David Hopkins

Biographical Information
"David Hopkins is Professor Emeritus at the Institute of Education, University of London, where until recently, he held the inaugural HSBC iNet Chair in International Leadership. He is a Trustee of Outward Bound and is Executive Director of the new charity ‘Adventure Learning Schools’. David holds visiting professorships at the Catholic University of Santiago, the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Universities of Edinburgh, Melbourne and Wales and consults internationally on school reform.  Between 2002 and 2005 he served three Secretary of States as the Chief Adviser on School Standards at the Department for Education and Skills.  Previously, he was Chair of the Leicester City Partnership Board and Dean of the Faculty of Education at the University of Nottingham.  Before that again he was a Tutor at the University of Cambridge Institute of Education, a Secondary School teacher and Outward Bound Instructor. David is also an International Mountain Guide who still climbs regularly in the Alps and Himalayas. His recent books Every School a Great School and System Leadership in Practice are published by The Open University Press."

"Between 2002 and 2005 he served three Secretary of States as the Chief Adviser on School Standards at the then Department for Education and Skills and as Director of the Standards and Effectiveness Unit where he succeeded Sir Michael Barber. Prior to that, between 1996 and 2001, David was variously Professor of Education, Chair of the School of Education and Dean of the Faculty of Education at the University of Nottingham where he is now Professor Emeritus.  Whilst at Nottingham he was a member of the team that secured the location of the National College for School Leadership on the University’s Jubilee Campus; he was subsequently appointed to the College’s Governing Council and chaired its first Think Tank.  In December 1999 he was appointed by the Secretary of State to Chair the Leicester City Partnership Board and as such was responsible for the ‘modernisation’ of the Local Education Authority. David previously worked as an instructor and programme director with Outward Bound, a schoolteacher and university lecturer, and for eleven years was a tutor at the University of Cambridge Institute of Education. His PhD on ‘Organisational Change in Faculties of Education’ was from Simon Fraser University, Canada...

"He is a long time consultant to the OECD on issues of policy innovation, school improvement and teacher quality, as well as to the World Health Organisation, the SOROS Foundation, the Aga Khan Foundation and the Inter-American Development Bank on the themes of education reform and school development. He has lectured and consulted in some two dozen countries on these topics.  He has directed or co-directed numerous research projects including the DES School Development Plans, the ESRC ‘Mapping the Process of Change in Schools’, the ESRC ‘Improving Schools’ and the DCSF ‘Leadership and Learning’ projects.  David also initiated the ‘Improving Quality of Education for All’ (IQEA) school improvement network, and the ‘Success for All’ (SFA) literacy programme in England.

"David has published over thirty books on educational issues. Among them are: Personal Growth through Adventure (Fulton, 1993, with Roger Putnam); The International Handbook of Educational Change (Kluwer, 1998, edited with Andy Hargreaves, Michael Fullan and Anne Lieberman); School Improvement For Real (Routledge/Falmer, 2001); Models of Learning - Tools for Teaching (Second Edition, Open University Press, 2002, with Bruce Joyce and Emily Calhoun); Improving the Quality of Education for All (Second Edition, Fulton, 2002); Every School a Great School (Open University Press/McGraw Hill, 2007); and A Teacher’s Guide to Classroom Research (Fourth Edition, Open University Press, 2008)." 

Affiliations

 * Founder, Adventure Learning Schools
 * School Improvement Team, Bright Tribe
 * Speaker, Slater Baker
 * 1999 - 2002 Chair, Leicester City Partnership Board