Professor Matt O’Leary is a Professor of Education at Birmingham City University (BCU). In a career spanning over 25 years in education, he has worked as a teacher, teacher educator, head of department, educational researcher and director of research in colleges, schools and universities in England, Mexico and Spain. His main research interests focus on the impact of education policy on teaching and learning, professional learning and teacher development. Prior to joining BCU, Matt worked at the University of Wolverhampton for ten years as part of the Post Compulsory Education Teacher Education team, where he co-founded the Centre for Research and Development in Lifelong Education (CRADLE) together with Dr Rob Smith.

Matt is well known internationally for his work on classroom observation. His books include: Classroom observation: A guide to the effective observation of teaching and learning (2014, Routledge), Reclaiming lesson observation: supporting excellence in teacher learning (2016, Routledge) and Teaching Excellence in Higher Education: Challenges, Changes and the Teaching Excellence Framework (2017, Emerald).

Matt teaches across a wide range of educational programmes from postgraduate to doctoral level. He also supervises doctoral and Master’s level students.