Atsushi Kanayama is a doctoral student at the Department of Education, University of Oxford. His research focuses on the influence of teacher autonomy support on psychological needs satisfaction and self-regulated learning among Japanese elementary school students.
Publications:
Kanayama, A., Siraj, I., Moeyaert, M., Steiner, K., Yu, E. C., Ereky-Stevens, K., Iwasa, K., Ishikawa, M., Kahlon, M., Warnatsch, R., Dascalu, A., He, R., Mehta, P. P., Robinson, N., & Shi, Y. (2024). PROTOCOL: Key characteristics of effective preschool-based interventions to promote self-regulation: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Campbell Systematic Reviews, 20(2), e1383. https://doi.org/10.1002/cl2.1383
Supervisors
Iram Siraj
Katharina Ereky-Stevens
Zak Devey is a passionate advocate for youth-led educational advocacy and equity – both within academia and in his work as co-founder of charitable trust Youth Arts New Zealand. In 2024, Zak continues to explore community conceptualisations of educational equity and their intersections with present and historic educational policy.
Zak also holds a deep care for youth-wellbeing, and its systemic determinants in the 21st century. His first publication, in the New Zealand Journal of Sociology, interrogates the ‘2021 World Happiness Report’ and that ways in which it constructs what it means to be happy.
Zak would be happy to hear from anyone looking to undertake a research journey in the Department, as well as scholars interested in educational equity, community-based participatory research, sociologies of well-being, and education in the political context of Aotearoa New Zealand.
Fang Xu is a doctoral student in education at University of Oxford. Her research interests are in equity, social class and socioeconomic status gaps in educational outcomes. Her research is motivated by a theoretical interest in the production and reproduction of social inequalities.
She aims to use empirical data and longitudinal datasets to understand how youth developmental outcomes are shaped by families with a particular focus on populations in the Greater China region. She is also interested in the role of individual decision-making mechanisms in shaping educational inequality by social origins and school segregation, comparative studies of education system characteristics, and big data and machine learning in education.
Fang Xu obtained her BA degree in Chinese Language and Literature (Teacher Education) at South China Normal University. During her undergraduate study, she was selected into the Class of Sinology and obtained the qualification certificate for teachers in senior high school Chinese teaching in China. She completed her MA degree in Sociology of Education at the Institute of Education, University College London in 2019, conducting quantitative research on adolescents’ educational aspirations in China for her dissertation. Prior to her DPhil study, she worked as a research assistant at Shenzhen Institute of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics for Society (AIRS) at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen.
Margaret Mulholland is a specialist in inclusivity and Special Educational Needs. She is advisor on SEND policy for the Association of School and College Leaders and Whole School SEND Project Director leading an evaluation for the Education Endowment Foundation.
A leading advocate for the role SEND settings play in improving understanding of inclusive teaching and learning, Margaret brings over 20 years experience in ITT innovation and practice. She spent seven years as Director of Development & Research at a leading Special School and thirteen years at the Institute of Education, where she was responsible for innovative employment based routes to QTS, PGCE secondary partnerships and a Challenge Partners school leadership programme. Margaret sits on the Universities’ Council for the Education of Teachers, is an advisor to the UK Government on ITT curriculum development and works with local authorities as an external advisor for NQTs, ITT and leadership development. She is also writes a column on research and inclusivity for the Times Educational Supplement.
Marja’s research to date has focused on female leaders in education.
Her doctoral research focuses on OECD countries with a strong educational system as according to the programme for international student assessment (PISA).
Marja works as a Deputy Head at Tallinn English College and a visiting lecturer at Tallinn University in Estonia. She holds an MA in Education Management and a BA in Psychology.