Biography
Saraswati Dawadi is currently a research associate at The Open University (OU), UK, with over 15 years in the education field. She holds a doctorate in Language Assessment from the OU. Prior to starting her work at the OU, she was a teacher educator at Tribhuvan University. Her current research is around language assessment, equity and inclusion in education, girls’ empowerment and professional development through online learning. She brings a significant experience of teaching and research, and engagement with external/internal stakeholders to ensure educational programmes are tailored to local needs and context. At the OU, she is co-investigating two projects. The first project looks at the impact of COVID-19 on equitable access to higher education in Nepal and Kenya whereas the second one has a major focus on the role of technology and English language in reinforcing or reducing marginalisation in Bangladesh, Nepal, Sudan and Senegal. She is also working on the Fleming Fund project that explores how online courses are designed at global and local level, and how such courses support for professional development of health professionals in low- and middle-income countries. She has published her work in journal articles and book chapters, and presented it at many international conferences.
Publications
2025
Ebubedike, Margaret; Dawadi, Saraswati and Boateng, Felicia (). Preventing Trafficking of Girls Through Empowerment and Information Strategy: A Case study of Nepal and Nigeria. The Open University, Milton Keynes.
2024
Wolfenden, Freda; Cooper, Deborah; Dawadi, Saraswati and Noacco, Elena (). School Leaders as agents of change towards equity and inclusion. Foundation for Information Technology Education and Development Inc (FIT-ED), Manila, Philippines.
Wolfenden, Freda; Cooper, Deborah; Dawadi, Saraswati and Noacco, Elena (). How can Networked Improvement Communities help School Leaders address inclusion challenges in their schools?. Foundation for Information Technology Education and Development Inc (FIT-ED), Manila, Philippines.
Kukulska-Hulme, Agnes; Dawadi, Saraswati; Giri, Ram Ashish; Gaved, Mark; Khan, Rubina; Bedri, Amna; Devkota, Kamal Raj and Niane, Abdou (). Reaching out to marginalised populations in under-resourced countries. British Council, London, UK.
Dawadi, Saraswati; Kukulska-Hulme, Agnes and Seargeant, Philp. (). English for the EDI generation: Predicting and tracking the role of English and digital/mobile technologies in Higher Education across East and South Asia. In: INTED Conference 2024, 1 Jul - 3 July 2024, Palma, Spain.
Dawadi, Saraswati; Goshtasbpour, Fereshte and Kukulska-Hulme, Agnes. (). Equitable Access to Higher Education Learning and Assessment: Perspectives from Low-Resource Contexts. Journal of Interactive Media in Education (JIME).
Ebubedike, Margaret; Dawadi, Saraswati; Alla-Mensah, Joyceline; Kwaibwe, Henry N.; Kamunvi, Eric-Robert; Cingtho, Diana; Mwesi Habagaya, Yosia; Kyaidhi, Lilian and Ngobi, Prossy (). Report on stakeholders' consultative engagement on trafficking in persons in Uganda. The Open University.
Kukulska-Hulme, Agnes; Power, Tom; Dawadi, Saraswati; Rahman, S. M. Hafizur and Parvin, Tauhida. (). Factors in mathematics teachers’ access to digital technologies and their professional development through praxis in marginalised communities in Bangladesh. Journal of Technology and Teacher Education, 32 (3) pp. 263-286.
Dawadi, Saraswati (). Schools as Sites for the Reproduction of Inequalities? Neoliberalism, Dual-Medium Instruction and Social (In)Justice. In: Giri, Ram Ashis; Padwad, Amol and Kabir, Mian Naushaad eds. Equity, Social Justice, and English Medium Instruction Singapore: Springer Nature, pp. 107-125.
2023
Kukulska-Hulme, Agnes; Dawadi, Saraswati; Giri, Ram Ashish; Devkota, Kamal Raj; Khan, Rubina and Gaved, Mark. (). Roles of Languages and Technology in Teaching in Marginalised Communities: Perspectives and Practices. Prima Educatione, 7 pp. 103-121.
Cooper, Deborah; Wolfenden, Freda and Dawadi, Saraswati (). Thinking Again About Agency For Inclusion: Analysing Leadership Data Through Local And Global Perspectives. UKFIET.
Adinolfi, Lina; Wolfenden, Freda and Dawadi, Saraswati (). Assessment: The forgotten component in large scale teacher professional development?. The Education and Development Forum (UKFIET).
Charitonos, Koula; Littlejohn, Allison; Dawadi, Saraswati; Vaidya, Abhinav; Giri, Santosi; Owusu-Ofori, Alex and Goshtasbpour, Fereshte. (). Developing Relational Work as a Design Tool in activities with health professionals. In: EARLI2023 Conference, 22-26 Aug 2023, Thessaloniki, Greece.
Kukulska-Hulme, Agnes; Giri, Ram Ashish; Dawadi, Saraswati; Devkota, Kamal Raj and Gaved, Mark. (). Languages and technologies in education at school and outside of school: Perspectives from young people in low-resource countries in Africa and Asia. Frontiers in Communication.
Dawadi, Saraswati (). Impact of a National English as a Foreign Language Test on Parents in Nepal. In: Khan, Rubina; Bashir, Ahmed; Basu, Bijoy Lal and Uddin, Md. Elias eds. Local Research and Glocal Perspectives in English Language Teaching: Teaching in Changing Times Singapore: Springer, pp. 363-376.
Kukulska-Hulme, Agnes and Dawadi, Saraswati. (). Socio-cultural practices affecting marginalised girls’ experiences of using technology for learning in low-income countries. In: CIES 2023. Comparative and International Education Society Conference, 14-22 Feb 2023, [Online].
Dawadi, Saraswati. (). EFL Students’ Test Preparation Practices in the Nepalese context. European Journal of Educational & Social Sciences, 8 (1) pp. 44-63.
Littlejohn, Allison; Charitonos, Koula; Goshtasbpour, Fereshte; Dawadi, Saraswati and McMullan, Rachel. (). Addressing the persistent disconnect between learning and work: Using a Logic Model to support negotiations of diverse actors during the design of digital learning systems. Learning Letters.
2022
Dawadi, Saraswati and Wolfenden, Freda (). Capacity building of school leaders on equity and inclusion in developing countries. TPD@Scale.
Hedges, Claire; Power, Tom; Dawadi, Saraswati; Rahman, Hafiz and Siddique, Nure Alam (). 3MPower PEER Researcher Workshop Report. The Open University, Milton Keynes.
Dawadi, Saraswati (). Challenges faced by researchers when working with marginalised people. ReMaLIC Blog, The Open University.
Power, Tom; Rahman, Hafizur; Kukulska-Hulme, Agnes; Siddique, Nure Alam; Hedges, Claire and Dawadi, Saraswati (). 3MPower Inception Report. Mobile Learning for the Empowerment of Marginalised Mathematics Educators, Bangladesh.. EdTech Hub, London.
Dawadi, Saraswati (). How we ensure participants’ voices are heard: Data collection methods. The Open University.
Giri, Ram Ashish; Dawadi, Saraswati; Shrestha, Sagun and Haque, Saifa (). Enhancement Approach: Success Stories of EFL Teachers from Bangladesh and Nepal. Online: BELTA and NELTA.
Dawadi, Saraswati; Shrestha, Sagun; Haque, Safia and Giri, Ram Ashish. (). Preparations for and practices of online education during the Covid‑19 pandemic: A study of Bangladesh and Nepal. Education and Information Technologies, 27 (1) pp. 243-265.
Dawadi, Saraswati. (). High-Stakes Test Pressure and Anxiety in the Nepalese English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Learners. Journal of NELTA, 26 (1-2) pp. 20-36.
Wolfenden, Freda; Cooper, Deborah; Dawadi, Saraswati; Mazeed, Zahid; Ibrahimi, Munir and Shrestha, Sushil. (). Promoting Inclusion at Scale with School Leader Network Communities Supported by Open Resources: Researching Participant Needs and Priorities. In: PCF 10 Conference, 14-16 Sep 2022, Canada.
Dawadi, Saraswati and Kukulska-Hulme, Agnes. (). Children’s use of technology for learning English. In: 41st International Annual TESOL France Colloquium, 18-20 Nov 2022, Paris, France.
Shrestha, Sagun; Haque, Saifa; Dawadi, Saraswati and Giri, Ram Ashish. (). Preparations for and practices of online education during the Covid-19 pandemic: A study of Bangladesh and Nepal. Education and Information Technologies pp. 243-265.
2021
Dawadi, Saraswati. (). Factors affecting washback of a high-stakes English as a foreign language test. TESL-EJ: The Electronic Journal for English as a Second Language.
Charitonos, Koula; Littlejohn, Allison; Dawadi, Saraswati; Mcmullan, Rachel; MacQueen, Hilary; Goshtasbpour, Fereshte; Ullmann, Thomas and De Munari, Paola (). Tackling Antimicrobial Resistance through Professional Learning: The Development and Evaluation of the Global AMR Curriculum. The Open University.
Dawadi, Saraswati. (). Thematic Analysis Approach: A Step by Step Guide for ELT Research Practitioners. Journal of NELTA, 25 (1-2) pp. 62-71.
Dawadi, Saraswati; Shrestha, Sagun and Giri, Ram A.. (). Mixed-Methods Research: A Discussion on its Types, Challenges, and Criticisms. Journal of Practical Studies in Education, 2 (2) pp. 25-36.
Charitonos, Koula; Goshtasbpour, Fereshte; Dawadi, Saraswati; Littlejohn, Allison; Badger, S.; Vaidya, Abhinav; Giri, Santosi and Owusu-Ofori, Alex (). Tackling Antimicrobial Resistance: The AMR Surveillance Toolkit. The Open University.
2020
Dawadi, Saraswati. (). Parental Involvement in National EFL Test Preparation. RELC Journal, 51 (3) pp. 427-439.
Dawadi, Saraswati. (). High-stakes test impact on student motivation to learn. European Journal of Educational & Social Sciences, 5 (2) pp. 59-71.
Dawadi, Saraswati; Giri, Ram Ashish and Simkhada, Padam. (). Impact of COVID-19 on the education sector in Nepal: Challenges and coping strategies. Advance: a SAGE preprints community.
2019
Dawadi, Saraswati (). Impact of the Secondary Education Examination (English) on Students and Parents in Nepal. PhD thesis The Open University.
Dawadi, Saraswati. (). Students’ and parents’ attitudes towards the SEE English test. Journal of NELTA, 24 (1-2) pp. 1-16.
Dawadi, Saraswati. (). Roles of Planning and Tasks in EFL Performance. TESL-EJ.
Dawadi, Saraswati. (). Effects of task repetition on EFL oral performance. ITL - International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 170 (1) pp. 3-23.
2018
Dawadi, Saraswati and Shrestha, Prithvi N.. (). Construct validity of the Nepalese school leaving English reading test. Educational Assessment, 23 (2) pp. 102-120.
Dawadi, Saraswati (). The Impact of the School Leaving Certificate Examination on English Language Teaching and Student Motivation to Learn English. In: Hayes, David eds. English Language Teaching in Nepal: Research, Reflection and Practice British Council, pp. 133-164.
2017
Dawadi, Saraswati. (). Language learning strategies profiles of EFL learners in Nepal. European Journal of Educational & Social Sciences, 2 (2) pp. 42-55.
Dawadi, Saraswati. (). The Relationship between Reading Strategy Use and EFL Test Performance. Journal of NELTA, 22 (1-2) pp. 38-52.
2016
Dawadi, Saraswati (). Reading Strategies in the Nepalese School Leaving Exam: Establishing Construct Validity. MRes thesis The Open University.
2014
Dawadi, Saraswati. (). Mediation in classroom interaction. Journal of NELTA, 19 (1-2) pp. 47-55.