Kevin Donnelly

Kevin John Donnelly AM (born 1952) is an Australian educator, author and commentator. He is Senior Research Fellow at the Australian Catholic University[1] and the director of the Education Standards Institute, an Australian conservative think tank.[2]

Kevin Donnelly
Born (1952-01-07) 7 January 1952
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
OccupationEducator, author and commentator
EducationBroadmeadows High School
Melbourne High School
Alma materLa Trobe University
SubjectEducation, culture
Notable worksTaming the Black Dog (2014)
The Culture of Freedom (2016)
Dumbing Down (2014)
How Political Correctness is Destroying Education: And Your Child's Future (2018)
How Political Correctness is Destroying Australia (2018)
A Politically Correct Dictionary and Guide (2019)
Website
kevindonnelly.com.au

In 2014 co-authored a review of the Australian National Curriculum.[3]

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.[4][5]

Early life and education

Donnelly was born Kevin John Donnelly in Melbourne on 7 January 1952[6][7] His father was a Communist and his mother a Catholic.[8][9] He experienced a difficult childhood with his father being "alcoholic and quite violent at times".[10]

He grew up in "the housing commission tenements of Melbourne’s Broadmeadows in the 1950s"[11] and attended Broadmeadows High School and Melbourne High School.[10]

In 1994 he graduated with a PhD in education from La Trobe University.[12]

Career

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.).[13]

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.[3] Also in 1997 he was a member of the Victorian Board of Studies.

In 1998 he served as Executive Officer[14] 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.[15]

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[16] 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.[2]

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.[17]

In 2005-06 he was a member of the steering committee for the federally funded enquiry into the Australian Certificate of Education[3] 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.[18]

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.[9][3]

Award
  • 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".[19]

Select bibliography

Books by Kevin Donnelly
  • Why Our Schools are Failing (also titled: Why Our Schools are Failing: What Parents Need to Know about Australian Education, Potts Point, N.S.W.: Duffy & Snellgrove, 2004.
  • Dumbing Down: Outcomes-Based and Politically Correct: The Impact of the Culture Wars on Our Schools, South Yarra, Victoria: Hardie Grant, 2007.
  • Australia's Education Revolution: How Kevin Rudd Won and Lost the Education Wars, Ballan, Victoria: Connor Court Publishing, 2009.
  • Educating Your Child: It's Not Rocket Science, Ballan, Victoria: Connor Court Publishing, 2012.
  • Taming the Black Dog, Ballarat, Victoria: Connor Court Publishing, 2014.
  • Dumbing Down, Browns Plains: Australian eBook Publisher, 2014.
  • The Culture of Freedom, Melbourne: Institute of Public Affairs, 2016 (Monographs on Western Civilisation, No. 5).
  • Regulation and Funding of Independent Schools: Lessons from Australia, Vancouver: Fraser Institute, 2017.
  • How Political Correctness is Destroying Australia, Melbourne: Wilkinson Publishing, 2018.[20][21]
  • How Political Correctness is Destroying Education and Your Child’s Future, Melbourne: Wilkinson Publishing, 2018.
  • A Politically Correct Dictionary and Guide, Redland Bay, Queensland: Connor Court, 2019.
  • How Political Correctness Is Still Destroying Australia, Melbourne: Wilkinson Publishing, 2020 (forthcoming).

Articles by Kevin Donnelly
gollark: Huh, it actually knows the abstractish version of "density".
gollark: Within the apiometaspatial regions it harvests.
gollark: Local atmospheric bee density.
gollark: If I had several hundred £ for better GPUs, it could do entire Wikipedia pages.
gollark: Due to computing constraints, it operates *entirely* on the introductory segments of Wikipedia pages.

References
  1. Kevin Donnelly, onlineopinion.com.au. Retrieved 13 June 2018.
  2. Kevin Donnelly, theconversation.com. Retrieved 20 July 2020.
  3. The Hon Christopher Pyne MP, Review of national curriculum to put students first, Department of Education, Skills and Employment, dese.gov.au. Retrieved 20 July 2020.
  4. Donnelly, Kevin (11 February 2016). "Safe Schools Coalition is more about LGBTI advocacy than making schools safer". The Age. Retrieved 11 February 2016.
  5. Donnelly, Kevin (21 July 2016). "Kevin Donnelly: How ideology took over schools". Herald Sun. Retrieved 21 September 2016.
  6. Kevin Donnelly, imdb.com. Retrieved 23 May 2018.
  7. Dr Kevin Donnelly AM, linkedin.com. Retrieved 16 June 2018.
  8. Kevin Donnelly, Not a good time to be Catholic, Eureka Street, 27 August 2014. Retrieved 23 May 2018.
  9. Jane Cadzow, "Back to basics", The Sydney Morning Herald, 12 July 2014. Retrieved 23 May 2018.
  10. Taming the Black Dog – Dr Kevin Donnelly, vision.org.au. Retrieved 23 May 2018.
  11. "Queen’s birthday honours 2016: Opportunity for all; uni for some", The Australian, 13 June 2016. Retrieved 23 May 2018.
  12. Kevin Donnelly, theconversation.com. Retrieved 23 May 2018.
  13. Kevin Donnelly, abc.net.au. Retrieved 9 June 2019.
  14. Credits, achievers-odds.com.au (archive copy at archive.org. Retrieved 20 July 2020.
  15. Bianca Hall, "School review panellist Kevin Donnelly linked to tobacco giant", The Sydney Morning Herald, 12 January 2014. Retrieved 21 July 2020.
  16. What Parents and Teachers Should Know About the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA), buckingham.ac.uk, Auckland, New Zealand: Education Forum, 2000, p. 1 and p. 9. Retrieved 20 July 2020.
  17. National curriculum review: Who is Kevin Donnelly?, sbs.com.au. Retrieved 21 July 2020.
  18. Kevin Donnelly, abc.net.au. Retrieved 21 July 2020.
  19. "Queen's Birthday Honours 2016: the full list". Sydney Morning Herald. 11 June 2016. Retrieved 25 November 2019.
  20. Nick O'Malley "Forces gather to fight Australia's enemies, within and without", The Sydney Morning Herald, 6 June 2018. Retrieved 19 July 2020.
  21. Giles Auty, "Brutopian notes", The Spectator (Australian edition), 30 June 2018. Retrieved 24 July 2020.
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