Short Biography & Significant Contribution

Andy Green is Professor of Comparative Social Science at the Institute of Education, University of London and Director of the ERSC Research Centre on Learning and Life Chances in Knowledge Economies and Societies (LLAKES). After graduating in English literature at Oxford University, he worked for ten years teaching sociology, literacy and numeracy in colleges of further education in London and the USA whilst studying for his PGCE at the Institute of Education and for his masters in cultural studies at the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) in Birmingham University. His PhD, also taken at the CCCS, was in comparative historical sociology and dealt with the rise of mass education in Europe and America. This was subsequently published as the widely acclaimed book, Education and State Formation, which received a Standing Conference on Education book prize in 1990. Subsequently he taught education history and policy at Thames Polytechnic in London before moving to the Institute of Education in 1990.

Andy Green's main field of research is the comparative (historical and sociological) study of education and training systems, their origins and social and economic consequences. He has directed and co-directed a number of major comparative research projects addressing both economic and social impacts of education and training. 'Education and Training for a High Skills Economy' (1997-2000) funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council, and co-directed with Phil Brown Hugh Lauder, investigated skills formation and impacts on economic competitiveness in Germany, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and the UK. The study on 'Education, Globalisation and Development' (2004-6), co-directed with Angela Little, investigated the role of education and other contextual factors in promoting growth with equity in China, India, Kenya, Sri Lanka and the East Asian Tiger economies. Andy Green was also formerly (1999-2004) co-director of the Department for Education and Skills-funded Centre for Research on the Wider Benefits of Learning where he instigated the research on education and social cohesion with John Preston which was later developed for publication as Education, Equality and Social Cohesion: A Comparative Analysis (Palgrave, 2006) and which forms the one of the bases for the future work of the LLAKES Centre.

He has conducted research and consultancy for a variety of national and international bodies. In the UK he has worked for various government departments, acting as consultant advisor on further education and skills. He was consultant to Department for Education and Skills (DFES) National Skills Task Force (1999-2000) and Skills Task Force Research Group(2002); and later acted as an advisor for the Ministerial Skills Strategy Steering Group (2003) and with Hilary Steedman on the DFES Skills Audit Updating. His international work has involved research projects on funding and participation in lifelong learning for the OECD, UNESCO and CEDEFOP as well as the research for the European Commission DG22 which led to the widely used study on Convergences and Divergences in European Education and Training Systems. He has also recently been advising the OECD on the development of a new strand of work on education and social cohesion and has advised the Education Minister in Malta on the development of a national vocational qualification system.

Andy Green has published widely on a range of education issues, with major works translated into Chinese, German, Japanese and Spanish. Throughout his research career he has consistently championed the application of systematic forms of comparative social and historical analysis in the study of the causes and effects of variations in national education and training systems across countries. This has most often involved techniques of logical qualitative comparison, using macro-causal analysis, but more recently has involved both qualitative and quantitative methods. Andy Green's work is probably best known for his development of the theory of education and state formation to explain the uneven development of national education systems and for his more recent work on education and globalisation which highlights the variant national educational responses to globalization and the different ways in which countries seek to compete in the global market. He is currently engaged in the development of a 'distributional theory' of the impact of education on social cohesion.

Link
Andy Green's Website 

Educational Background

BA Hons in English Language and Literature, University of Oxford (1975)

MA in Cultural Studies, Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies, University of Birmingham (1979)

PGCE in University of London Institute of Education (1981)

PhD in Comparative Education History, University of Birmingham (1988)

Professional Background

Ancillary Worker, Inner London Probation and After-Care Service. (1975-1977)

Teacher on Summer School at Bishops' College, Carriacou, W.I. (1981)

Teacher and Organizer of Summer School at Bishops' College, Carriacou, WI. (1983)

Part-time Lecturer in Adult and Further Education (with MA study). (1977-1980)

Lecturer in Communications and Sociology, South East London College. (1981-1988)

Senior Lecturer in Education History and Policy, Thames Polytechnic. (1988-1990)

1990- Institute of Education 
- Lecturer in Education (1990) 
- Senior Lecturer (1993) 
- Reader (1996) 
- Professor (1998-2001) 
- Professor of Comparative Education (2001-6) 
- Professor of Comparative Social Science (2006-)

Affiliations (associations, organizations, institutions)

Visiting Professor at Danish University of Education, Copenhagen (2002).

Invited for membership of Royal Society of Arts (2001).

Member of Comparative Education Society of Europe (2000-)

Member of History of Education Society (1991-).

Member of Editorial Board of: 
Compare (2003-); Globalization, Societies and Education (2003); Journal for Critical Education Policies (2003-); London Review of Education 1998-2005); Journal of Education and Work (1995-); History of Education Review (1994-); History of Education Journal (1993-) (Reviews Editor, 1993-99); Forum (1991-).

Selected Publications

Green, A. Little, A., Kamat, S., Oketch, M. and Vickers, E. (2007) Education and Development in a Global Era: Strategies for 'Successful' Globalisation, DFID.

Green, A., Preston, J. and Janmaat, G. (2006) Education, Equality and Social Cohesion, Palgrave.

Green, A. (2006) 'Models of Lifelong Learning and the 'Knowledge Society', Compare, 36 (3), 307-327.

Green, A. (2003) 'Education, Globalisation and the Role of Comparative Education,' London Review of Education, 1 (2), 87-98.

Green, A., Preston, J. and Sabates, R. (2003) 'Education, Equality and Social Cohesion: A Distributional Approach,'Compare, 33 (4), 453-470.

Brown, P, Green, A. and Lauder, H. (2001) High Skills: Globalization, Competitiveness and Skills Formation, Oxford University Press.

Green, A. (2000) 'Converging Paths or Ships Passing in the Night? An English Critique Japanese School Reform,' Journal of Comparative Education, 36 (4).

Green, A., Wolf, A. and Leney, T. (1999) Convergence and Divergence in European Education and Training Systems, Institute of Education .

Green, A., Hodgson, A. and Williams, G. (2000) Where are the Resources for Lifelong Learning? OECD .

Green, A. (1997) Education, Globalization and the Nation State, Macmillan.

Green, A. (1995) 'Technical Education and State Formation in Nineteenth-Century England and France,' History of Education Journal, 24 (2), 123-139.

Bash, L. and Green, A. (eds) (1995) Youth, Education and Work: World Yearbook on Education, 1995, Kogan Page.

Green, A. (1994) 'Education and State Formation Revisited,' Historical Studies in Education/Revue D'Histoire De L'Education,, Special Issue, pp. 1-19.

Green, A., (1990) Education and State Formation. The Rise of Education Systems in England, France and the USA, Macmillan.

Education Group 11 (1991) Education Limited: Schooling and Training and the New Right Since 1979, University of Birmingham Department of Cultural Studies, Unwin Hyman.

Created: 3/16/2008

Updated: 3/17/2008

Contributed By: Paul Morris, Institute of Education, University of London