Andrew (Andy) Hargreaves (born 13 February 1951) is the Thomas More Brennan Chair in Education at the Lynch School of Education at Boston College. The mission of the Chair is to promote social justice and connect theory and practice in education.
Hargreaves grew up in the small Lancashire textile and engineering town of Accrington in England, home to football club Accrington Stanley. The youngest of three brothers, he was the first in his extended family history to enter higher education, studying sociology at Sheffield University.
Hargreaves completed his PhD in Sociology at the University of Leeds in England, and lectured in a number of English universities including Oxford until in 1987 he moved to the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education in Canada, where he co-founded and directed the International Center for Educational Change. From 2000–2002, he was also Professor of Educational Leadership and Change at the University of Nottingham in England.
He has written or edited more than 25 books which have been translated into a dozen languages. Hargreaves’ book Teaching In The Knowledge Society: Education in the Age of Insecurity, is published by Teachers’ College Press and Open University Press and has received the Choice Outstanding Book Award from the American Libraries Association for Teaching and the American Educational Research Association Division B Outstanding Book Award.
As of 2010[update] Hargreaves lived close to Boston, Massachusetts with his wife Pauline who is also an educator. Their two children live in Toronto, Canada.