Academic biography

Anne Marie Kavanagh (PhD, FHEA) teaches and researches in the areas of intercultural education, ethical education, social justice education, anti-racism education, climate justice education and human rights education. A former primary teacher, she has worked extensively with undergraduate and postgraduate students and in-service teachers, principal and additional needs assistants for over two decades.

Recognised nationally and internationally for her expertise in critical and values-based education approaches, she is committed to producing justice-oriented frontier research with socially and pedagogically transformative potential.

In recognition of her research excellence, leadership skills and substantial and sustained publishing record, Anne Marie and the team she is leading was awarded the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment funded ‘Literature Review on Intercultural Education’ in 2024. This significant and impactful review will inform the development of new Intercultural Education Guidelines for education contexts across the continuum.

Anne Marie is currently collaborating with partners at Newcastle University and Northumbria University and with her DCU colleague Prof Audrey Bryan, on a British Academy/Leverhulme-funded interdisciplinary project, ‘Classrooms for Climate Justice’. This project will advance knowledge on the under-researched area of climate justice education and has the potential to shape climate justice pedagogy in primary and post-primary schools.

Over the last two decades, Anne Marie's pedagogical and curricular excellence have been recognised at multiple levels. As a student, she won the prestigious Vere Foster Medal (INTO, 2004) for achieving the highest grades in school placement and the curriculum subject across the BEd programme. As a teacher educator, she was voted Lecturer of the Year by the students at St Patrick’s College (SU, 2015) and most recently, staff from over 200 ETB primary, post-primary and special schools are engaging in an innovative Professional Development Module developing staff’s social class, ethnic and racial literacy.

In 2006, she was awarded the Kellogg's Scholarship and completed an MEd in Education (St. Patrick's College). In 2009, she received the Michael Jordan Fellowship in Education and completed her PhD on Emerging Models of Intercultural Education in Irish Schools at St Patrick’s College under the supervision of Prof Fionnuala Waldron and Prof Audrey Bryan. 

Anne Marie holds numerous leadership roles at the university, including leading DCU’s work on the Advisory Committee for the Framework for the Recognition of Qualification to Teach Ethical, Multi-Belief and Values Education (Educate Together & ETBI). She is committed to DCU's strategic objective of providing an outstanding student experience and to that end serves as the BEd2 Year Head and as the BEd3 Erasmus Academic Co-ordinator. She is an active member of the Faculty Research Committee, the Publication Action Plan sub-committee, and the Faculty Athena Swan Assessment Team. Prior to incorporation, she served on the College Research Ethics Committee at St. Patrick’s College.

She is a member of the steering committee of the DCU Centre for Human Rights and Citizenship Education (CHRCE) and a member of the DCU Anti-Bullying Centre. In 2021, her first co-edited book (with Prof Fionnuala Waldron & Dr Benjamin Mallon) 'Teaching for Social Justice and Sustainable Development Across the Primary Curriculum' was published by Routledge. This volume supports educators in integrating meaningful education for social justice and sustainability across a wide range of curricular subjects at primary level. Her co-edited book ‘Beyond Single Stories: Changing Narratives for a