ABOUT THIS BOOKFor 50 years, educator and sociologist Geoff Whitty resolutely pursued social justice through education, first as a classroom teacher and ultimately as the Director of the Institute of Education in London. The essays in this volume - written by some of the most influential authors in the sociology of education and critical policy studies - take Whitty’s work as the starting point from which to examine key contemporary issues in education and the challenges to social justice that they present. Set within three themes of knowledge, policy, and practice in education, the chapters tackle the issues of defining and accessing ‘legitimate’ knowledge, the changing nature of education policy under neoliberalism and globalization, and the reshaping of teacher workplaces and professionalism – as well as attempts to realize more emancipatory practice. The essays open windows on life in the sociology of education, the scholarly community of which it was part, and the facets of education policy, practice, and research that they continue to reveal and challenge in pursuit of social justice.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHYAndrew Brown is Emeritus Professor of Education and Society at UCL Institute of Education (IOE) and Senior International Research Advisor at the Centre of Excellence for Equity in Higher Education, University of Newcastle, Australia. He is a sociologist of education with interests in the process of research capacity and capability building, and the relationship between everyday professional and academic discourse and practice. He was founding Director (Research) at the Institute for Adult Learning, Singapore. He served as Interim Director of the IOE and UCL Pro-Vice-Provost (London). Before joining the IOE as a teacher educator in 1987, he taught in primary and secondary schools in London. Emma Wisby is Head of Policy and Public Affairs at the UCL Institute of Education. Prior to that she was Committee Specialist to the House of Commons education select committee and a researcher in the field of education policy, during which time she undertook a review of school councils and pupil voice for the UK government. Following a PhD at the University of Sheffield, which examined the post-Dearing shift to standards-based quality assurance in the UK higher education sector, she spent her early career conducting consultancy research for government departments and their agencies across schools, further education and teacher education policy.