Our Staff

PhD University of Hong Kong

BEd University of Hong Kong

Teachers Certificate Sir Robert Black College of Education

Specialization and expertise

• Philosophy and sociology of education
• Philosophy of Karl Popper and its educational implications
• Philosophy for children, critical thinking, and Confucianism

Lam Chi Ming is an Associate Professor and the Acting Head of the Department of International Education at the Education University of Hong Kong. He is responsible for pioneering work on philosophy for children in Hong Kong and has presented his findings in invited lectures both at home and abroad. 

Dr Lam publishes in the fields of the philosophy of Karl Popper, critical thinking, Confucianism, and philosophy for children. His books include Childhood, Philosophy and Open Society: Implications for Education in Confucian Heritage Cultures (Springer, 2013) and Sociological and Philosophical Perspectives on Education in the Asia-Pacific Region (co-edited with Jae Park, Springer, 2016). He serves on the Editorial Board of Educational Philosophy and Theory, for the annual special issue on Chinese Philosophy of Education.

Dr Lam was educated at the University of Hong Kong, where he obtained a First-Class Honours degree in Education and a PhD in philosophy of education. He worked as a secondary school teacher for two decades in Hong Kong, heading the Integrated Science Department and the Guidance and Counselling Team at the Hong Kong Chinese Women's Club College before taking up his current position at the Education University of Hong Kong.

PhD University of Hong Kong

MA (cum laude) Universiteit van Amsterdam

BA (Hons) Shenyang University

Specialization and expertise

• Sociology of Education
• Minority Education
• Higher Education
• International Student Mobility

Gao Fang is Associate Professor in the Department of International Education. She did her undergraduate studies and initial professional education at Shenyang University in China. She has a Master degree in Educational Sciences from the University of Amsterdam and she completed PhD in the Sociology of Education at the University of Hong Kong.

Dr. Gao specialises in the sociology of education with an emphasis on Education, Equity, and Diversity. She examines educational policies and processes of teaching and learning in local and global contexts and in relation to demographic, linguistic, and cultural diversity. Her priority has been to engage in interdisciplinary and empowering studies through critical and multicultural lenses with education agenda that not only identifies non-majority/non-local students’ educational vulnerability, but also analyses educational policy and practice provision that contributes to the overcoming of those inequalities and inclusion. Her main research interests include sociology of education, minority education, higher education and international student mobility. She has published widely in the fields.

PhD La Trobe University

PhD Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of the USSR

MEd (Education Administration) University of Toledo

BEd (with Honours) Herzen State Pedagogical University

Specialization and expertise

• Technical and vocational education and training (TVET) for economic and social development
• “Greening” of education policy and curriculum development in TVET in developing countries and countries in transition
• Education for sustainable development in an international context
• Globalization and internationalization of education

Margarita Pavlova is an Associate Professor in the Department of International Education at the Education University of Hong Kong, where she is also Director of the UNESCO-UNEVOC Centre (Hong Kong).  She has over twenty years of international experience in education across a variety of contexts, including Europe, Asia, the USA and Australia.

Dr Pavlova’s research is concerned with policy, planning and curriculum development in vocational education at both national and international levels.  Her current projects are in education for sustainability, development and green skills.  She works with agencies such as the Asian Development Bank, UNESCO and the European Training Foundation, where she has led a number of projects aimed at developing policies, approaches to and resources for vocational education, and related issues such as capacity building and poverty alleviation.

She has published widely in her field, including a sole-authored book, Technology and Vocational Education for Sustainable Development: Empowering Individuals for the Future (Springer, 2009).  She serves on the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Vocational Education and Training and on the Editorial Advisory Boards of two book series published by Springer.

Dr Pavlova completed her Masters degree on a Soros Foundation scholarship, her first PhD on a Ministry of Education of Russia scholarship, and her second on an Australian Postgraduate Award.

PhD  Institute of Education, University of London

MA   University of Kent

BA   University of Essex

Specialization and expertise

• Higher education
• Educational leadership
• Academic freedom

Bruce Macfarlane is Chair Professor of Educational Leadership and Dean of the Faculty of Education and Human Development at the Education University of Hong Kong. He is a former Head of the School of Education at the University of Bristol, and a former Associate Dean in the Faculty of Education at the University of Hong Kong. He has held visiting professorial positions in Australia, Japan, South Africa and Sweden.

Professor Macfarlane is a social philosopher of higher education who has developed conceptual frameworks for interpreting academic practice, ethics, and leadership. Applying a mix of empirical and philosophical enquiry, he has helped to define key concepts including academic integrity, academic citizenship, intellectual leadership, and student performativity.

His research focuses on the micro or individual level but is framed by the way academic identity is being re-shaped by the changing conditions affecting university life. His major works include Freedom to Learn (2016), Intellectual Leadership in Higher Education (2012), Researching with Integrity (2009), The Academic Citizen (2007) and Teaching with Integrity (2004). 

PhD University of Toronto

MPA University of Liverpool

BEd Kyiv National Linguistic University

Specialization and expertise:

• International and Comparative Higher Education
• Education Policy and Practice
• Organisational Leadership and Development
• Educational Change, Leadership and Administration

Anatoly V. Oleksiyenko is Professor of International Higher Education at the Faculty of Education and Human Development. Prof Oleksiyenko is a world-leading critic of post-Soviet academia and contributor to the re-conceptualisation of governance and leadership in transforming university systems. Currently, he leads a UGC/GRF-funded project Re-imagining Intellectual Leadership in Post-Soviet Higher Education, which spearheads a shift in the academic culture of post-totalitarian societies.

Prof. Oleksiyenko’s research paper On the Shoulders of Giants? Global Science, Resource Asymmetries, and Repositioning of Research Universities in China and Russia (Comparative Education Review) received CIES-HESIG’s Best Article Award in 2016, and his book Global Mobility and Higher Learning (Routledge) won the Best Book Award from CIES’ SIG International Students and Study Abroad in 2019.  The following co-edited volumes and special issues - International Status Anxiety and Higher Education: The Soviet Legacy in China and Russia (CERC-Springer); Higher Education and Human Vulnerability: Global Failures of Corporate Design (Tertiary Education and Management); Freedom of Speech, Freedom to Teach, Freedom to Learn: The Crisis of Higher Education in the Post-Truth Era (Education Philosophy and Theory); and Academic Freedom in the Reimagined Post-Humboldtian Europe (Higher Education Quarterly) - had resonance in the field of comparative and international education.

Educated and raised in Ukraine, Prof. Oleksiyenko pursued his postgraduate degree studies in the UK and Canada. After obtaining a PhD from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto, he explored disparate developmental contexts of global academia, including in China, Hong Kong, Cambodia, Georgia, Russia, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine, among others. In Ukraine, he led major transformational projects of local universities and civil society while working for the national government and international donor organizations. Professor Oleksiyenko served on the management boards of Higher Education Special Interest Group - CIES (USA); the Council of International Higher Education (ASHE); and was Director of the Comparative Education Research Centre at the University of Hong Kong. He also played a major role in developing communities of higher education research by designing and chairing webinars, and leading editorial teams in local and international journals (e.g., Cogent Education, Journal of Comparative and International Higher Education, Academic Praxis, Universities and Intellectuals). His consultancy has been sought by major international agencies, including UNESCO, Times Higher Education, the Legatum Institute, and the Open Society Institute.

DPhil Christ Church, University of Oxford

MSc University of Manchester

PGCE Open University

MA and BA Hons Corpus Christi College, University of Cambridge

Specialization and expertise

• Philosophy of education
• The nature and aims of moral education
• Teaching controversial issues
• Education against extremism
• The nature and aims of religious education
• Philosophy in schools

Michael Hand is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of International Education at the Education University of Hong Kong. He is a philosopher of education with research interests in the areas of moral, political, religious and philosophical education. His books include A Theory of Moral Education (Routledge, 2018), Education, Ethics and Experience (Routledge, 2015), Patriotism in Schools (Wiley, 2011), Philosophy in Schools (Bloomsbury, 2008) and Is Religious Education Possible? (Bloomsbury, 2006).

Michael is Professor of Philosophy of Education and Director of Postgraduate Research in the School of Education at the University of Birmingham, UK. He is Vice-Chair of the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain, Series Editor of Bloomsbury Philosophy of Education and Co-Editor of Journal of Philosophy in Schools.

EdD Teachers College, Columbia University

MEd Teachers College, Columbia University

MA Teachers College, Columbia University

HDE (P/G Sec) (cum laude) University of Cape Town

BA University of Cape Town

Specialization and expertise

• Comparative and international education and development
• Complexity theory and educational change
• Ethics and education
• Culture and comparative education
• Critical reasoning and education

Mark Mason is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of International Education at the Education University of Hong Kong, where he leads the MA in Global Studies in Education and the EdD in International and Comparative Education.  He works in the field of comparative and international education and development from a disciplinary background in philosophy, social theory, complexity theory and education studies.  His research has been recognized in Hong Kong by the award of a Humanities and Social Sciences Prestigious Fellowship.

He is a former Editor of the International Journal of Educational Development (Elsevier) and of the CERC Studies in Comparative Education Series (Springer), and is an Associate Editor of the Southern African Review of Education.  He is a Past President of the Comparative Education Society of Hong Kong and a former Director of the Comparative Education Research Centre at the University of Hong Kong.

Professor Mason has worked for UNESCO’s International Bureau of Education in Geneva as a senior programme specialist in curriculum and learning development, for the University of Hong Kong, the University of Cape Town, and as a secondary teacher of Mathematics and English.

He has published more than 100 articles, chapters, books and journal special issues in these research areas, and his work has been translated and published in ten languages.

A former Fulbright Scholar, he holds a doctorate from Columbia University in New York.

PhD UCL Institute of Education

MRes UCL Institute of Education

MA UCL Institute of Education

BA The University of Edinburgh

Specialisation and expertise:

-       Comparative and international education

-       Policy studies

-       Philosophical anthropology

-       Sociology

-       Governance (history and theory)

Euan Auld is an Assistant Professor in the Department of International Education at the Education University of Hong Kong. He holds a doctorate in Comparative and International Education & Policy Studies from the UCL Institute of Education, London (UK). His doctoral thesis investigated the rise of international large-scale assessments in education, and their influence on education research and policymaking, utilising theories from sociology, political science, and philosophy.

Euan’s current work theorises and conceptualises the role of stories in research, policy and governance processes, and the continuing relevance of myths and their corresponding symbols in contemporary - modern - societies. His research interests lie primarily in the fields of sociology and philosophical anthropology, investigating interrelated systems of meaning-making across cultures both past and present, and exploring ways to (re)integrate these insights into comparative studies of education, and education policy and practice.

Euan is a Managing Editor for the journal European Education (Taylor & Francis), and is an active member of the following societies: Comparative Education Society of Europe (CESE), Comparative and International Education Society (CIES), and the Comparative Education Society of Hong Kong (CESHK). He is serving as Honorary Secretary of CESHK. 

PhD The University of Hong Kong

MA Renmin University of China

BA Fujian Normal University

Specialisation and expertise:

• Comparative and international education
• Philosophy of education
• Civic/moral/multicultural education
• Politics of education
• Identity

Jason Cong LIN is an Assistant Professor in the Department of International Education at the Education University of Hong Kong. He holds a PhD from the University of Hong Kong, and was a Fulbright Scholar at Harvard University. He is the author of National Education in Hong Kong in the New Era (Palgrave Macmillan, 2025), and Multiculturalism, Chinese Identity, and Education: Who Are We? (Routledge, 2022). His research has been published in well-regarded journals, such as Journal of Contemporary China, Daedalus, Globalisation, Societies and Education, Educational Philosophy and Theory, and Asia Pacific Education Review.

Jason’s research has received grants and awards from governments and institutions around the world. These include the Fulbright Scholarship program, Philosophy of Education Society of Australasia, Comparative & International Education Society, Korean Association for Multicultural Education, the Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research, the Hong Kong Research Grants Council, and the Ministry of Education. His works focus on incorporating intercultural knowledge, skills, and values in education; providing minority and Global South perspectives on educational issues; and working with schools and policy-makers to improve education for all students.

Jason is the secretary/treasurer of the AERA Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism and Education SIG, an Assistant Editor of the Brill Research Perspectives in Philosophy of Education Series, and an Associate Editor of the Journal of Modern Educational Research. He is also on the editorial board for Compare and The Curriculum Journal.

PhD The Education University of Hong Kong

BA Jilin University

Specialisation and expertise:

• Critical Policy Analysis
• International/Transnational Higher Education
• Foucault and Bourdieu Studies

Xiao HAN is an Assistant Professor in the Department of International Education at the Education University of Hong Kong. She earned her B.A. (Economics) from Jilin University and Ph.D (Education) from the Education University of Hong Kong. Her research is trans-disciplinary-based, focusing on critical policy analysis, international/transnational higher education, and Foucault/Bourdieu studies. Her works have been published in Journal of Education Policy, Higher Education, Policy and Society, and etc.

Xiao HAN’s current work concentrates on the clarification and articulation of concepts/theories including the segmented labor market, the rational choice hypothesis, the new materialism and the usage of ideology/discourse in critical studies, empirically now to examine the issue of graduate employment.

She serves as the reviewer for a number of international peer-reviewed journals such as Journal of Education Policy, Higher Education, Educational Research for Policy and Practice, and Asia Pacific Journal of Education.

PhD University of Pittsburgh

MEd Peking University

LLB Peking University

Specialisation and expertise

• Comparative and international education
• Indigenous education
• Higher education for sustainability
• Higher education policy and management
• Liberal arts education

Dr XIONG Weiyan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of International Education at the Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK). He received his PhD in Higher Education Management from the University of Pittsburgh. Weiyan is the author of Ethnic Minority-Serving Institutions: Higher Education Case Studies from the United States and China (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021) and has published journal articles on indigenous and ethnic minority education, international higher education, higher education policy, and more.

Weiyan developed a constructivist and pragmatic approach in the research to address an essential question: how can a university better develop and play its role in teaching and learning, scientific research, and social service? With an international perspective, Weiyan’s pragmatic orientation pushes his studies to be policy-relevant to enhance institutional development or provide higher education policy recommendations in specific social contexts.

Before joining EdUHK, Weiyan was an Assistant Professor and the Director of two taught-postgraduate (TPg) programmes (MA in International Higher Education and Management; MSocSc in Organisational Psychology and Education Management) at Lingnan University, Hong Kong. He also served as a Program Coordinator at the University of Pittsburgh Institute for International Studies in Education and a Visiting Student Researcher at the UC Berkeley Myers Center for Research on Native American Issues.

PhD Public University of Navarre

MA Ibn Tofail University

BA Ibn Tofail University

Specialization and expertise

• Intercultural Education
• Ethics and Education
• Sociology of Education in the Global South
• Alternative Epistemologies in Education and Language

Hamza R’boul is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of International Education at the Education University of Hong Kong. His works examine interculturality, power relations and the skewed geopolitics of knowledge as they shape education and society at large. They also address inequalities and discuss the demands for more epistemic justice in intercultural communication education and research, sociology of education, internationalization of higher education and English language teaching. He has published in e.g. Language and Intercultural Communication, Journal of Further and Higher Education, Journal of Multicultural Discourses and Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development. His research interests include intercultural education, (higher) education in the Global South, decolonial endeavours in education, cultural politics of language teaching, and postcoloniality.

He published his first book ‘Through the Looking-glass of Interculturality: Autocritiques’ (Springer, 2022) which probes into the mainstream underpinnings of interculturality scholarships and constructs a profound analysis for epistemic plurality in intercultural education. His forthcoming books include Intercultural Communication Education and Research: Reenvisioning Fundamental Notions (Routledge, 2023), Postcolonial Challenges to Theory and Practice in ELT and TESOL: Geopolitics of Knowledge and Epistemologies of the South (Routledge, 2023) and Problematizing ELT in the Global South: Interculturality, Identity and Power Dynamics in Morocco (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023).

PhD Beijing Normal University

MEd University of Hong Kong

BEd (Primary Education) Chinese University of Hong Kong

Teachers Certificate Sir Robert Black College of Education

Specialization and expertise

• Educational issues in Hong Kong
• International education and education development
• Teacher development and middle-manager training
• Civic education and national identity
• Chinese culture and philosophy

Wu Siu Wai is a Senior Lecturer I in the Department of International Education, and Co-Director of the Centre for Classical Chinese Education (CCCE) at the Education University of Hong Kong.  He began his career as a teacher educator at the Hong Kong Institute of Education in 1995.  He has a long history of working for local committees and educational organizations, serving on the committees that produced the Code for the Education Profession of Hong Kong (1992), and the Guidelines on Civic Education in Schools (1996).

Dr Wu serves as the Vice-Chief Editor of the Hong Kong Teachers’ Centre Journal, the Vice-Chairman of the Hong Kong Federation of Education Workers, and the Secretary of the Hong Kong Primary Education Research Association.  He is a member of the standing committee of The Hong Kong Council for Educational Administration.  He has served as an Independent School Reviewer for the Quality Assurance Division of Hong Kong’s Education Bureau.  In 1997, Dr Wu received a Certificate of Appreciation for The Pursuit of Quality Teaching in Higher Education from the Consortium for the Promotion of Teaching Skills and Technology.  He has given keynote addresses and invited presentations to educational organizations in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Taipei, Macao, Hangzhou, Anhui, Fujian, Shenyang, Jilin, Heilongjiang and Hainan.

As a local researcher, he has published, mostly in Chinese, more than 100 articles, chapters, books and journal articles.

PhD Lancaster University

PGCAP University of Liverpool

PGDE (Distinction) & MEd The Education University of Hong Kong

HD & BASW The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Specialisation and expertise

• Experiential learning
• Life and values education
• Reflective practices
• Vocational education and training

Cheng Tak Lai, Mic is a Lecturer I in the Department of International Education at the Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK). He is responsible for teaching subjects in life and values education, and in education studies (in the related discipline of philosophical and sociocultural issues in education). His main research interests include life and values education, experiential learning and reflective practice, primarily focusing on how participants’ values and beliefs can be transformed in the learning experience from both philosophical and empirical perspectives. 

He holds a PGDE in Professional and Vocational Education (with distinction) and a MEd in Life and Spirituality Education from the EdUHK. He also has a PGCert in Academic Practice from the University of Liverpool and a PhD in Higher Education from Lancaster University (LU). Before joining the department, he served the Centre for Religious and Spirituality Education in EdUHK for 6 years, where he was responsible for the educational projects and general education courses related to life and values education. He also had worked for the Vocational Training Council for 8 years, developing and lecturing for the post-secondary programmes (ranging from certificate to undergraduate level) offered by the Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education, the University of Hull and the University of the West of England, Bristol.

Dr Cheng is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA) and an Associate Member of the Centre for Higher Education Research and Evaluation at LU in the UK. He is also a Registered Teacher (RT) with the Education Bureau and a Registered Social Worker (RSW) with the Social Workers Registration Board in HK. He had received the Life Education Personal Excellence Award from the China Soong Ching Ling Foundation in 2016.

MPhil University of Cambridge

MEd The University of Hong Kong

BEd&BSc The University of Hong Kong

Specialisation and expertise

• International education and development
• Curriculum and instruction
• Teaching and learning of science
• STEM education

Lam Tin Miu is a Lecturer II in the Department of International Education at the Education University of Hong Kong. Her teaching responsibilities include education in international and global contexts, life and value education, and educational leadership. 

After graduating with a double degree in education and science from the University of Hong Kong, Giselle has taught Science subjects across varied contexts and settings including Primary and Secondary in Hong Kong, Thailand and Australia. She obtained her Master of Education at the University of Hong Kong through a study of developing classroom dialogue in teaching and learning of science. Moreover, she received the International Baccalaureate advanced certificate in teaching and learning research in 2020. Giselle furthered her studies with a Master of Philosophy degree in Psychology and Education from the University of Cambridge. Her study focused on cognitive psychology in STEM learning. Giselle is a Graduate Member of the British Psychological Society (GMBPsS). She is currently pursuing her Doctor of Philosophy in Education at the University of Hong Kong. Her research interests are teaching and learning in international contexts, curriculum studies, teacher professional development and psychology in education.

MA Teachers College, Columbia University 

BEd The Education University of Hong Kong 

Specialisation and expertise 

• Privatization of education (shadow education, social inequality issues in education)
• Comparative and international education and development
• Globalization and Education; Large-scale International Assessment (PISA, TIMSS), datafication of education  

Leung Yuk Tin, Yvette is a Lecturer I in the Department of International Education at the Education University of Hong Kong. She is responsible for teaching subjects in global educational reforms and development, histories of modernization and education development, as well as in education studies (in the related discipline of philosophical and sociocultural issues in education). 

Yvette holds an MA specializing in International Educational Development from Teachers College, Columbia University. She graduated with a first-class honour for her bachelor in English Language Education from the Education University of Hong Kong. She is experienced with Hong Kong's education through her work within and outside the system. Upon the completion of her M.A. degree, Yvette worked for UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL), supporting the Institutes' work in advancing the field of lifelong learning and adult learning towards achieving the sustainable Development Goals 4.0 among member states. Prior to joining the University, Yvette served as a secondary school teacher, and had also worked for a number of local education NGOs to foster character education and education innovations in Hong Kong. Yvette is currently pursuing her PhD in Comparative Education at the University of Hong Kong. Her research focuses on how the choice of private tutoring and the tutoring experiences differ among students from various social classes.

Yvette is a member of the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES). She is also the founding Vice-President of the Hong Kong Scholarship for Excellence Scheme Scholars Association. 

PhD Lingnan University

MA University of Bordeaux

BA University of Bordeaux

Specialization and expertise

• Moral Philosophy and Applied Ethics
• Political Philosophy 
• History of Philosophy 
• Critical Thinking
• Pedagogy & Philosophy 

Ezechiel Thibaud is a Lecturer I in the Department of International Education at the Education University of Hong Kong. 

Trained as a philosopher as well as a language teacher, she has experience in teaching various disciplines (philosophy, French, literature, politics…) in various countries and institutions (universities, international schools). 

Her international experience (having worked in the USA, China & Hong Kong, India, Burundi) gave her a deep insight into sociocultural issues in education, as well as into the various ways concepts such as the meaning of life, morality, or happiness are approached. She is particularly interested in making philosophical concepts accessible to large audiences, through the use of innovative pedagogical tools. 

Her philosophical research focuses on moral and political philosophy, with an emphasis on the concepts of autonomy, modern conceptions of virtue, and the ethics of technology.

Rupert Maclean is a Former Director of the Centre for Lifelong Learning Research and Development, Chair Professor of International Education, and UNESCO Chair Professor in Technical and Vocational Education and Training and Lifelong Learning, at the Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIEd). He was the foundation Director of UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Education in Bonn. His previous appointments include those of: Director, Section for Secondary Education at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris; Acting Director of the UNESCO Principal regional Office for Asia and the Pacific in Bangkok; Chief of the Asia-Pacific Centre of Educational Innovation for Development (ACEID) at UNESCO Bangkok; and, UNESCO Chief Technical Advisor for the United Nations project to strengthen and upgrade teacher education throughout Myanmar. His scholarly work in education, and particularly in technical and vocational education and training, is well known from his numerous publications. He is recognized internationally as a leading change agent in education for social development. He has a thorough understanding of TVET in the Asia-Pacific region, contextualized by his broad grasp of educational issues, developments and scholarship world-wide. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for Australia ‘for distinguished service to technical and vocational education particularly through UNESCO’ in 2011.