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 – 2009 Senior Lecturer in Education
St Mary’s University, Twickenham - 2010 – 2012 Director of Employment Based Routes
(Initial Teacher Training)
London South Bank University - 2012 – 2018 Programme Leader of Employment Based Routes
(Initial Teacher Training) Programme
UCL Institute of Education - 2018 – 2020 Senior Teaching Associate (International)
University of Cambridge - 2020 – 2022 Initial Education Manager and Head of Curriculum
and Qualifications Delivery
Metropolitan Police Service (L&D) - 2022 – 2025 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)
Keynote speaker:
Re-imagining Black women teachers in schools: challenging racial stereotypes and controlling images, Keynote speaker, ‘Be the Change in Education’ RILC Conference 2024, London South Bank University, 15 March 2024.
Teacher Development and Education in England: Initial Teacher Training and beyond, Keynote speaker, 2nd Annual EDU Forum, Jinan, Shandong Province, China, 20 May 2019.
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.
Recent publications
Article
Ramdeo, Janet and , (2026), From the editor: Equity in teacher education and development. The Chartered College of Teaching. In: , , , . The Chartered College of Teaching, Impact: Journal of the Chartered College of Teaching: 1 (26) ISSN: 2514-6955 (Print), (doi: https://my.chartered.college/impact_article/from-the-editor-13/) NB Item availability restricted.
Ramdeo, Janet and , Nicholls, Stewart (2025), Enhancing racial representation in the curriculum: the case of performing arts programmes at a UK higher education institution. Taylor and Francis Group - Routledge. In: , , , . Taylor and Francis Group - Routledge, Innovations in Education and Teaching International (IETI), 63 (1) . pp. 85-98 ISSN: 1470-3297 (Print), 1470-3300 (Online) (doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/14703297.2025.2459651).
Ramdeo, Janet and , (2023), Black women educators’ stories of intersectional invisibility: experiences of hindered careers and workplace psychological harm in school environments. Taylor and Francis Group - Routledge. In: , , , . Taylor and Francis Group - Routledge, Educational Review, 77 (2) . pp. 475-494 ISSN: 0013-1911 (Print), 1465-3397 (Online) (doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/00131911.2023.2217358).
Ramdeo, Janet and , (2023), ‘Who are you?’ Moving from reflexivity to self-reflexivity in educational research with marginalised groups. British Educational Research Association (BERA_. In: , , , . British Educational Research Association (BERA_, BERA BItes, 11: 1 . pp. 6-7 (doi: https://www.bera.ac.uk/publication/bera-bites-issue-11-developing-your-early-career-researcher-profile-skillset).
Wang, Tianyi , Ramdeo, Janet, McLaughlin, Colleen (2021), Experiencing and experimenting: an exploration of teacher agency in an international collaborative teacher professional development programme using experiential learning. Elsevier. In: , , , . Elsevier, Teaching and Teacher Education, 104: 103389 ISSN: 0742051X (Print), 1879-2480 (Online) (doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2021.103389) NB Item availability restricted.
Book
McNamara, Anna , Mahon, Dominic, Papageorgiou, Vasiliki, Ramdeo, Janet (2024), Inspire: Learning for Teaching in Higher Education. Nova Science Publishers. In: , , , . Nova Science Publishers, New York (1st) . ISBN: 9798891136816 (doi: https://doi.org/10.52305/MFHB5151).
Conference item
Olusola, Jeremiah , Anin-Adjei, Eden, Ramdeo, Janet (2025), Barriers to engagement: examining impediments to participation in targeted educational interventions for Black British postgraduate researchers. In: British Educational Research Association (BERA) Conference 2025, 9th - 11th September, 2025, University of Sussex , . , (doi: https://www.bera.ac.uk/conference/bera-conference-2025).
Ramdeo, Janet , Anin-Adjei, Eden, Olusola, Jeremiah (2025), Tackling the broken UG to PGR pipeline for Black students: student-centred initiatives. In: Advance HE Teaching and Learning Conference 2025, 1st - 3rd July 2025, University of Sheffield , . , (doi: https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/Programmes-events/conferences/Teaching-Learning-2025).
Ramdeo, Janet and , (2024), Implementing and evaluating an inclusive curriculum framework to enhance racial representation in performing arts programmes. In: SEDA Autumn Conference 2024: New Challenges for Educational Development - National and International Perspectives, 28th November, 2024, Online , . , (doi: https://www.seda.ac.uk/seda-events/seda-autumn-conference-2024/).
Ramdeo, Janet and , (2024), Enhancing racial and ethnic representation in performing arts curricula. In: "Reimagining Higher Education: Journeys of Decolonising 2024" (Decolonisation Across Different Subjects II), 8th November, 2024, UCL Institute of Education , . , (doi: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/events/2024/nov/reimagining-higher-education-journeys-decolonising-conference-2024).
Adefila, Arinola , Smith, Matthew, Stokes, Gillian, Ramdeo, Janet , Burns, Caroline , Morini, Luca , Lalli, Gurpinder , Hussain, Saba (2024), Kicking the hornets’ nest: provocations on decolonising Higher Education in the UK. In: University of Surrey's Race Equity Conference 2024, 21st June, 2024, University of Surrey , . , (doi: https://stories.surrey.ac.uk/race-equity-conference-2024/index.html).
Ramdeo, Janet and , (2024), Gatekeeping of researcher positionality: should this be the norm in research with/on racially minoritised participants?. In: The London Institute of Social Studies Research Methodology Conference: Decolonising Research Methodologies and Methods (RMC 2023), 16th June, 2023, Birkbeck, University of London , . , . pp. 26-28 (doi: https://thelondoninstitute.org.uk/events/rmc/rmc-2023/).
Ramdeo, Janet and , (2024), The persistence and impact of appropriating controlling images to Black female teachers in schools in England. In: Nordic Conference on Racism and Education, 15th - 16th May, 2024, Uppsala University, Sweden , . , (doi: https://www.uu.se/en/events/2024/2024-05-15-ncre2024---nordic-conference-on-racism-and-education).
Ramdeo, Janet and , (2024), Re-imagining Black women teachers in schools: challenging racial stereotypes and controlling images. In: ‘Be the Change in Education’, Re-imagining Learning Communities (RILC) Conference 2024, 15th Mar, 2024, London South Bank University , . , (doi: https://www.lsbu.ac.uk/research/centres-groups/re-imagining-learning-communities).
Ramdeo, Janet and , (2023), Challenging and reconstructing controlling images of Black women teachers in school workforces: counter-narratives of agency, commitment, and resistance through consciousness of Black feminist thought. In: British Educational Research Association (BERA) Annual Conference 2023, 12th - 14th September, 2023, Aston University , . , (doi: https://www.bera.ac.uk/conference/bera-conference-2023).
Ramdeo, Janet and , (2022), Racialised researcher reflexivity in research involving Black female teachers: “Why are you researching us?”. In: BERA ECR Network Symposium Series 2022: Framing Research: Theories, Concepts and Reflexivity in Educational Research – October, 19th October, 2022, Online , . , (doi: https://www.bera.ac.uk/event/bera-ecr-network-symposium-series-2022-framing-research-theories-concepts-and-reflexivity-in-educational-research-october).
Conference proceedings
Anin-Adjei, Eden and , Ramdeo, Janet (2025), Could student-centred bespoke initiatives support and motivate Black British students to enter and remain on postgraduate research studentships in the UK? An action research investigation into breaking access barriers. IATED (International Academy of Technology, Education and Development). In: 18th annual International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation, , Seville, Spain In: IATED Conference Committee (ed.), ICERI2025 Proceedings 18th annual International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation Seville, Spain. 10th - 12th November, 2025. IATED (International Academy of Technology, Education and Development), Valencia, Spain (1st) . pp. 4167-4172 . ISBN: 9788409787067ISSN: 2340-1095 (Print), (doi: https://doi.org/10.21125/iceri.2025.1226) NB Item availability restricted.