Our 2024 top UCC School of Education PME Graduate Stephen Foley was recently awarded the prestigious NUI Scholarship and Prize in Education on November 22nd in a ceremony held in Croke Park. We are all very proud of Stephen’s ongoing achievements and how he represents our PME programme and the high standards it achieves. Stephen is currently teaching Irish and French in Cashel Community School.

Congratulations to current PME 1 student Caitriona Kiely who was awarded a bursary from the Cork Branch of the Irish Mathematics Teachers Association (IMTA).

The bursary was awarded to Catriona at a small reception in UCC on the 13^th of November.

A huge well done and congratulations to the BEd (Hons) Physical Education, Sports Studies and Arts graduates who received the Annual Student Awards on the 30th of October 2024 in the North Wing Council room.

We are delighted to announce the publication of a new book with Oak Tree Press by School of Education colleagues, Seánín Hoy, Gearóid O'Brien and Steve O'Brien on teaching Global Citizenship Education (GCE) in the post-primary classroom. This honours the important work that educators do in nurturing young global citizens - a most hopeful and ever-pressing responsibility.

To all students in the School of Education, UCC

Would you like to take part in the new School of Education Student Voice Committee?

Your voice matters! The Student Voice Committee will provide you with the opportunity to meet with peers from across the School of Education and discuss matters that concern you. Your discussions and ideas can provide constructive feedback to staff and management in the School of Education which, in turn, will help improve student experience (now and into the future).

Click Read more for further information on how you can get involved.

The Bachelor of Science Education programme awards for 2024 took place on Monday 4th November.

The PME2 class of 2023/2024 graduated on Wednesday, October 30th. The conferring was a further celebratory milestone in the development of the PME programme in UCC marking the 10th anniversary since its introduction in 2014.

One of our talented graduates Stephen Foley came first place in the class across both taught modules and School Placement.

He was presented with a medal to mark his outstanding achievement at a ceremony before his official conferring.

Stephen is pictured below with Dr Brian Murphy, PME Programme Director and Dr Niamh Dennehy, PME Deputy Director and his parents. Stephen is currently employed in Cashel Community School teaching both Irish and French.

An awards ceremony celebrating the achievements of our B.Ed. Gaeilge 2024 graduates took place on Tuesday 29th October 2024 at 2pm.

The following awards were presented:

• Gradam Bharr Feabhais Acadúil 2024 - Siobhán Ní Chróinín
• Gradam Ildánaí 2024 - Sophie Ní Choileáin

Well done to both Siobhán and Sophie!

On Friday 27th September the School of Education Athena Swan Self-Assessment Team (SAT) held its first formal meeting. Staff from the EDI unit and CACSSS gave short presentations on the process and the central supports available. As Chair of the committee, Professor Deirdre Horgan outlined the Terms of Reference for the SAT and led a discussion on the formation of Working Groups. Professor Nicola Ingram signed the letter of commitment to the Athena Swan Ireland Charter principles to strive for impactful and sustainable gender equality work and to build capacity for evidence-based equality work across the equality grounds enshrined in Irish legislation. We look forward to working with all members of staff on this important project in the coming year with submission of an application for a Bronze award planned for April 2026.

We are delighted to announce the launch of the 2024-25 New Avenues to Teaching bursary scheme for student teachers from under-represented groups.

Further information can be found at www.ucc.ie/en/nat/

Closing date: Friday, 20th December 2024 at 4pm.

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.

On April 12, 2024, New Avenues to Teaching (NAT) and UCC Access organized an "Inclusive free/built-in technologies to make reading, writing, teaching & learning easier" workshop, as part of Cork Lifelong Learning Festival 2024. Educators from the School of Education and other Schools from the College of Arts, Celtic Studies and Social Sciences gathered at University College Cork's Western Gateway Building to experiment with the apps and the digital tools accessible on our devices. The workshop was moderated by Dr Camelia Nadia Bran and facilitated by Deirdre Madden.

Well done to Dr Fiona Chambers and colleagues on the recent publication of their new edited book.

This innovative book presents a new framework for researchers in the field of physical education and youth sport. By examining the complex interplay between values, voice and ethics within the research process, it showcases how the CREATE Principles for Research Design can facilitate meaningful research with/for children and young people.

The School of Education have recently launched a new podcast entitled “Praxis in Motion: teachers and researchers in dialogue”.

The Postgraduate Diploma in Further, Adult and Community Education will have its first intake in September 2024. The course is custom built for teachers in the Further, Adult and Community Education sector to enable them to meet the needs of their students.

The programme was professionally accredited by the Teaching Council in July 2023. It will equipe students with the knowledge, skills and professional attitudes and values required to teach in a variety of settings in the Further Education sector such as Youthreach, PLC programmes, Further Education Colleges, Training Centres, Private Training Companies and broader Adult and Community Education settings. 

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

Congratulations to our colleague Dr Declan Kennedy who recently received a ‘Long Service Award’ from UCC for 25 years’ service.

Staff at the School of Education and the wider UCC community were deeply saddened to learn of the recent death of Dr Mary Barry Wall, former Head of the School of Education. Mary first came to UCC as a student, where she evolved her love of languages, particularly French. Upon completing her studies, Mary returned to her alma mater, St Aloysius Secondary School, Cork, to teach. In the early 1960s, she interviewed for and was offered a position as College Lecturer in the Education Department and began a long and distinguished career at UCC. 

The UCC Entrance Scholarship Award Ceremony for the College of Arts, Celtic Studies and Social Sciences took place on November 27th.

Congratulations to current PME 1 students Dara Keane and Laura Keeley who were awarded bursaries from the Cork Branch of the Irish Mathematics Teachers Association (IMTA).

The bursaries were awarded to Dara and Laura at a small reception in Leeholme on the 15th of November.

Huge thanks to the Cork IMTA for their generosity in awarding bursaries to support incoming UCC PME mathematics student teachers in their studies and well done to Laura and Dara on their successful applications!

Many thanks to Eoghan Long (Cork IMTA Chairperson) for making the presentations on behalf of IMTA.

Congratulations to four School of Education PhD students who were conferred with their PhD degree at a ceremony on October 26th, 2023 - Dr Conor Philpott (Staff, School of Education), Dr Katie Power, Dr Carmel Hinchion and Dr Fergal Harrington

The following B.Ed. in Physical Education, Sports Studies and Arts (PESSA) Programme graduates of 2023 recently received awards on the 20th October:

- Robyn Sheehan - ‘Award for Academic Excellence 2023’
- Kate Dooley – ‘The Eamonn Ryan Role Model Award 2023’
- Sean Murphy and Danú Ní Thuama jointly received - ‘The Oisín Kelly Above and Beyond Award 2023’.

A special mention must also be flagged with respect to the Oisín Kelly Above and Beyond Award – Oisín passed away recently on the 10th August of this year, and his legacy to the PESSA programme will be forever remembered by naming this annual student Above and Beyond Award after this incredibly resilient and brave young man from Carlow. We are very proud here in UCC to have gotten to know Oisín, when he joined the BEDSSPE programme in September 2020 as a first year undergraduate student from Myshall in Co Carlow.

The B.A. (Hons) in Early Years and Childhood Studies Student Awards for 2023 took place on Friday 20th October. A small reception and prize-giving award ceremony was held on campus in UCC.

The fourth transnational meeting of the Erasmus+ project titled "Digitalisation of multilingual programs in the EHEA" (DIMPE) was held at University College Cork in Ireland 16-17 October 2023.

Congratulations to our colleague Dr Fiona Chambers who has recently been elected as Vice President of CEREPS, the European Council for Research in Physical Education and School Sport. CEREPS was founded as a non-governmental, non-profit organization in Luxembourg in autumn 2015. The purpose of CEREPS is to develop, to implement, to evaluate and to disseminate research on European level about aims and objectives of physical education, school sports and other physical activity in school contexts (PE).

The School of Education is currently the lead partner in the delivery of a series of numeracy professional development workshops for adult practitioners. Series 2 of Numeracy-Meets is aimed at supporting practitioners who teach specific adult numeracy vulnerable groups. Funded by the Adult Literacy for Life (ALL) Collaboration & Innovation Fund 2023, the Numeracy-Meets are organised by third-level practitioners interested in the promotion of numeracy in partnership with the National Adult Literary Agency (NALA). Numeracy-Meets are an informal, yet structured community of practice for numeracy practitioners to share best practice, resources, and personal insights into teaching adult numeracy.

Congratulations to our colleagues João Costa, Diarmuid Lester, Camelia Bran and Kate Feeney, as well as all the Teaching Fellows from the id+ Project Team, who recently received the Frank McGrath Perpetual Award for Wellbeing and Welfare at the University Staff and Campus Companies Staff Recognition Awards 2023. This Award is presented to individuals or teams who demonstrate outstanding contribution towards wellbeing and welfare at UCC.

The UCC Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Unit (EDI) recently ran a Soapbox event to share knowledge of EDI initiatives across the university. 

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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!

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.