Geoff Whitty
Biographic Data
| ID | 283465 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Geoff Whitty |
| GIVEN NAMES | Geoff |
| FAMILY NAME | Whitty |
| SIGNATURE | WHITTY G |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of London |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 64 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 370 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 63 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1978 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2018 |
| H-INDEX | 12 |
Equity Issues in Teaching and Teacher Education
Concerns about creating greater equity in education are often projected outside of teaching. Yet the creation by teachers of more equitable and inclusive educational experiences and opportunities can play an important part in wider struggles for social justice. We argue that equity must become a central dimension of teacher education to challenge the complex ways that insidious inequalities are reproduced in and through educational frameworks and…
‘Closing the Achievement Gap’ in English Cities and Towns in the Twenty-First Century
Knowledge and the Study of Education
In the English-speaking world, university Schools of Education are usually heavily involved in the professional preparation of teachers. Yet, in England and the USA in particular, the role of universities in teacher education has increasingly seemed under threat as alternative providers of training have come on the scene, often with the overt encouragement of governments. \n \nThis book, which is based on a project that explored how the study of …
Sociology and School Knowledge
The rise of a radical ‘new’ sociology of education during the early 1970s focused attention on the nature of school knowledge. Although this new approach was set to revolutionize the subject, within a few years, many people considered these developments an eccentric interlude, with little relevance to curriculum theory or practice. First published in 1985, this book offers a more positive view of the new sociology of education and its contributio…
Tributes to Jean Anyon
Sociology and School Knowledge
The rise of a radical 'new' sociology of education during the early 1970s focused attention on the nature of school knowledge. Although this new approach was set to revolutionize the subject, within a few years, many people considered these developments an eccentric interlude, with little relevance to curriculum theory or practice. First published in 1985, this book offers a more positive view of the new sociology of education and its contributio…
A Life with the Sociology of Education
Soon after I was appointed as Director of the Institute of Education, University of London in 2000, someone referred to me as ‘Geoff Whitty, who used to be a sociologist of education’. As the post of Director at IOE is roughly equivalent to President and Provost combined in a US higher education institution such as Teachers College Columbia, I have to admit that there were times during my ten-year tenure as Director when I was distracted from soc…
Private education and disadvantage
It is now nearly thirty years since Margaret Thatcher and her Conservative administration introduced the Assisted Places Scheme (their first education policy) and over ten years since New Labour abolished it. The Scheme, which was designed to provide a ladder of opportunity for academically able students from poor backgrounds to attend private schools, is of more than historical interest. It can be used to illuminate enduring sociological concern…
Whose voice? An exploration of the current policy interest in pupil involvement in school decision‐making
This paper discusses the sociological issues raised by a recent study on school councils in England. This study revealed a lack of clarity among policy‐makers and schools regarding the purpose of provision for pupil voice. The paper argues that this allows important questions about the functions of pupil voice to be avoided. While suggesting ways in which schools could refine their provision, the paper asks whether more effective pupil voice woul…
The Social Shaping of Logo
‘Logo’ is the name for a philosophy of education and for a continually evolving family of computer languages that aid its realization. Developed in the USA in the late 1960s, it became the material embodiment of a radical educational philosophy and a potential vehicle for the transformation of education. In the early 1980s, Logo was introduced into mainstream education in both the USA and the UK. Within an increasingly conservative social and pol…
Success sustained? A follow‐up study of the ‘Destined for success?’ cohort
This paper outlines the main substantive findings from the latest stage 1 1. Success sustained? A follow‐up study of the ‘Destined for success?’ cohort (ESRC Award No. RES‐000‐22‐0627). of a research programme which began in 1982. The most recent project was designed to provide an interim snapshot through a questionnaire survey of the progress of a group of young men and women whom we have been following since the start of their secondary educati…
Education(al) research and education policy making
The relationship between research and policy and practice in education is a long‐standing issue in many countries. Focusing on the UK Government, which is responsible for education in England, this paper looks at the criticisms of education research that have been made in recent years by government and related non‐departmental public bodies and stakeholders. It then looks in more detail at specific examples of the use that has—and has not—been ma…
The deployment of social capital theory in educational policy and provision
Heavily influenced by Putnam's particular variant of social capital theory, the New Labour government in the UK has introduced several initiatives designed to raise educational achievement by building the social capital of families identified as socially excluded. One such initiative was the Education Action Zones (EAZ) policy. Whilst this policy has recently been eclipsed by other initiatives designed to enhance education in areas of disadvantag…
Paving a ‘third way’? A policy trajectory analysis of education action zones
Presented at its launch in 1998 as the quintessential 'third way' welfare policy, the English education action zones (EAZ) experiment was one of a number of area-based initiatives in the UK designed to tackle social exclusion in disadvantaged localities. The policy was premised upon the idea that different bodies—public, private, voluntary, and community—should work together to deliver 'joined-up solutions' to 'joined-up problems'. This paper rep…
Area-based approaches to educational regeneration
The Education Action Zone (EAZ) experiment is one of a number of area-based regeneration initiatives (ABRIs) that have been introduced by central government in recent years in England in an attempt both to tackle social exclusion and lever up educational achievement in some of its disadvantaged localities. The policy, regarded by some of its advocates as the epitome of New Labour's ‘Third Way’, is premised upon the idea that different bodies (pub…
Educational financing and improvement
This paper explores the ways in which education funding questions relate to key policy issues facing contemporary governments. It demonstrates how decisions about the level and distribution of expenditure have different implications for national education systems, institutions and students. Following a general discussion of social investment in education, the paper identifies some specific policy considerations in recent attempts to improve the c…
Superterrorism
Superterrorism: Policy Responses. Lawrence Freedman (ed.) (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2002) £14.99, 178pp." Survival, 45(3), p. 242
Mercados educacionais e a comunidade
Os defensores de abordagens baseadas no mercado para a educação invocam, às vezes, a necessidade de "empoderamento" (empowerment) das comunidades nas tomadas de decisão educacionais para justificar a reforma dos sistemas educacionais públicos convencionais. Com base em exemplos da Austrália, da Inglaterra e do País de Gales, da Nova Zelândia e dos eua, este artigo explora as maneiras complexas e contraditórias como as políticas educacionais conte…
Bernstein and the Middle Class
This paper explores Basil Bernstein's insights into education and social class, and in particular the relevance of his work for understanding the British middle class. Bernstein is one of the few sociologists of education to recognise and explore differences and tensions within the middle class. We begin by exploring some of the influences of Bernstein's theorisation of social class in general, and outline his main ideas on the relationship betwe…
Education, social class and social exclusion
This paper begins by noting the centrality of the issue of working-class school failure within the sociology of education in Britain. It argues that recent government policies have taken insufficient account of sociological work on the impact of social class on educational success and failure. It also suggests that sociologists should pay more attention to middle-class education. The importance of this is illustrated through reference to research…
Logo in Mainstream Schools
Technologies do not follow some predetermined and inevitable course from their context of production to their context of use, and technologies used in schools are no exception. Rather, technologies and their use in the classroom are socially contextualised. They are often appropriated in ways unanticipated by their developers, locking into institutional arrangements and reflecting elements of the prevailing social relations in and around the part…
Marketization and privatization in mass education systems
New Labour's education policy
On coming to power in 1997, the New Labour government promised to move beyond the ‘ruthless free-for-all’ of the neo-liberals. However, rather than revisiting the ‘stifling statism’ of ‘Old Labour’, the government has claimed to be developing a so-called ‘third way’ in which policies are put forward on the basis of ‘what works’ rather than being driven by any one ideological approach. Through drawing on Giddens' outline of ‘first’, ‘second’ and ‘…
Destined for success? Educational biographies of academically able pupils
The research reported here has explored the different pathways and prospects of a group of young people considered to have been ‘destined for success’. The 347 men and women involved in this research were all identified as ‘academically able’ when, in the mid‐1980s, they joined 18 different secondary schools that ranged from inner‐city comprehensives to some of the most prestigious independent schools in the country. Their retrospective accounts …
Schoolboys and schoolwork
This paper discusses the educational biographies of a group of young men who, at secondary school, had been part of a larger sample of pupils identified as ‘academically able’. Through examining their personal accounts of schooling, we argue that processes of gender identification have significant implications for the ways in which academic ability is perceived, developed and displayed. In particular, the development of masculine identities may f…
Marketization and privatization in mass education systems
Education(al) research and education policy making
The relationship between research and policy and practice in education is a long‐standing issue in many countries. Focusing on the UK Government, which is responsible for education in England, this paper looks at the criticisms of education research that have been made in recent years by government and related non‐departmental public bodies and stakeholders. It then looks in more detail at specific examples of the use that has—and has not—been ma…
Education, social class and social exclusion
This paper begins by noting the centrality of the issue of working-class school failure within the sociology of education in Britain. It argues that recent government policies have taken insufficient account of sociological work on the impact of social class on educational success and failure. It also suggests that sociologists should pay more attention to middle-class education. The importance of this is illustrated through reference to research…
School Choice Policies in England and the United States
This paper notes some similarities between school choice policies in England and the US and considers how far any convergences can be explained, on the one hand, by broader social changes and, on the other, by evidence of policy exchange. In the first case, it discusses the usefulness of concepts such as post-Fordism and post-modernity and indicates their limitations. In the second case, it identifies relevant neoliberal policy networks within an…
The New Right and the national curriculum
This paper takes as its starting point an apparent tension within the Education Reform Act between its imposition of a national curriculum and its stress elsewhere on parental choice and market forces in determining the shape of the school system. The paper then explores differences within the New Right over the issue of the school curriculum, but also points to ways in which neo‐liberal and neo‐conservative positions may ultimately be reconcilab…
Giving the 'Hidden Hand' a Helping Hand? The rhetoric and reality of neoliberal education reform in England and New Zealand
Recent moves in many parts of the world to restructure and deregulate state education have sought to link significant degrees of institutional autonomy with an emphasis on parental choice and competition, thereby creating 'quasi-markets' in education. This paper discusses such developments as part of a neoliberal project for education in two of the contexts in which these policies have so far been taken furthest-England/Wales and New Zealand. It …
Rebels without a Cause? Socialization and Subcultural Style Among the Children of the New Middle Classes
This article presents the results of an ethnographic investigation into the subcultural practices of a group of new-middle-class students undertaking academic study in an English college of further education. It seeks to contribute to debates stimulated by neo-Marxist writing in the sociology of education concerning the radical significance, or otherwise, of student resistance to schooling. Sets of responses to aspects of the schooling process ar…
New Labour's education policy
On coming to power in 1997, the New Labour government promised to move beyond the ‘ruthless free-for-all’ of the neo-liberals. However, rather than revisiting the ‘stifling statism’ of ‘Old Labour’, the government has claimed to be developing a so-called ‘third way’ in which policies are put forward on the basis of ‘what works’ rather than being driven by any one ideological approach. Through drawing on Giddens' outline of ‘first’, ‘second’ and ‘…
Bernstein and the Middle Class
This paper explores Basil Bernstein's insights into education and social class, and in particular the relevance of his work for understanding the British middle class. Bernstein is one of the few sociologists of education to recognise and explore differences and tensions within the middle class. We begin by exploring some of the influences of Bernstein's theorisation of social class in general, and outline his main ideas on the relationship betwe…
The deployment of social capital theory in educational policy and provision
Heavily influenced by Putnam's particular variant of social capital theory, the New Labour government in the UK has introduced several initiatives designed to raise educational achievement by building the social capital of families identified as socially excluded. One such initiative was the Education Action Zones (EAZ) policy. Whilst this policy has recently been eclipsed by other initiatives designed to enhance education in areas of disadvantag…
Schoolboys and schoolwork
This paper discusses the educational biographies of a group of young men who, at secondary school, had been part of a larger sample of pupils identified as ‘academically able’. Through examining their personal accounts of schooling, we argue that processes of gender identification have significant implications for the ways in which academic ability is perceived, developed and displayed. In particular, the development of masculine identities may f…
Discourse in Cross‐curricular Contexts
Although the 1988 Education Reform Act legislated for a National Curriculum for England and Wales defined in subject terms, the National Curriculum Council suggested that schools should also concern themselves with five cross‐curricular themes related to the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of adult life. This paper reports on a study of the implementation of these cross‐curricular themes in secondary schools. It draws upon a posta…
Whose voice? An exploration of the current policy interest in pupil involvement in school decision‐making
This paper discusses the sociological issues raised by a recent study on school councils in England. This study revealed a lack of clarity among policy‐makers and schools regarding the purpose of provision for pupil voice. The paper argues that this allows important questions about the functions of pupil voice to be avoided. While suggesting ways in which schools could refine their provision, the paper asks whether more effective pupil voice woul…
Explorations in the Politics of School Knowledge
From Reproduction to Transformation
The standard judgement on the various 'new directions' in the sociology of education of the 1970s seems to be that they signalled many new departures but precious few arrivals. Nowhere has this judgement been more true than in the substantive area where they were widely expected to bear most fruit, the sociology of the curriculum. Neither the phenomenological 'new sociology of education' of the early 1970s, nor the various strands of neo-Marxist …
Schools, Families and Academically Able Students
Over the past few years, we have been gathering data on the educational careers of a previously researched group of students who were identified as ‘academically able’ in their early teenage years. The 347 young men and women who have taken part in this later research attended 18 different secondary schools and are now in their mid‐twenties. This paper attempts to make sense of their school experiences using Basil Bernstein's theorisations on the…
Beneficiaries, benefits and costs
Introduced in 1981, the Assisted Places Scheme provides central government money to enable selected independent schools to waive or reduce fees for financially eligible and academically able students. This paper is a preliminary report on a four‐year ESRC‐funded project which studied the origins, implementation and initial effects of the Scheme in relation to the claims made by its advocates and critics. The paper outlines how the Scheme was init…
Lessons of Thatcherism
Twelve years after it was announced by James Callaghan, the Great Education Debate is happening. Indeed, it may already have happened. Or seen from another perspective, it may not have been a debate at all. The educational manifestation of the crisis in social democracy was marked most clearly by Labour Prime Minister James Callaghan's speech at Ruskin College, Oxford, in October 1976. His expression of concern about progressive tendencies in edu…
Paving a ‘third way’? A policy trajectory analysis of education action zones
Presented at its launch in 1998 as the quintessential 'third way' welfare policy, the English education action zones (EAZ) experiment was one of a number of area-based initiatives in the UK designed to tackle social exclusion in disadvantaged localities. The policy was premised upon the idea that different bodies—public, private, voluntary, and community—should work together to deliver 'joined-up solutions' to 'joined-up problems'. This paper rep…
Social Theory and Education Policy
This paper looks back at the career of the sociologist Karl Mannheim, who died 50 years ago. It considers how far Mannheim's work remains relevant and discusses what lessons it may still have to offer. Quoting Sir Fred Clarke as saying that educational theory and education policy that took no account of changes in the wider social order would be not only blind but positively harmful, the paper suggests that a similar case applies today. It theref…
Private Schools and Public Funding
Managing the state and the market
Within the field of education management studies, recent reforms promoting devolution and choice are often seen to provide exciting new opportunities. It is claimed that the ‘new’education management, with its emphasis on site-based decision-making and consumer accountability, will enable headteachers and principals to ‘take control’ of their schools and make them more productive environments in which to work and study. However, our review of res…
The assisted places scheme
The Conservative government that was in power in Britain from 1979 to 1997 introduced a range of policies designed to restructure education provision. The Assisted Places Scheme was one of its first major reforms, enabling academically able children with limited financial means to attend private schools. Although subsequent provisions have focused more on the marketization of the public sector, the scheme was identified by the Conservative Govern…
Researching a policy in progress
In October 1986, the British government announced a plan to establish 20 City Technology Colleges (CTCs). These were to offer a 'new choice of school' providing a broadly based secondary education 'with a strong technological element' for 11‐18 year olds in urban areas. They were to be independent of LEAs and receive their recurrent funding from central government, while 'all or a substantial part' of their capital costs would be met by private s…
Private education and disadvantage
It is now nearly thirty years since Margaret Thatcher and her Conservative administration introduced the Assisted Places Scheme (their first education policy) and over ten years since New Labour abolished it. The Scheme, which was designed to provide a ladder of opportunity for academically able students from poor backgrounds to attend private schools, is of more than historical interest. It can be used to illuminate enduring sociological concern…
Explorations in the Politics of School Knowledge
A Context for Critical Education
From Reproduction to Transformation
The standard judgement on the various 'new directions' in the sociology of education of the 1970s seems to be that they signalled many new departures but precious few arrivals. Nowhere has this judgement been more true than in the substantive area where they were widely expected to bear most fruit, the sociology of the curriculum. Neither the phenomenological 'new sociology of education' of the early 1970s, nor the various strands of neo-Marxist …
Ideology and Curriculum
Preface to the 25th Anniversary Third Edition Preface to the Second Edition 1. On Analyzing Hegemony 2. Ideology and Cultural and Economic Reproduction 3. Economics and Control in Everyday School Life (with Nancy King) 4. Curricular History and Social Control (with Barry Franklin) 5. The Hidden Curriculum and the Nature of Conflict 6. Systems Management and the Ideology of Control 7. Commonsense Categories and the Politics of Labeling 8. Beyond I…
School Texts, the Hidden Curriculum and the Curriculum-in-Use
(1982). SCHOOL TEXTS, THE HIDDEN CURRICULUM AND THE CURRICULUM‐IN‐USE: A British view of recent American contributions to the sociology of the curriculum. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education: Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 1-21
Somatostatin for Gastrointestinal Haemorrhage
Sociology and school knowledge curriculum theory, research and politics
Private Schools and Public Funding
Education and the City
Rebels without a Cause? Socialization and Subcultural Style Among the Children of the New Middle Classes
This article presents the results of an ethnographic investigation into the subcultural practices of a group of new-middle-class students undertaking academic study in an English college of further education. It seeks to contribute to debates stimulated by neo-Marxist writing in the sociology of education concerning the radical significance, or otherwise, of student resistance to schooling. Sets of responses to aspects of the schooling process ar…
Beneficiaries, benefits and costs
Introduced in 1981, the Assisted Places Scheme provides central government money to enable selected independent schools to waive or reduce fees for financially eligible and academically able students. This paper is a preliminary report on a four‐year ESRC‐funded project which studied the origins, implementation and initial effects of the Scheme in relation to the claims made by its advocates and critics. The paper outlines how the Scheme was init…
Curriculum Research and Curricular Politics
This paper is intended to place the other papers in this issue of the journal in a broader theoretical and political context. It considers some of the ways in which sociologists of education have approached the analysis of the curriculum and discusses the extent to which their work can be seen as a contribution to political struggles in and around the curriculum. It pays particular attention to the ways in which recent American and Australian wor…
Sociology and School Knowledge
Lessons of Thatcherism
Twelve years after it was announced by James Callaghan, the Great Education Debate is happening. Indeed, it may already have happened. Or seen from another perspective, it may not have been a debate at all. The educational manifestation of the crisis in social democracy was marked most clearly by Labour Prime Minister James Callaghan's speech at Ruskin College, Oxford, in October 1976. His expression of concern about progressive tendencies in edu…
The New Right and the national curriculum
This paper takes as its starting point an apparent tension within the Education Reform Act between its imposition of a national curriculum and its stress elsewhere on parental choice and market forces in determining the shape of the school system. The paper then explores differences within the New Right over the issue of the school curriculum, but also points to ways in which neo‐liberal and neo‐conservative positions may ultimately be reconcilab…
The assisted plages scheme
The Assisted Places Scheme
John Fitz, Tony Edwards, Geoff Whitty, The Assisted Places Scheme: An Ambiguous Case of Privatization, British Journal of Educational Studies, Vol. 37, No. 3, The Privatisation of Education (Aug., 1989), pp. 222-234
Creeping privatization and its implications for schooling in the inner city
City Technology Colleges
City technology Colleges
(1992). City technology Colleges: Schooling for the Thatcher generation? British Journal of Educational Studies: Vol. 40, No. 3, pp. 207-217
Parental Choice and Educational Reform in Britain and the United States
Quality Control in Teacher Education
Parental choice and educational reform in Britain and the United States
Quality control in teacher education
(1992). Quality control in teacher education. British Journal of Educational Studies: Vol. 40, No. 1, pp. 38-50
Researching a policy in progress
In October 1986, the British government announced a plan to establish 20 City Technology Colleges (CTCs). These were to offer a 'new choice of school' providing a broadly based secondary education 'with a strong technological element' for 11‐18 year olds in urban areas. They were to be independent of LEAs and receive their recurrent funding from central government, while 'all or a substantial part' of their capital costs would be met by private s…
Political science (54 works) · Sociology (54 works) · Law (32 works) · Law (24 works) · Pedagogy (24 works) · Economics (23 works) · Global Educational Policies and Reforms (22 works) · Politics (22 works) · Social science (22 works) · Public Administration (18 works)