Dr Maria Kaparou BA, MA, PhD
Lecturer
Dr Maria Kaparou is a lecturer at Southampton Education School and she has teaching commitments in the undergraduate and postgraduate taught programmes. Maria is supervising PhD students in the field of leadership and management in education settings in the UK as well as within the international context (e.g., England, Kuwait, Oman, Malaysia).
Maria is currently the Employability Lead of Southampton Education School (2017-today) and she has been Associate Director of the BSc (Hons) Education programme for three academic years (2016-2019).
Prior to her appointment to the University of Southampton (January 2016), Maria was assistant professor of educational leadership and management at the University of Nottingham (expanding her international experience in the Malaysia campus) and a senior teaching fellow in the MA Educational Leadership and Management programmes at the University of Warwick (UK). Maria has been educational manager in the private sector in Athens Greece and she has taught education programmes in secondary, further education and higher education, within centralised and partially decentralised educational systems (England, Greece, Malaysia).
Maria had developed her expertise in comparative educational leadership and management (PhD holder in Instructional Leadership within a comparative education policy context) at the University of Warwick, UK. Her doctoral thesis examined the enactment of instructional leadership in high-performing secondary schools, and the relationship between leadership and learning in enhancing student progress and encouraging teachers’ professional development in England and Greece.
Maria is the winner of the prestigious British Educational Leadership Management and Administration Society (BELMAS) Best Thesis Award 2015 (Visit the news story). In 2013 Maria received a University of Warwick Award for Teaching Excellence in Higher Education.
Maria is an active early career researcher, with a good record of successful applications for research grants. She has been leading and/or contributing to funded research projects in primary/secondary education, Further and Higher Education at national and international contexts (see below in Research Projects).
Dr Maria Kaparou’s research interests include: educational leadership and management, particularly focused on instructional leadership (Leadership for Learning); education policy; school improvement; research in Multi-academy Trusts (MATs); leadership of international schools; international and comparative education; diversity and leadership; leadership and management in Higher Education.
Maria is the coordinator of the International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement (ICSEI) Network, MoREI, which is a network for Methods of Researching Educational Effectiveness and Improvement (MoREI).
Awards
Maria is the winner of the prestigious British Educational Leadership Management and Administration Society (BELMAS) Best Thesis Award 2015 (Visit the news story). Her doctoral research has been recognised as ‘a study with the most significant contribution to the field of educational leadership, management and policy’, while it enhances theoretical significance grounded in comparative empirical research.
‘The quality this year was exceptionally high, a really good reflection of where we are’, said Professor Peter Earley, Professor of Education Leadership and Management at UCL Institute of Education London.
‘There were nine submissions this year and the winner was Maria Kaparou for her thesis on learning centred leadership in two education systems, a very good read indeed’, Professor Earley said at the awards presentation ceremony.
Maria, also, has been awarded a doctoral bursary by BELMAS (2011-2013).
The calibre of Maria’s teaching has been independently verified. In 2013, Maria received a University of Warwick Award for Teaching Excellence in Higher Education (Find out more on the Warwick website) for her innovative teaching methods in Higher Education.
Memberships
- External activities and associations:
- British Educational Leadership, Management & Administration Society (BELMAS)
- British Educational Research Association (BERA)
- International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement (ICSEI)
- Leadership for Learning: the Cambridge Network (LfL)
- London Centre for Leadership in Learning (LCLL)
- European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction (EARLI)- Junior Researcher of EARLI
- Steering Group in the Beauchamp Group (School support network) - Schools of Tomorrow