Frank Coffield is Emeritus Professor of Education at the Institute of Education, University of London, and Visiting Professor at the University of Sunderland. He retired at the end of 2007 after 42 years in education, having worked in the universities of Keele, Durham and Newcastle in England; and at a comprehensive school, an Approved School and Jordanhill College of Education in Scotland.

He has written books on, for example, juvenile delinquency, the so-called cycle of disadvantage, youth unemployment, vandalism and graffiti, young people and drugs, youth enterprise, a critical review of learning styles and the impact of policy on post-compulsory education. In 2008 he wrote ‘Just suppose teaching and learning became the first priority ....’, published by LSN.