Roland Bernhard is Professor of Education (School Development, Leadership & Leadership Culture) at the University College of Teacher Education Vienna/Lower Austria, Privatdozent at the University of Salzburg (where he completed his habilitation in 2019), and board member of the European Character and Virtues Association, which he co-founded.

His mission is to ensure that empirically grounded knowledge about school quality development, effective school leadership, high-quality teaching, and character education finds its way into school practice—so that young people can learn better and truly flourish in the Aristotelian sense of eudaimonia.

Teaching and Instruction

Roland Bernhard has taught at two different schools and carried out teaching and research at nine universities in Austria and England. He regularly receives feedback such as the following in his course evaluations:

“Professor Bernhard is extremely motivating, makes the classes incredibly engaging, and communicates the subject matter dynamically and clearly.”
(Course Evaluation, University College of Teacher Education Vienna/Krems, 2023)

“The professor is competent, professional, friendly, dedicated, structured, enthusiastic, personable, respectful, and genuinely interested in students’ perspectives. This is one of the most exciting and varied courses I have ever attended—highly relevant to my future profession and strongly practice-oriented. [...] Many thanks, Professor!”
(Course Evaluation, University of Vienna, 2021)

“Professor Bernhard, please keep it up. Your commitment inspires us as students and gives us the motivation every future teacher needs. Thank you for the stimulating and insightful course.”
(Course Evaluation, University of Vienna 2021)

Research

For many years, he has been researching what makes schools and education systems highly effective, including as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Oxford. He leads the project School Quality and Teacher Education (www.sqte.at), funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF). His research on school development has attracted broad media attention, making him one of Austria’s most frequently mentioned educational researchers in recent years in the Austrian media.

He heads several international research and development projects—for example in the field of character education—and collaborates with numerous cross-country teams. Together with co-authors, he has published 18 books, edited volumes, or special issues of journals, as well as more than 100 contributions in academic journals, edited collections, and online. He has delivered over 105 academic presentations, including talks at the most important international conferences in educational research such as AERA, ECER, EARLI, and BERA, across 13 countries in Europe and the USA, along with numerous keynotes for decision-makers in Austrian education policy. He has secured (co-)funding of over two million euros in competitive research grants, including several projects funded by the Austrian Science Fund FWF.

Consulting and Other Activities

In addition to his research and teaching, he advises schools and other institutions—for example, the Government of Wales, which he supported in redesigning its teacher education system (link). He also serves as an external examiner for doctoral candidates at the University of Birmingham and is a member of the editorial board of the History Education Research Journal, published by University College London, Institute of Education Press, where he has been actively involved in its development.

At the University he coordinates the Research Unit for School Development & Leadership and serves as chair of the School Development Consulting division. In this role, he is responsible for the further development and evaluation of school development and school consulting. He is also engaged as a volunteer mentor with Teach For Austria.

Roland Bernhard gladly supervises theses on topics such as school development, school quality management, leadership, character education, parental engagement, evidence-based instructional development, and related fields.