Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University

 

2021.01 to 2025.06        Assistant Professor,

                                       Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University

2013.07 to 2017.08        Administrative Staff,

                                       Higher Education Research Office, People's Public Security University of China

Other Professional Appointment

2023.01 to 2025.12     Invited Researcher at the Center for International Education Research, Beijing Normal University, which is a                                      Country and Regional Studies Base of China’s Ministry of Education (Phase 2)

2020.01 to 2022.12     Invited Researcher at the Center for International Education Research, Beijing Normal University, which is a                                      Country and Regional Studies Base of China’s Ministry of Education (Phase 1)

Teaching

1. Higher Education in China (for BNU international students)

(covering historical and contemporary topics, including how Confucian thoughts and Western thoughts interplayed to shape the Chinese higher education field in early 20^th century, and the interaction of Chinese educators and their American supervisors, such as John Dewey)

 

2. Chinese and International Classical Thoughts on Higher Education (for Chinese students)

 (covering philosophical and educational thoughts of Confucian classics, such as Daxue (the Great Learning), Xueji (the Record of Learning), and Western thoughts such as pragmatism, essentialism, perennialism, existentialism)

 

3. Student Affairs Administration (for international students)

(The bulk of the syllabus contents covering Confucian and Taoist classical thoughts on learning and human development)

Publications (*: corresponding author)

On Confucianism and Cultural Sociology

Zhuang, T., & Kong, X. (2023). Shaping Personal Worldviews when Neoliberalism Meets Confucianism and Patriotism: Insights from Chinese Postgraduate Students. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 44(4), 687-702.

Zhuang, T., & Xu, X. (2024). Is “Application” Everything about Studying for a University Degree? The Multiple Influences Shaping Undergraduates in Chinese Higher Education in Contemporary Times. Beijing International Review of Education, 6(3-4), 310-333. 

Zhou, Y., & Zhuang, T*. (2024). Ideal Personality of Confucian Thoughts and Its Contemporary Relevance for Education. Cultural Forum, 1(1), 2275-2275.

 

Zhou, Y., & Zhuang, T*. (2025). The Educational Implications of Wang Yangming’s Ecological View of ‘Benevolence as the Unity of Heaven and Earth’— Based upon ‘Inquiry on the Great Learning’. Journal of Educational Technology and Innovation. (to be published in Nov 2025).

 

Zhuang, T. An Understanding of Chinese Filial Piety (Family Reverence) from the Individual Dimension Based on Confucian Classics (Unpublished, Presented at the International Forum on the World Value of Chinese Culture, November, 2015, Beijing. The forum was attended by renowned Sinologists and Confucian scholars such as Wolfgang Kubin, Roger Ames, Torbjörn Lodén.  https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_1402091, the revised version of this presentation is to be published in Journal of Educational Technology and Innovation in 2026).

Zhuang, T., & Lin, M. (2025). Early-career Academics’ Grappling with Multi-dimensional Duties in the One-dimensional Academic World: A Temporal Sociological Lens. Cambridge Journal of Education, 1-19. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0305764X.2025.2512456?src=exp-la

 

Zhuang, T., & Liu, B. (2025). To Sit the Exam or to Be Recommended: a Bourdieusian Perspective of Capital and Habitus Needed for Becoming a Postgraduate Student in Chinese Premier Universities. Higher Education Research & Development, 1-15.

 

Zhuang, T.,  Zhou, H & Sun, Q. (2024). Ushering in Industrial Forces for Teaching-focused University-industry Collaboration in China: A Resource-dependence Perspective.  Studies in Higher Education, 49(12), 2357-2375.

 

Zhuang, T. (2023). Structure, Reflexivity and Their Interplay: Understanding University Faculty Members’ Implementation of Teaching Excellence.  British Journal of Sociology of Education, 44(1), 78-96.   

 

Zhuang, T., & Jiang, X. (2023). Constructing Symbolic Capital to Coordinate Teaching-focused University-industry Collaborations: A Documentary, Videological and Empirical Analysis.  International Journal of Educational Research, 122, 102251.

 

Zhuang, T., Cheung, A., Lau, W. F., & Su, Y. (2025). What Affects the Teaching Agency of University Instructors? A Social Realistic Perspective.  Asia Pacific Journal of Education, 45(2), 531-550.  

 

Zhuang, T., & Huang, Y*. (2021). Characterizing University Faculty’s Perceptions of Scholarly Teaching in Engineering Education: A Social Realistic Perspective.  Higher Education Research and Development, 40(3), 646-660. 

 

Kong, X., Yin, H., & Zhuang, T.* (2023). Understanding Levels of Professional Growth for Chinese Class Teachers in Schools: A Social Morphogenesis Approach.  Asia-pacific Education Researcher, 33(3), 509-518 

 

Zhuang, T.,  Liu, B., & Hu, Y*. (2022). Legitimising Shared Governance in China’s Higher Education Sector through University Statutes.  European Journal of Education, 57(1), 33-48. 

 

Zhuang, T., & Liu, B*. (2020). Power Landscapes within Chinese Universities: A Three-dimensional Discourse Analysis of University Statutes.  Cambridge Journal of Education, 50(5), 639-656. 

 

Zhuang, T.,  Zhou, H*. (2023). Developing a Synergistic Approach to Engineering Education: China’s National Policies on University–industry Educational Collaboration.  Asia Pacific Education Review, 24(1), 145-165. 

 

Koh, A., & Zhuang, T*. (2021). “New Engineering Education” in China: A National Technological Imaginary of the Chinese Dream. Asia Pacific Education Review, 22(1), 31-40.  

 

Ruan, Y., Liu, B., & Zhuang, T.* (2025). Policy Intents and the Enactment of Inclusion in Prestigious Schools in Urban China: Can Equity and Excellence Co-exist? International Journal of Inclusive Education, 29(8), 1292-1307.  

 

Zhuang, T. (2023). Engineering Teaching in China’s Higher Education: A Social Realistic Approach. London: Routledge.  [Monograph]

On Cross-boundary and Cross-field Comparative Studies

 

Zhuang, T., Oh, M., & Kimura, K. (2025). Modernizing Higher Education with Industrial Forces in Asia: A Comparative Study of Discourse of University-industry Collaboration in China, Japan and Singapore. Asia Pacific Education Review, 26(1), 195-210. 

 

Yang, Y., & Zhuang, T*. (2025). Mathematics Teachers’ Professional Growth and Student Performance: A Cross-Country Analysis Using PISA 2022 Data. Journal of Educational Technology and Innovation, 7(2), 53-66.

 

Zhuang, T. & Shi, J*. (2024). Engagement, Determinants and Challenges: A Multinational Systematic Review of Education-focused University-industry Collaborations.  Educational Review, 76(5), 1363-1391.  

 

Zhuang, T.,  Tao, Z*. (2024). What Lessons Can University Education Learn from Outside the Ivory Tower: Insights from Engineering Alumni.  Teaching in Higher Education, 29(4), 970-986.

 

Zhuang, T.,  Liu, B., & Ding, R. (2022). University Insiders’ Perceptions of Doctoral Education Development in Five East and Southeastern Asian Countries: An Institutional Logics Perspective.  European Journal of Education, 57(3), 469-483. 

 

Zhuang, T. & Hong, H.* (2023). Internationalization of University-Industry Collaborations: What Can We Learn from Singapore’s Institutes of Higher Learning? Zhejiang University Journal (Humanities and Social Sciences Edition), 53(9), 18-28.    [in Chinese]

Past Project Experiences

 

1. 2025. Main consultant for the cross-national project “University–industry integration policies and practices in China – potential applications in Hungary” funded by Wekerle International University (WIU) in cooperation with the Learning Institute of Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCCLI), Hungary.

 

2. 2024. Principal Investigator (PI) for the self-funded project “Factors Shaping the Cultivation of Personal and Collective World Values”.

 

3. 2022. Principal Investigator (PI) for the Project “Patterns for Teaching-focused University-industry Collaboration in Asian Countries” funded by Beijing Normal University.

 

4. 2021. Principal investigator (PI) of the Project “Factors Influencing Deep Engagement of Enterprises with Talent Cultivation in Universities of Applied Science” funded by the National Social Science Foundation of China.

 

5. 2021. Principal Investigator (PI) for the Project “Paths and System Optimization for University-industry Collaborative Education against the Backdrop of New Engineering Education, New Agricultural Education, New Medical Education and New Humanities Education” funded by Beijing Normal University.

 

6. 2017-2020. Participating in the Best Evidence in Brief Education Project by the Center for the University-school Partnership (CUSP) of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, in collaboration with Johns Hopkins University, York University and Nanjing Normal University.

Academic Conference Presentations

2024.04    American Educational Research Association (AERA) Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, USA.

    Topic:  Grappling with multi-dimensional tasks in the one-dimensional academic world: a temporal sociological perspective

 

2023.12  Hong Kong Education Research Association-Asia Pacific Education Research Association (HKERA-APERA）Conference, Hong Kong.

Topic：Constructing symbolic capital to coordinate teaching-focused university-industry collaborative teaching: the Chinese experiences

 

2023.10  3^rd World Conference of Arts, Humanities, Social Sciences and Education (WCAHSSE), Paris, France

Topic：Shaping personal worldviews when neoliberalism meets Confucianism and patriotism: insights from Chinese postgraduates

 

2021.12  Hong Kong Education Research Association-Asia Pacific Education Research Association (HKERA-APERA）Conference, Hong Kong (Online).

    Topic:  Chinese postgraduate students’ life outlooks:  the interplay of Confucianism, nationalism and neoliberalism.

 

2018.12  Australia Association of Research in Education (AARE) Annual Conference, Sydney, Australia

Topic：An investigation of the teaching of STEM subjects to undergraduate students in Chinese universities: A cultural sociological perspective

 

2018.5  11^th Biennial Conference of Comparative Education Society of Asia, Siem Reap, Cambodia

Topic：Assessment Matters in Enhancing STEM-major Students’ Course Satisfaction at University: Case in China

 

2015.11 International Forum on the World Value of Chinese Culture, Beijing

    Topic:  An Understanding of Chinese Filial Piety (Family Reverence) from the Individual Dimension Based on Confucian Classics