I am currently the Brian Simon Professor of the History of Education at the UCL Institute of Education (the inaugural holder of this title) and Director of the International Centre for Historical Research in Education (ICHRE) based at the IOE.  I have worked previously at the universities of Leeds, Lancaster and Sheffield as well as the University of Auckland in New Zealand.  My most recent books include Secondary Education and the Raising of the School Leaving Age:  Coming of Age?; The Struggle for the History of Education; Cyril Norwood and the Ideal of Secondary Education, and a large number of other work on the history of secondary education, teachers and curriculum.  I am currently working on a social history of educational studies and research and a history of secondary education since the Second World War.  I am a past president of the UK History of Education Society and a previous Editor of the journal History of Education, and am the current Editor of the British Journal of Educational Studies.