On the 1st of September UCC’s New Avenues to Teaching (NAT) initiative (https://www.ucc.ie/en/nat/) will launch the project “EKARA - Exploring Knowledge and Awareness of Reasonable Accommodations/Adjustments for ITE Students with Disabilities in ROI and NI". This project is funded by SCoTENS within the 2023 Seed Funding competition. It is an innovative, collaborative project between the UCC School of Education and the Education Department at St. Mary's University College Belfast.

In collaboration with colleagues in the Cork Centre for Architecture education, and the Civic and Community Engagement unit, the School of Education in UCC was delighted to facilitate an embedded community research project with visiting scholars and undergraduate students from the University of North Carolina, Greensboro (UNCG) in the month of June. Nine UNCG students studying kinesiology, and communication studies, along with their two professors, Kristen Christman and Donna Duffy engaged in a community research project with the Fairhill Community Association. 

We are pleased to announce that the Early Years and Childhood Studies Programme at UCC have been awarded £5470 Seed Funding from SCoTENS, to support a Placement Enhancement Project. The project, “A Community of Practice for Placement Enhancement in the Early Years [CoPPEEY]", led by the Placement Team, aims to facilitate reflection and dialogue between the North and South HEI institutions exploring the commonalities and differences, in professional practice placement, across borders.

This year, the Federation of Irish Sport launched the first Irish Sport Industry Award which recognises Women in Business in Sport and is sponsored by KPMG.

On the 25th May 2023, the winner of the inaugural Women in Business in Sport award was announced as Dr Fiona Chambers. This 'rewards sustained excellence by a female professional working in business related to sport on the island of Ireland that has delivered innovation, growth, leadership or standout services in the industry'. Fiona is recognised because of her work in sport, innovation and education.

We are delighted to announce the publication of a new book entitled "Perspectives on the Teaching of English in Post Primary Education" published by Cork University Press. 

EDFEST 23, held this year on April 20th, combined an afternoon of presentations to the staff of our partner and placement schools and Early Years settings with the official opening of the Outdoor Teaching and Learning area at Fernhurst on O’Donovan’s Road.  The main purpose of this combined event was to acknowledge the support provided to our students on placement and to provide a professional learning opportunity in UCC for the staff of these placement settings.

There was great excitement in Dubai at the recent 2023 ICASE World Conference on Science and Technology Education when it was announced that the School of Education UCC had won the bid to host the 2026 ICASE World Science and Technology Conference. ICASE is the International Council of Associations for Science Education and is the professional organisation representing science education associations throughout the world

UCC Graduate Attributes Programme, in collaboration with the Graduate Studies Office and UCC Career Services, are offering Postgraduate Research students unlimited access to LinkedIn Learning until September 2023.

The School of Education is delighted to host a talk and Q & A session with Claire O’Neill about inclusion and diversity in the teaching profession from a neurodiversity perspective.  This is part of the Cork Lifelong Learning Festival and will take place in West Wing 9, UCC on Monday the 27th of March from 6:30pm – 7.30pm.  The talk has been organised by Kirsten Hurley, Research Officer for New Avenues to Teaching (NAT). NAT is an initiative with the primary aim of increasing diversity within the Irish teaching profession.

The conference which took place on the 10^th of March showcased the integrated and holistic nature of the Early Years and Childhood Studies degree and research in early childhood at UCC which positively contributes to early learning, well-being and development in the present and into the future.

The School of Education UCC and Stranmillis University College are delighted to present this free online cross-border conference on Wednesday, 29th March 2023 from 5pm to 7pm. This conference will be opened by Professor Kathy Hall (UCC) and will explore assessment as learning with a keynote address from Professor Sue Swaffield. Professor Swaffield is a renowned author, researcher and academic in the field of education with a particular interest and expertise in assessment. The overall focus of the conference is an exploration of the value of assessment as a learning tool.

There will be sharing of good practice ideas and recommendations for educators and schools who aim to develop their assessment as learning practices.

Link to register for this conference is HERE (https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/assessment-as-learning-tickets-558599003657)

This live on-campus workshop is open to all UCC students on Initial Teacher Education courses (undergraduate and PME).

In this workshop, being delivered by Dr Camelia Bran (NAT Lecturer) you will:

• learn more about the New Avenues to Teaching project
• help create an inclusive community of student teachers built on respect, trust and cooperation
• explore how diversity can be valued as an important resource for personal and professional growth

Location of the workshop: 1 Lucan Place, Western Road [Room G02].

Date: 15^th March 2023 from 1-2pm

To sign up just complete the following form by Friday, 10th March: https://forms.gle/YsBdoqrPmFNc4vVM8 (Please note that the participants need to be signed in on their UCC student account)

Places are limited and your attendance will be confirmed by the organizers.

The ID+ Project in UCC promotes the fundamental rights of people with intellectual disabilities to attend third-level education and to progress to paid employment (for more details see https://www.ucc.ie/en/idplus/)

New Avenues to Teaching World Caffe Workshop: Diversifying the teaching force in Ireland

The objectives of this workshop are: 

• To analyse the current situation from the point of view of the diversity of the teaching force in Ireland
• To identify the obstacles, the barriers and the challenges that prevent the diversification of the teaching force in Ireland
• To propose solutions for the diversification of the teaching force in Ireland
• To initiate sustainable partnerships having in mind the diversification of the teaching force in mind

We will organize the event using the World Café Methodology. We will give the participants space for discussions and reflection in a stimulative space under the aroma of the fresh coffee.

Different stakeholders will be expected to attend the event.

The event will take place in the Western Gateway Building, Room G08.

Date 30^th March 2023 from 2-5 pm

Places are limited so you are invited to register at the following link:

https://forms.gle/DcUvNyNbPsdBSQfc6

Your attendance will be confirmed by the organizers.

On December 1, Fiachra Long launched his new book entitled Essays in the Phenomenology of Learning: The Challenge of Proximity with Routledge in the New Directions in the Philosophy of Education Series.

This book describes how different philosophers represent the ‘proximity’ moment in learning situations. The term ‘proximity’ draws on Vygotsky’s celebrated Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) but broadens its psychological focus. Given that phenomenology is the study of ‘appearances’, this book examines how ‘proximate’ appearances enter the learning process. If we think that what appears before learners is important or worth studying, then we need to ask about how close these appearances are to a learner’s actual interest.

The launch took place on the afternoon of the 8th of December in the Dora Allman Room in the Hub Building. It was great to see their work celebrated and well done to all involved.

On Wednesday 7th December, our colleague Dr Dan O'Sullivan was honoured at the university's Teaching Excellence Awards where he received a Lifetime Contribution Award for his outstanding contribution to teaching and learning over the course of his long and distinguished professional career.

Congratulations to current PME 1 students Conor Mulcahy and Coleman Quin who were awarded bursaries from the Cork Branch of the Irish Mathematics Teachers Association (IMTA).

School of Education colleagues Dr. João Costa and Dr. Wesley O'Brien attended the "Quality of Teaching in Physical Education" (QualiTePE) Erasmus+ project meeting representing UCC as project researchers. This project meeting took place between October 4th and 6th, in Zurich (Switzerland). At this meeting, the QualiTePE project team - involving researchers from Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, France, The Netherlands, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Spain, Sweden, and Ireland - advanced on the project's conceptual framework based on the "Main Teach Model" (Charalambous and Praetorius, 2020) with a view to develop a formative assessment tool that captures data on the teaching practices to be used in PE teacher education programmes by teacher educators, student teachers, and the school pupils. Ms. Úna Kingston, a UCC PhD candidate, is also a working member in the QualiTePE project.

On the 25th of October, the School of Education SSPE First Year students, assisted by Physical Activity Coordinator Dr. João Mota, and Adventure Education tutor Ms. Fiona Harrington, embraced the rain and wind to explore the beautiful outdoor setting of West Cork Secret. There were a range of different team challenges that allowed the group to develop a stronger bond as they all get to know each other during the first semester. Despite the weather, there were lots of memories to remember!

On the 19th October (2022), the Annual B.Ed. Sports Studies and Physical Education (BEDSSPE) Student Awards took place in the Múscraí room at 2pm, attended by many of our full and part-time colleagues within the School of Education.

At the end of September, Dr. Wesley O'Brien, Dr. Diarmuid Lester and Dr. Fiona Chambers (President AIESEP) each travelled to Brixen/ Bressanone for the AIESEP motor competence seminar held in Italy. This was an excellent 3-day interactive seminar, whereby the sessions comprised of keynote discussions, breakout room activities, position statement developments and poster presentations.

Well done to colleagues for representing the School of Education at the UCC Case Study of Good Practice Symposium which took place on Thursday October 20th in the Glucksman Gallery. The symposium was organised by UCC’s Quality Enhancement Unit and the overall aim was to highlight the great work that is carried out by the UCC community that are considered instances of Good Practice from which others can learn from.

The B.A. (Hons) in Early Years and Childhood Studies Student Awards for 2022 took place on Wednesday 19th October.

A small reception and prize-giving award ceremony was held on campus in UCC. 

Recipients received awards in the following categories:

Top Student Award 2022: Rachel O'Sullivan
Top Placement Mark Award 2022: Junior Brosnan

Well done to both Rachel and Junior on these commendable achievements!

Dr Fiona Chambers is founder of the Global Design Challenge for Sport and Physical Activity. Now in its third year and under UNESCO patronage, the GDC 2022 is a free competition (10^th - 14^th October) that uses design thinking to crowdsource ideas that reimagine sport and physical activity for both incubation and impact. Registrants have access to free webinars on design thinking, UN SDGs and pitching. The Intellectual Property remains with the teams, with winners receiving 15k in incubation tokens to advance their idea. See: https://gdc2022.devpost.com/

Dr Kevin Cahill and Dr Dan O'Sullivan participated in the launch of an Irish Educational Studies special issue on Rethinking Educational Disadvantage. The launch took place on the 6^th of October in the Royal Irish Academy and was accompanied by a wonderful conference on Educational Disadvantage featuring leading academics from Ireland, the UK and the USA. Kevin and Dan's article features in the special issue and is entitled: Making a difference in educational inequality: reflections from research and practice.

The STEM Teacher Internship (STInt) Programme offers future post-primary STEM teachers experience of 12-week paid internships in STEM roles https://stemteacherinternships.ie/ In the summer of 2022, nine UCC School of Education student teachers and graduates completed internships in companies such as Stryker, Apple, Vistamilk, and MSD.

The School of Education’s PME Professional Research Paper Symposium took place on the 9th of May 2022. This annual event is an important opportunity to showcase the research work of our Professional Master of Education (PME) Year 2 students in their placement schools. The research was undertaken by students in their own classrooms with the invaluable support and advice of principals, deputy principals, and Treoraithe from our partner schools, and support from many School of Education supervising staff. All research was classroom–based and presented practical and relevant insights on a range of educational and pedagogical issues, across an array of subject areas and in a variety of school contexts. This annual Symposium celebrates the rich and vibrant professional association between the PME programme and our partner schools.

EDFEST 22 took place in the School of Education on the 11th of May 2022. EDFEST is a Community Engagement Seminar organised by the School of Education for schools and the wider education community. The theme of EDFEST 22 was Assessment in Second-Level Education: Challenges and Opportunities.

The event included a keynote address from Professor Áine Hyland on current assessment issues in post-primary schools, alongside inputs on research and practice from the School of Education’s staff and PhD students working in the area of assessment.

School of Education colleagues Dr Alison Moore and Marcella Towler were recently awarded research funding from the Froebel Trust UK. This small-scale research pilot project investigates Early Years and Childhood Studies students’ developing understanding of outdoor learning spaces. The study will foster a reimagination of the indoor/outdoor learning environment. This is the only Irish research project to be funded by the Froebel Trust UK [funding round 2021/2022]. The research project, delivered in two phases is supported by the School of Education and the outdoor space in UCC provides the site for phase one of the study. This will enable students to understand Froebel’s pedagogy through their own lived experiences in the outdoor space. 

Dr Alison Moore and Marcella Towler are part of a project that is funded by the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. A series of four Community of Practice Events were held between 4th November 2021 and May 2022, during which they explored the relationship between college staff, students and professional practice placements and how students can be best supported.