Professor Elaine Keane, PhD,  is Professor and Head of the Discipline of Education in the School of Education at the University of Galway, where she was formerly Director of Doctoral Studies and Chair of the Research Committee. A Sociologist of Education, Elaine's core areas of expertise are social class in education, widening participation to the professions, teacher diversity, and constructivist grounded theory. 

Previously a post-primary teacher of languages and CSPE, Elaine also worked as researcher in the Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT) (NUI Galway), and Project Co-ordinator of distance learning access programmes (Lionra, Regional Higher Education Network). Since 2006, Elaine has taught Sociology of Education, Inclusive Teaching, and Research Methods across a range of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in the School of Education. 

Elaine is Co-Editor of Irish Educational Studies, Convenor of the Teacher Diversity Research Special Interest Group (SIG) in the Educational Studies Association of Ireland (ESAI), and Inaugural Chair of the National Initial Teacher Education Diversity Network. Elaine has also served on the Editorial Board of the UK journal Teaching in Higher Education since 2015.

She is Co-Principal Investigator of the Access to Post-primary Teaching (APT) Project (2017-2025), funded by the Higher Education Authority, and was Co-Principal Investigator of the Irish Research Council-funded Diversity in Initial Teacher Education (DITE) national project (exploring the socio-demographic profiles, career motivations, and experiences with diversity of applicants and entrants to ITE programmes in Ireland). Elaine was also Co-Researcher on Crisis Coping for Marginalised Young People: Living and Learning through COVID_19 , a joint School of Education and UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre project, funded by the Health Research Board and the Irish Research Council (2020-2022).

Elaine has published widely in peer-reviewed journals, and she authored the 2013 Ireland report for a six-country study of widening participation effectiveness, funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). She co-authored Reflective Teaching in Higher Education (Bloomsbury, 2015) as part of an international team. Elaine is lead editor of The Routledge Handbook of Constructivist Grounded Theory in Educational Research (with Professor Robert Thornberg, Linköping University, Sweden) (Routledge, 2024). She was also lead editor of Diversifying the Teaching Profession: Dimensions, Dilemmas, and Directions for the Future (Routledge, 2023) with Drs. Heinz and McDaid.

Elaine has published widely on constructivist grounded theory (CGT) including with Professor Kathy Charmaz (originator of CGT) & Professor Robert Thornberg (Linköping Unversity, Sweden). She teaches CGT throughout Ireland and internationally (Australia, Poland, Sweden, South Africa, UK, USA) including annually at the International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (USA), the Odum Institute for Research in Social Science (University of North Carolina, at Chapel Hill, USA), and the Qualitative Research Summer Intensive (QRSI) with ResearchTalk Inc. (USA).

Elaine has reviewed for a range of leading peer-reviewed international academic journals, has served as External Examiner for a range of programmes and doctoral theses in numerous universities in Ireland and internationally, and served two terms as Board of Management member for Knocknacarra Educate Together National School in Galway.

Social class in education; widening participation to the professions; teacher diversity; constructivist grounded theory

My teaching focuses on Sociology of Education and issues of equity, diversity and inclusion in education, and research methodology, across a range of modules in our undergraduate and postgraduate taught and research programmes (BME, CSM, PME, MSc, PhD). I also supervise and tutor student teachers on placement across our initial teacher education programmes and supervise at doctoral level.