Ye (Catherine) Cao is a committed PhD candidate and Graduate Teaching Fellow at King's College London's School of Education, Communication & Society.

In her role as a Fellow, she teaches undergraduate modules for the BA Social Sciences and MA Education programmes, as well as contributing to the MA STEM Education programme.

Prior to her doctoral studies, Catherine earned a Master's degree in Engineering in Material Science and Engineering from Boston University and spent two years working in the Chinese education industry.

In addition to her studies and teaching, Catherine has worked as a Research Assistant on the project "Sustaining UK teacher quality and retention post-pandemic" and as a peer-reviewer for both BERA and ESERA conferences. Beyond academia, Catherine enjoys a strong online presence as a Key Opinion Leader (KOL) in English academic writing on Xiaohongshu, a popular Chinese social media platform, with over 14,000 followers.

Research

Catherine's research intersects science education and social justice, applying the concept of science capital to examine young people's engagement with science in China. She explores social inequalities in this context, taking into account events and policies like the COVID-19 pandemic and the "Double Reduction" policy. She has a particular focus on the prevalent gender disparities and rural-urban inequalities within China's science education. Her research utilises a mixed-methods approach, incorporating large-scale surveys and semi-structured interviews.

The preliminary findings were presented at the BERA Conference 2022 on 6 September 2022. Her next presentations are at BSA Bourdieu Study Group’s Mid Term International Conference 2023, on 6 July 2023, Barcelona, Spain, and at the BERA Conference 2023, on 13 September 2023, Birmingham.

View Ye's research profile.

Thesis title: Applying the lens of science capital to understand student engagement in China

Principal supervisor: Dr Heather King

Secondary supervisor: Dr Alex Manning

Recent Publications:

Cao, Y. (Catherine). (2022, August 31). How science capital helps to understand the urban–rural divide in Chinese students’ science aspirations.

BERA Blog. Cao, Y. (Catherine). (accepted). Connecting Policy to Education Inequality: Shadow Education, Involution and “Double Reduction” in China. BERA Blog.