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Dr Alex Masardo is an experienced higher education academic with over 20 years of teaching, research and leadership across the UK and internationally. He has held positions at the Universities of Bath and Birmingham, alongside visiting and honorary roles spanning Australia, the USA, Europe and Southeast Asia.
From 2017 to 2023, Alex led the Education subject community at the University of Gloucestershire, overseeing a wide portfolio of undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral programmes. He played a central role in shaping academic strategy, integrating teaching, research and enterprise, and developing partnerships with national and international collaborators. He also led key initiatives in higher degree apprenticeships, technical qualifications and curriculum innovation, while guiding programmes through validation, revalidation and external review.
A strong advocate for inclusive and developmental leadership, Alex has significantly strengthened staff research capacity and professional recognition through mentoring and structured support. His work has helped foster a collaborative academic culture focused on excellence and impact.
Alex is an active researcher with memberships in leading professional associations and contributions to journals, editorial boards and public engagement. His work emphasises collaboration, innovation and the translation of research into practice across global educational contexts.
Alex is the university curriculum lead for Global Literacies and championing the roll out of Virtual Exchange /COIL across the University.
Alex currently teaches across the Education portfolio, including: PGCert in Academic Practice (PGCAP), MRes/PGCert Research Methods, BA Education, BA Education, Inclusion and Special Educational Needs (modules including: Education for Change, Contemporary Issues in Education, Introduction to Research, Social and Emotional Learning, Learning outside the classroom, Learning to Think – Thinking to Learn, and the Research Dissertation module.
He also teaches on the Doctor of Education (EdD) programme, where he tutors doctoral students on Education Policy, Pedagogy, Philosophy of Education, and oversees the module Researching Education.
He acts as Dissertation and Thesis supervisor for BA (Hons), MA Education suite, and PGR students, including PhD, EdD, and MA/MSc by Research.
Alex has led and collaborated on a wide range of funded research projects supported by organisations including the ESRC (£57,000), AHRC (£46,211), HEA (£20,000), HEFCE (£50,000), British Council (£29,900), SEDA and Erasmus+. His work has consistently foregrounded innovation across research, pedagogy and policy. His research spans education, social policy and pedagogy, with a strong focus on innovation and impact.
He established the first international and interdisciplinary (AHRC) network on post-separation families and shared residence (2010-12), incorporating academics, practitioners and third-sector representation. This model was influential in the establishment of the International Council on Shared Parenting (ICSP) in 2014, where he has served as Scientific Chair for several of their bi-annual conferences, most recently the December 2025 ICSP Conference at Lisbon University Faculty of Law Portugal – Shared Parenting in Practice: Challenges and Opportunities, for which he wrote the conference call and Conference Conclusions. His work has also driven innovative educational interventions, including national theatre-in-education initiatives and international projects promoting resilience and inclusive learning.
Alex’s recent research focuses on virtual exchange, collaborative online international learning and student belonging, alongside projects in learning analytics and early childhood and inclusive education. He has published widely in leading journals and edited collections and regularly delivers keynote addresses at international conferences. His research is highly collaborative and applied, working with universities, schools, NGOs and policy bodies worldwide to translate research into practice and generate meaningful impact across education and society.
Current areas of interest include:
Alex has extensive experience in postgraduate research supervision across a wide range of education and interdisciplinary topics. He has successfully supervised Masters by Research (MA/MSc) and PhD students to completion, with projects spanning areas such as learning analytics, student belonging and transitions into higher education, school improvement and complexity theory, community development in higher education, classroom interventions to support cognition and attainment, as well as developments in contemporary social work education.
He currently supervises doctoral research covering diverse international and applied themes, including inclusive and special educational needs (SEND) pedagogies, interprofessional digital learning in health education, migrant student experiences and educational transitions, and inclusion within primary education, with a focus on areas such as ADHD and physical activity.
In addition to supervision, Alex has experience in doctoral examination. His roles have included PhD progression examiner, viva chair and external examiner, engaging with research on topics such as inclusive education in higher education systems, critical thinking curricula in international contexts, the relationship between teaching and creative practice, moral development in secondary education, and the use of emerging technologies such as extended reality in vocational education and training.
Across these roles, he supports rigorous, impactful and internationally relevant educational research.
Publications from Dr Alex Masardo can be found in the Research Repository.
Visiting and Honorary Posts:
Academic Leadership and Standing:
Manuscript Review:
Social Policy and Society; Journal of Family Studies; Families, Relationships and Societies; Journal of Family Issues; Educational Research (National Foundation for Educational Research); International Journal of Qualitative Methods; Journal of Men and Masculinities; The Journal of Men’s Studies; GeoJournal: An International Journal of Geography; International Journal of Research and Methods in Education, Journal of Virtual Exchange
Editor: Children Australia
Editorial:
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