Maria Kaparou

Lecturer in Education, University of Southampton
Dr Maria Kaparou is a Lecturer in Education at Southampton Education School. Maria is an Education professional with experience in Higher Education (HE) in England, Greece, Asia and the United Arab Emirates. Maria has got Education background and she has taught education programmes overseas at secondary level and FE colleges whilst she has management and leadership experience in the private education sector.

Maria is an active researcher and her main research interests include: educational leadership and management, particularly focused on instructional leadership (Leadership for Learning/ Managing Teaching and Learning); education policy; school improvement in schools in challenging contexts; research in Multi-academy Trusts (MATs); international and comparative education; diversity and leadership. Maria is developing a record of publications and successful applications (jointly with other colleagues) for research grants in England and internationally, such as, Ambition School Leadership (ASL) / Ambition Institute funded project (2018).
The Ambition Institute research report on "School improvement in challenging contexts: insights from ten new headteachers" is available at: https://www.ambition.org.uk/research-and-insight/school-improvement-challenging-contexts/ (Downey, C., Burg, D., Kaparou, M. and Kelly, A., 2019).

Also, Maria has been involved in other projects focused: on Instructional Leadership and school improvement (University of Southampton funded project, 2016); Leadership preparation for FE college principals (BELMAS Research Grant, 2014-2015); School leadership theories and the Malaysia Education Blueprint (Fundamental Research Grant FRGS by the Ministry of Higher Education in Malaysia (2015); a School impacting a nation: bringing creativity and innovation into primary education, a Research project conducted for Australia Malaysia Institute (Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, 2015); Leading international students’ communities of learning (SEDA Research Grant 2014-2015).

Maria has taught University programmes which have a global outlook: the University of Southampton, University of Nottingham and the University of Warwick. She has significant experience within the discipline of education and has led/taught a range of research-informed and theory-driven modules at undergraduate and postgraduate programme level in Social Sciences programmes of Higher Education (HE), whilst she has got a successful record of PhD student submissions. Maria supervises 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). 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 for her innovative teaching methods in Higher Education, whilst in 2022 she has been nominated for an Academic Award as 'the most engaging lecturer' (SUSU, 2022).

Maria currently holds the role of Employability Lead of Southampton Education School, devising the employability strategy for the School aligned to the institutional strategy; supporting institution wide education strategy and change regarding Employability. In the past she was involved in the leadership teams of undergraduate and masters level programmes. Team leadership achievements include nominations for: i) a Vice-Chancellor’s Award as part of The Student Experience category (2022) given the excellent support to MSc students and significant growth of a Masters programme; as well as, ii) a Vice-Chancellors Awards nomination (2018) for good leadership/ quality of work in the BSc (Hons) programmes, recognising the commitment of the leadership and teaching teams in the Education programmes offered at Southampton Education School.