David Phillips
Short Biography & Significant Contribution
David Phillips was born in London but has spent most of his life in Oxford and Oxfordshire. He is a Germanist by origin, having studied modern languages for his first degree (BA, London, 1966) and subsequently spent much time in Germany. He trained as a teacher at the University of Oxford (Diploma in Education, 1967) and later completed his doctoral thesis there, by which time he was a member of the faculty. He taught German at Huntingdon Grammar School, an academic secondary school (1967-1969), and at Chipping Norton Comprehensive School (1969-1975) and from 1975 trained teachers of modern languages at the University of Oxford while undertaking various research projects on language learning. He built on his doctoral work, which involved a study of the British role in reconstructing the universities of the British Zone of Occupation in Germany after the War, to develop a general interest in educational policy, more specifically policy 'borrowing' in education, and taught courses on the governance of education, eventually developing a successful Master's course in Comparative and International Education and establishing the series 'Oxford Studies in Education'.
He was made Professor of Comparative Education at Oxford in 2000. For twenty years (1984-2004) he was Editor of the 'Oxford Review of Education', and he now serves on several editorial boards, including those of 'Comparative Education' and '21st Century Society'. He edits the on-line journal 'Research in Comparative and International Education' (RCIE). He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and an Academician of the British Social Sciences Academy, and he is the author or co-author or editor of many books and numerous chapters in books and articles in journals. He has served as chair of the British Association for International and Comparative Education (BAICE) and on the board of directors of the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES). He has considerable experience of serving on commissions evaluating aspects of higher education, including major German commissions on teacher education in eastern Germany following Unification and education as an academic subject in the higher education institutions of Baden-Württemberg. He has been a member also of further commissions in Germany, in Switzerland, and in Sweden.
His principal areas of research have been in education in Germany, processes of transition in education systems, the education and training policy of the European Union, educational policy transfer, and theoretical issues in comparative inquiry. For the period 2012-2014, he was awarded a Leverhume Emeritus Fellowship to allow him to resume his research on the role of the British in the reconstruction of education in Germany after the Second World War.
Educational Background
Sir Walter St John's School, London, (1956-1963)
BA, London (1966)
Dip.Ed., Oxford (1967)
D.Phil., Oxford (1984)
Professional Background
Teacher, Huntingdon Grammar School (1967-1969)
Teacher, Chipping Norton School (1969-1975)
Tutor, then Reader, then Professor, University of Oxford (1975- )
Affiliations (associations, organizations, institutions)
Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (F.R.Hist.S.); Academician, British Social Sciences Academy (AcSS); Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA).
Comparative International Education Society, Member
British Association of International Comparative Education, Member
CESE., Member
Selected Publications
Zur Universitätsreform in der Britischen Besatzungszone 1945-1948, Böhlau (1983) The Second Foreign Language: Past Development,Current Trends and Future Prospects, Hodder & Stoughton (1983) (with Veronica Stencel)
(Editor and Contributor): Languages in Schools: From Complacency to Conviction, CILT (1988) (Editor and Contributor): Which Language? Diversification and the National Curriculum, Hodder & Stoughton (1989)
(Editor and Contributor): Hochschuloffiziere und Wiederaufbau des Hochschulwesens in Westdeutschland 1945-1952, Teil 1: Die Britische Zone (revised reissue of German Universities After the Surrender, 1983), Hildesheim (Lax) (1990)
(Editor): Lessons of Cross-National Comparison in Education, Triangle Books (1992)
(Editor): Education and Economic Change in Eastern Europe, Triangle Books (1992) (with Michael Kaser)
Diversification in Modern Language Teaching: Choice and the National Curriculum, Routledge (1993) (with Caroline Filmer-Sankey)
(Editor): Education in Germany: Tradition and Reform in Historical Context, Routledge (1995)
(Editor): Aspects of Education and the European Union, Triangle Books (1995)
Pragmatismus und Idealismus: Das 'Blaue Gutachten' und die Britische Hochschulpolitik in Deutschland 1948, Böhlau (1995)
(Editor): Education for Reconstruction, Symposium Books (1998) (with others)
(Editor): Processes of Transition in Education Systems, Symposium Books (1998) (with Elizabeth A. McLeish)
(Editor): Comparing Standards Internationally: Research and Practice in Mathematics and Beyond , Symposium Books (1999) (with Barbara Jaworski)
(Editor and Contributor): Learning From Comparing: New Directions in Comparative Educational Research , Vol. 1, Contexts, Classrooms and Outcomes, Symposium Books (1999) (with Robin Alexander and Patricia Broadfoot)
(Editor): Learning from Comparing: New Directions in Comparative Educational Research, Vol.2, Policy, Professionals and Development, Symposium Books (2000) (with Robin Alexander and Marilyn Osborn)
(Editor): Education in Eastern Germany Since Unification, Symposium Books (2000)
Reflections on British Interest in Education in Germany in the Nineteenth Century. (A Progress Report), Educa, Lisbon
Towards a Model for Cross-national Attraction in Education. A Discussion Paper (with Kimberly Ochs), Educa, Lisbon
(Editor): Can the Japanese Change Their Education System? Symposium Books (2003) (with Roger Goodman)
Interpreting EU Educational Policies: The European Dimension in Education and the Socrates and Leonardo Programmes in Some Member States, Educa, Lisbon (with Bettina Dahl, Anastasia Economou & Hubert Ertl)
(Editor and Contributor): Implementing European Union Education and Training Policy: A Comparative Study of Issues in Four Member States, Kluwer Academic Publishers (2003) (with Hubert Ertl)
(Editor): Educational Policy Borrowing: Historical Perspectives, Symposium Books (2004) (with Kimberly Ochs)
Comparative and International Education: An Introduction to Theory, Method, and Practice, Continuum (2006) (with Michele Schweisfurth)
The German Example. English Interest in Educational Provision in Germany since 1800. (2011) Continuum, London
Created: 3/15/2008
Updated: 7/4/2014
Contributed By: David Phillips, Oxford University
