Key details
Dr Janet Ramdeo
Associate Professor in Education
Dr Janet Ramdeo is an Associate Professor in Education and Head of Initial Teacher Education (ITE) in the School of Education, having joined University of Greenwich in December 2025. She has a career in primary school and Higher Education spanning over two decades, working in HE institutions in London, Surrey and Cambridge, primarily in teacher education. She has held course leadership posts, managing Initial Teacher Training (ITT) Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) programmes at London providers.
Her experience in Higher Education extends beyond ITT/E to include international teacher education and development, working on projects in China, Kazakhstan and India. More recently, she was University of Surrey’s Academic Lead for Inclusive Education, working on university-wide policy and strategy around inclusivity and broader Equality, Diversity and Inclusion matters, as well as driving the implementation of the Race Equality Charter Action Plan across the institution. She has also mentored staff and PGRs to gain Advance HE recognition at D1-D3 (AFHEA, FHEA, SFHEA) and reviewed applications for recognition. She is herself recognised as Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (PFHEA).
Janet is currently an External Examiner for PGCE Primary at Newcastle University and the PReSPA and TLIPA programmes at Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts (LIPA). She has been consulted on for Quality Assessment activities related to Initial Teacher Training and Education nationally by Office for Students (OfS), being on assessment panels for OfS registration and new Degree Awarding Powers applications.
Her research interests lay in ‘race’ equity, social justice and Black feminist perspectives in education. As such, she became one of the co-convenors of British Educational Research Association’s (BERA) Race, Ethnicity and Education Special Interest Group in August 2025, looking to raise and challenge issues of ‘race’ in education and enabling space for promoting racially inclusive practice and pedagogy. She has also been involved in externally funded research projects examining the racialised experiences of students in Higher Education. She has also been involved in doctoral level (PhD and EdD) supervision and examination around her research interests.
Posts held previously
- 1999-2005 Primary School Teacher (Key Stages 1 and 2): Surrey and Richmond-upon-Thames
- 2006-09 Senior Lecturer in Education: St Mary’s University, Twickenham
- 2010-12 Director of Employment Based Routes (Initial Teacher Training): London South Bank University
- 2012-18 Programme Leader of Employment Based Routes (Initial Teacher Training) Programme: UCL Institute of Education
- 2018-20 Senior Teaching Associate (International): University of Cambridge
- 2020-22 Initial Education Managerand Head of Curriculum and Qualifications Delivery: Metropolitan Police Service (Learning and Development)
- 2022-25 Lecturer in Higher Education and Academic Lead (institution-wide) for Inclusive Education: University of Surrey
Responsibilities within the university
- Head of Initial Teacher Education
- GOLD mentor (including workshop facilitation as a member of the ‘Greenwich PFHEA Holder’ team)
Awards
2023/24 – Values Award for Inclusive Education, University of Surrey.
Recognition
Advance HE recognition:
Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (PFHEA)
External Examiner:
Professional Recognition Scheme for the Performing Arts (PReSPA) for Advance HE accreditation D1-D3 (AFHEA, FHEA, SFHEA) and Teaching and Learning in the Performing Arts (TLIPA), Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts.
PGCE Primary, Newcastle University.
External Advisor:
Office for Students (OfS): Deputy Chair of Assessment Committee and Assessor for a Degree Awarding Powers
Office for Students (OfS): Quality Assessor for B7/B8 registration.
Cambridge Assessment (International Education): Cambridge Early Years Programme in India
University of Chichester: Periodic Review of Education Department portfolio (Undergraduate, Postgraduate Taught, PGCE and International)
Professional Bodies:
British Educational Research Association (BERA) – Race, Ethnicity and Education (REE) Special Interest Group (SIG) Co-Convenor (2025-2028).
Association for Learning Development in Higher Education (ALDinHE) - Deputy Chair of the Conference Committee (2022-2024).
Guest Editorial:
‘Equity in teacher education and development’, Impact, Chartered College of Teaching, Spring 2026: Issue 26 (20 February 2026)
Invited Speaker:
Counter-storytelling within Critical Race Theory, Critical Race Theory (CRT) Summer School seminar, UCL Institute of Education, 8 June 2023, 6 June 2024, 26 June 2025.
Intersectionality as an analytical tool: application and lens within ‘Black women educators’ stories of intersectional invisibility’ paper, UCL Institute of Education’s CRT Reading Group, 27 November 2024.
Positionality: Why it matters, Decolonising, Ethics and Reflexivity Grand Challenges Project, UCL Institute of Education, 8 June 2024.
Enhancing racial representation in the curriculum (ERRIC) project: The performing arts experience at University of Surrey, National Inclusive Teaching and Learning Community of Practice, 17 May 2024.
Challenging and reconstructing the 'controlling images' narrative of Black women in school workforces, Race and Education Cluster, University of Derby, 25 January 2024.
Researcher self-reflexivity in research involving Black women. Learning and Leadership Research Seminar: Researching an-‘other’: reflections on ethical tensions and pitfalls, UCL Institute of Education, 30 June 2022 and re-run at London Metropolitan University, 29 June 2023.
Black female teachers in white-dominated school spaces: Challenging normative views. Invited Guest Lecture, London South Bank University, 22 September 2022.
Journal reviewer:
*British Educational Research Journal (BERJ)
*Education Sciences
*Equity and Excellence in Education
*International Journal of Qualitative Methods
*Multicultural Perspectives
*Social Sciences
*Societies
Research / Scholarly interests
Janet’s research interests lay in ‘race’ equity within education, whether that is racialised student and staff experiences or around issues of decoloniality, representation and affirmative action, as well as discourses in Black Feminism and Critical Race Theory. She is also interested in wider issues of social justice and intersectionality within education policy and practices and educational spaces.
Her research interests are:
*'Race' equity in education
*Wider issues of EDI and social justice
*Decolonising the curriculum
*Intersectionality in educational spaces
*Awarding gap in educational contexts
*Culturally relevant pedagogy
*Critical Race Theory
*Black feminism / Black Feminist Thought
Key funded projects
2022-2025: Research England/Office for Students, ‘The Surrey Black Scholars Programme: Fixing the broken pipeline’ (Co-I on four-year project). P-I’s: Professor Emily Williams/Dr Ruan Elliott. Total: £396,000.
2023-2024: SEDA Research and Evaluation Small Grants 2023 and Fluor Global University Support Programme, ‘Raising racial and ethnic representation within performing arts training: evaluating the effectiveness of implementing an Inclusive Curriculum Framework’ (P-I) Total: £1,615.
Media activity
The significance of intersectionality in education: In conversation with Marvin Lynn, Research Intelligence magazine, Issue 156 (4 September 2023). Co-author: Christine Callender.