Charis Manousou

Dr Charis Manousou FSHE is a Lecturer at the University of the West of Scotland (UWS), London Campus, specialising in Intercultural Education with a focus on Inclusive and Social Justice Leadership. Drawing on a career spanning primary education in Greece through to higher education roles across the UK and Cyprus, she brings a richly grounded, cross-sector perspective to her work in inclusive pedagogy.

Dr Charis holds a BA in Primary Education and an MSc in Education and Technology from the University of Thessaly, Greece. Her PhD, also from the University of Thessaly, critically examined Intercultural Education, focusing on how multicultural encounters shape social relations and perceptions of the 'other' among native and immigrant primary school students. This foundational research uncovered entrenched issues of prejudice and stereotyping, driving her ongoing commitment to creating inclusive learning environments that foster a common sense of belonging, acceptance, intercultural competency and communication, and empathy.

Research-led teaching is central to her academic practice, with her expertise encompassing inclusive leadership, intercultural learning environments and education for diversity and inclusion. Her scholarship is highly collaborative; she contributed to the QAA-funded Assessment Literacy programme across five universities, developing an innovative toolkit to align academic expectations with student effort. Currently, she is a leading voice in implementing AI in teaching and learning and in assessment. As a co-investigator on the UKAIS-funded project "The Digital Maieutic: Enhancing Student Engagement through AI-Powered Learning", her published research explores how generative AI can function as a dialogic learning partner to enhance inclusive teaching practices, epistemic justice, and student engagement.

Throughout her career, Dr Charis has supported students' academic development by guiding them through the process of completing their dissertations, particularly in educational leadership research. She actively supervises postgraduate and PhD students in their scholarly work, empowering them to become strategic, self-regulated learners. She maintains a strong, principled commitment to promoting social justice and equality in educational contexts, ensuring that pedagogical innovation serves the benefit of all learners.

Generative AI and Pedagogy, Intercultural Education, Inclusive Leadership in education, Teaching and Learning Pedagogy,  Education for Diversity, Social Justice,  Equity and Belonging

• Inclusive Leadership in Education 
• Generative AI and Inclusive Pedagogy
• Intercultural Learning Environments 
• Inclusive Communication/Intercultural Competence
• Women Leadership
• Education for Diversity and Social Justice
• Assessment Literacy

Teaching the modules Inclusive Leadership Practices and Research and Pedagogy, Dr Manousou actively integrates research-led and AI-enhanced approaches to foster critical thinking and inclusive practice among postgraduate students.

"Dialogic AI and Inclusive Leadership Learning: Evaluating the Digital Maieutic Approach in Higher Education": a study examining how AI-mediated Socratic dialogue supports inclusive leadership development and deeper cognitive engagement among postgraduate students.

"The Digital Maieutic: Enhancing Student Engagement through AI-Powered Learning": an interdisciplinary project about implementing AI in HE (with Theo Tzanidis and Eleni Tzouramani from the School of BCI and ESS - Charis Manousou) funded by UKAIS.

Currently preparing a research paper for submission to Computers & Education (Scopus Q1), drawing on empirical findings from the Digital Maieutic project.

Presenting research at the BERA Conference 2026, Sep 2026.

Member of the Centre for Policy, Pedagogy and Practice (PPP)

Core member of the Centre of Migration, Diaspora, Citizenship and Identity (CMDCI)

Member of BERA 

Member of the International Association for Intercultural Education (IAIE)