Position/Status

Head of Faculty and subsequently Director of the Centre for Commonwealth Education and Director of Central Asia Projects until 31 December 2015

Contact

Faculty Reception +44 (0)1223 767600

Profile

Mike Younger held various posts within the Faculty of Education: until 2004, he had responsibility for Initial Teacher Education and Training courses, before becoming Director of Teaching / Deputy Head of Faculty in 2004, and subsequently Head of Faculty 2006-11. He was Director of the Centre for Commonwealth Education within the Faculty, 2006 - 2014, and until December 2015 was responsible for development projects in Central Asia.

His main research and teaching interests were located in the field of gender. From 2000-2004, he directed - in collaboration with Molly Warrington - a ten-term DfES sponsored project on Raising Boys' Achievement. This project, involving a research team of nine co-researchers, explored intervention strategies which appeared to have the potential to raise boys' (and girls') achievements within inclusive contexts. The project involved collaborative working with primary, secondary and special schools in different socio-economic contexts across England, and subsequently generated wide-ranging interest and comment from across the world.

A second major interest was in teacher education and development, particularly in terms of increasing access to and diversity within the teaching profession, and promoting a symbiotic relationship between practice and theoretical perspectives.

His role as Director of the Centre of Commonwealth Education involved him in overseeing projects in the areas of initial and continuing education, leadership for learning, and pedagogy and curriculum. He was directly involved in leading a project in the Eastern Caribbean, in partnership with the government of Antigua and Barbuda, to create communities of practice amongst teachers there, focusing on interactive pedagogies and raising achievement in primary schools.

Latterly he was involved in educational reform projects in Kazakhstan and Mongolia, working with colleagues to create local partnerships on pedagogy, leadership and teacher education.