Some thoughts about adult and community education across the island of Ireland

There's a nice, if slightly nervy/surreal, feeling about seeing your name in print. Not just online, in actual printed print. And in Ireland's only peer-reviewed journal dedicated entirely to adult and community education. In the midst of rushing to finish writing up my Masters thesis in the summer of 2023, I had a brief conversation with my supervisor about the potential to share my research findings with a wider audience. I'd been struck by the limited volume of ESOL-relat

Frankly, the last couple of months have been crazy. I've built up an extensive list of things to update and opine (rant...) about - which I will try to drip-feed when I get a chance over the festive break. In the meantime, a few highlights: My research project exploring ESOL in Ireland during the pandemic has an extensive airing in the latest edition of AONTAS's The Adult Learner Journal (see publications for a link to the journal and article). I attended the launch of a gr

I went back to Maynooth University last week, for the first time since graduating from my Masters almost a year ago. The occasion was the Department of Adult and Community Education 's autumn event, for which they'd persuaded the renowned educationalist Professor Stephen Brookfield to make a trip to Ireland from his adopted home in Minneapolis. The theme of the event was critical conversations , and talking points ranged from the ubiquity/suitability of exam-type assessment

I attended the graduation ceremony for my Masters last week, drawing a line under my year-long career break and self-imposed period of 'thinking space'. It's more than 28 years since I last attended a graduation ceremony (Hull Guildhall in the summer of 1995, in case you were wondering...), and as well as the sense of occasion it was nice to catch up others from the MEd programme at Maynooth. I received my result a couple of months ago and was aware I'd achieved a First, alth