Michael Young
Michael Young studied science at Cambridge University before becoming a school teacher. While teaching he studied sociology at Regents Street Polytechnic and went on to do an MA at the University of Essex prior to being appointed as lecturer in sociology of education at the Institute of Education, University of London in 1967 where he has been based ever since. In 1986 he was invited to establish the Post 16 Education Centre at the Institute of Education. This led to the Institute developing a leading role in teaching and research in further, vocational and adult education, and to a range of UK and European funded research projects. He became Professor of Education in 1998 and after several years as a part time Professor at the Institute of Education and at the University of Bath he is now Emeritus Professor. He has also held Visiting Professorships at the Universities of Pretoria, Witwatersrand and the Capital Normal University Beijing. In 1989 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Social Sciences by the University of Joensuu in Finland and in 2004 was appointed as a Fellow of the City and Guilds of London Institute (FCGLI).
His involvement with Routledge began when he edited Society, State and Schooling with Geoff Whitty for Falmer Press in 1977. This was followed by The Curriculum of the Future (1998) and his most recent book Bringing Knowledge Back In (2007) which won Second Prize for outstanding books on education published in 2007/8 and has recently been translated into Portuguese. He is currently co-editing Educating for the Knowledge Economy with Hugh Lauder and colleagues at the University of Bath. In 2007 he was invited to write the lead article for the AERA's annual Review of Educational Research for 2009 and contributed a chapter in Leaders in Curriculum Studies. In 2009 he was a keynote speaker at the Annual Conference the European Council for Educational Research in Vienna and at the 75th Anniversary Conference of the New Zealand Council for Educational Research in Wellington. In July 2010 he is co-organising a symposium at the World Congress of Sociology.
Michael Young is Assistant Editor of the Journal of Education and Work, and Consulting Editor for the British Journal of Sociology of Education and Critical Studies in Education. In 2004 wrote a report for the ILO on National Qualifications Frameworks (NQFs) and in 2009 he led a 16-country study on implementing NQFs, also for the ILO. Michael Young's research and writing has been largely concerned with the issue of knowledge in education and the related issues of curriculum and qualifications. Since 1990, he has developed a close links with colleagues in Brazil, Australia and South Africa and has advised a range of Government Bodies. He is currently leading an Anglo-South African project on Alternative Educational Futures funded by the British Academy.
Among his many books published by Routledge are:
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Bringing Knowledge Back In
From Social Constructivism to Social Realism in the Sociology of Education
'This book tackles some of the most important educational questions of the day... It is rare to find a book on education which is theoretically…
read more2007 | Paperback: 978-0-415-32121-1 (Routledge)
The Curriculum of the Future
From the 'New Sociology of Education' to a Critical Theory of Learning
In this important book the author looks back on the 'knowledge question'. What knowledge gets selected to be validated as school knowledge or as part… read more1998 | Paperback: 978-0-7507-0788-6 (Routledge)
When I left Cambridge with a degree in Natural Sciences, I never imagined I would become a teacher and even less that I would have a job in an Education Faculty as a sociologist. After finishing Cambridge, I got a job as a management trainee with Shell Chemical Company. Bored and with little to do, I became interested in the theatre and politics and soon realized that I knew nothing about the society of which I was a part. It was a search for some understanding that led me to sociology. I was turned down when I applied to study sociology full time at LSE, so I took the only job my science degree qualified me for, and began teaching- hoping that the holidays would give me enough time to study. Despite the demands of teaching, I became really involved in my studies and to my enormous surprise my tutor, Stephen Cotgrove, suggested that I should do a Masters degree. I got a studentship to go to Essex, where I was fortunate in having a number of inspiring tutors including Basil Bernstein. It was he who not only suggested that I apply for a job at the Institute of Education, but that I should write a dissertation on sociology and the curriculum. The following Sociological questions about knowledge have been with me ever since and at the heart of virtually everything I have written.
What is knowledge?
Is there something about knowledge beyond its recognition by those in power?
My academic career and ideas about knowledge, however, have undergone a sea change since my book The Curriculum of the Future (Routledge 1998) was published. I had started (in Knowledge and Control) with the idea that all knowledge was no more than a form of power and therefore a political question - free the world from the claims of authoritative knowledge and everyone will be able to realize their potential. It was a seductive thesis and seemed original at the time. Three things forced me to re-think these ideas. First, there was the emptiness of the relativism that such ideas lead to, second were the critiques of such a view of knowledge and power by people I respected and who were often my friends and third, the painful experience that such a theory of knowledge was useless when it came to changing the curriculum and extending access to what I now call ‘powerful knowledge'. Knowledge is fallible and can change, but it is real and must be the basis of any curriculum that seeks to extend access and opportunity. This is the message of my recent book Bringing Knowledge Back In (Routledge 2007) and the work I have been doing for the last decade and hope to do in the future.
