IOE and BNU: 120th anniversary

Professor Li Wei

Director and Dean at IOE

He joined IOE in January 2015 as Chair of Applied Linguistics and Director of our Centre for Applied Linguistics, taking up the post of IOE Director and Dean in July 2021.

His previous positions include Pro-Vice-Master (Research and Postgraduate Studies) at Birkbeck College, University of London, Head of the School of Education at the University of Newcastle, and Director of the ESRC UBEL (UCL, Bloomsbury, East London) Doctoral Training Partnership.

Professor Zhu Xudong

Dean, Faculty of Education at Beijing Normal University

He also serves as the director of the Center for Teacher Education Research of Beijing Normal University (Key Research Base of Humanities and Social Sciences for Universities, Ministry of Education). He is a distinguished professor of the Yangtze River Scholar Program by the Ministry of Education.

As a member and secretary-general of the National Advisory Expert Committee on Teacher Education, Ministry of Education, Professor Zhu is also the secretary-general of Teacher Education Branch of China Association of Higher Education, and a guest researcher of the Central Committee of the China Association for Promoting Democracy.

Professor Zhu has long been engaging in research on construction of teacher education, system and policy, comparative education and foreign education history.

Professor Gary McCulloch

Brian Simon Chair of History of Education at IOE

He is a past president of the British Educational Research Association and the UK History of Education Society, and Editor of the British Journal of Educational Studies.

His recent publications include 'A Social History of Educational Studies' and 'Research and general editorship' of the six-volume 'Cultural History of Education', and also a new book, 'Brian Simon and the Struggle for Education' due to be published in 2023. 

Professor Wang Chen

Vice Dean, Faculty of Education at Beijing Normal University

He received his PhD in Education from Beijing Normal University. He is a historian of education whose research focuses on History of Western Education with main interests in History of Idea of Higher Education.

He was Deputy Secretary-General of Chinese Society of Youth Educational Scholar (CSYES, 2008-2010) and is Secretary-General of Chinese Society of History of Education (2019- ). He also was the Chinese translator of Bernard Bailyn’s 'Education in the Forming of American Society: Needs and Opportunities for Study' and Robert M. Rosenzweig’s 'The Political University: Policy, Politics, and Presidential Leadership in the American Research University'.

His research has been funded by grants from National Fund of Social Science (Education Sciences) and Humanities and Social Sciences Research Fund, the Ministry of Education; P. R. China.

Dr Jake Anders

Associate Professor at IOE

He is Deputy Director in the UCL Centre for Education Policy and Equalising Opportunities (CEPEO), and Principal Investigator of the COVID Social Mobility and Opportunities study (COSMO).

Jake's research focuses on better understanding the causes and consequences of educational inequalities, evaluating policies and programmes aiming to reduce these inequalities, and how best to do this evaluation.

Professor Zhang Jingjing

Professor of Educational Technology at Beijing Normal University

She is also the Vice-President of the Research Association of Learning Sciences of China Association of Higher Education, and is currently on the editorial board for Distance Education. She was awarded Zhongying Young Scholars in 2019, and then selected as a Young Scholar of the Yangtze River Scholars Program in 2021. She has also been awarded the second prize for excellence in scientific research under the Fok Ying Tung Education Foundation.

Her work has been supported by a range of funders including Chinese National Science Foundation and Chinese National Social Science Foundation. She has a keen interest in how learning occurs in digital environments, and has published extensively on online learning, learning analytics, and learning sciences.

Professor Nicola Walshe

Pro-Director: Education at IOE

She is co-founder and Executive Director of the UCL Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability Education (CCCSE), which aim is to significantly improve climate change and sustainability education within schools by providing free professional development for teachers of all disciplines, all phases and all career stages, underpinned by high quality research. 

Nicola is co-convenor of the Environmental and Sustainability Education Research network of European Educational Research Association and a UCL Climate Hub Community Expert.