Contact
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) and MA Education course leader. Previously, Yuwei has held academic positions at University College London (where he remains an honorary lecturer) and the University of Portsmouth.
Dr Yuwei Xu holds the below external roles:
- Co-Editor-in-Chief, Children & Society
- Co-Editor-in-Chief, Pedagogy, Culture and Society
- Co-Editor-in-Chief, British Educational Research Journal
- Editor, Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice
- Editorial board member, Early Years: An International Research Journal & Journal of Childhood, Education & Society
- Council member, British Educational Research Association (BERA)
- Membership lead, Gender and Education Association
- Executive member, The Education and Development Forum (UKFIET)
Expertise Summary
Dr Yuwei Xu is a sociologist of (early) childhood, education, and gender; with a PhD awarded by the University of Glasgow, Scotland and an MA in Child Studies from King's College London (KCL). He has researched topics such as gender and men in early childhood education, LGBT teachers, child agency, child-centred diversity and quality education, parenting, and women in STEM. His research is cross-cultural and comparative, he has conducted projects in contexts such as the UK, China, Europe, Australia, and South Africa in collaboration with international researchers.
For a general introduction to Dr Xu's main research, please listen to this public podcast (in English), read this newspaper article (in Chinese), or watch this practitioner-oriented lecture (in Chinese).
Teaching Summary
I am MA Education course leader and teach core and optional modules. These include:
EDUC4308 Understanding and Planning Educational Research &
EDUC4135 Global Perspectives on Early Childhood Education
I have previously taught BA Education, both as Year 1 and Curriculum Lead and module convenor for EDUC3037 Inclusive Education.
PhD Supervisions:
I am supervising 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);
Zhuoran Chen, Children's gender subjectivities and picture books in early childhood education (Nottingham);
Di Wang, Gender & drama education in Chinese ECEC (Durham University);
Teachers and teaching
Wanyue Chen, Teaching and learning research in school-university partnership (Nottingham);
Shuying Li, Dialogic teaching in primary school classrooms (Nottingham);
Ning Ning, Curriculum adjustment in inclusive education in China (Nottingham);
Higher education
Jiajie Liu, Academic identity of Chinese early career academics (UCL);
Zeyi Liu, Female engineering students in Chinese universities (UCL);
Qiaohui Xue, Relationships and sexuality education in Chinese universities (Nottingham).
Completed:
Dr Victoria Sullivan, Men in Australian ECEC (The University of Queensland).
Research Summary
I work/have worked on the following research projects:
1. The potential of Froebelian philosophy to support and engage low-income families in the early years (as co-investigator, funded by Froebel Trust, £43,243, 2023-2024);
2. Teacher Education for Sustainable Development and Children's Rights: UK-China Dialogues (as principal investigator, funded by ESRC Impact Acceleration Account, University of Nottingham, £11,064, 2022-2023);
3. Understanding young children's perspectives on and experiences of COVID-19 in China and the UK (as principal investigator, funded by UCL-ZJU Strategic Partner Fund, £10k, 2021-2022);
4. LGBT Educators' Practices Concerning Diversity in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC): An Exploratory Study of Australia, England, Mainland China and Hong Kong, (as principal investigator, funded by IOE International Funds, £5k, 2021-2022);
5. Cross-cultural reflexivity and gender-sensitive teacher training in early childhood education and care (ECEC): Case studies in England, Germany, and Sweden (as principal investigator, funded by British Association for International and Comparative Education, £5k, 2019-2022);
6. Young children's perspectives on their male and female teachers: 9-country case studies (as co-principal investigator, 2020-2023);
7. The life trajectories of women PhD students in STEM: A Comparative Study of China, Serbia and the UK (as principal investigator, funded by University of Portsmouth Theme Research & Innovation Fund, £10k, 2018-2020);
8. Child-centred diversity in quality early childhood education and care (as principal investigator, funded by Smart Vision, China, £11k, 2018-2020);
9. The inward and outward mobilities of Chinese academics who obtained their PhDs from outside China (as co-investigator, funded by Ministry of Education, People's Republic of China, ¥80k, 2020-2021).
Selected Publications
I am supervising 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);
Zhuoran Chen, Children's gender subjectivities and picture books in early childhood education (Nottingham);
Di Wang, Gender & drama education in Chinese ECEC (Durham University);
Teachers and teaching
Wanyue Chen, Teaching and learning research in school-university partnership (Nottingham);
Shuying Li, Dialogic teaching in primary school classrooms (Nottingham);
Ning Ning, Curriculum adjustment in inclusive education in China (Nottingham);
Higher education
Jiajie Liu, Academic identity of Chinese early career academics (UCL);
Zeyi Liu, Female engineering students in Chinese universities (UCL);
Qiaohui Xue, Relationships and sexuality education in Chinese universities (Nottingham).
Completed:
Dr Victoria Sullivan, Men in Australian ECEC (The University of Queensland).