Themes

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The Education Department supports an energetic, dynamic, interdisciplinary research culture. We have strong and vibrant traditions of teaching and research with particular expertise in the development of innovative pedagogies; the promotion of social justice, equality and inclusion; and in nurturing the developing person by supporting resilience and wellbeing. Our research focuses on the educational experiences of individuals throughout the life-course, incorporating all education sectors from early childhood education, through to primary, second level, higher and further education.

The Education Department is at the forefront of undergraduate and postgraduate teacher education, leadership, and guidance and counselling in Ireland, and many past students of the Department hold strategic positions in the education sector. Our academic staff have formed collaborations with researchers and educational practitioners across the globe. We have also developed numerous partnerships with key educational stakeholders at national and local levels.
Our researchers draw on a range of research designs and methodologies including action research, narrative inquiry, qualitative and quantitative research, documentary analysis, ethnographic and arts-based approaches.

Click below for details of our three research themes.

Professional studies

Our research in the area of Professional Studies is recognised both nationally and internationally and focuses on the fields of Teacher Education, Guidance Counsellor Education, Educational Leadership, and Professional Development. Publications and projects centre on teacher autonomy and agency, school leadership and diversity and inclusion. Researchers under this strand seek to understand and critically interrogate the complex network of professionals and stakeholders that together make education possible across the lifespan. In this strand we are interested in enhancing the voice of professionals and drawing upon professional experience in the service of collaborative stewardship of education in all its forms.   

Transformative pedagogies and spaces

This strand forefronts the conception of education as a distinctly relational encounter concerned with purposes of qualification, socialisation, and subjectification. Researchers under this strand are concerned with investigations into innovative pedagogical practices and ecologies that promote socioculturally sensitive encounters. Researchers here are interested in critical approaches that aim to challenge inequalities and oppression through a variety of stances such as those drawing on critical race theory, decolonial studies, and feminist theories, among others, through research on pedagogies of discomfort and disruption, inclusive practices, brave spaces, innovative technologies, and democratic participation.

Education, culture and social justice

This strand emphasises the role of education in the societal transformation. Issues of diversity, equality and participation are key themes. Researchers under this strand are seeking to promote and enhance education for global justice. This strand also focuses on the formation of the identities of education practitioners and learners within the social context of education and educational policy.  In this area we are interested in culture and social contexts that shape education everyday experiences in relation to democracy, well-being, health, identity, diversity, social justice, migration, sustainability, peace, race and human flourishing.

Research

Undergraduate Studies

Postgraduate Studies

International

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Maynooth University Department of Education

Professional studies

Transformative pedagogies and spaces

Education, culture and social justice

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