Stephen Kemmis is Research Leader (part-time) and Adjunct Professor at the Research Institute for Professional Practice, Learning and Education, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga. He is also co-leader of the 'Pedagogy, Education and Praxis' (PEP) international collaboration involving researchers from universities in Colombia, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden. Stephen has held academic positions at the University of Sydney, University of Illinois, University of East Anglia, Deakin University and the University of Ballarat and also worked for several years as an independent consultant. He has published extensively on professional practice, indigenous education, participatory action research and qualitative methods in educational research. His most well-known publication is the highly acclaimed book (with Wilfred Carr) Becoming Critical: Education, knowledge and action research. In 2001 Stephen was made an Honorary Life Member of the Australian Association for Educational Research (AARE), and in 2009 he was awarded two honorary doctorates for services to international educational research.

Stephen is interested in how professional practices are formed and how they are transformed as they unfold in the professional practice of individuals and in the collective social practice of groups – for example, the practices of the education profession. His work focuses on educational practices in schools and universities. He has published extensively on critical participatory action research as an approach to educational research; this interest is now focused on researching practice traditions 'from within'. With colleagues in the "Pedagogy, Education & Praxis" (PEP) national and international research groups, he is also developing a theory about what practices are made of (the theory of practice architectures) and a theory about how different practices relate to one another (the theory of ecologies of practices).

Stephen teaches postgraduate students in the subject "Understanding  professional practice" in the Doctor of Education course. Stephen has also supervised numerous Masters and PhD students on topics including praxis in education, education for sustainability, rural education and Indigenous education.