The Education Department supports an energetic, dynamic, interdisciplinary research culture. We have strong and vibrant traditions of research informed teaching. There are a number of national and international research projects being led by our department this year.
Click below to read about three of our current research projects.
Maynooth University Department of Education
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Responding to School Avoidance in Co Limerick
Project Title: Responding to School Avoidance in Co Limerick
MU Dept. of Education Staff Member and research team: Dr Catriona O’Toole - Principal Investigator
Funding: Limerick Children and Young Peoples Services Committee
Short description of the project:
An increasing number of young people are experiencing school attendance difficulties, the reasons for which are complex and multifaceted. This project involves focus group consultations with multiple key actors or ‘stakeholders’ in County Limerick (i.e., young people, parents, school staff, other allied professionals), to explore the lived realities of experiencing and/or responding to school attendance difficulties. The findings of these consultations are being use to develop agreed referral pathways for Co Limerick schools and agencies, as well as a suite of user-friendly resources for schools, parents, and students.
The project is led by Dr Catriona O’Toole, member of the Executive Committee of the International Network for School Attendance (INSA) and Founder of Trauma-informed Education, with research assistance from Tara Ciric, PhD candidate.
5*S: Space, Surveyors and Students - Phase 2
Project Title: 5*S: Space, Surveyors and Students - Phase 2 (0122/DP/10465)
MU Dept. of Education Staff Member and research team: Dr Zerrin Doganac Kucuk - Project Manager,
Angela Rickard - PI.
Funding: Science Foundation Ireland / Science Foundation Ireland
Short description of the project:
In Phase 1 of 5*S we measured teachers’ reactions to our school-outreach workshops questionnaires and interviews. Although valuable, this method did not include student voice. We now aim to include the students’ perspectives. This will help us to evaluate the impact of our workshops on advancing their knowledge of STEM and potential careers in STEM; explaining the role of satellite technology in addressing real world problems and their understanding of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. We will advance the project by recording feedback from all students who participate in our workshops (both second level students and student teachers).
HPV Education powered by STEAM: Exploring peer-to-peer creative critical engagements
Project Title: HPV Education powered by STEAM: Exploring peer-to-peer creative critical engagements
MU Dept. of Education Staff Member and research team: Dr Céline Healy, M.U. Department of Education, and Dr Iain Macdonald, M.U. Department of Design Innovation, co-lead this research project to find new ways to communicate and improve awareness and advocacy of Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccination.
Funding: The project is funded by Science Foundation Ireland and builds on their previous project which was funded by the Research Council of Ireland.
Short description of the project:
The project seeks to find new ways to communicate and improve Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccination awareness and advocacy, particularly in post-primary and primary schools. An important objective is to develop confident advocates for HPV immunisation who can create positive peer-to-peer narratives that can counter online misinformation aimed at pre/early teens and their parents/guardians.
It is a intersectoral, interdepartmental, international project involving Transition Year post-primary students, 6th class primary students, MU Dept of Education, MU Department of Design and Innovation, Edinburgh Napier University Departments of Design, Psychology, and Life Sciences, in collaboration with the Irish Cancer Society. It researches the use of STEAM (Science Technology Engineering Arts Maths) in promoting education on immunology and vaccination.
There are two phases to the study. The first involves volunteer Transition Year students from two Co. Offaly post-primary schools - St Mary’s Secondary School and Oaklands CC, Edenderry – and three Co. Kildare post-primary schools – Maynooth PP, Maynooth CS, and Salesian College Celbridge. The students attend three days of STEAM workshops at Maynooth University where they develop their understandings of immunology and vaccination, with particular reference to the HPV vaccine, through collaborative, creative arts-based approaches and through inputs from our on-team immunologist and the Cancer Society scientist.
The TY students create posters, dramas, videos and other artistic outputs to explore and express their learnings and understandings. Supported by the different discipline expertise in the team, they further develop these artistic outputs to make them suitable for heightening the awareness and understandings of 6th class pupils about the HPV vaccine which they will be offered in the first term of 1st year. Their presentations are developed and rehearsed in conjunction with the university team.
The TY students then visit their old primary schools to raise 6th class pupil awareness about HPV vaccination, using role-play, and with the aid of their videos and other artistic outputs. They are accompanied by members of the research team.
After the project is completed, we will put forward a selection of videos to be screened at the Science on Screen Film Festival in collaboration with NUI Galway Coram and at the NUI Galway ReelLIFE Science Competition. The Irish Cancer Society will use them in their outreach programme and they will also be used at the National Immunisation Agency screenings. The subsidiary objective is to increase the reach of the videos beyond school settings as a stimulus for discussion around immunology and vaccination, and to raise HPV vaccine awareness.
Funding stream: Science Foundation Ireland
