14 de July de 2026
In 2023, the president of the Laboratório de Educação, Beatriz Cardoso, returned to Harvard University as an Impact Leader in Residence. The year-long experience in the ALI (Advanced Leadership Initiative) program yielded insights, ideas, and discussions that bring new perspectives to inspire Brazilian initiatives like ours.
The academic proposal aims to unleash the potential of experienced leaders to help solve society’s most pressing challenges. Those selected embark on a twelve-month immersion focused on interdisciplinary academic learning, leadership development, and peer collaboration.
For the first time, the graduate school invited three former participants who were successful in the projects they developed there. Beatriz had already been a fellow in 2013, when she consolidated the initial proposal for the Laboratório de Educação. This time, she competed with more than 600 members, and the expectation of returning after 10 years was to take stock of her trajectory, in addition to bringing innovations from the field to expand references for Labedu’s work.
“When we step out of our own culture and live with people from all over the world, we begin to look at problems through different lenses. This is always a privilege. Being able to think about the origins of the concepts we apply is also very good,” reflects Beatriz. “The effect of meeting a new group in the educational context is also an essential experience for anyone working with this theme.”
The curriculum is extensive and each participant can choose a path to follow: there are classes and debates in the schools aligned with the program, such as Harvard Law School, the Harvard Graduate School of Education or the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. The educator chose to follow the ALI 2023 cohort. According to her, updating knowledge in the social field is an indispensable exercise.
Throughout the year, her repertoire was transmitted to our team through articles, teaching materials, and reflections that strengthened the knowledge of the institution’s members. Beatriz also had the opportunity to present the Laboratório de Educação during seminars to professors, students, and guests.
“I realized that we have a structured and consistent body of work to do something necessary in education: implementation. We have a lot to offer and, every time I presented it, Labedu was received with great interest,” she points out. “We are in dialogue with a subject that all countries seek. The possibility of being here brought me the certainty of our relevance. The way we frame teaching made me very proud.”
The result of the course was promising and yielded the proposal of three research projects that are being submitted for funding by Harvard professors. “The idea is to develop significant impacts for learning in Brazilian schools. This could bear many fruits for 2024.”
Beatriz Cardoso’s participations throughout 2023 during her experience at Harvard:
- Introduction to International Development: participation of Beatriz Cardoso on the project evaluation jury for an MIT undergraduate course.
- Social Impact Hackathon: participation of Beatriz Cardoso in a Harvard initiative that invites NGOs and students to reflect on and find solutions for strategic social challenges.
- ProLeer Annual In-Person Meeting: the international annual meeting discusses fundamental issues regarding the field of language and reading in Latin America. This year, it featured the participation of Beatriz Cardoso and Nicole Paulet Piedra, representing LABEDU, and Nádya Dutra, deputy secretary of education of Maranhão, addressing the process of action and construction of educational policy.
- Participation of Beatriz Cardoso in a class with master’s students on school and family with Harvard Graduate School of Education professor Karen Mapp.
- Literacy from a Global Perspective: Beatriz Cardoso taught a class alongside Professor Pamela Mason for master’s students in the Literacy and Languages (L&L) and Global, International, and Comparative Education (GICE) programs.
- HBAP’s Advisor Program: this is a Harvard Business School (HBS) program. Beatriz Cardoso participated as a mentor for a group of students to help them improve their social innovation projects.
- Language for Learning: the research hub, led by Paola Uccelli, has been a partner of Labedu since 2017. As a regular collaborator, Beatriz Cardoso gave a presentation on the project ‘Learning to Study Texts’.
- HGSE’s Education Policy and Analysis: Beatriz Cardoso was invited to this master’s program as a keynote speaker and gave a presentation on the Laboratório de Educação.
Learn more about Beatriz Cardoso’s trajectory at Harvard below: