Dr Meng Tian

Dr Meng Tian

School of Education
Associate Professor in Educational Leadership
Director of Global Engagement for the College of Social Science

Contact details

Address
Education Leadership Academy
School of Education
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Meng Tian joined the Education Leadership Academy, Department of Teacher Education in 2021. Her teaching and research interests lie in distributed leadership, social justice leadership, leaders’ and teachers’ professional development,  education leadership policy-making, and comparative education. Currently, she teaches in the PGDip Educational Leadership Programme and MA Education Programme (Leadership pathway) and supervises PhD theses and Master dissertations. Her latest research, on Cultivating Global Citizenship, aims to transform research-based global citizenship teacher CPD training into tangible teacher competencies while nurturing a heightened sense of global responsibility among youth. 

As of May 2024, Meng Tian serves as the Director of Global Engagement for the College of Social Science. Her responsibilities include leading and strategising for university reputation and ranking, international student recruitment and experience, international research collaboration, as well as staff and student mobility.

On top of her teaching and research work at the University of Birmingham, she also holds appointments as the co-Convenor for the Network 26 Educational leadership at the European Educational Research Association (EERA) and Associate Editor for the Sage journal Educational Management, Administration & Leadership.  

Qualifications

  • Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
  • PhD in Educational Leadership (Institute of Educational Leadership, University of Jyväskylä, Finland)
  • M.A. in Educational Leadership (Institute of Educational Leadership, University of Jyväskylä, Finland)
  • B.A. in Educational Administration (Faculty of Public Administration, East China Normal University, China)

Teaching

Current Teaching

  • PGDip MA Educational Leadership 
  • MA Education (Educational leadership pathway)
  • MA Dissertation

Modules

  • Understanding School Improvement
  • Dissertation

External Examination Appointments

  • External examiner for the University of Northampton 2019-2023

Postgraduate supervision

Distributed leadership
Social justice leadership
Leaders’ and teachers’ professional development
Educational leadership policymaking
Comparative education

Publications

Recent publications

Book

Tian, M 2023, Arts-based research methods for educational researchers. Qualitative and Visual Methodologies in Educational Research, 1st edn, Routledge. <https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003196105>

Woods, P, Roberts, A, Tian, M & Youngs, H (eds) 2023, Handbook on Leadership in Education. Elgar Handbooks in Education, Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd. <https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/handbook-on-leadership-in-education-9781800880412.html>

Xing, X & Tian, M (eds) 2022, Impact on Higher Education Transformation and Leadership Development: Overseas Leadership Development Programmes for Chinese University Leaders. East-West Crosscurrents in Higher Education, 1 edn, Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-0067-9

Article

Tian, M 2024, 'Embracing complexity: rethinking education inspection in England', Educational Review. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131911.2024.2325660

Tian, M & Diamond, C 2024, 'OfSTED from within: Inspectors’ views on challenges and future direction', Educational Management Administration & Leadership. https://doi.org/10.1177/17411432241292284

Tian, M 2023, 'A critical friend or the sword of Damocles: Headteachers’ use of micropolitical strategies in inspection', Educational Management Administration & Leadership, pp. 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1177/17411432231222719

Tian, M 2021, 'Power bases and power tensions: a critical analysis of education inspection policies and practices in China', Leadership and Policy in Schools , vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 6-20. https://doi.org/10.1080/15700763.2020.1833940

Tian, M & Nutbrown, G 2021, 'Retheorising distributed leadership through epistemic injustice', Educational Management Administration & Leadership. https://doi.org/10.1177/17411432211022776

Tian, M & Virtanen, T 2021, 'Shanghai teachers’ perceptions on distributed leadership: Resource and agency', ECNU Review of Education, vol. 4, no. 4, pp. 808-829. https://doi.org/10.1177/2096531120921051

Chapter (peer-reviewed)

Youngs, H, Roberts, A, Tian, M & Woods, PA 2023, Disrupted leadership in education. in PA Woods, A Roberts, M Tian & H Youngs (eds), Handbook on Leadership in Education. Elgar Handbooks in Education, Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd., pp. 517-535. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781800880429

Woods, PA, Roberts, A, Tian, M & Youngs, H 2023, Introduction: leadership in education: an inherently fractured field? in PA Woods, A Roberts, M Tian & H Youngs (eds), Handbook on Leadership in Education. 1 edn, Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd., pp. 1-12. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781800880429.00006

Roberts, A, Tian, M, Woods, PA & Youngs, H 2023, Part I: Conceptual Issues Concerning Leadership in Education. in PA Woods, A Roberts, M Tian & H Youngs (eds), Handbook on Leadership in Education. Elgar Handbooks in Education, Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd., pp. 13-15. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781800880429.00007

Youngs, H, Roberts, A, Tian, M & Woods, PA 2023, Part III: Researching and Developing Leadership in Education. in PA Woods, A Roberts, M Tian & H Youngs (eds), Handbook on Leadership in Education. 1 edn, Elgar Handbooks in Education, Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd., pp. 375-378. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781800880429.00034

Tian, M, Roberts, A, Woods, PA & Youngs, H 2023, Part II: Social Justice and Leadership In Education. in Handbook on Leadership in Education. 1 edn, Elgar Handbooks in Education, Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd., pp. 186-189. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781800880429.00020

Chapter

Tian, M & Lan, X 2020, Policy-practice decoupling: Education inspection reform in China. in Neoliberalism and Education Systems in Conflict. Routledge.

View all publications in research portal