Professor Jim McKernan graduated in 1963. He played on the baseball team two years and graduated Temple in 1969. After service in the US Merchant Marine service Jim served in the US Navy in Vietnam service with distinguished acknowledgement. He obtained a First Class Honours Master of Arts degree from University College Galway Ireland in 1973 for helping house "Traveller/Gypsy" families. in 1973 he was offered a PhD scholarship to the University of Ulster to work on peace education with and between Catholic and Protestant Northern Ireland secondary schools from 1973-1978. Dr McKernan was a Research Fellow at Queen's University, Belfast where he published a book about childrens' transfer from primary to secondary education. In 1980 Dr McKernan was appointed to the Faculty of Arts and Celtic Studies at University College Dublin, Ireland. He was a Fulbright Scholar at Harvard University in 1985 and also at the University of Pennsylvania where he taught in the Graduate School of Education.. In 1988 he was a Visiting Professor at Bethlehem University, Palestine. In 1991 he was appointed as the Lora Wilson King Distinguished Professor of Education at East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina. In 1993 Professor McKernan was named first Dean of the Faculty of Education, Professor and Chair of Faculty at University of Limerick.

His areas of sepcialism are: Educational Action Research; Curriculum Theory and the History and Philosophy of Education.

In 2010 he was named in tn Marquis Whos Who in America.

Professor McKernan has published more than twenty books as sole/co-author or editor and over one hundred publications as book chapters and journal articles in Ireland, USA, Australia, China, Brazil, France, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

His wife, Valerie, was a Librarian at University College Dublin and his son, Ross, has been an NCAA football star in North Carolina.in high school and university football.


He lives in Greenville North carolina and Waterville, County Kerry, Ireland