teaching and has taught children and adults in India, Japan, Hong Kong and the UK. Her most recent teaching experience has been at the Institute of Education, University College London, where she has taught and supported students’ teaching-learning at both the master’s and undergraduate levels. She has also worked as an Education and International Development Consultant undertaking consultancy and mentoring assignments. Her work includes several spheres of education in specific (design and delivery of education; student-centred learning approaches; teacher professional development) and development more broadly (policy planning, implementation and analysis; governance and accountability).

Shalini completed her PhD in Education and International Development at the Institute of Education, University College London. Her doctoral study involved a political economy approach to explore the linkages between informal private tutoring and formal schooling in the context of India.

She also holds MEd in Comparative and Global Studies in Education and Development (CGSED) from the University of Hong Kong (Distinction), and MA from the University of Sheffield (Distinction).

Shalini has been accredited with the AdvanceHE, Associate Fellowship in Higher Education (AFHEA).


Research

Research profile

Shalini’s research and practice broadly focus on critical debates in education quality and equity in low and middle income countries, with an emphasis on the political economy of privatisation in school education. She is particularly interested in the implications of educational privatisation on the school education of the poorest and the most disadvantaged student populations.

Publications

Peer-reviewed Journal articles

Book Chapter

  • Bhorkar, S. (Accepted for publication). Unregulated Private Tutoring in India: Educational Inequalities Engendered by the “Light but Tight” National Education Policy 2020. In T. Saeed, R. Iyengar, M.A. Witenstein, & E.J. Byker (Eds.), Exploring Education and Democratization in South Asia: Research, Policy, and Practice. Palgrave Macmillan.

Book Review

Blog articles

Conferences (papers presented)

  • June 2020 UCL Institute of Education Doctoral Summer Conference, London, Power, interests and ideas: A disaggregated theoretical approach for political economy analysis of private tutoring in India.
  • Sept 2019 UKFIET Conference 2019, Oxford, Reservations for poor children in private schools in India: Inclusion or illusion?
  • April 2019 Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) Conference, San Francisco, Educational corruption arising in and through the private tutoring sector in India.
  • April 2019 British Association of South Asian Studies (BASAS) Conference, Durham
    Education in India: Old issues, new challenges.
  • Dec 2018 CESI (Comparative Education Society of India) Annual Conference, Baroda, India, Comparative education methodologies for developing shadow education research in India.
  • Nov 2018 Waseda University Doctoral Exchange Programme Conference, Tokyo, Japan, Expansion and role of shadow education in India.
  • September 2018 BAICE (British Association for International & Comparative Education), York, Lessons from Gandhian principles for rethinking educational policies in pluralist India.
  • June 2018 UCL Institute of Education Doctoral Summer Conference, London, Political economy of private tutoring: Implications for mainstream education in India.
  • May 2018 Hong Kong University Postgraduate Research Conference, Hong Kong, Educational quality and equity: Dynamics of shadow education in rural Maharashtra, India.
  • March 2017 Comparative Education Society of Hong Kong (CESHK), Hong Kong, The untapped potential of comparative education research to study the shadow education phenomenon in India.
  • April 2016 Comparative Education Society of Hong Kong (CESHK), Hong Kong, Defying the norms: Example of a fledgling school in rural Maharashtra, India.

Media enquiries

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