Mel Green

Who I am

An introduction

I am a Black British mother of two autistic boys, a Lecturer in Education Studies at The Open University, and a scholar whose work refuses to separate lived experience from rigorous research.

My journey into academia wasn't linear. I loved learning but hated school. I spent years as a primary school teacher, working in pupil referral units and psychiatric settings with children the system had failed. I became a mother whilst navigating institutions that weren't designed for women like me. I was mistreated, neglected and dismissed. My experiences in education, medical and social care systems have led me to engage in transformative research that doesn't just extract data from the communities it is conducted within but sets out to change policy and practice.

My scholarship makes visible what institutions prefer to keep hidden: the labour, the advocacy, the resistance required of marginalised communities just to survive, let alone thrive. I study how Black British mothers engaged in care work navigate systems designed to exclude them. I research how marginalised educators construct their identities whilst teaching in precarious, online spaces. Finally, I work to transform assessment practices in higher education so they stop reproducing racial inequalities.

I use methodologies — Double Dutch, Liming and Ole Talk, autoethnography — that centre the knowledge of marginalised communities, not as raw material to be extracted, but as expertise that challenges how research itself is done. This is scholarship as freedom practice. As my grandmother's generation understood: when we have access to knowledge, when we can name our own experiences, we become free.

This site documents my work as a researcher, educator, and mother. You'll find reflections on my scholarship, updates on publications and speaking engagements, and insights from someone navigating the academy whilst raising children who teach me daily about resilience, joy, and what genuine inclusion actually requires.

I believe distance learning doesn't have to be isolating, that rigorous research can be deeply personal, and that the academy belongs to all of us, especially those it was never designed to welcome.

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