Anne Smith is the Director of the Children’s Issues Centre, an interdisciplinary research centre at the University of Otago. She has been writing and carrying out research about children for many years. Although she was originally trained as an educational psychologist, Anne’s research is currently framed within sociology of childhood, children’s rights, and socio-ecological theoretical perspectives. It emphasises children as social actors, interpreters and participants in the events and experiences of their lives.

Anne Smith is engaged in research about children’s rights at school, quality early childhood education, children from divorced and separated families, and young people’s participation in public life. She was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1995, received the McKenzie Award for innovative research in Education in 1997, and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Oulu Finland in 1998.