Thomas O'Donoghue is Emeritus Professor and Senior Honorary Research Fellow in the Graduate School of Education at the University of Western Australia. He holds a BA (NCEA), MEd (Trinity College Dublin), MA and PhD (NUI). His career began as a high school teacher of Irish Gaelic and History in Ireland from 1975 to 1989. He then served as Head of the Education Department at OLSH Teachers' College in Rabaul, Papua New Guinea, from 1989 to 1992, while also lecturing part-time at the University of Papua New Guinea. In 1992, he was a lecturer in curriculum theory at Queensland University of Technology, before joining the University of Western Australia in 1993 as Assistant Professor in curriculum theory in the Graduate School of Education. He progressed to Associate Professor, Professor, and Winthrop Professor. He is also Adjunct Professor at the Australian Catholic University and former President of the Australian and New Zealand History of Education Society.

O'Donoghue specializes in the history of education in the English-speaking world, particularly the history of teachers and education in faith-based schools, as well as historical antecedents of contemporary educational issues. His methodological approach draws on interpretivist sociology. Research expertise includes comparative and international education, teacher education, curriculum theory and development, education in conflict zones, and qualitative research methods. He has produced 215 research outputs, including 38 books, 114 articles, and 27 book chapters, with 982 Scopus citations. Key publications include 'Teacher Preparation in Australia: History, Policy and Future Directions' (2019), 'Primary School Leadership in Post-Conflict Rwanda' (2017), and recent articles such as 'An Ireland of Brave, Manly Boys, an Ireland of Pure, Modest Girls': The Education System and the Regulation of Sexuality in Ireland, 1922-1968 (2025) and 'Transnational Knowledge Circulation and the Closing of Minds to Progressive Education Influences on Schooling in the First Decade of Independence in Ireland' (2025). He is an elected Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia and the Royal Historical Society (UK). Awards include the 2011 Excellence in Supervision Award across UWA’s Faculties of Education, Law, and Architecture, Landscape and the Fine Arts; the 2009 national citation for excellence in postgraduate supervision from the National Learning and Teaching Council; and others for supervision excellence in 2007, 2005, and 2000. He has secured Australian Research Council funding for projects on university curriculum reforms.

Professional Email: tom.odonoghue@uwa.edu.au