Dr Kevin Smith

(he/him)

Publication

• Date
• Type

Research

Curriculum theory and educational experience

My research is situated in curriculum theory, particularly reconceptualist curriculum studies and philosophy of education. I investigate how curricula move from plans, policies and institutional expectations into lived educational experience. This involves examining how teachers and learners interpret, negotiate and participate in curriculum, and how agency, dialogue, place, memory and social relations shape curriculum and our experiences of it.

A central concern across my work is the distinction between curriculum as a prescribed course of study and curriculum as something lived and brought into being through participation. I am interested in the conditions under which educational experience becomes meaningful, educative and capable of supporting individual and collective action.

Currere, Ambulare and autobiographical inquiry

A major strand of my research concerns currere, an autobiographical method of curriculum theorising through which people examine educational experience in relation to their past, present circumstances and imagined futures. My work uses currere to explore how educational experience can be remembered, interpreted and theorised without separating personal biography from social, cultural and historical conditions.

I have extended this work through ambulare, a reflective practice and research methodology centred on movement, slowness, embodiment, emplacement and the natural world. My wider methodological interests include autobiographical and narrative inquiry, conceptual research, documentary and discourse analysis and participatory approaches to educational research.

Curriculum reform, participation and realisation

I research curriculum reform and realisation across Welsh and international contexts. My work examines how policy aspirations are interpreted through professional judgement, institutional conditions and the joint-participation of teachers and learners. I am particularly interested in teacher agency, children’s participation and the limitations of educational discourse that presents curriculum as something simply delivered, implemented or enacted.

My research on Wales considers the relationship between curriculum reform, national and cultural identity, educational experience and professional responsibility. This work is informed by earlier experience in curriculum development, educational policy and research across the Pacific, as well as teaching and research undertaken in Brazil, New Zealand, the United States and the United Kingdom.

Worldbuilding, facilitation and storytelling

My current monograph, Pedagogy of the Dungeon Master: Reconceptualizing Curriculum as Worldbuilding, Facilitation, and Storytelling, is under contract with Routledge. The book draws on Dungeons & Dragons, tabletop roleplaying practice and the work of the Dungeon Master to develop a curriculum-theoretical account of how educative experiences are planned, inhabited and brought into being.

The book examines worldbuilding as the creation of co-constructed environments that promote meaningful participation; facilitation as the practical judgement required to organise challenge, agency, care and consequence; and storytelling as the dialogic work through which participants co-author an unfolding experience. 

Current projects and collaborations

My current research includes:

• Pedagogy of the Dungeon Master, a Routledge monograph on curriculum theory, educational experience, participation and shared imaginative experience;

• Ambulare, a programme of walking-based curriculum inquiry focused on embodiment, place, temporality and reflection;

• research on curriculum reform, curriculum realisation, teacher agency and children’s participation in Wales and comparative contexts;

• collaborative work in currere, curriculum theorising and radical education through international scholarly and professional networks.

I welcome collaboration with researchers, educators and doctoral students working in curriculum theory, philosophy of education, currere, autobiographical inquiry, curriculum reform, educational experience, participation in education and related areas.

Teaching

Teaching roles

I am the director of our BSc Education programme and teach across undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, including doctoral supervision. My teaching spans curriculum theory and theorising, philosophy of education, radical and critical pedagogy, the social contexts of education, social science inquiry and research design.

I convene Radical Education, a final-year undergraduate module that invites students to "think philosophically" about how to create educational systems that promote human and more-than-human flourishing. I also co-convene Becoming a Social Scientist, a first-year undergraduate module that examines what it means "to be" a social scientist. 

I aslo convene Comparative Approaches to Understanding Curriculum, a core module on our MSc Education course which examines curriculum theories and theorising, including how curriculum ideologies shape educational purposes, knowledge and practice.

Subjects and approaches

My teaching is organised around collaborative inquiry into education, curriculum and social life. I invite students to examine assumptions, connect theoretical ideas with lived experience and develop reasoned, evidence-informed positions through reading, discussion, reflection and research.

In Radical Education, students encounter the work of thinkers including John Dewey, Paulo Freire and bell hooks, alongside critical, holistic, contemplative and alternative educational traditions. The module combines lectures and seminars with student-led discussion, outdoor teaching, reflective activities and public scholarship. These different forms of participation allow students to investigate how dialogue, experience, place, embodiment and imagination shape educational practice.

My curriculum teaching examines how curricular decisions are influenced by historical, cultural, political and institutional conditions, and how teachers and learners participate in bringing curriculum into being. In research methods teaching, I work across qualitative and quantitative traditions while specialising in autobiographical and narrative inquiry, currere, critical discourse analysis and participatory research.

Across my teaching, I aim to create educational environments in which students can deliberate, take intellectual risks, question established assumptions and connect reflection with informed action.

Biography

I am a Reader in Education at Cardiff University, where I teach and research in curriculum theory, philosophy of education, educational experience and research methodology. My work has included curriculum reform, radical and dialogic pedagogy, autobiographical and narrative research, and the relationships among education, place and participation. 

I am the author of the forthcoming Pedagogy of the Dungeon Master: Reconceptualizing Curriculum as Worldbuilding, Facilitation, and Storytelling (Routledge), co-author of Pedagogies for the Future: A Critical Reimagining of Education (Routledge, 2023), and author of Curriculum, Culture and Citizenship Education in Wales (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016).

Before joining Cardiff University, I was Fellow in Curriculum for the Institute of Education at the University of the South Pacific, in 'Atele, Tonga. In this role, I contributed to curriculum development, educational policy and research with education ministries across 11 Pacific island countries. I have also taught and undertaken research in Brazil, New Zealand, the United States and the United Kingdom.

I completed a PhD in Education and a Master of Education in Curriculum and Teacher Leadership at Miami University. My doctoral work specialised in curriculum studies and examined relationships among curriculum, culture and critical pedagogy, particularly through Freirean and reconceptualist traditions. I began my academic training at Utah State University, where I completed a Bachelor of Science in Business Information Technology Education.

Honours and awards

• (Shortlisted) Excellence in Education & Lifelong Learning, Cardiff University Celebrating Excellence Awards (2026, 2025)
• Welsh Crucible (2016)
• Outstanding Personal Contribution Award, Cardiff University (2014)
• International Teaching and Research Fellow, University of Wales Trinity Saint David (2008)

Professional memberships

• Member of the British Educational Studies Association
• Member of the British Educational Research Association

Academic positions

• 2024 - Present: Reader, Education, School of Social and Spatial Sciences, Cardiff University
• 2016 - 2024: Senior Lecturer, School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University
• 2013 - 2016: Research Associate, Wales Institute of Social & Economic Research & Data (WISERD), Cardiff University
• 2011 - 2013: Fellow in Curriculum, Institute of Education, University of the South Pacific
• 2010 - 2011: Postgraduate Tutor, Miami University, Oxford, OH, USA
• 2008 - 2009: International Teaching & Research Fellow, University of South Wales Trinity Saint David, Carmarthen, Wales, UK. 

Speaking engagements

• 2025 — Keynote, From Method to Mode: Being an Enquirer, National Professional Enquiry Project Conference, Cardiff Metropolitan University, Cardiff, Wales, UK.

• 2024 — Keynote, Reconceptualising Curriculum in a New Era of Welsh Education, The Currere Exchange Conference, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, USA. Online.

• 2021 — Keynote, Citizenship Education and the Curriculum for Wales Framework, Citizenship and Education in Global Contexts workshop, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, England, UK. Online.

• 2021 — Keynote, Teaching and the Pursuit of Wisdom, Aiming for Excellence Conference, University of Wales Trinity Saint David, Swansea, Wales, UK. Online.

• 2020 — Keynote, Teaching and Teacher Agency, BrewEd, Swansea, Wales, UK.

• 2019 — Keynote, Adventures in Curriculum: Curriculum Work in International Contexts, postgraduate and undergraduate student workshop, Department of Educational Leadership, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, USA.

• 2019 — Keynote, Finding Purpose in Practice, British Education Studies Association Conference, Swansea, Wales, UK.

• 2019 — Panel, Are You Experienced? Curriculum and the Creation of Educational Experiences, Reimagining a Curriculum for Teacher Knowledge, British Curriculum Forum, London, England, UK.

• 2018 — Panel, Close-to-Practice Research in Wales, The Future of Educational Research in Wales, Welsh Government and British Educational Research Association, Cardiff, Wales, UK.

• 2018 — Panel, Critical Pedagogy and the New Curriculum for Wales, Racism and ‘Race’ in Schools in Wales, Ethnic Minorities and Youth Support Wales, Cardiff, Wales, UK.

• 2011 — Keynote, Educational Research in Our ‘Sea of Islands’, Vaka Pasifiki Education Conference, University of the South Pacific, Suva, Fiji.

Podcasts

• 2024 — Currere with Dr Kevin Smith, Emma & Tom Talk Teaching, with Tom Breeze and Emma Thayer.

• 2023 — Live from the PGCE Research Conference 2023!, Emma & Tom Talk Teaching, with Tom Breeze and Emma Thayer.

• 2022 — A Guide for Writing Practitioner Articles, Wales Journal of Education Podcast, with Gary Beauchamp, 23 November 2022.

• 2021 — Episode 52: Curriculum Theory, with Dr Kevin Smith, The Impact Podcast, with Jane Miller and Finola Wilson.

• 2020 — Talking Curriculum with Dr Kevin Smith, Emma & Tom Talk Teaching, with Tom Breeze and Emma Thayer.

• 2020 — Approaching Curriculum Design in the New Curriculum for Wales, Emma & Tom Talk Teaching, with Tom Breeze and Emma Thayer.

• 2020 — The Right to Protest: A Children’s Rights Perspective on the School Climate Strikes, BERA Podcast.

• 2020 — A War for Our World: Reframing the Climate Crisis, BERA Podcast.

• 2020 — Place-responsive Pedagogy: The Lessons Learned from an Old Oak Tree, BERA Podcast.

Videos

• 2023 — Pedagogies for the Future, Faculti.

• 2021 — Teaching and Teacher Agency, BrewEdCymru.

• 2019 — BESA 2019 Keynote: Finding Purpose in Practice, British Education Studies Association.

Committees and reviewing

• (2025) Editorial Board, Currere & Praxis
• (2025) Currere SIG Convenor, Association for the Advancement of Interdisciplinary Education Studies (AAIDES)
• (2024) Steering Committee, British Curriculum Forum
• (2020-2024) Associate Editor, Wales Journal of Education
• (2020-2023) Associate Editor, British Educational Research Journal

Supervisions

I welcome enquiries from prospective doctoral researchers whose work engages with curriculum theory, educational experience, curriculum reform, philosophy of education, and autobiographical or participatory approaches to educational research. I am particularly interested in supervising projects in the following areas:

• curriculum studies, curriculum theory and curriculum theorising

• currere and autobiographical curriculum theorising/research

• Ambulare, walking (movement), embodied and emplaced research

• philosophy of education and theories of educational experience

• curriculum reform, curriculum realisation and teacher agency

• children’s and students’ participation in curriculum

• radical, critical and dialogic pedagogies

• alternative and democratic education

• narrative inquiry and other autobiographical research methods

• storytelling and shared imaginative experience in education

Current supervision

Darius Klibavicius

Andy Williams

Past projects

Selected completed doctoral theses

• Dr Darius Klibavicius (2026), Perspectives on Pupils’ Experiences of and Involvement in School Curriculum Reforms in Wales. Supervisor.
• Dr Rebekah Bawler (2026), The Factors Influencing the Digital Transformation in Welsh Schools: From Policy to Practice. Co-supervisor (Supervisor: Dr Sion Jones).
• Dr Starr (Mengxing) Zhou (2025), Learning Experiences of Chinese International Students in a UK University: Swimming in a Different Pool. Supervisor.
• Dr James Wall (2024), Can heads of department be agents of change? Preparing for the new curriculum for Wales in a Welsh secondary school. Supervisor.
• Dr Catherine Phillips (2023), The role of gender norms in children’s understanding of coercion and control in relationships: co-producing a multi-agency educational intervention (Supervsior: Professor Dawn Mannay).
• Dr Judith Penikett (2022), How an ecological interpretation of agency can aid our understanding of the ‘storied lives’ of the Welsh Baccalaureate Co-ordinator. Supervisor.
• Dr James Snook (2021), An Exploration of Early Career Teachers’ Changes in Professional Identities across a Postgraduate Teacher Inquiry Programme. Co-supervisor (Supervisor: Professor Dawn Mannay)

News articles

Developing new ways of teaching for the Welsh curriculum

04 December 2017

Dr Kevin Smith has been leading workshops with teachers to develop new ways of teaching.