Kevin Donnelly


Kevin John Donnelly is an Australian educator, author and commentator. He is Senior Research Fellow at the Australian Catholic University and the director of the Education Standards Institute, an Australian conservative think tank.
In 2014 co-authored a review of the Australian National Curriculum.
Donnelly has written numerous articles and books on contemporary developments in education, culture and politics. He is a prominent critic of the Safe Schools programme.

Early life and education

Donnelly was born Kevin John Donnelly in Melbourne on 7 January 1952 His father was a Communist and his mother a Catholic. He experienced a difficult childhood with his father being "alcoholic and quite violent at times".
He grew up in "the housing commission tenements of Melbourne’s Broadmeadows in the 1950s" and attended Broadmeadows High School and Melbourne High School.
In 1994 he graduated with a PhD in education from La Trobe University.

Career

From 1975 Donnelly taught for eighteen years in secondary schools. He was also branch president of the Victorian Secondary Teachers Association.
In the years 1994-2003 he was Director of Education Strategies in Melbourne.
In 1996 he undertook a strategic review of the Queensland Education Department for Minister Bob Quinn, focusing on organisation and curriculum at the senior policy level.
In the years 1997-2003 he consulted for the federally funded Discovering Democracy Civics and Citizenship Programme. Also in 1997 he was a member of the Victorian Board of Studies.
In 1998 he served as Executive Officer on the Internet-based "Achievers Against the Odds" Project that was jointly funded by the Rotary Districts of Victoria and the Victorian Department of Education. In the same year he was appointed as Director for the "I've Got the Power" anti-smoking youth programme funded by Philip Morris.
In the same year he began an analysis of Mathematics, Science and English curriculum across a range of school systems, both national and international, as a benchmarking exercise for the Victorian Department of Education.
In 2000 he completed a comparative analysis of the New Zealand National Certificate of Educational Achievement for the NZ Education Forum and in 2002 and 2007 he carried out benchmarking work for the New Zealand school curriculum. In 2003 he consulted for the Commonwealth funded enquiry into boys’ education.
In the years 2004-05 Donnelly was Chief of Staff for the Hon. Kevin Andrews, the then Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations in the Federal government.
In 2005-06 he was a member of the steering committee for the federally funded enquiry into the Australian Certificate of Education and National Review of Year 12 subjects. In 2005 he also completed a Commonwealth funded project benchmarking primary intended curriculum documents in mathematics, science and English against overseas systems.
He was appointed Director for the Melbourne-based Education Strategies and Education Standards Institute in 2005 and from this period he became an active author and commentator on education. In 2013 he was appointed as Senior Research Fellow in the Faculty of Education and Arts at the Australian Catholic University in Melbourne.
In 2014 Donnelly and Kenneth Wiltshire were appointed by Christopher Pyne, Australia's federal education minister, as co-chairs to evaluate the Australian National Curriculum with special reference to the "robustness, independence and balance" being taught to Australian youth.

Award

Books by Kevin Donnelly