Adrian McLean

Adrian McLean is a Teaching Fellow at the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues at the University of Birmingham. He has worked in education for over twenty years, including more than a decade in senior leadership across the Midlands, working across mainstream, alternative provision and multi-academy trust settings.

Adrian was appointed an Ambassador for Character by the Jubilee Centre in 2022 and has spent much of his leadership career putting character education into practice across schools and trusts. His leadership has involved developing whole-school approaches to character and personal development, supporting school leaders to embed character into culture, curriculum and professional practice, and designing character education programmes for young people. He has also contributed to professional development and wider conversations about the role of character and practical wisdom in educational leadership.

Adrian’s research interests are character education, practical wisdom, educational leadership and the role of judgement in an increasingly AI-enabled world. He is currently studying for a PhD exploring character development and artificial intelligence, with a particular focus on how practical wisdom can support good judgement in decisions about when, why and how AI should be used. His work considers how education can prepare young people to exercise human judgement in a world where AI can increasingly provide answers, recommendations and decisions.

He is the author of The 10 Character Commandments of Leadership, which explores the relationship between character, leadership and judgement under pressure.