Athlone Christine Besley (born in New Zealand in 1950) is an education academic.

[4][5] Having been a NZ secondary school teacher for 16 years, she began her academic career as research fellow at University of Glasgow, Scotland in late 2000, then she moved to University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

She has been a Full Professor since appointment in 2006 at California State University San Bernardino.

Besley has been President of Philosophy of Education Society of Australasia (PESA).

[9] In September 2018 she took up a position as Distinguished Professor at Beijing Normal University, China.