In recognition of John’s contribution to the foundation of SCoTENS, the John Coolahan award is made to the authors of the Seed Funding Report which is recognised to be most in line with the values and ideals of SCoTENS. This award is awarded annually at the SCoTENS Annual Conference.
Through his pioneering work on SCoTENS since 2003 John immeasurably enhanced cross-border cooperation in teacher education, such that the SCoTENS mission is synonymous with his name. Thanks to John’s vision, teacher educators, student teachers, serving teachers and doctoral students have learned to work across boundaries, to build bridges and to recognise common interests and challenges facing contemporary education on both sides of the border. The opportunities provided for cross-border working through SCoTENS have yielded new knowledge and understandings that shape daily practices and attitudes.
This year, there was a joint award for two exceptional projects which took place as part of the Research Webinar held in March 2022. Dr Gabrielle Nig Uidhir, St Mary’s University College Belfast awarded the two successful seed funded projects:
Contested Childhoods Across Borders and Boundaries
Contested Childhoods Across Borders and Boundaries (CCaBB) whose authors are Diane McClelland, Leah O’Toole, Thomas Walsh, Deirdre Forde, Suzanne O’Keefe, Carl Anders Safstrom & Noel Purdy
Knowing Your Neighbour: Educating in Multi-belief contexts in Northern and SouthernIreland (KYN) whose authors are Aideen Hunter & Jones Irwin.
