Graham McPhail is a senior lecturer in the School of Curriculum and Pedagogy, in the Faculty of Education and Social Work, at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. He took up this position in 2015 after twenty years of work in the secondary education sector including three years as the National Moderator for NCEA Music. His current research is centred on the role of knowledge in the curriculum, in particular within C21schooling and music education contexts. He is the lead editor for New Zealand’s first volume on secondary school music education Educational Change and the Secondary School Music Curriculum in Aotearoa New Zealand published by Routledge  in 2018. He is a past President of the New Zealand Suzuki Institute and is Deputy President of Australian & New Zealand Association for Research in Music Education (ANZARME).

Graham currently has 45 book chapters and papers published. He has been published in journals both in New Zealand and internationally including the British Educational Research Journal, the British Journal of Sociology of Education, the Curriculum Journal, the Journal of Curriculum Studies, the International Journal of Education and the Arts, Philosophy of Music Education Review, the International Journal of Music Education, Research Studies in Music Education, the British Journal of Music Education, the New Zealand Journal of Educational Studies, The New Zealand Journal of Teachers' Work, Curriculum Matters, and Pacific-Asian Education.

Of particular interest is Graham’s work as a member of the KERU (Knowledge in Education Research Unit) and the Knowledge Rich School Project currently underway. This project is trailing an approach to curriculum design that aligns subject knowledge structures with content, assessment, and pedagogy to enable deep learning and curricular coherence. (See here)

Graham also works in partnership with Dr Richard Pountney at Sheffield Hallam University researching curriculum development in C21 contexts. Richard and Graham have published two papers together in the British Educational Research Journal. (See here and here)

Graham also teaches baroque violin in the School of Music and is one of New Zealand’s leading figures in the critical approach to performance of 17th and 18th century European art music. In this capacity Graham is co-artistic director of NZ Barok, New Zealand’s baroque instrument orchestra (see here) which can be regularly heard on RNZ Concert.