Pempho Chinkondenji
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Assistant Professor, Education, Health & Behavior
- Gender and power in education, Participatory visual methodologies, Forced displacement and refugee education, In-school pregnancy and student motherhood, (Inter)national higher education, Ubuntu, African feminism(s)
Contact Info
- Email: pempho.chinkondenji@UND.edu
- Office: 701.777.4337
Office Address
Education Health and Behavior Studies
Education Room 322
231 Centennial Drive Stop 7189
Grand Forks, ND 58202-7189
Biography
Dr. Pempho Chinkondenji is an Assistant Professor of Educational Foundations and Research in the Department of Education, Health, and Behavior Studies at the University of North Dakota. She earned her Ph.D. in International Education from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Dr. Chinkondenji is a qualitative research methodologist who utilizes participatory visual methodologies, including photovoice and other forms of qualitative inquiry, to conduct educational research. She is also a 2025 National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow and is working on a research project centering on the experiences of refugee pregnant learners and student mothers in the context of encampment.
As an interdisciplinary scholar, Dr. Chinkondenji's research focuses on addressing structural inequalities within educational policies and practices, with a specific emphasis on African and African diaspora populations. Her primary research interests lie at the intersections of education, gender justice, girls' education, in-school pregnancy/student motherhood, global migration, and forced displacement. Her scholarship draws from African feminisms, Ubuntu, and post/de-colonial thought to interrogate gender and power dynamics in education and international development spaces.
Her recent (2026) book titled Drop-out, Push-out, or Walk-out?: Re/imagining Education for Young Mothers and Pregnant Adolescents examines schooling post-pregnancy in international contexts.
EFR 510 Participatory Qualitative Research Methods (Graduate)
EFR 509 Introduction to Applied Educational Research (Graduate)
EFR 522 Mixed Methods Research (Graduate)
EFR 525 International and Comparative Education (Graduate)
EFR 584 Internship in Educational Research (Graduate)
Comparative and international education
Qualitative research methods
Participatory visual methodologies
Photovoice and photo elicitation
In-school pregnancy and student motherhood
Forced displacement and refugee education
Ubuntu and African Feminisms
(Inter)national higher education
Gender and power in education
2026 Aspire Award for Early Career Excellence in Research and Scholarship, College of Education and Human Development, UND
2025 NAEd/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship ($70,000), National Academy of Education and Spencer Foundation
2025 Excellence in Graduate Teaching Award, College of Education and Human Development, University of North Dakota
2024 Joyce Cain Award for Distinguished Research on People of African Descent, Comparative and International Education Society (CIES)
2024 Gail P. Kelly Award for Outstanding Dissertation, Comparative and International Education Society (CIES)
Ph.D. in International Education, 2023, College of Education, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Graduate Certificate in Feminist Studies, 2022, College of Humanities and Fine Arts, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Master of Arts in Cross-Cultural and International Education, 2017, College of Education and Human Development, Bowling Green State University
Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communication, 2013, African Bible College, Lilongwe, Malawi
Select Publications
Chinkondenji, P. (2026). Drop-out, push-out, or walk-out?: Re/imagining education for young mothers and pregnant adolescents. Leeds, England: Emerald Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80686-051-7
Chinkondenji, P. & Whyte, G. (2026). Visual narratives of forced displacement, schooling, and re-settlement among refugee and asylum-seeking students in Grand Forks, ND. Research Report. Education, Health & Behavior Studies Faculty Publications. 112. https://doi.org/10.31356/ehb-fac112
Chinkondenji, P. & Kamnkhwani, R. (2026). Centering agency, voice, and power-sharing in research with pregnant learners and student mothers: Integrating photovoice and statistics in international education development. International Journal of Educational Development, 125, 103644. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2026.103644
Carpenter, A.J., Lewis, T., Benson, J., Pemberton, B., Chinkondenji, P., Feraud-King, T., & Henry, D. (2026). Visualizing beyond the mask: Black collegians cultivating safety through joy. Journal of Higher Education Theory and Practice, 26(1), 123–142. https://doi.org/10.33423/sm4bet04
Banda, L.C.G., Carlson, J.M., Chitwanga, A.S. & Chinkondenji, P. (2026). A “Girl” or a “Child”?: Examining the “Rights-Based” Approach to Child Marriage in Malawi Through an African Feminist Lens. Journal of Human Rights and Social Work. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41134-025-00422-7
Chinkondenji, P. (2026). ‘Having a child is not a barrier:’ an African-feminist perspective in (un)making schooling for pregnant learners and re-integration of student mothers. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 56(1), 106–124. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057925.2025.2452472
Chinkondenji, P. (2025). “That is a lie:” participatory visual methods as a form of resistance in dialoguing and negotiating schooling post-pregnancy in Malawi. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/09518398.2025.2572457
Hailu, M. F., Chinkondenji, P., Ibrahim, M., Chhetri, N. & Judson, E. (2025). Collective dreaming: Black girl refugees from Burundi and their aspirations for STEM college education. In Gender and Education, 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1080/09540253.2025.2576818
Chamdimba, E., & Chinkondenji, P. (2025). Humanizing methodologies in a digital world: a critical awareness of Ubuntu-informed approaches in participatory visual research in Malawi. Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies, 25(6), 367-378. https://doi.org/10.1177/15327086251348261
Banda, M., & Chinkondenji, P. (2025). Philanthropic digital colonialism and complexities of mobile learning in Sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic mapping study. Research in Comparative and International Education, 0(0): 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1177/17454999251391583
Chinkondenji, P. & Changamire, N. (2025). Afrocentric student agency, negotiating ‘third space,’ and higher education: A photovoice study of emergency remote learning during COVID-19 in Malawi and Zimbabwe. Comparative Education Review, 69(2), 205-233. https://doi.org/10.1086/735703
Carpenter, A. J., Feraud-King, T., Lewis, T., Stephens-Peace, K. J., Chinkondenji, P., Stanislaus, E., & George Mwangi, C. (2024). Rage In (and Out) the Cage: Black Students’ Negotiation of Safety. Journal of Black Studies, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/00219347241233772.
Carpenter, A.J., Stephens-Peace, K.J., Feraud-King, P., Lewis, T., Chinkondenji, P., Ohiri, K., & Mwangi, C.G. (2022). Impact that Transcends Proximity: Black College Students Traversing Multiple Pandemics. Journal of Negro Education 91(3), 366-380. https://www.muse.jhu.edu/article/901993.
Chinkondenji, P. (2022). Schoolgirl pregnancy, dropout or pushout?: an Ubuntucentric re-construction of the education for student mothers in Malawi, Gender and Education, 34(6), 738-753, https://doi.org/10.1080/09540253.2022.2061922
George Mwangi, C. A., Chen, S. J. & Chinkondenji, P. (2021). Exploring geopolitics in U.S. campus internationalization plans. In Lee, J.J. (Ed), US Power in International Higher Education. New Brunswick, NY: Rutgers University Press. https://doi.org/10.36019/9781978820814
Mosselson, J. and Chinkondenji, P. (2020), "Education, Schooling, and Migration", Wiseman, A.W. (Ed.) Annual Review of Comparative and International Education 2019 (International Perspectives on Education and Society, Vol. 39), Emerald Publishing Limited, pp. 323-334. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-367920200000039026