Dr Michael Gallagher

Programme Director: Digital Education / Senior Lecturer in Digital Education

Moray House School of Education and Sport, IECS
University of Edinburgh
Centre for Research in Digital Education

Street: 2.02 Simon Laurie House, Moray House School of Education and Sport,
City: University of Edinburgh (Holyrood Campus)
Post code: EH8 8AQ

Biography

Background

I am Senior Lecturer in Digital Education at the University of Edinburgh, and a member of the Centre for Research in Digital Education. My research interests include the mobilities of digital education in development contexts and the implications of such thinking for educational mobility overall. My published work includes critical perspectives on educational technologies; the mobilities of digital education; and futures educational research.

At the University of Edinburgh, I am PI on the GCRF-funded Digital Education Africa cluster, Co-I on the Digital Education for Change Makers in Sub-Saharan Africa project, Co-I on the Mastercard Foundation-funded Foundations for All project, and co-I on the Universal Secondary Education in Asia Pacific project. I am a core team member of the Future University Lab at UNA Europa. I was the PI on the Exploring the Teacher Function: Continuing Interventions in Automated Teaching project and worked on the Near Futures Teaching project, the Distance Learning at Scale project, and was formerly part of the NERC Research for Emergency Aftershock Response project. I was an Assistant Professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul, Korea for many years. I am also a Director and Co-Founder of Panoply Digital, a consultancy dedicated to the use of appropriate technology in development education. I work often with INGOs on digital education projects.

My research focuses on the critical examination of the mobilities exhibited by groups and sectors in flux and how technology is used to both structure and manage these mobilities. Post-Brexit, with greater concentrations of international students, displaced peoples, and refugees, with the unbundling of labour and education, with a global edtech regime emerging in developing contexts largely unmooring local educational expertise and displacing higher education as a vehicle for social mobility, this research focuses on frameworks to investigate these movements holistically and to begin to address the larger intractable challenges that may stunt educational progress in development contexts. I routinely employ mobilities research and sociomateriality to identify “the distribution of agency between people, places, and material assemblages of connectivity” (Sheller, 2017) and the role digital education might serve in an increasingly unbundled intersectional environment.

I have years of experience working with digital education in development contexts throughout Africa, South Asia, and East Asia, including sitting on the Advisory Board of one such university in Nigeria; years of experience working with faculty and students in universities as both instructor and supervisor, including on the MSc in Digital Education as Programme Director; and capacity for cross-sector knowledge exchange from consulting experience with relevant industries such as DfID, USAID, GIZ, World Bank, British Council, UNHCR, UN Habitat, and more. I am a Fellow in the Higher Education Academy (FHEA), in keeping with the requirements of the UK Professional Standards Framework.

CV

66139.pdf

Qualifications

PhD: University College London, Education

MSc: University of Edinburgh, Digital Education

MSc: Drexel University, Information Science

BSc: Wright State University, Education

Responsibilities & affiliations

Programme Director of the MSc in Digital Education

Centre for Research in Digital Education, University of Edinburgh

Digital Education Research Cluster

Core Team Member, Future University Lab, Una Europa

Advisory Council Member: Beni American University (Nigeria)

Higher Education Academy: Teaching Fellow

External Examiner, University of Oxford

Teaching & PhD supervision

Postgraduate teaching

I teach on the MSc in Digital Education at Moray House School of Education and Sport.

Open to PhD supervision enquiries?

Areas of interest for supervision

I welcome enquiries about PhD supervision in the following areas:

Critical studies of educational technology in developing contexts/emerging economies
Critical studies on broadening access to higher education for marginalised groups in developing contexts, particularly for refugees, internally displaced persons (IDPs), and women.
Critical studies of the intersections of national policy, global indicators of educational development (SDGs, etc.), technology, and educational autonomy in developing contexts.

Research

Research summary

Current research interests

digital futures, digital education in the Global South, forcible displacement, mobilities, ICT4D, policy, SDGs

Knowledge exchange

Recent presentations, seminars, and knowledge exchange events include the following:

Bayne, S. & Gallagher, M. (2022). What is digital pedagogy (not)? Danish Network for Educational Development in Higher Education.
Boateng, S.; Cole, G.; Gallagher, M.; Shibli, R. & Fallise, JB . (2022). A Bridge to Where? Determining the goals of bridging programmes for displaced learners. MIT Migration Summit 2022.
Gallagher, M. (2022). Foundations for all: lessons learned from a pilot designed to bridge access to higher education for refugee students in Uganda. QAA Scotland's Enhancement Conference 2022: RResilient Learning Communities – Inclusive, Flexible and Accessible
Gallagher (2022). The state of play for digital education in sub-Saharan Africa. SCOTARG Seminar.
Bayne, S. & Gallagher, M. (2021). Anticipating the near future of Higher Education Teaching. PaTHES Seminar Series, Denmark. Gallagher, M. (2021). Educational futures and the digital: challenges and possibilities. Keynote at the Conference on the Future of Europe, Atlantic College, Wales. Gallagher, M. (2021). Revisiting the future with criticality and creativity: making sense of teaching. Keynote at Dublin City University Learning and Teaching Conference. Gallagher, M. (2021). Digital education and secondary access in the Asia Pacific region. Universal Secondary School Access in the Asia Pacific Seminar Series, the University of Edinburgh.
Gallagher, M. (2021). The Future of Digital Education: Imaginaries and Narratives. Worshop given at Vrije Universiteit Brussels. Brussels, Belgium.
Gallagher, M. (2021). Revisiting the near future of digital education: anticipation and acceleration. Digital Transformation of Higher Education online research symposium, University of Leeds. https://mymedia.leeds.ac.uk/Mediasite/Play/183983ca64894134905b33261a8b75ca1d.
Bayne, S. & Gallagher (2020). Anticipating the near future of teaching. Networked Learning Conference, Denmark.
Gallagher, M. (2020). Foundations for All (FFA): Bridging Programmes for Refugees into HE in Lebanon and Uganda. Senatus Academicus, University of Edinburgh.
Gallagher, M. & Breines, M. (2019).Expanding the Teacher Function. IT Futures Conference, Edinburgh.
Bayne, S. & Gallagher, M. (2019). Preferable and possible near futures for education. SERA Conference, Edinburgh, UK.
Gallagher, M. (2019). The Near Future of Digital Education Workshops. University of Stockholm, Sweden.
Gallagher, M. (2019). Interviewing, Focus Groups, and Digital Methods. American University of Beirut, Lebanon.
Gallagher, M. (2019). Digital Education Theme Development Workshops. University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
Gallagher, M. (2019). Digital Education in a Postdigital World. University of Derby Keynote.
Gallagher, M. (2019). The Near Future of Digital Education in a Postdigital World. University of Exeter Keynote.
Gallagher, M. (2019). UN Habitat Workshop: Digital education for urban resilience: Nairobi, Kenya
Gallagher, M. (2019). British Council Focus Group: The Future of Digital Education
Gallagher, M. (2019). Marshall Islands Visiting Delegation: Workshop on digital teaching
Near Future Teaching testing sessions with staff (10.10.2018) and students (17.10.2018): The NFT team facilitated a series of sessions with staff and students from across the University to test the response to the draft vision and strategy emerging from the Near Future Teaching project, and gather feedback and input for a further iteration. Through these sessions, we engaged 15 staff members and 40 students (although over 150 students expressed interest in attending one of the sessions).
Near Future Teaching testing sessions with schoolchildren: Five 90 minute sessions were conducted with school children from two schools near Edinburgh: one primary and one secondary. Two of the sessions were with 16 to 17 year olds, engaging a total of 14 students, and three sessions were conducted with 8 to 10 year olds, engaging a total of 43 students.
A further Near Future Teaching testing session was held for students (23.10.2018) and was attended by Princess Anne, the Chancellor of the University of Edinburgh, and Peter Mathieson, Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Edinburgh.
Gallagher, M. (2018). OER and Creative Commons Licenses. Cara Online Seminar.
Gallagher, M.; Ross, J. & Macleod, H. (2018). Digital Education Workshop. Istanbul, Turkey.
Gallagher, M. (2018). Surfacing local educational and community practices amidst decisive models of universal educational systems. Society for Research in Higher Education (SRHE): Digital technologies ‘on the ground’: foregrounding local educational practices in an era of global technology, London.
Bayne, S. & Gallagher, M. (2018). The Near Future of Teaching at Edinburgh. University of Edinburgh Learning & Teaching Conference, Edinburgh.
Gallagher, M. (2018). Near Future Teaching and Shaping Education Futures: Social media as communication and data collection. RKE Making Research Visible, University of Edinburgh.
Lamb, J. & Gallagher, M. (2018). Exit the classroom: digital, mobile teaching and learning. University of Edinburgh Learning & Teaching Conference, Edinburgh.
Gallagher, M. (2018). Amira’s complexity and cosmopolitanism: the role of disposition in mobilities and mobile learning. Networked Learning Conference 2018, Zagreb, Croatia.
Gallagher, M. (2018). Disconnects and Scale: Digital Education in Development Contexts. Seminar at the Centre for Research in Digital Education, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh.
Gallagher, M. (2018). Thinking about the Future of Digital Education at the University of Edinburgh: Speculative Design. Institute for Academic Development (IAD); Seminar for the Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice (PgCAP).
Gallagher, M. & Lamb, J. (2018). The Mobile Campus: Imagining The Future of Distributed Education at the University of Edinburgh. Festival of Creative Learning, University of Edinburgh.
Knox, J. & Gallagher, M. (2018). Internet of (Campus) Things. uCreate Studio, University of Edinburgh.
Gallagher, M. (2018). Equity not Equality: How ICT4D Might Inspire Digital Education at the University of Edinburgh. Oxford University Department of Education Seminar Series, Oxford.
Gallagher, M. (2018). “No one should feel othered or alone”: Near Future Teaching and the Future of Digital Education at the University of Edinburgh. Future of Learning Conference 2018: Pedagogy, Policy and Technology in a Digital World, January 15-17, 2018. Bangalore, India.
Knox, J. & Gallagher, M. (2017). The Internet of (Teaching) Things. Kings Buildings, the University of Edinburgh.
Gallagher, M. (2017). Equity & Equality: SMS, MMS, and Digital Education. EngTalks, University of Edinburgh.
Gallagher, M. & Lamb, J. (2017). Multimodal pedagogy and mobile learning for refugees. When Education Becomes Possible. Scottish International Storytelling Festival, University Chaplaincy Centre, University of Edinburgh.