James A. McKernan

James McKernan (born November 7, 1945) is an American educational theorist,. He is a Professor of Education at East Carolina University, a constituent campus of the University of North Carolina. He has been the King Distinguished Professor and Chair of Education at East Carolina University; Dean and Chair of the Faculty of Education at the University of Limerick, Ireland; College Lecturer, Faculty of Arts, University College Dublin, Ireland and Fulbright Scholar at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education and Research Fellow, Northern Ireland Council for Educational Research, Department of Psychology, Queen's University of Belfast. McKernan taught Palestinian university students when Israel closed schools and colleges there.

Career
In 1980 McKernan was appointed as a College Lecturer in Education at University College Dublin where he established Curriculum Studies as a new field of teaching and educational inquiry in the Education Department. In 1991 he accepted the King Distinguished Professorship at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina, US. He returned briefly to act as Dean and Chair of the Education Faculty at the University of Limerick, Ireland in 1993. McKernan returned to East Carolina University in 1994. McKernan's educational theory emphasizes the teacher as researcher and schools as agencies of cultural reconstruction using action research to improve school practices.

Honours
McKernan is listed in Marquis' 'Who's Who in America and has served as Secretary for the Galway Itinerant Settlement Committee, Galway, Ireland which provided housing for homeless Irish "Travellers" (nomadic persons). He is a founding member of the Educational Studies Association of Ireland and was Editor of its journal Irish Educational Studies. He has also acted as General Editor of the Yearbooks of the South Atlantic Philosophy of Education Society (1998–2004) and was President of the Society during 2003-2005.

Published works
McKernan has authored more than one hundred publications as author, co-author, or editor in books, book chapters, and scholarly journals in the US, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, France, Brazil, China, Germany, Canada and Sweden

Books

 * Curriculum and Imagination: Process Theory, Pedagogy and Action Research (London: Routledge) 2008 240 pp.
 * Curriculum Action Research (London: Kogan Page) 1996 278 pp.
 * Transfer at Fourteen: The Craigavon Two-Tier System as an Organizational Innovation in Education (Belfast: Northern Ireland Council for Educational Research) pp. 114, 1981.
 * The Challenge of Change: Curriculum Development in Irish Post-Primary Schools 1970–1984. (Dublin: Institute of Public Administration)  pp 163, 1984 with Dr. T. Crooks, Trinity College, Dublin (Co-author)
 * Learning for Life: Tutor's Guide  co-authored with E. Moore; E. O Donohue; J. Heuston; D. Condren and S. Fogarty. (Dublin: Gill and Macmillan Co.) pp. ;145, 1986