This event is to mark the contribution of the late Professor Geoff Whitty to IOE and the field of education.

Geoff enjoyed a 50-year association with IOE, from being a student teacher in the 1960s to returning as a member of academic staff and later taking the helm as IOE Director, 2000-10.

Throughout his career, he embodied a distinctive approach in his research and scholarship, one that we might define as ‘critical utility’ – seeking to bridge the worlds of education research, policy and practice but without losing a critical lens. It was an approach also woven through his leadership of IOE and the many other institutions where he spent time over his career.

This event will address the enduring and still very live question of the relationship between education research, particularly the sociology of education, and policy, practitioner and public audiences; why Geoff’s work offers a noteworthy exemplar; and the lessons the field can continue to draw from it, in the pursuit of social justice in and through education.

The event also provides the belated opportunity, ‘post-Covid’, to mark the publication of 'Knowledge, Policy and Practice in Education and the Struggle for Social Justice: Essays Inspired by the Work of Geoff Whitty' as well as the naming of the Whitty Wing at IOE in Geoff’s honour, and to launch the Geoff Whitty Doctoral Thesis Prize for the IOE doctoral community.

Online viewers will be able to watch the event (17:30 – 18:45). For in-person audiences, a drinks reception will follow the event until 19:45.

This event will be particularly useful for those interested in the work of Geoff Whitty.