Kevin Donnelly

Donnelly was born in Melbourne on 7 January 1952[3][4] His father was a Communist and his mother a Catholic.[5][6] He experienced a difficult childhood with his father being "alcoholic and quite violent at times".[7]

He grew up in "the housing commission tenements of Melbourne’s Broadmeadows in the 1950s"[8] and attended Broadmeadows High School and Melbourne High School.[7]

In 1994, he graduated with a PhD in education from La Trobe University.[9]

From 1975, Donnelly taught for eighteen years in secondary schools (in both the government and non-government educational systems). He was also branch president of the Victorian Secondary Teachers Association (V.S.T.A.).[10]

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.

From 1997–2003, he consulted for the federally funded Discovering Democracy Civics and Citizenship Programme.[11] Also in 1997 he was a member of the Victorian Board of Studies.

In 1998, he served as Executive Officer[12] 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.[13]

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[14] 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.[15]

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.[16]

In 2005–06, he was a member of the steering committee for the federally funded enquiry into the Australian Certificate of Education[11] 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.[17]

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.[6][11] They co-authored the 2014 review of the Australian National Curriculum.[11]

In 2016, Donnelly wrote opinion pieces criticising the ideology of the "Safe Schools" programme.[18][19]

• 2016: Member of the Order of Australia "for significant service to education as a researcher and author, to national curriculum development, and to professional organisations".[20]

• Official website of Kevin Donnelly
• Criticising Safe Schools doesn't make you homophobic at ABC News
• Dr Kevin Donnelly on Political Correctness and Education at OMNY.com