Researching digital practices and literacies, young people’s engagement, and pathways to digital empowerment
Dr Cristina Costa explores the intersections of digital practices, critical engagement, and education, with a particular emphasis on social theoretical imagination to aid the reimagining of curricula across the education sector.
Dr Michaela Oliver focuses on pedagogic task design and collaborative dialogic teaching to foster critical thinking, digital literacies, and citizenship in primary and secondary education.
Together, they have built a strong research agenda that explores innovative ways to tackle and support critical digital literacies, educational and digital inequalities,and digital well-being. Their work uses social theoretical lenses to uncover new ways of empowering schools, young people, and communities to engage meaningfully and ethically with digital life.
Their research connects theory and practice: Dr Costa offers a digital and theory-to-practice curriculum level perspective, while Dr Oliver brings deep expertise in classroom practice and task design. Their work bridges curriculum innovation with real-world teaching, creating research that translates directly into impactful educational experiences.
Working in partnership with schools, charitable organisations, local councils, and national and international bodies, they examine how digital technologies both shape and are shaped by social inequalities, educational practices, and technological design.
Their mission is to create research that makes a tangible difference: advancing critical digital literacies, co-producing knowledge with communities, and shaping policy and practice so that digital worlds become spaces of inclusion, creativity, and empowerment.
If you are interested in collaborating or learning more about our work, please get in touch. We welcome partnerships that explore innovative and socially just approaches to digital education.