Steve is Associate Professor of Teacher Education. He is subject lead for the Geography PGCE and MSc Learning and Teaching.
Steve is a qualified geography teacher and was previously the head of department at a comprehensive secondary school in Oxfordshire, and Head of Programmes at Bishop Grosseteste University, Lincoln. He leads the interdisciplinary Education and Training for the Climate (ETC) Hub at Oxford.
He holds an MA in Educational Leadership and Innovation from Warwick University, an MSc in Educational Research Methodology and a DPhil in Education from the University of Oxford which were funded by an ESRC Studentship. He is a qualified Mountain Leader and rock climbing instructor, and Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
He researches at the intersection between the academic discipline and school subject of geography, work that is developing through three progress reports on Geographical Education: (I) fields, interactions and relationships; (II) anti-racist, decolonial futures; (III) climate change education (forthcoming). His research has been funded by the GCRF, ESRC, AHRC, ICHR, Nuffield Foundation, Leverhulme Trust, Newton Fund, British Council, and PESGB. Recent collaborations include: Climate Change Education Futures in India (GCRF) in collaboration with colleagues at IISER, Pune; the role of cultural heritage in curriculum making in Kolkata (GCRF); and the Smart Cities Network for Sustainable Urban Future project (ESRC / Newton Fund) which was shortlisted for the Newton Prize (India).
Collaborations with colleagues in the School of Geography and the Environment are contributing to anti-racist curriculum futures, including in the school subject, and in postgraduate teaching through the TDEP-funded Oxford-UNISA course ‘Decolonising Research Methods’ which was shortlisted for the Vice-Chancellor’s teaching awards. These ideas are taken further in the context of school geography through his (2024) book: The Geography Teaching Adventure: reclaiming exploration to inspire curriculum and pedagogy.
His research on teacher education focuses on the contribution that geography education research offers to the conceptualisation and practice of teaching. This work includes ethnographic research on teachers’ curriculum making exploring the journeys through which information travels into school classrooms, beginning teachers’ experiences of school subject departments, the role of written lesson observation feedback in constructing ‘good teaching’, and knowledge in teacher education.
Steve serves on the editorial board of the journal Geography and is Chair of the Geography Education Research Collective (GEReCo/IGU-CGE).
David Mills is Associate Professor (Pedagogy and the Social Sciences) at the Department of Education at Oxford. He is Deputy Director of the Oxford Centre for Global Higher Education (CGHE) and a Co-Investigator on CGHE’s Research Programme on Supranational Higher Education. He is also Governing Body Fellow at Kellogg College.
Trained in Anthropology, David uses ethnographic methods to study higher education, and his current research interests include the impact of the global research economy on institutional research and publishing cultures in African universities. This work seeks to question the concept of ‘predatory publishing’, and the way the term occludes the reputational inequalities of global knowledge ecosystems.
He is also interested in contrasting conceptions of ‘capacity building’, the changing place of scholarly journals within knowledge cultures and academic mobility.
Alis Oancea is Professor of Philosophy of Education and Research Policy.
She specialises in studies of research practice, policy and governance and in philosophy of research – including research ecosystems, research assessment, impact and knowledge exchange, research funding, research quality, evaluation, open knowledge practices, research ethics, capacity, publication practices, research careers and the cultural value of research in the arts and the humanities.
This strand of work is complemented with a strong interest in teacher education research, innovation in teacher education policy and practice, knowledge and values in the teaching profession, and the role of research in teacher education.
Alis has two PhDs, one in policy and governance for research (from the University of Oxford), and one in epistemology and research; as well as an honorary doctorate (Doctor Honoris Causa Socialium Scientiarium) from the University of the West, Timisoara. Leadership roles have included Director of Research and REF 2021 coordinator in the department (2016-20 and Deputy Director for Research before that) and Senior Academic Advisor on Impact, University of Oxford.
She was also Executive Council member and trustee of the British Educational Research Association in the early 2010s. She currently leads a three-year ESRC/ CGHE research-on-research project of international scale, and is joint editor of Oxford Review of Education and Chief Editorial Advisor, Routledge Open Research (Education).
Recent professional activity includes:
- Director of Research, Department of Education, University of Oxford
- REF 2021 Coordinator, Department of Education, University of Oxford
- Doctor Honoris Causa of the University of the West, Timisoara
- Senior Academic Advisor on Research Impact for REF2014, University of Oxford
- Joint Editor, Oxford Review of Education
- Chief Editorial Advisor, Routledge Open Research (Education)
- Research Coordinator, Kellogg College, Oxford
- Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
- Member of the EC Expert Group on “Indicator frameworks for fostering open knowledge practices in science and scholarship”
- Member of the International Advisory Panel for the reform of teacher education in Norway, 2017-20 – see “Transforming Norwegian Teacher Education” report
- Member of the Peer Review College of the Economic and Social Research Council and of the Arts and Humanities Research Council
- Vice-chair, Horizon Europe funding calls
- Chair of grant panels, Norwegian Agency for International Cooperation and Quality Enhancement in Higher Education
- Grant panel, Academy of Finland
- Member of the UCET working group on the Intellectual Base of Teacher Education (2019-20)
- Secretary, Oxford Branch of the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain
- Member of Research Management Committee, ESRC Centre for Global Higher Education
- Co-convenor of Philosophy, Religion and Education research group, Oxford
- Lead of the BERA Observatory of Educational Research, 2015; co-lead of the report on ‘The capacity and impact of education research in the UK’ for the Royal Society and British Academy 2018 joint enquiry on educational research; and lead of the evidence review on “The landscape of educational research in the UK (2010-20)”, also for the two Academies.
Selected past engagements
- Joint Editor, Review of Education (2012-16)
- Lead Editor of ‘Research Intelligence’ (2010-12)
- Deputy Director for Research, Department of Education, University of Oxford (2012-16)
- Pro-Proctor, University of Oxford (2017-18)
- Research theme coordinator, Policy, Economy and Society (2014-16), Department of Education, University of Oxford
- Elected Executive Council member and trustee of the British Educational Research Association (2009-12)
- Council member of the European Educational Research Association (2011-12)
- Editorial board member: Review of Education; Educational Theory (review board)
- Member of grant panel, research centres, ESRC
- Vice-chair, Horizon 2020 calls
- Member of the Horizons2020 and Periscope Working Groups, EERA
- Member of BERA’s Academic Publications Committee
- Organising Committee Member, ECER 2014 (London) (2011-12)
- Member of the Research and International Forum of UCET and of the UCET/BERA Working Group on the future of educational research (2011-12)
- Member of the Planning Group of the UK Strategic Forum for Research in Education (2009-10)
- External Examiner
Susan is an Honorary Research Fellow and former Deputy Director of the department.
Susan completed a B.Ed at Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Australia, and read for a MSc in Comparative and International Education and a DPhil in Education at the University of Oxford. Susan’s entire career has been in education in various forms: she taught in secondary schools in Australia and England before starting her academic career.
Susan’s research interests are in the following areas:
- Technical and vocational education and training policy
- Vocational excellence
- Apprenticeship
- Work based and professional learning
- Quality and esteem in FE
- Territory landscape
- Skills economy
Professor Ewart Keep holds the chair in Education, Training and Skills at the Department of Education, Oxford University.
He was one of the founders and a director of the Centre on Skills, Knowledge & Organisational Performance (SKOPE). SKOPE was funded by the ESRC for the first 15 years of its life. Before coming to Oxford, he worked for 21 years in Warwick Business School, and then at the School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University. He has been at Oxford since 2013.
His first degree was in Modern History, Economic History and Politics (Royal Holloway College, University of London) and his PhD is in Industrial relations (University of Warwick). He has researched and written on apprenticeships, personnel management in schools and HE, HE policy more generally, the relationship between skills and economic performance, managerial attitudes towards investing in skills, qualifications reform, the youth labour market, adult and lifelong learning, and skills policy formation and enactment across the four UK nations. He is currently managing an ESRC-funded project on NEETs (those not in education, employment or training) in the UK, as part of a wider European project on NEETs.
He has served on major committees of the Scottish Funding Council, Higher Education Funding Council for England, and the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales, as well as advising HM Treasury, DBIS, DfE, the No.10 Policy Unit, the Cabinet Office, the UK Commission on Employment and Skills, the Scottish, Welsh, New South Wales, Queensland and New Zealand governments, the NAO, the OECD, and various professional bodies and think tanks (including Demos and IPPR). He also acted as an advisor to a Government Office for Science (Foresight) project on adult learning and the changing labour market, and was a member of the Greater London Authority’s task and finish group on the skills strategy for London. He is currently a member of the Scottish Government’s Labour Market Strategy Group.
Maia Chankseliani is Associate Professor of Comparative and International Education at the University of Oxford where she leads a flagship master’s course in Comparative and International Education. She convenes the Comparative and International Education Research Group at the Department of Education.
Within comparative and international education, Maia Chankseliani works at the intersection of tertiary education and development. She researches societal, institutional, and policy forces that shape tertiary education and the potential of tertiary education and research for transforming societies.
Methodologically, she utilises both qualitative and quantitative methods. Her work often combines secondary data analysis with insights gathered through semi-structured interviews and contextualised case studies.
Maia Chankseliani has published four books in the field of comparative and international education: What Happened to the Soviet University? (2022), Building Research Capacity at Universities: Insights from Post-Soviet Countries (2022), Comparing Post-Socialist Transformations: Purposes, Policies, and Practices in Education (2018), and Fairness in Access to Higher Education in a Global Perspective: Reconciling Excellence, Efficiency, and Justice (2013).
She currently leads a major research project examining the impact of international mobility on world development (funded by the U.S. Department of State). Maia Chankseliani has worked on a number of externally funded research projects and consultancies involving the UK Government agencies responsible for education and skills, UKRI/ESRC, British Council, World Bank, Qatar Foundation, the European Commission.
With a background in education research, teaching, policy-making, leadership, and consultancy, Maia Chankseliani brings to her role extensive experience in diverse international settings. This breadth of experience informs her research and enables her to bridge theory and practice.
Maia Chankseliani engages with governments and gives academic and policy-relevant talks nationally and internationally. Her research regularly features in national and international media.
She holds a BA in Philology from Tbilisi State University (Georgia), an Ed. M in International Education Policy from Harvard University (USA), and a PhD in Education from the University of Cambridge (UK).
Maia Chankseliani serves as the Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Educational Research.
Nigel is Associate Professor of Education and Values. His research encompasses belief and values-based questions across education and research, including:
- Religions, beliefs and secularities
- Laws human rights and courts
- Education and professional ethics
- Educational research ethics
He teaches across several courses, particularly on beliefs & values, philosophies of education and research, and qualitative and mixed methodologies.
Current professional associations: Association of University Lecturers in Religion and Education; British Education Research Association; European Association of Research in Learning and Instruction; International Seminar for Religious Education and Values; Philosophy of Education (Great Britain) Society.
He is on the editorial board of Religionspädagogik in pluraler Gesellschaft, and regularly reviews for: British Journal of Religious Education, Journal of Beliefs and Values, Journal of Contemporary Religion, Oxford Review of Education, Religion, and Teachers and Teacher Education.
Advisory & consultancy: Nigel has been external advisor on research projects across Europe. He welcomes consultancy work with schools, educational organisations and governments, and has carried out projects around the world, notably in Bhutan, India and Lebanon.