Zhenzhou Zhao is an Associate Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction and a research fellow at the Centre for Higher Education Leadership and Policy at the Education University of Hong Kong. She earned a bachelor’s degree in education from Beijing Normal University and a Ph.D. from the University of Hong Kong. Prior to her current role, she taught at the School of Education at Beijing Normal University (2007-2008).

Dr. Zhao has published and presented widely on education for citizenship and diversity in China’s social transformation. As the principal investigator, Dr. Zhao has won three research grants from the General Research Fund of the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, as well as one research grant from the Public Policy Research Funding Scheme of Chief Executive's Policy Unit in Hong Kong. 

In collaboration with a team of researchers including Professor Bruce John Macfarlane and Professor Kerry John Kennedy from the Education University of Hong Kong, Professor Guo Zhonghua from Nanjing University, and Professor Jin Xie from Tsinghua University, Dr. Zhao's recent project achieved a full score of 5.0 during the rigorous peer review process conducted by the RGC subject panels for the 2024/25 exercise.

In 2022, Dr. Zhao co-led an international research team that triumphed in the special issue competition of the journal Citizenship Studies.

Dr. Zhao has been elected to the Committee of the Asia-Pacific Network for Moral Education for three terms: the current 2022-present term, 2014-2017, and 2008-2011.

• Citizenship and diversity in the curriculum
• Gender studies
• Sociology of education

Curriculum studies;

Moral and citizenship education;

Education and social development

Editorial Board Member, Gender and Education (2018-2024)

Editorial Board Member, Chinese Education and Society (2021-present)

International Advisory Board Member: British Journal of Religious Education (2021-present)

Editor, Cogent Education (2020-present)

Guest Editor, Citizenship Studies, the special issue of 'Reconsidering Chinese Citizenship: Cultural Roots and Cultural Reach' (With Z. Guo and C. Wang, 2023)

Guest Editor, Social Transformations in Chinese Societies, the special issue of 'Beyond the state reach: Education and citizen-making in China' (with C. Wang, 2023).

Guest Editor, Chinese Education and Society, the special issue of 'A Cultural Perspective on China’s Citizenship' (with Chia Yeow-Tong, 2020), 53(1-2).

Guest Editor, Chinese Education and Society, the special issue of 'China’s Ethnic Dilemma: Ethnic Minority Education' (2010), 43(1).

Reviewer, The American Educational Research Association (2023)

Council Member, Hong Kong Sociological Association (2020-2022)

Committee Member, the Asia-Pacific Network for Moral Education (APNME) (2008-2011, 2014-2017, 2022-present)

Associate Member, China Studies Centre, The University of Sydney (2019-present)

Member, Chinese Association of Hong Kong & Macao Studies (2022-present)

Honorary Research Associate, the Wah Ching Centre of Research on Education in China, University of Hong Kong (2011-2013)