Andy Hargreaves

An expert on education...

Biography• Born Northern mill town in England in 1951.• PhD in Sociology at the University of Leeds in England.• Was awarded visiting professorships in the US, Canada, the UK,

Hong Kong , Sweden, Japan and Singapore.• Wrote or edited more than 25 books which have been translated

into a dozen languages.• He is the Thomas More Brennan Chair in the Lynch School of

Education at Boston College whose mission is to promote social justice and connect theory and practice in education.

• Currently lives in Canada.

In his book Teaching in the Knowledge society: Education in the Age of Insecurity Hargreaves

gives his own definition on the concept and points out the importance of making changes in

education taking into account the society we live in...

"Schools today serve and shape a world in which there can be great economic

opportunity and improvement if people can learn to work more flexibly, invest in their future financial security,reskill or relocate themselves as the economy shifts around

them, and value working creativelyand collaboratively."

"I argue that knowledge societies process information and knowledge in ways that

maximize learning, stimulate ingenuity and invention and develop the capacity to initiate and cope with change.[…] Economic success

and a culture of continuous innovation depend on the capacity of workers to keep learning themselves and from each other.”

"We live in a knowledge economy, a knowledge society. Knowledge economies are stimulated

and driven by creativity and ingenuity. Knowledge society schools have to create these qualities, otherwise their people and

their nations will be left behind."

“We can promote a high investment, high capacity educational system in which

highly skilled teachers are able to generate creativity and ingenuity among their pupils,

by experiencing creativity and flexibility themselves in how they are treated and

developed as knowledge society professionals."

"A strong professional learning community is a social process for turning information into

knowledge. It brings together the knowledge, skills and dispositions of teachers in a school,

or across schools, to promote shared learning and improvement."

In the following videos, Andy makes reference to the importance of networks. This can be related to the concept of Network society...

http://youtube.com/v/TA_Hn4KNKXw

Thank you!☺ Micaela Catalano

☺ Soledad Vaccaro

☺ Cynthia Quinteros