Simisola Adebola
Policy, Data & Institutional Practice
Publications
Data, Decisions, and the Shape of Opportunity in Education
A peer-reviewed paper on how data and categorisation shape educational decision-making and student outcomes.
Aspiration and Reality: Rethinking Student Futures in Contemporary Schooling
A peer-reviewed paper on how student aspirations are formed and constrained within contemporary education systems.
Hi, I’m Simisola — an education researcher, storyteller, and critical voice on equity in education.
My work sits at the intersection of equity, data, and institutional practice. I interrogate how education systems produce outcomes, and how inequality is often reproduced within the very language of reform, inclusion, and progress.
Alongside my academic research, I analyse education data to support more equitable outcomes and work with organisations seeking to move beyond performative change toward meaningful structural transformation.
I developed the concept of benevolent disadvantage — the process through which institutions reproduce inequality through well-intentioned equity, care, and inclusion practices that constrain rather than liberate marginalised groups, often operating through the illusion of equity rather than its material realisation.
Across my writing and research, I explore a central question: what does it mean to pursue equity in a system that is structurally designed to reproduce inequality?
Upcoming Events
10th International Conference on Modern Research in Education, Teaching and LearningFri 05 JunUniversity of Cambridge