Graham Donaldson has spent over 40 years in education and has worked in schools, universities, local and central government. A qualified teacher of history and social science, he taught and occupied senior local positions in Scotland before working at the national level as a curriculum developer and evaluator. In 1983 he was appointed as one of Her Majesty’s Inspectors of Education (HMI) and rose to become head of the Scottish Inspectorate (HMIE) from 2002 – 2010. In that role he was chief executive of the agency and Chief Professional Advisor on education to the Scottish Government. He was appointed as an honorary professor at Glasgow University in April 2011 and subsequently (2014) as a professor in the Robert Owen Centre for Educational Change.

 

In addition to continuing to work with schools and local authorities in Scotland, he has also worked extensively internationally: as a representative of Scotland and the United Kingdom; as a consultant; as an international expert for the OECD; as a contributor to EU conferences; as an independent consultant; and as President of the Standing International Conference of Inspectorates (SICI). 

 

His company, Donaldson Education Services Ltd, was formed in 2014 and has undertaken work for Tapestry Education, the Welsh Government and the OECD. It provides educational consultacy on education with a particular focus on curriculum development, assessment, teacher education and educational evaluation and inspection.