Maria Papapolydorou

Before joining the University of Greenwich, Dr Maria Papapolydorou worked at Oxford Brookes University as a senior lecturer in Education. She holds an MA in Comparative Education and a PhD in Sociology of Education from the Institute of Education, University of London. Her PhD research focused on the association between social capital and educational outcomes.

Responsibilities within university

• Senior Lecturer, Education and Childhood Studies
• Teaches on the BA Education Studies and BA Childhood Studies programmes.

Research/scholarly interests

• Educational inequalities (class, ethnicity, gender)
• Social capital theories and education
• Adolescents’ inter-group relations
• Comparative and international education
• Mixed methods research in education.

Selected conference presentations

Papapolydorou, M. 2011. Families' Influence on students' education and differences across ethnic groups. In: London School of Economics, The British Sociological Association (BSA) Annual Conference, 6–8 April 2011. London: UK.

Papapolydorou, M. 2010. Students’ social networks in ethnically diverse contexts: an exploration of young people’s Identities within the school framework. In: Boğaziçi University, The 14th World Congress of Comparative Education Societies (WCCES), 14–18 June 2010. Istanbul: Turkey.

Papapolydorou, M. 2010. They know my struggle – racialisation and the ethnic dynamics of the school: an exploration of teenagers' social networks and attitudes. In: The American Educational Research Association (AERA) Annual Meeting, 30 April – 4 May 2010. Denver: Colorado, USA.

Papapolydorou, M. 2009. Social capital theory and the Influence of school’s ethnic composition on friendship formation. In: The European Conference on Educational Research (ECER), 28–30 September. Vienna: Austria.

Papapolydorou, M. 2008. Welfare state and educational inequalities in Greece, Sweden and the UK: a comparative analysis of the origins. In: The 23rd Annual Conference of Comparative Education Society in Europe (CESE), 7–10 July. Athens: Greece.

Papapolydorou, M. 2008. Social class and educational inequalities in Greece, Sweden and the UK. In: The 52nd Annual Conference of Comparative and International Education Society (CIES), 17–21 March. New York: USA.

Selected publications

Papapolydorou, M. (2010) Educational Inequalities in Greece, Sweden and the United Kingdom: A Comparative Analysis of the Origins. In: Mattheou, D. (ed.) Changing Educational Landscapes. Educational Policies, Schooling Systems and Higher Education – A Comparative Perspective. London: Springer, pp. 119–134.

Papapolydorou, M. (2010) School’s ethnic composition and students’ friendships in London secondary schools. London Digest, 6(18).

Papapolydorou, M. (2010). Review: Critical race theory and education: a Marxist response by Mike Cole. Race and Class, 51(4), pp. 109–111.