The M.Ed. team

Dr Selim Reza

Program Director, In-service Master of Education (M.Ed.)

Dr. Selim Reza is the Program Director for AUW’s In-service Master of Education (M.Ed.) program which is integrated into exclusive Whole College Transformation Initiatives through which AUW aims to bring in real improvements in teaching, learning, and college leadership and management practices in Bangladesh’s higher secondary education sector. He leads, supervises and coordinates the administration, management, operation and governance of graduate studies as well as hands-on training for intermediate college teachers within the M.Ed. program.

Dr. Reza has been working at AUW as Assistant Professor and Coordinator of Development Studies since Fall 2018. He teaches and researches theories and practices of development, inequalities, poverty, human trafficking, migration, modern slavery, forced labor, and precarious work. He has a PhD from Flinders University, Australia where he received rigorous first-hand training on learning and teaching practices in higher education and thus developed effective teaching skills through completing a one-year academic internship program as a doctoral student with teaching responsibilities. His professional experience spans research, teaching and academic program coordination. Before PhD, he was a researcher at the Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU) of the University of Dhaka. He previously taught at Flinders University, Australia and BRAC University, Bangladesh. He coordinated three Masters programs at BRAC University, including Master of Development Studies (MDS), in his academic leadership role as Head of Academic Programs at BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD). In 2013, he was awarded a Commonwealth Professional Fellowship at the University of Sussex, UK to develop his capacity for leadership in Southern-led research for development. He is an affiliated faculty at the Global Labor Research Centre (GLRC) of York University, Canada.

Dr. Reza’s broad research area is social organisation of work for Asian migrant workers. His key research interests span labor migration, recruitment practices, precarious work and individualised employment relationship issues that are theoretically founded in the political economy of migrant labor and contingent employment practices. He is the author of the book “The Construction Precariat” published by Taylor & Francis (Routledge, UK) in 2021. He maintains an active research affiliation with the Global Labor Research Centre (GLRC) of York University, Canada and the Centre for Employment Relations, Innovation and Change (CERIC) of the University of Leeds, UK. He started his career as a Field Researcher and subsequently became Research Associate and then Research and Communications Officer at the Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU) of the University of Dhaka. In these positions at RMMRU, he worked for many research projects including the UK Aid-funded multidisciplinary, multi-country Migrating out of Poverty Research Program Consortium based in the University of Sussex, UK. This Consortium involved him in various research projects on poverty reducing and developmental impacts of migration in Africa and Asia. He conducted focus group discussions, household surveys and in-depth interviews, led a team of researchers, supervised research assistants in data analysis, and drafted many research reports, policy briefs, journal articles and conference and other presentations. He also wrote a policy background paper on the migration sector in Bangladesh as a consultant for the World Bank.

Dr. Reza has widely published in various of fields of labor migration and sociology of work and employment. He has supervised many student research projects at AUW. He has also supervised and examined masters theses and postgraduate internship reports at BRAC University, Bangladesh.

Nujhat Jahan

Research Assistant, In-service Master of Education (M.Ed.)

Nujhat is a research assistant for the In-service Master of Education (M.Ed.) program at AUW. She conducts research and investigates various issues related to teaching and learning practices in Bangladesh’s higher secondary colleges. Also, she prepares project proposals, research reports, manuscripts, blogs, and website contents related to the M.Ed. program. She explores and identifies potential higher secondary colleges to participate in AUW’s M.Ed. program. She actively liaises with the intermediate college teachers and facilitates workshops and information sessions for them. She performs various tasks engaging funding and partner agencies for monitoring and management of the deliverables and funds for the M.Ed. program.

Nujhat’s research interests lie in education for marginalized communities, empowering women through education, building the education system adaptable to pandemics, using epidemiology in education for evidence-based learning, mental health in education, and adolescent health, safety and hygiene. Through her research, she aims to improve the learning environment at intermediate colleges and bring transformative changes to the education sector of Bangladesh.

Earlier Nujhat was a senior research assistant at icddr,b (international health research institute) and worked on healthy and productive lives of children and women for more than a year. She had research collaboration with WEDU for the “Market for Higher Education and 21st Century Skills Worldwide” project in 2018. For this project, she worked on the major trends in the market for higher education enrolment trends, and investment in education. She was also involved in a project on “The Learning Outcomes of Different Educational Systems of Bangladesh” in 2017. She worked as a mentor for the “Pathways for Promise Program” at AUW in 2016.

Nujhat has a Masters in Public Health (MPH) from BRAC James P. Grant School of Public Health, BRAC University and a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Economics from Asian University for Women.

Publications

Journal Article:

Hanifi, S.M., Jahan, N., Sultana, N., Hasan, S. (2022). Millions of Bangladeshi Children Missed Their Scheduled Vaccination Amidst COVID-19 Pandemic. Frontiers in Public health. 9, 738623. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2021.738623

Blog:

Jahan, N. (2022). Training improves teacher quality and student learning. In-Service Master of Education (M.Ed.). Asian University for Women. https://asian-university.org/academic-programs/masters-programs/research-and-publication/

Briefing report:

Jahan, N. (2022). USAID discussion workshop. In-Service Master of Education (M.Ed.). Asian University for Women.https://asian-university.org/academic-programs/masters-programs/workshop-and-seminar

Sumaya Halim

Research Assistant, In-service Master of Education (M.Ed.)

Sumaya is a research assistant for the In-service Master of Education (M.Ed.) program at AUW. She conducts original research and develops materials for designing and implementing the M.Ed. program. She collects data on various aspects related to teaching and learning practices in Bangladesh’s higher secondary colleges through active liaison with the intermediate college teachers. She also organizes and facilitates workshops, conferences and information sessions for them. She prepares project proposals, research reports, manuscripts, blogs, and website contents related to the M.Ed. program. She performs various tasks engaging funding and partner agencies for monitoring and management of the deliverables and funds for the M.Ed. program.

Sumaya’s research interests include girls’ education, prevention of child marriage, women empowerment, women’s role in the sector of national security, and the role of international organizations in tackling refugee crisis worldwide. She aspires to bring change in women’s life by producing new knowledge and initiating research-led actions. Her interest in Bangladesh’s education sector grew stronger after she started contributing in developing the Whole College Transformation Initiatives that are integrated into AUW’s M.Ed. program. Continuous engagement with intermediate college teachers and students helped her identify the issue of inadequate teachers training programs in the country, comprehend it even more deeply, and intrigued her to dig further to solve it.

Earlier Sumaya worked on social and behavior change communication and developed a training curriculum while working as a Communications Executive and later as a Research Associate at a Dutch-Bangladeshi consultancy agency for two years. In addition, she facilitated several international training programs with the prestigious Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) related to gender sensitization and contributed actively to develop gender training curricula.

Sumaya has a Masters (MSS) and a Bachelor (BSS) in International Relations from University of Dhaka.