I joined the staff of Maynooth University
in 2012 and teach and supervise across a range of education programmes including
the Professional Masters of Education (PME), the Masters in Education, The
Batchelor of Science with Education, the Post-Graduate Diploma in Educational
Leadership, and the structured PhD programme. I have particular care for the
teaching of applied linguistics, modern language teaching methodologies, and
supervision of student language teachers’ teaching practice and research. I am currently developing a Languages, Music
and Education concurrent initial teacher education programme in collaboration
with Maynooth University School of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures
and Maynooth University Department of Music. Prior to this, I worked as a post-primary teacher of French, English, Drama and Art,
in Ireland, and of English as a foreign language, in France. While teaching in
schools, I also lectured and supervised in modern language teaching
methodologies, applied linguistics, and drama in education teaching
methodologies at Trinity College Dublin and University College Dublin. I worked
as the modern languages consultant for the National Pilot Project for Teacher
Induction from 2005 to 2009 and the modern languages associate with the Professional
Development Service for Teachers from 2010 to 2012. My PhD thesis (TCD, 2009), supported by a
Government of Ireland, Irish Research Council scholarship, was entitled Letting Languages Live: Establishing a basis
for the use of Drama in Education to support and Implement a Communicative
Approach to the Teaching and Learning of Modern Foreign Languages.
I am currently chair of the European Language
Label jury in Ireland. I am an executive committee member of the Education
Studies Association of Ireland. I am a founding member of the Association for
Drama in Education in Ireland. I work with post-primary and primary teachers, on
an ongoing basis, facilitating professional development workshops in the areas
of language education, drama in education and creative pedagogies.
My research interests centre on teaching
and learning with particular reference to foreign languages education, second
language acquisition, creative approaches to teaching and learning, initial
teacher education, teacher education, literacy, plurilingualism and multiculturalism
in schools.
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