Dr Ye (Catherine) Cao is a committed researcher in science education, education policy and social justice at King's College London's School of Education, Communication & Society.

Catherine completed her doctoral research in August 2024 titled 'Applying Science Capital as the Lens to Understand Chinese Young People's Science Engagement and Aspirations'. She also 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 research 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 15k followers.

Research interests

• Science Education
• Educational Policy Gender and SES
• Inequalities in Education
• Mixed-method Research

Teaching

Recent Development of Educational Management Critical Perspectives of Education

Recent Publications

Cao, Y. (2024). Connecting Policy to Education Inequality: Shadow Education, Involution and “Double Reduction” in China. BERA Blog. https://www.bera.ac.uk/blog/chinas-education-crossroads-can-the-double-reduction-policy-resolve-inequalities-caused-by-shadow-education

Cao, Y. (2022). How science capital helps to understand the urban–rural divide in Chinese students’ science aspirations. BERA Blog. https://www.bera.ac.uk/blog/how-science-capital-helps-to-understand-the-urban-rural-divide-in-chinese-students-science-aspirations