His research has concentrated on the role of schooling for the growth of the Australian middle class. He has written and co-written eight books addressing different aspects of the social history of education, including secondary education, school choice and adolescence and youth. His latest book, with Helen Proctor, is the first general history of Australian school education published in thirty five years: A History of Australian Schooling (2014). He has convened two ISCHE conferences in Australia and is an ex-member of the ISCHE Executive Committee. He is currently co-editor of the History of Education Review and DEHANZ, the Dictionary of Educational History in Australia and New Zealand (on-line). His current research project is a biography of Jean Blackburn, a hero of Australian educational history.