Rate My Professor Karen Meanwell

Karen Meanwell is the Head of School of Education within the Faculty of Health and Education at Manchester Metropolitan University. She joined the institution in 2009 following 16 years of experience in secondary schools across Liverpool, Cheshire, and Lincolnshire. In these schools, she served as a teacher of Physical Education, Head of Girls’ PE, Head of PE, and Head of Year, undertaking pastoral responsibilities. Meanwell led local consortium bids for 14-19 diplomas and worked closely with Edexcel on the quality assurance of BTEC vocational programmes. Towards the end of her school career, she became involved in PGCE and GTP training programmes, taking on the role of lead practitioner for these initiatives within her school.

At Manchester Metropolitan University, Karen Meanwell teaches on the Secondary PE PGCE course and has previously contributed to the Professional Practice PGCE programme and the BA PE QTS Programme. Her research and academic enterprise interests include mentor training and the development of effective subject knowledge within a school setting. She has co-authored several publications advancing teacher education. These include 'Developing through reflection and collaborative enquiry' in Mastering Teaching: Thriving as an Early Career Teacher (McGraw Hill, 2021, with Woodfine, Ryan-Atkin, Hulme, Aitken, and Rivers); 'Initial Teacher Education: what matters most and what has worked well' in Education System Design: Foundations, Policy Options and Consequences (Routledge, 2020, with Hulme and Rauschenberger); and 'Between a rock and a hard place: leading university teacher education in England' in the Journal of Further and Higher Education (2023, with Hulme and Bryan). Under her leadership, the School of Education stands as one of the largest teacher training providers in the UK, training over 500 teachers annually, partnering with more than 1,000 regional schools and organisations, and achieving world-leading research impact (REF 2021).