Yisu Zhou is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Education and, by courtesy, the Department of Sociology at the University of Macau. He earned his PhD from Michigan State University’s College of Education. Zhou’s doctoral dissertation focused on the teaching profession (specifically, out-of-field teachers) and utilized a large-scale survey from the OECD. Before attending MSU, Zhou received his bachelor’s degree in statistics from East China Normal University and worked as an English teacher in rural Shaanxi province in China from 2005-2006, where his passion for understanding the educational process blossomed.

Zhou employs a sociological perspective when examining various policy issues, including school finance, teacher professionalization, and higher education reform. His work has been published in Discourse, Sociological Methods & Research, Chinese Sociological Review, International Journal of Educational Development, and other notable journals. Zhou has also been featured on various Chinese media outlets, such as the Paper (Pengpai Xinwen), Beijing News (Xin Jing Bao), and China Newsweek (Zhonggo Xinwen Zhoukan).

In the University of Macau community, Zhou is deeply committed to teaching and service. He created FED’s first General Education course aimed at raising global awareness, for undergraduate students across all majors and departments. With an innovative approach to nurturing students from diverse backgrounds, this course is widely accepted by the students running at full capacity every year.

Zhou is an institutionalist. Notably, he has served, by election, as FED representative to the university senate from 2014-20, during which he was elected as the senate officer from 2018-19. Zhou’s longstanding love for reading and books led him to the university library committee, which he served as a member during 2013-20. Professionally, he actively engaged in the scholarly community and received an outstanding reviewer award from Educational Researcher in 2015.

Zhou’s service work reflected his thinking of higher education as an ecology of knowledge experts. He penned the FED’s five-year strategic plan (2020-25), advised on the University Library’s strategic plan (2020-25) and architected FED’s Doctoral of Education program. He is the recipient of the faculty service award of 2017-18 and 2021-22.