Dr. Bathseba Opini, PhD

Associate Professor - Critical Policy, Equity and Leadership Studies

PhD ( OISE/UT, University of Toronto)

Dr. Bathseba Opini, PhD

Associate Professor - Critical Policy, Equity and Leadership Studies

PhD ( OISE/UT, University of Toronto)

Bathseba Opini is an Associate Professor in Critical Policy, Equity and Leadership Studies at Western University’s Faculty of Education. She holds a PhD in Sociology and Equity Studies from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto. Her research and teaching interests are in the areas of disability studies, equity and social justice education, critical race, antiracism and anti-colonial perspectives, race and ethnicity, Black people’s education, teacher education and teaching practices, educational policy, international education, sociology of education, African Indigenous Knowledges and research methodologies.

Recent Publications

Journal articles

Radebe, P. & Opini, B. (2021). Racialization of knowledge: How the marginalization of Black history and knowledges fosters a lack of racial literacy among teacher candidates. Northwest Journal of Teacher Education16 (2), 1-18.

Opini, B.  (2019). Inclusive education as exclusive practice: One parents’ experience advocating for children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders within the school system. Exceptionality Education International, 29(2), 72-90.

Easterbrook, A., Bulk, L.Y., Jarus, T., Hahn, B., Ghanouni, P., Lee, M., Groening, M., Opini, B. &Parhar, G. (2019). University gatekeepers’ use of the rhetoric of citizenship to relegate the status of students with disabilities in Canada. Disability & Society34(1), 1-23.

Opini, B. (2016). Walking the talk: Towards a more inclusive field of disability studies. International Journal of Inclusive Education20(1), 67-90.

Opini, B. & Onditi, H. (2016). Education for all and students with disabilities in Tanzanian primary schools: Challenges and successes. International Journal of Educational Studies, 3(2), 65-76. 

Easterbrook, A., Bulk, L., Ghanouni, P., Lee, M. Opini, B. Roberts, E. Parhar, G. &Jarus, T. (2015). The legitimization process of students with disabilities in Health and Human Service educational programs in Canada. Disability & Society, 30 (10), 1505-1520.

Opini, B. (2012). Examining the motivations of disabled women’s participation in higher education in Kenya. Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research, 29(3), 303-318.

Opini, B. (2012). Barriers to participation of women students with disabilities in university education in Kenya. Journal of Postsecondary Education and Disability, 25(1), 67-79.

Book Chapters

Opini, B. & Abshire, L. (2023). Challenging normalized ableism in/through teacher education. In A.A. Abdi (Ed.). Social justice education in Canada: Selected perspectives. Canadian Scholars Press.

Henry, A., Opini, B., & Johnson, A., (2023). Intersectionality in education in the Caribbean and Africa. In: Tierney, R.J., Rizvi, F., Erkican, K. (Eds.), International Encyclopedia of Education, vol. 2., 116-123. Elsevier Publications.

Opini, B. (2022). Students with disabilities in British Columbia, Canada’s K to 12-education system: A critical disability and intersectional perspective. In A. Abdi, G.W. Misiaszek& J. Popoff (Eds.). Palgrave handbook on critical theories of education. Palgrave McMillan (17 pages).

Abshire, L. & Opini, B. (2021). Disability studies and socially just teacher preparation: Implications for curriculum and praxis. In A.A. Abdi (Ed.). Critical theorizations of education, pp. 87-100. Brill

Opini, B. &Neeganagwedgin, E. (2020). Decolonizing pedagogy: The complexities, tension and possibilities of doing spirit work in teacher education. In A. E. Mazawi& M. Stack (Eds.) Course syllabi in faculties of education across the world: Bodies of knowledge and their discontents, pp.132-150. Bloomsbury Academic Publishers.

Neeganagwedgin, E. & Opini, B. (2020). Instructional design: Re-conceptualizing practices. In A. E. Mazawi& M. Stack (Eds.) Course syllabi in faculties of education across the world: Bodies of knowledge and their discontents, pp. 245 – 257. Bloomsbury Academic Publishers.