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Thomas More Brennan Professor in Education Andy Hargreaves has been named a recipient of the 2015 Grawemeyer Award in Education from the University of Louisville for his research into the development of effective teachers in schools throughout the world.
Hargreaves will share the $100,000 prize with long-time collaborator and University of Toronto Professor Emeritus Michael Fullan, with whom he co-authored the award-winning book Professional Capital: Transforming Teaching in Every School. The book examines how successful schools and systems marshal human, decisional and social capital.
“Hargreaves and Fullan explain how teachers can thrive when they are treated with dignity and given freedom to exercise professional judgment together,” said Melissa Evans-Andris, director of the Grawemeyer Awards program.
Hargreaves said he was honored to receive the award and humbled to join the ranks of prior recipients, including Linda Darling Hammond and Diane Ravitch.
“The Grawemeyer’s previous holders are towering figures in the education field,” he said, “so my reaction was just to feel incredibly honored – and, to be honest, excited – that Michael and I would be added to the group of distinguished scholars who have received this generous prize.”
Hargreaves’ work has taken him to his native United Kingdom, Finland, Singapore, Canada and the US Pacific Northwest, among other regions.
“My guiding concern has always been why teachers do what they do,” said Hargreaves. “For a long time, I looked at why changes, including worthwhile and well-intentioned ones, didn’t seem to work; why they didn’t get beyond the classroom door. Then I started to examine changes and systems that were more successful in terms of equity and excellence, to see how they could help explain what was required for educators to perform at their best.”
Hargreaves’ work bridges theory and practice, informing the work of teachers, principals, policy makers and researchers, said Lynch School of Education Dean Maureen Kenny.
“Dr. Hargreaves’ scholarship affirms the Lynch School commitment to empowering teachers and school leaders with the knowledge and support to effect school change, while also making clear the social and economic resources that are vital for educators to effectively carry out their work,” Kenny said. “While Andy’s work has a national and international impact, it propels conversations and student learning across the Lynch School community with regard to educational policy and practice.”
Throughout his career, Hargreaves said he’s drawn inspiration from his late mother, Doris, a working class woman who prized the value of education, and his favorite teacher, Mary Hindle, of the Spring Hill Primary School in the town of Accrington, just north of Manchester, England.
Hargreaves said he takes pride that his work helps to advance the mission of Boston College to prepare students to go out into the world and serve others.
“Among Boston College’s many strengths is the great importance accorded professional schools in education, law, social work, and nursing,” Hargreaves said. “These schools, the people they educate, and the research they conduct, provide immediate service to society in a spirit of social justice based on disciplined inquiry.
“This award honors this trinity of values and the professionals who uphold them in a turbulent world that often diverts us from them. In that sense, it honors what Boston College stands for and underlines how fortunate I am to hold the Brennan Chair and contribute to this community.”