We were delighted to welcome our new Cohort of PhD students for their induction on the 21^st of September.

It was a great day and we are looking forward to seeing the contributions that our 2024 Cohort make to Irish education through their research!! 

Further information on our Cohort programme can be found at: https://www.ucc.ie/en/ckh78/

An article entitled 'Private school entry to Oxbridge: how cultural capital counts in the making of elites' by Nicola Ingram and her co-author Rachel Stenhouse is featured on BBC Radio 4's Thinking Allowed in an episode on British Elites.

On the 13th of September 2024, Adult Continuing Education (ACE), in partnership with the School of Education, welcomed the inaugural cohort of the Postgraduate Diploma in Further, Adult and Community Education (PDFACE) programme to the college. For the first time, in the history of UCC and teacher education provision in Cork, we are providing a FET teacher qualification for all those practitioners working with adult learners across the diverse voluntary and statutory providers in our community. We honour the seminal work of Bertram Windle, Alfred O’Rahilly and so many women and men who have worked with adult learners over the years, and we look forward to supporting the further professionalisation of adult educators into the future!

More information about the programme can be found at: https://www.ucc.ie/en/ace-pdface/

Our colleague, Dr. Wesley O’Brien was recently involved as the Athletic Development coach for the Cork Senior Camogie team, as the team secured back-to-back All Ireland titles on the 11th August, 2024. 

We were delighted to welcome the Minister for Education, Norma Foley to UCC on the 9^th of May. The Minister met with several colleagues from the School of Education to discuss initial teacher education and visited our Eureka Centre!

On April 19th, the final day of classes for the semester, the Physical Education, Sports Studies and Arts (PESSA) programme ended the year on a high note, with its first edition of a mixed-ability basketball tournament held in conjunction with partners from the Cope Foundation.

The Cope Foundation is a Cork-based non-profit organization which supports 2,800 children and adults across county Cork with autism and other intellectual disabilities. We were proud to support Cope in assisting with coaching sessions for their men’s basketball team over both semesters and are grateful to our close partnership with the Mardyke Arena for the provision of facilities, and additional court space for our final tournament. The tournament served as a fine culminating event to a community outreach project which began in semester one. Staff and students from the PESSA have served as coaches on Friday afternoons in the Mardyke arena for basketball sessions for the Cope Foundation, assisting Cope staff in their delivery. Participation in a succession of skill development activities, and games served as the cornerstone of these sessions. The core philosophy of this link-up was to highlight the role and value physical activity has for improving quality of life, developing physical fitness, and nurturing all-round health for all members of the population. Additionally, it gave our PESSA students a wonderful opportunity to gain practical experience working with individuals with additional needs supporting their in-class teaching across their range of modules.

EdFest 24 took place in the School of Education on the 24^th of April 2024. EdFest is a Community Engagement Seminar organised by the School of Education for schools and the wider education community.

The Praxis Project hosted another interesting workshop which took place on Friday 19th and Tuesday 23rd of April. "The Elephant in the Room" workshop was aimed at staff and students who came together to work on the start of what is a longer-term research project relating to racism in higher education.

The School of Education witnessed an impressive display of student-led initiatives as part of the course UW0012 in Global Citizenship and Development Education. This course, open to students from all disciplines and academic levels, is now in its sixth year and as always, is very popular with students

In an insightful and participative keynote event held on April 16th, 2024, during the university's annual Praxis Week, Caoimhe de Barra, CEO of Trócaire and a notable figure in global social justice, captivated both students and faculty with her discussion on the transformative power of Development Education in higher education settings.