Grace Cardiff

Grace is a Lecturer in Education at the Froebel Department of Primary and Early Childhood Education. Her teaching areas include physical education, and curriculum, methodologies & assessment. Her research focuses on student voice pedagogies in primary physical education, Meaningful PE, and the role of reflection in support student voice. 

Grace is a qualified primary school teacher and has experience teaching across various class levels in mainstream school settings. She has also taught in a public school in the United States. In addition to her work as a primary school teacher, she have delivered modules on the BA (Honours) Degree in Early Childhood Education through the Lifelong Learning programme in SETU Carlow and on the Masters of Education (Literacy Education) programme in Frostburg State University, Maryland.  

In 2017, Grace earned a Master of Education (Literacy Education) from Frostburg State University, Maryland, USA, and became a certified Reading Specialist in the state of Maryland. Building on her interest in student voice, she began her PhD in 2021 under the supervision of Prof. Déirdre Ní Chróinín and Dr. Richard Bowles (Mary Immaculate College) and Prof. Tim Fletcher (Brock University). She successfully completed her PhD in 2024, with her thesis examining student voice as a pedagogical approach within primary physical education.

Grace actively collaborates with teachers and academics nationally and internationally through various research initiatives. She has established partnerships with lecturers in primary physical education at Mary Immaculate College (MIC) and Dublin City University (DCU). Through her involvement in the Erasmus-funded CHAMP PE project, she has worked alongside teacher educators across Europe and has presented to physical education teachers in Spain, Norway, North Macedonia, and Denmark. Additionally, she contributed as a research assistant on an IRC New Foundations project in collaboration with the Irish Primary PE Association, supporting primary teachers and students in integrating student voice into PE classrooms.