Harry Daniels (1951 – 2026)
Emeritus Fellow Professor Harry Daniels died on Saturday 22 August 2026, aged 75, having suffered a stroke some six weeks previously.
Harry joined Green Templeton College as a Governing Body Fellow in October 2012 and remained so until September 2023, when he was elected an Emeritus Fellow. He was College Adviser until 2023 and made a substantial contribution to the governance of the college having served on the Human Resources Committee from 2017 to 2018 and the Estates Committee from 2017 to 2021. From 2017 until his retirement from Governing Body in 2023, he was a member of the Risk and Scrutiny Committee, serving as its Chair.
Harry was an academic in education whose teaching and research reflected his lifelong commitment to improving educational provision for disadvantaged young people, including those with special educational needs. Harry’s contribution has been theoretically influential in the study of learning drawing on Vygotskian, cultural historical activity theory and sociology, reshaping empirical research and driving new understandings of policy and practice.
He studied at the University of Liverpool, where he was awarded a BSc in Computational and Statistical Science in 1972 and a BSc (Hons) in Genetics in 1973, before completing a Postgraduate Certificate in Education at the University of Leicester. He subsequently gained a Diploma in the Psychology and Education of Children with Special Needs from the University of London Institute of Education in 1982 and a PhD from the same institution in 1988. His doctoral research examined different forms of special school organisation, pedagogic practice and pupil discrimination.
After a brief spell working as a geneticist at the Plant Breeding Institute in Cambridge, he began his career in teaching with a particular concern for those who found learning challenging. He was an assistant teacher at Leysland High School in Countesthorpe, Leicestershire, before becoming Head of the Disruptive Unit at Wreake Valley College in Syston and later Deputy Head of the Group 7(S) Temple Court Special (MLD) School in Guildford. He then moved into higher education, serving as Senior Lecturer in Special Education at West London Institute of Higher Education and subsequently as Senior Lecturer in the Department of Educational Psychology and Special Educational Needs at the University of London Institute of Education.
From 1995 to 2004 Harry was at the University of Birmingham, where he held a series of senior academic roles including Deputy Head of School, Director of Research and Director of the Centre for Sociocultural and Activity Theory Research, as well as Professor of Special Education and Educational Psychology.
In 2013, when he moved to Oxford, Harry was Professor of Education: Culture and Pedagogy in the Department of Education at the University of Bath and Director of the Centre for Sociocultural and Activity Theory Research. He also held international academic roles as an Adjunct Professor at Griffith University in Brisbane, Research Professor at Kansai University in Osaka and Research Professor in Cultural Historical Psychology at Moscow State University of Psychology and Education, as well as being a Visiting Fellow at the Institute for Adult Learning in Singapore.
At Green Templeton, Harry’s experience in education and his broad international academic perspective enriched the Fellowship and the college’s academic community.
The thoughts of college members are with Harry’s partner Jill, his daughters Emma and Ruth, and friends. Please let the fellowship team know if you would like them to pass on any messages or tributes. The funeral will be held on Monday 14 September at 14:00 at the North Oxfordshire Crematorium.
