Callegari Wins Cog-Sci Fellowship
Northwestern University graduate student Julia de Oliveira Callegari received a 2024- 2025 Northwestern Cognitive Science Advanced Research Fellowship to support her work looking at the interplay between identity, culture, and learning in children.
Callegari, born and raised in Brazil, has long been interested in fighting inequality in Brazil’s education system. The grant, she said, will help her gather evidence showing that “discussing identity, racial equity and racism within Brazilian schools can improve the educational and societal experience of children and adolescents.”
“My goal is to show to society and policymakers what is being done successfully despite the lack of resources,” said Callegari, who is pursuing her doctorate in human development and social policy at Northwestern’s School of Education and Social Policy.
“By centering the voices of children, youth and their teachers —something that the human development field too rarely does, unfortunately—we can provide a clearer picture.”
Callegari is partnering with the Center for the Study of Labor Relations and Inequalities (CEERT), which has organized the Educating with Racial and Gender Equity Prize, or he Educar Award.
CEERT awards schools that have made substantial contributions to advancing equity and diversity in Brazil, particularly in the context of ethnic-racial, gender, and socioeconomic disparities. One previous winner of the Educar Award, for example, organized a celebration of Afro-Brazilian and indigenous heritage which included expanding the library selection for more inclusive books, samba lessons, a discussion on Afro hair and a braiding workshop, teacher education, and more.
This organization will provide technical advice for her research and facilitate the initial communication between Callegari and the teachers; Callegari will then travel to Brazil to observe these educators and their projects and interview the students and teachers.
Callegari wants to highlight the work teachers are already doing to improve equity in their own classrooms — even with few resources — and show policymakers where their support is needed more.
“We need to address the real challenges that teachers are facing, rather than creating policies and resources that are developed through a top-down approach that sometimes is very disconnected from what is happening on the ground,” she said.
A passion for equity in education
Prior to joining the School of Education and Social Policy, Calligari worked for the Lemann Foundation, which helped create the Brazilian National Learning Standards (BNCC) which are similar to the Common Core State Standards Initiative in the US.
“I was researching how other countries have developed and implemented their own national learning standards to understand what worked well and what didn’t, so Brazil could benefit from those insights,” she said. “In that process, I collaborated with curriculum experts from different countries, the UK, Australia, the US; it was a great opportunity to learn about how educational systems around the world work."
Now, the BNCC is implemented across Brazil and considered one of the country’s most important pieces of educational policy for improving education equity and quality nationwide.
“Being part of this process showed me how research can go really beyond the walls of academia and truly shape society," she said. "This, for me, is the thing that I feel very proud of.”
Callegari knows well the importance of creating curriculum that reflects the culture and environment where students come from. While working as a teacher in an underserved school district in São Paulo, she found that when the teaching materials didn’t speak to her students and they had trouble staying interested.
“I was very naïve when I started teaching,” she said. “I thought that if I show up in class, well prepared with energy and willing to listen to my students, then of course my students will be engaged. But the students were completely disconnected because whatever I had to teach was not speaking to their reality. ... So, I completely changed what I had planned for the class.”
Living in an urban area, the students were interested in street art and graffiti, so Callegari brought in experts from the community to talk about their jobs, how their art contributes to the community, and their inspiration. Then, with their help, the students designed art and graffiti for one of the school walls which spoke to their own lives. At the project's end, the students created the artwork, painting and spray-painting as a class.
Callegari was overjoyed at the change in the students.
“This experience showed me that students who are often seen as deficient learners can become critical thinkers and agents of change when teachers show them that we value their identity,” she said. “The last day that we actually did the graffiti, two girls came to me and their eyes were wet, and they were like, ‘We did this, this is our thing.’ They were so proud. That touched my heart.”
That moment inspired Callegari to research how to create curriculums that speak to the cultural background of students across Brazil, something the Northwestern research fellowship will free her up to do. It will also give her the chance to learn from other fellowship recipients.
“It’s an opportunity to expand my network,” she said. “These are people studying cognitive science as well, but from different perspectives with different approaches. This might expose me to new methods, new ideas, new concepts that will help me to advance my work.”
Callegari’s research can help add important data to a small but growing body of research on racial equity and culturally relevant teaching in Brazil’s education system, and she believes that SESP’s interdisciplinary approach will allow for better policies that impact students.
“I chose SESP because I like how it bridges the two fields of policy and human development," she said. "This is how we can develop better policies and solutions."
“When I developed my project, I was very much thinking of how we can understand what's happening inside classrooms, and how students are experiencing innovative pedagogical practices that are focused on racial equity," she said. "I am hoping that what I learn through this study will help inform systemic policies that can support these students and their growth.”