Dr. Dina El Odessy

Dina El Odessy holds a doctorate in education from the University of Oxford. Her PhD research focused on the relationship between pedagogic practices, cultural values and educational principles espoused and enacted in community schools in Egypt. It primarily explored the potential of critical pedagogy in empowering school stakeholders by attempting to discover their potential to become sites of praxis.

Dina holds an MA in Education from University College London (UCL) and a Bachelor of Arts in English from Alexandria University. She believes in the interconnected and multi-disciplinary nature of knowledge, and accordingly has been pursuing different learning opportunities in positive psychology, brain-based learning, postcolonialism, educational leadership, history and cultural studies.

She also currently works as Educational Director of Alexandria Language Schools in Egypt, a freelance writer, and an encouragement consultant. She also works as a holistic coach to become a happiness activist, aiming at bringing about small ripples of change through intermittently running lectures and workshops on well-being, the science of happiness and holistic development. Her research interests center around: equity and empowerment, Islamic education, alternative education, decolonizing pedagogy, social and emotional learning, community schools, critical pedagogy, and holistic education.