Dr YUWEI XU

Biography	Dr Yuwei Xu joined the School of Education, University of Nottingham as an Assistant Professor in 2021 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2023. He is the founder and co-convenor of the Global Childhoods Research Group (GCRG), a core member of the Committee for UNESCO Chair in International Education and Development, and was MA Education course leader until 2023/24. Previously, Yuwei has held academic positions at University College London (2019-2021) and the University of Portsmouth (2016-2019). Dr Yuwei Xu is an editor for the British Educational Research Journal, Children & Society, and Pedagogy, Culture & Society journals, an associate editor for Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, and an editorial board member for Early Years: An International Research Journal & Journal of Childhood, Education & Society. He is also a British Educational Research Association (BERA) council member and membership lead for Gender and Education Association.
Research Interests	I am a sociologist of (early) childhood, education, and gender; with a PhD awarded by the University of Glasgow, Scotland. I have researched topics such as gender and men in early childhood education, child agency, child-centred diversity and quality education, parenting, and women in STEM. My research is cross-cultural and comparative, I have conducted projects in contexts such as the UK, China, Europe, Australia, and South Africa in collaboration with international researchers.
Teaching and Learning	I teach and convene MA Education and MA Education (Online) modules. These include: EDUC4308 Understanding and Planning Educational Research EDUC4314 Global Perspectives on Early Childhood Education (Module Convenor) EDUC4135 Global Perspectives on Early Childhood Education (Online, Module Convenor) & EDUC4024 MA Education Dissertation I have previously taught BA Education, both as Year 1 and Curriculum Lead and module convenor for EDUC3037 Inclusive Education. I was MA Education course leader for three years until 2023/24.
PhD Supervision Availability	Yes
PhD Topics	*I no longer have capacity to consider new applications for 2025/26. For 2026/27 I am particularly recruiting a PhD student interested in a joint PhD between the University of Nottingham, UK and Adelaide University in Australia. Please get in touch if you want to develop as an international academic. I am supervising/supervised the following PhD students: Gender, power, and (early) childhood Hannah Burrows, Diversifying Child Friendly Nottingham: Perspectives from Primary School-Aged Children (Co(l)laboratory PhD Studentship, 2023 - ); Zhuoran Chen, Children's gender subjectivities and picture books in early childhood education (Nottingham, 2022 - ); Di Wang, Gender & drama education in Chinese ECEC (Durham University, 2020 - ); Amin Zhu, Retention of international early childhood teachers in Australia (The University of Queensland, 2024 - ); Dr Victoria Sullivan, Men in Australian ECEC (The University of Queensland, COMPLETED 2022). Teachers and teaching Wanyue Chen, Teaching and learning research in school-university partnership (Nottingham, 2022 - ); Shuying Li, Dialogic teaching in primary school classrooms (Nottingham, 2022 - ); Ning Ning, Curriculum adjustment in inclusive education in China (Nottingham, 2022 - ); Higher education Jiajie Liu, Academic identity of Chinese early career academics (UCL, 2020 - ); Qiaohui Xue, Relationships and sexuality education in Chinese universities (Nottingham, 2022 - ); Dr Zeyi Liu, Female engineering students in Chinese universities (UCL, COMPLETED 2024).