Alan Smithers

{{Short description|English educationalist}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2021}} {{Use British English|date=July 2012}} {{Infobox academic | honorific_prefix = Professor | name = Alan Smithers | honorific_suffix = CPsychol FSRHE | native_name = | native_name_lang = | image = Professor Alan Smithers, University of Buckingham.jpg | image_size = | alt = | caption = Professor Smithers | birth_name =  | birth_date = {{birth date and age |1938|05|20|df=y}} | birth_place = East End of London | death_date =  | death_place = | spouse = Angela Wykes (divorced, 2003) | children = 2 daughters | known_for = Educational research, writing and broadcasting | discipline = Education | sub_discipline =  | movement =  | religion =  | denomination =  | education = King's College London (BSc, PhD)<br />University of Bradford (MSc, PhD) <br /> University of Manchester (MEd) | thesis_title = | thesis_url = | thesis_year = | doctoral_advisor = | doctoral_students = | notable_students = | main_interests = | workplaces = College of St Mark and St John in Chelsea, London | notable_works = | notable_ideas = | influences = | influenced = | awards = | website = | footnotes = }} '''Alan George Smithers''' (born 20 May 1938) is an English academic psychologist and public policy advisor best known for his research and publications in the field of education.

==Early life== Smithers was born in the East End of London, the son of a Billingsgate fish porter.<ref name="rafferty">Rafferty, R. (22 January 1999). 'Leaders of the pack', ''Times Educational Supplement''.</ref> His mother worked in a sweet factory, and he claims he lived on fish and Turkish delight during the war.<ref name="rafferty" /> He was educated at Barking Abbey Grammar School then King's College London, gaining a first class honours degree BSc and a PhD in plant physiology in 1966.<ref name="whoswho">''Who's Who 2013'', London: A&C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing.</ref> He later gained an MSc in the psychology and sociology of education and a PhD in education in 1974 from the University of Bradford.<ref name="whoswho" /> Since all professors at the University of Manchester, where Smithers taught, are required to be graduates of the university, an MEd was conferred on him in 1981.<ref name="whoswho" /> He became a Chartered Psychologist in 1988.<ref name="whoswho" />

==Career==

===Plant physiology=== He was originally a research scientist in plant physiology.<ref name="rafferty" /> From 1962 to 1964 he lectured in biology at the College of St Mark and St John in Chelsea, then botany at Birkbeck College from 1964 to 1967.<ref name="whoswho" />

===Education=== He became involved in education as a subject when, in the 1960s, the University of London, where he lectured, began introducing modular degrees.<ref name="hulme">Hulme, A. (18 May 1990). 'Smithers sites them again', The Friday Profile, ''Manchester Evening News''.</ref> This led to a secondment at the newly elevated University of Bradford.<ref name="hulme" /> There he re-qualified as a psychologist before becoming Senior Lecturer in Education in 1969.<ref name="hulme" /> He became a professor at the University of Manchester at the age of 37.<ref name="hulme" /> He has successively occupied four chairs: Professor of Education at the University of Manchester (1976–96); Professor of Policy Research at Brunel University (1996-8); Sydney Jones Professor of Education at the University of Liverpool (1998–2004); and currently as Director of the Centre for Education and Employment Research at the University of Buckingham (2004 to present).<ref name="baker">Baker, K ''et al'' (2013). ''14-18 A New Vision for Secondary Education'', London Bloomsbury Publishing. Notes on Contributors, Alan Smithers, p xiii.</ref> He was elected as one of the first three fellows of the Society for Research in Higher Education in 1986.<ref name="independent">The Independent (13 January 1987) Court and Social, page 23; ''Times Higher Education Supplement'' (2 January 1987) 'Cheers for four firsts'.</ref> He was seconded to BP from September 1991 to August 1992 to help it think more systematically about the value of its education programmes.<ref name="brown">Brown, M. (Autumn 1992). 'Equal partners', ''Shield: The international magazine of the BP Group''.</ref>

==Educational research== Areas with which Smithers has been associated include choice and selection in education, social variation between schools, qualifications and assessment, physics education, international comparisons of educational achievement, headship, teacher training, recruitment and retention, technical and further education, the independent/state divide, single-sex and coeducation, and higher education.<ref name="web">http://www.alansmithers.com and http://www.buckingham.ac.uk/research/ceer</ref>

==Publications== Selected publications, in addition to ''The Good Teacher Training Guide'' which has been published annually since 1998 include: * ''GCSE Prospects: Restoring the Value?'' (2023) * ''A-Level Prospects: Return to Normal?'' (2023) * ''Where Next for Apprenticeships 2016'' (2016) * ''Social Disadvantage and Widening Access to Universities'' (2015) * ''HEFCEs Blunder'' (2015) * ''The Science and Mathematics Teaching Workforce'' (2014) * ''Confusion in the Ranks'' (2013) * ''14-18 A New Vision for Secondary Education'' (2013) * ''Educating the Highly Able'' (2012) * ''Choice and Selection in Education: the experience of other countries'' (2010) * ''Worlds Apart: social variation among schools'' (2010) * ''Physics Participation and Policies: lessons from abroad'' (2009) * ''Specialist Science Schools'' (2009) * ''The Diploma: a disaster waiting to happen?'' (2008) * ''Blair's Education: an international perspective'' (2007) * ''Physics in Schools and Colleges'' (2007) * ''School Headship'' (2007) * ''The Paradox of Single Sex and Coeducational Schooling'' (2006) * ''England’s Education'' (2004) * ''Attracting Teachers'' (2000) * ''Further Education Reformed'' (2000) * ''The Impact of Double Science'' (1994) * ''General Studies'' (1993) * ''Graduates in the Police Service'' (1990) * ''Increasing Participation in Higher Education'' (1989) * ''The Growth of Mixed A-Levels'' (1988) * ''The Progress of Mature Students'' (1986) * ''Sandwich Courses: an Integrated Education?'' (1976).

Two of his reports were featured as ''Dispatches'' programmes on ''Channel 4'', ''Every Child in Britain'' (1991)<ref name="halsey">''Every Child in Britain'', 1991. Report of the Channel Four Commission, (A.H. Halsey, Neville Postlethwaite, Sig Prais, Alan Smithers and Hilary Steedman). London: Broadcasting Support Services.</ref> and ''All Our Futures: Britain’s Education Revolution'' (1993).<ref name="futures">''All Our Futures: Britain's Education Revolution'', 1993. London: Channel Four Television.</ref> He has been a frequent commentator on the policies of successive governments.<ref name="woodward">Woodward, W. (7 September 2004). 'Declaration of independence', ''The Guardian''.</ref> His analyses of Blair's education have appeared in Anthony Seldon's books, ''The Blair Effect: The Blair Government 1997-2001'' (2001), ''The Blair Effect 2001-2005'' (2005) and ''Blair's Britain 1997-2007'' (2007). He has also reviewed in Seldon's books the impact of the Coalition and Conservative administrations: ''The Coalition Effect 2010-2015'' (2015) and ''The Conservative Effect 2010-2024: 14 Wasted Years?'' (2024). <ref name="seldon">Ed Anthony Seldon (2001, 2005, 2007, 2015 and 2024) ''The Blair Effect: The Blair Government 1997-2001'', London: Little,Brown,2001; ''The Blair Effect 2001-05'', Cambridge: University Press; ''Blair's Britain 1997-2007'', Cambridge: University Press; ''The Coalition Effect 2010-2015'', Cambridge: University Press; and ''The Conservative Effect 2010-2024: 14 Wasted Years?'' Cambridge: University Press.</ref>

==Educational advisor at a national level== Smithers has served as an adviser, latterly standing adviser, to the Commons Education Select Committee since 1997.<ref name="baker" /> He claims to be apolitical, believing that close association with any one party compromises the objectivity of the research.<ref name="woodward" /> He has served on national committees including the ''National Curriculum Council'', the ''Beaumont Review of National Vocational Qualifications'' and the ''Royal Society Committee on Teacher Supply''.<ref name="baker" />

==Personal life== He married Angela Wykes in 1962, with whom he had two daughters; they divorced in 2003.<ref name="whoswho" />

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== * [http://www.alansmithers.com CEER] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20100129010654/http://www.buckingham.ac.uk/publicity/dofe/smithers.html University of Buckingham]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smithers, Alan}} Category:1938 births Category:Living people Category:English educational theorists Category:English physiologists Category:Alumni of King's College London Category:Alumni of the University of Bradford Category:Academics of the University of London Category:Academics of the University of Bradford Category:Academics of the University of Buckingham Category:Academics of the University of Manchester Category:Academics of Brunel University London Category:Academics of the University of Liverpool Category:People educated at Barking Abbey Grammar School