Stanley's academic career started at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, where he completed a Higher Diploma in Education, a BA (Hons), and an MA. While lecturing in the Department of African Literature in the late 1980s, he became interested in the teaching and learning challenges posed by the rapid increase in student diversity as the university began to transform in response to changing political circumstances.

In 1990 he took up a lecturing post in the Academic Staff Development Centre, and later shifted to the Academic Development Programme as Senior Research Officer. In 1997 he moved to New Zealand with his family, and was appointed to the academic staff of the Centre for Professional Development at the University of Auckland in 1998. He recently took up a new position as Flexible Learning Manager of Northland Polytechnic.

His current research interests include the ways in which flexible learning can enhance access for learners in remote communities. This builds on his PhD in Education where he explored the relationship between ecological postmodernsim and the process of teaching and learning. Other research interests extend into the areas of teaching evaluation and the impact of technology on traditional practices of tertiary education. He is involved in a number of e-Learning Collaborative Development fund projects and was recently selected as a Flexible Learning Leader in New Zealand for 2004/5.