ROBIN ALEXANDER

Biographical details

Qualifications
Positions
Public appointments
Consultancy
Current affiliations and membership

Qualifications

LittD (Cambridge, 2006), PhD (Cambridge, 1985), MEd (Manchester, 1975), MA (Cambridge, 1968), BA (Cambridge, 1964); Acad Dip Ed (London, 1970), PGCE (Durham, 1966), ATCL (Trinity College of Music, 1966).

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Positions

Robin Alexander taught in schools and colleges in various parts of England before moving to the University of Leeds in 1977 where in 1990 he became Professor of Education and Associate Director of the Centre for Policy Studies in Education. In 1995 he moved to Warwick University as Professor of Education, founder Director of the Centre for Research in Elementary and Primary Education and Director of Research at Warwick Institute of Education. Since 2001 he has been based at the University of Cambridge, where he was elected Visiting Fellow of Hughes Hall and then Fellow of Wolfson College. He is based at Cambridge’s Faculty of Education but retains his links with Warwick as Professor Emeritus. He is also a member of the Centre for International Comparative Studies at Bristol University Graduate School of Education. In 2005 he was elected to the Sir Edward Youde Visiting Professorship at Hong Kong Institute of Education. From October 2006 he is directing The Primary Review, an independent enquiry into the condition and future of primary education in England supported by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation.

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Public appointments

Board of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA), 1997-2002

BFI/TES Commission on the Teaching of English, chaired by Baroness Warnock, 1993-4

Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (CATE), 1989-94

The government’s ‘three wise men’ enquiry into primary education, 1991-2

Audit Commission Primary Education Advisory Group, 1989-91

Council for National Academic Awards (CNAA), 1975-84

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Consultancy

UK: Robin Alexander has undertaken education consultancy for many schools, over half of Britain’s local educational authorities (LEAs) and for national educational agencies: the schools inspectorate in England and Scotland (HMI, Ofsted and HMIE), the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) and its predecessors (SCAA and NCC), and the government’s education ministry under its several changes of name and acronym (DES/DfE/DfEE/DfES).

International: Robin Alexander has undertaken international consultancies for the UK Department for International Development (DfID) and its predecessor the Overseas Development Administration (ODA), the British Council, Ofsted, the European Commission (EC), the Swedish Council for the Renewal of Higher Education, the Hong Kong University Grants Committee, and various national education ministries and advisory councils. Under their auspices he has worked in China, Denmark, Finland, France, India, Malta, Russia, Turkey and the United States.      

These activities are now channelled through Dialogos, the educational consultancy and occasional publisher which Robin Alexander set up in 2004 with Karen Lennox.

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Current affiliations and membership

- American Educational Research Association (AERA)

- Asia Pacific Journal of Education editorial board

- Association for the Study of Primary Education (ASPE), former Chair

- British Association for Comparative and International Education (BAICE)

- British Educational Research Association (BERA)

- Centre for International Comparative Studies, University of Bristol

- International Journal of Educational Research editorial board

- New Vision Group

- Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), Fellow

- Teaching and Teacher Education editorial board

- UK National Commission for UNESCO, EFA Working Group

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