Xia Xuemei earned her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from East China Normal University in 2008. She was also a visiting scholar at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is currently the Deputy Director of the Institute of General Education at the Shanghai Academy of Educational Sciences and serves as head of the Shanghai Research Institute of Competency and Curriculum. Her research focuses on PBL, interdisciplinary learning, STEM, student competency development, and so on.

Xia has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals in China and led her team to win the 2022 First Prize for National Teaching Achievements in Basic Education. She also serves as a member of the Teaching and Instructional Committee of the Department of Basic Education under the Ministry of Education of China. She is also the project leader for the Implementation of Project-based Learning in Compulsory Education in Shanghai.