Building Research Capacity North and South

Promotion and Dissemination of Research

18-19 February 2005
All Hallows College, Drumcondra, Dublin

A joint venture conference convened by ESAI & BERA supported by SCoTENS

To organise two research training days, one in Northern Ireland in Autumn 2006 and one in the Republic of Ireland in Spring 2007. The topics to be discussed include: ethics and educational research; mapping of territory of education research; specific skills in educational research; developing a repository of research in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, using the Centre for Cross Border Studies new BorderIreland information database;  project design with reference to key strategic objectives at regional, national and European levels.

 

North South Conference on Education for Diversity and Citizenship

Published Reports, Citizenship and Diversity

Funding has been granted to two conferences both entitled North South conference on Education for Diversity and Citizenship.  Fifty people from both jurisdictions attended the first conference in the Slieve Russell Hotel, Co. Cavan on the 31/9/2004 – 1/10/2004.

The second conference was held for a similar number of participants in the Armagh City Hotel on April 20 -21 2007.

The theme of the second conference was Controversial Issues in the Classroom. The event was facilitated by Dr Diana Hess, University of Wisconsin. Dr Hess is an Associate Professor of Social Studies Education and has acquired international recognition for her work with teachers around controversial and/or difficult issues.

 

 

 

Examining assessment procedures for student teachers: a comparison

Citizenship Research Initiatives

This research is concerned primarily with the qualifications required by teachers in post-primary and further education in Ireland and Northern Ireland. It seeks to examine and compare recent developments in the UK (TDA 2007) and Ireland (TCI) around professional teacher standards, and what these actually mean for trainee teachers and the teacher training programmes.

Mr Justin Rami, Dublin City University
St Mary’s University College, Belfast

Art and Science in Education: Moving towards creativity

Other Projects

The research will focused on:

  • Developing a dynamic interface in education on the island of Ireland that will harness the arts and science in a synergistic manner to enhance learning and teaching in schools.
  • Enhance creativity in teaching and learning.
  • Expand the application of visual literacy to learning in both Science and Technology.
  • Promote innovative strategies for assessment in Science and Technology that will measure skills in creativity and problem-solving and do not rely predominately on children’s written literacy and numeracy skills.

A conference was held in March 2008 in St Mary’s University College Belfast.

 

Bringing School Communities Together to Promote Education for Diversity

Citizenship Project Archive, Citizenship, Citizenship and Diversity
  1. To involving four pairs of schools, in each jurisdiction, that have a history of involvement in intercultural and/or multicultural education and where particularly in the N Irish context, cross-community contact is viewed as one important location for making a contribution to such work.
  2. To engage Dr Simon Lichman to facilitate residential cross-border professional development with teachers from the paired schools mention in 1. above according to the methodologies of the Centre for Creativity in Education and Cultural Heritage.
  3. To encourage the school-attached professional personnel connected with the paired schools to attend residential professional development sessions.
  4. To have two school-home-community projects up and running in each jurisdiction by the end of the school year incorporating an action-research network of practitioners and researchers.
  5. To have completed a proposal for securing long-term funding.

 

 

Social Justice Education in Initial Teacher Education: a Cross Border Perspective

Other Projects, Citizenship and Diversity
Download Social Justice Education in Initial Teacher Education (1.26MB)

The project will focus on:

  1. Mapping existing provision and approaches to social justice, diversity and development education in Teacher Education institutions on both sides of the border
  2. Involving policy makers in the ministries on both sides of the Border to connect the academic and policy perspectives on the issues
  3. gathering attitudinal data on social justice, development and diversity issues among student teachers on two of the initial teacher education programmes and to establish whether there are observable differences in the patterns between students in the two jurisdictions, and between students on consecutive and concurrent programmes, in order to create an initial comparison which would inform a proposal for a larger study

 

Digital Video as a tool for changing ICT Learning in Schools and teacher education

Technology and Maths

This project is a follow on from previous work. The project aims to “identify examples of digital video which provide exemplars of what the researchers see as ICT for transformational learning in contrast to ICT being more focused on substituting or amplifying existing teaching and learning practices’. The researchers have confirmed that it is their intention to identify examples of good practice in ICT both in Initial Teacher Education and among teachers. They agreed to contact colleagues in the University of Limerick who offer an MA in Digital Media in Education.

 

Research

News

In line with its objective of providing a supportive framework for collaborative research and professional activities in teacher education in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, SCoTENS provides ‘SEED FUNDING’ for projects such as research, conferences and exchanges which further this objective.

The sums allocated are in the region of Stg£3,000 – £6,000 (approx. €3,250 – €6,500).

The SCoTENS committee is particularly keen to receive proposals from people who have not yet been participants in such projects.  All proposals should be submitted by North South partnerships of researchers.  SCoTENS is not able to cover the cost of an institution’s overhead.

Applications submitted to fund a conference must give an indication of the expected number of delegates.  SCoTENS is not permitted by the funding Departments to subsidise the cost of conference attendance for individual delegates.  Spending must be on hotel booking, catering and related costs.

It is a requirement of the funding that a project narrative report is submitted within one month of the project’s completion and a project financial report is submitted within two months of the project’s completion.  The second and final tranche of funding is released when these are submitted.

 

ESAI-BERA Educational Research Seminar

Promotion and Dissemination of Research

6 December 2006
Cathcart Room, School of Education, Queen’s University, Belfast

An Educational Research Seminar sponsored by the Centre for Cross Border Studies and the Standing Conference of Teacher Educators – North and South (SCoTENS), and facilitated by the British Educational Research Association (BERA) and the Educational Studies Association of Ireland (ESAI).

The event has been organized by Professor John Gardner of the School of Education andfunded by the Centre for Cross Border Studies and the Standing Conference of Teacher Educators – North and South (SCoTENS); facilitated by the Educational Studies Association of Ireland and the British Educational Research Association

For further information contact Jo Wilson at joanne.wilson@qub.ac.uk or on (0)28 9097 5901.

Programme

10am-10.15    Registration and Welcome  (Tea/Coffee)
10.15-10.30    Introductions and Overview of Seminar
10.30-11.00    Principles of Working with Children in Research – Paul Connolly
11-11.20    Questions Arising
11.20-1pm    Workshop on Working with Young People in Research – Stephanie Mitchell
1-1.45    Lunch (Provided)
1.45-2.30    Using nVivo for Content Analysis – Oscar Odena
2.30    How to Get Published – Panel discussion with representatives of the editorial panels of
Irish Educational Studies – Paul Conway (UCC)
Education, Citizenship and Social Justice – Tony Gallagher (QUB)
International Journal of Music Education – Oscar Odena (QUB)
15.30    Close