PhD (2010), Maria Grzegorzewska University in Warsaw (formerly the Academy of Special Education in Warsaw)
Postdoctoral Degree (DSc Eng.) with Distinction (2025), University of Warsaw "The Issues of Children and Adolescents in the Context of Education, Nurture and Children's Rights in Culturally Diverse Environments and Challenging Contexts - An Intercultural Education Perspective"
Award in the Category: Janusz Korczak Special Award (Publications), Janusz Korczak University, 22 May 2025, POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, Warsaw
Member of the Team for the Participation of Children and Youth, Office of the Ombudsperson for Children of the Republic of Poland (nomination 2024–2027)
Head of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Research on Intercultural Education and Communication, University of Warsaw
www.interculturaleducation.wn.uw.edu.pl
Member of the Commission for Development and Cooperation with the Social Environment, Faculty of Education, University of Warsaw
Member of the Research Laboratory on Diversity, University of Warsaw
Member of the Association for the Promotion of Intercultural Education (2025–present)
As a field researcher, I have dedicated the past two decades to investigating childhood and youth studies through postcolonial and decolonial lenses, with a focus on participatory approaches, children's rights, and education in diverse cultural contexts (transnational lifeworlds). My research expertise lies in inclusive humanising methodologies, decolonial thought, and navigating ethical dilemmas in sensitive, fragile environments. My research has spanned multiple regions, including the Horn of Africa, Central Africa, Central and Eastern Europe, and the South Caucasus.
With over twenty years of experience in academia, I have held positions at universities in Poland and Germany, directing and co-directing international Master's programmes in Childhood Studies and Children's Rights. Currently, as a postdoctoral researcher (DSc), I am an Assistant Professor at the University of Warsaw (Faculty of Education) and a Guest Professor at the University of Applied Sciences in Darmstadt, Germany. My extensive research experience has yielded numerous publications, expert reports, and recognition in the field. I hold a PhD in Education and a postdoctoral degree (habilitation) with distinction, and have taught internationally at various higher education institutions, contributing to scientific committees and journal editorial boards. As a researcher, I develop child–adult-centred methodologies, autoethnographic reflexivity, and participatory-oriented research frameworks to advance theoretically grounded inclusive pedagogies and evidence-based social justice interventions.
Selected International Cooperation / Research Projects
Research Project: An Evaluation of Integration Policies for Ukrainian Refugee Children in Poland (Principal Investigators: M. Pawlak, University of Warsaw; A. Tarozzi, European University Institute; U. Markowska-Manista, University of Warsaw), EUI Widening Europe Programme, 2024–2025.
Regional Editor for Poland, Bloomsbury Education and Childhood Studies (Childhood and Youth), Bloomsbury Academic UK, 2022–2026.
Researcher in the international project "Building Inclusion, Sustaining Solidarity: Frontline Host Communities, Distressed Migrants, and the Role of States". The project was led by Jacqueline Bhabha, Professor at Harvard Chan School of Public Health, USA, 2022–2023.
Researcher in the international project "Impactful and Sustainable Policy Change for Migrant Education" - Sirius 3.0, European Commission, Co-funded by the European Union, European Education and Culture Executive Agency, 2023–2027.
Member of the Research Laboratory on Diversity, University of Warsaw. http://legal-communication.iksi.uw.edu.pl/lab-on-diversity/
Member of the Research Group "Accessible Pedagogies" (Grupo de investigación Pedagogías Accesibles), University Camilo José Cela, Spain (2024–present).
Head and Member of the Interdisciplinary Research Centre for Intercultural Education and Communication, University of Warsaw. https://www.interculturaleducation.wn.uw.edu.pl/
Member of "Intersections: Global Educational Research and Action Network for a World on the Move".
Member of the International Network on Participation of Children in Alternative Care (INPAC), Germany.
Researcher in the PARTICIPA project: "Professional Development Tools Supporting Participation Rights in Early Childhood Education". https://child-participation.eu/
Co-author of the tool: Wysłowska, O., Taelman, H., Boderé, A., Markowska-Manista, U., & members of the PARTICIPA Consortium. (2021). Promoting children's participation rights in early childhood education and care: Self-assessment tool for professionals. PARTICIPA, Project No. 2019-1-PT01-KA202-060950. DOI: 10.15847/CISPARTICIPA.SAT01.2021.05. ISBN: 978-989-781-456-3. https://child-participation.eu/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/PARTICIPA-Brochure-EN-print-24052022.pdf
Co-researcher (in cooperation with young people) in a participatory research project (2020/21). https://prom.info.pl/badanie-mlodzi-w-czasach-koronawirusa/
and Co-researcher in participatory research with young people in socially fragile contexts: "Participatory Field Research in a Rehabilitation Centre" (2021).
Academic Interests
Field research; participatory (community)-oriented research methodologies; action research; PAR; ethics in participatory research; codes of participatory research in migration and childhood(s) studies.
Childhood(s) studies and children's rights in "fragile contexts" analysed through decolonial approaches and postcolonial perspectives, conducted within the tradition of female, indigenous field research in culturally diverse backgrounds.
Field research on the daily life and education of children from minority groups in Central Africa, the Horn of Africa, the South Caucasus, and Central and Eastern Europe (Ukraine and Poland).
Research on the social and cultural context of children's situations (marginalisation, exclusion in education, and culturally diverse societies).
Childhoods in migration; children on the move; children "out of place"; genocide studies and "difficult knowledge".
Interclusion and inclusion in education; indigenous education; education of national and ethnic minorities; education of children with a migrant background.
The (re)production of social inequalities and the rights in education of migrant children in Central and Eastern Europe, Central Africa, the Horn of Africa, and the South Caucasus.
