The fifth volume of the Hibernia College Education Papers was launched last week on 17 August. Researchers from the PME in Primary Education programme were celebrated with a reception in Dublin while researchers from the PME in Post-Primary Education programme were celebrated with a reception in Athlone. View the publication and profiles of student researchers on our website under Student Research.
Launch Event
At the official launch of the volume in Dublin, a keynote address was delivered by Dr John Mescal, Programme Director of the PME in Primary Education. Patricia Nunan, Programme Director of the PME in Post-Primary Education, officially launched the volume in Athlone. Dr Frank Kehoe, Research Lead for the Post-Primary programme, spoke about the contributions of the research to both the graduates’ practice and teacher education more widely, and Maria Mulrooney shared her experience as a research supervisor. Student contributors present at the event included Rebecca Ronan from the PME in Primary Education programme and Stephen O’Dowd, Phillippa Rappoport and Sarah Joyce from the PME in Post-Primary Education programme. These graduates each delivered a short presentation of their work and the impact it now has on their teaching profession.
Research Module and Publication
As part of our Professional Master of Education (PME) programme, students complete a 10,000-word dissertation during their Research module. The Research module emphasises lifelong learning through reflection. With the support of the Research team, students are encouraged to work independently and to demonstrate an ability to plan, implement and evaluate an empirical investigation that integrates theories, knowledge and skills central to the curriculum and is informed by their school placement practice. Student teachers, as researchers, choose a topic from four different pillars: (1) Teaching, Learning and Assessment (TLA); (2) Digital Literacy and Learning Technologies; (3) Inclusive Education; (4) Global Citizenship, Sustainability and Wellbeing.
The collection of education papers showcases the top-performing graduate teachers from both programmes. The authors demonstrated a passionate dedication to diverse research areas, including inquiry-based learning; formative assessment practices and feedback; self-determination strategies in Mathematics; wellbeing in Social, Personal and Health Education (SPHE) and Physical Education (PE); inclusive education; outdoor learning; linguistic codes; numeracy; Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles; Information Communication Technology (ICT) integration; and English as an Additional Language (EAL) in the mainstream classroom.
Congratulations to our Graduates
In the foreword to this edition of the Education Papers, volume editor, Dr Linda Butler Neff, writes:
We pay tribute to the resilience of our primary and post-primary graduate teachers who demonstrated steadfast versatility as student teachers during one of the most fluctuant and unprecedented periods across the education sector in 2020 and 2021 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This uncertain landscape introduced new challenges that the College, as a whole, addressed in renegotiating our identities as teacher educators and embracing alternative forms of research. In this volume, the research project took the form of documentary research with a focus on an integrative literature review methodology.
We applaud the commitment and care demonstrated by our research supervisors in supporting our student teachers throughout the research process. The impact of the past two years on initial teacher education and research has been significant. However, this volume is testimony to the exceptional work that these graduates reflect on the need to continue to preserve and disseminate educational research that is pivotal to Irish education today.
Research Lead (Primary) Dr Linda Butler Neff and Research Lead (Post-Primary) Dr Frank Kehoe join the College community in applauding the high-quality research of our alumni.
