Bridging research, policy and practice in education – remembering the legacy of Geoff Whitty
This event marked the contribution of the late Professor Geoff Whitty to IOE and the field of education.

Watch the event
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.
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Covid-19 measures
To minimise Covid-related risks for in-person attendees at our events we will facilitate social distancing where possible. In-person attendees will be required to pre-register via the booking form to gain entry to the event. We strongly encourage attendees to wear a mask while in our buildings. We ask that those registered for our events do not attend in-person if they are showing respiratory symptoms. Thank you for your co-operation.
His research covers many aspects of bilingualism and multilingualism, including language acquisition in childhood, education policy and practice regarding bilingual and multilingual learners of minoritized and transnational backgrounds, and the cognitive benefits of language learning. He is editor of the International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism and the Applied Linguistics Review. He has won the British Association of Applied Linguistics Book Prize twice, for the Blackwell Guide to Research Methods in Bilingualism and Multilingualism (with Melissa Moyer) and Translanguaging: Language, Bilingualism and Education (with Ofelia Garcia). He is a fellow of the British Academy, Academy of Social Sciences, UK, and Academia Europaea.
He is also an Honorary Professor in the Centre of Excellence for Equity in Higher Education at the University of Newcastle. Between joining IOE in 1987 as a temporary contract primary teacher educator and leaving in 2018, he held a number of positions, including Interim Director (2016), Pro-Director for Academic Development (2014-6), Dean of the Faculty of Policy and Society (2013-4) and Dean of the Doctoral School (2005-10). As founding Director (Research) at the Institute for Adult Learning in Singapore (2010-2) he created three research centres focusing on adult vocational education. He is an artist, based at SPACE studios in Ilford, working with digital, analogue and alternative photographic processes. He is currently studying for a Doctorate in Fine Art at the University of East London, and serves as a Member of Council at the National Institute of Education (Singapore), Vice-Chair of Governors at Barking and Dagenham College and Chair of the Board of UCL Consultants.
She is interested in the shifting relationships between policymakers, practitioners and stakeholders that are reshaping the literacy curriculum, and the use of research evidence to support policy and practice.
He is also the Deputy Director of the UCL, Bloomsbury and East London (UBEL) ESRC Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP) that brings together five leading Social Science institutions - UCL, SOAS, LSHTM, Birkbeck and UEL – to fund, support and develop PhD and early-career researchers in the social sciences.