Episodes
Wednesday Jan 29, 2020
Podcast 387, IPPN Conference 2020 (29-1-20)
Wednesday Jan 29, 2020
Wednesday Jan 29, 2020
Presented and produced by Seán Delaney.
On this week's podcast I speak to the President (Damian White), Deputy President (Brian O'Doherty) and Chief Executive Officer (Páiric Clerkin) of the Irish Primary Principals' Network at the annual conference of the Network. The IPPN is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. Among the topics we discuss are the following:
Damian White
- Workload and making the job of principal more sustainable into the future
- The PIEW model: Prioritise, Implement, Embed, Wait.
- Prioritising initiatives in a school. Refers to the Looking at our Schools document.
- Identifying and making room for urgent new initiatives within the PIEW model.
- Wellbeing
- Support groups for principals
- Working with local education centres
- Relationship between the Centre for School Leadership, the Professional Development Service for Teachers (PDST) and the IPPN
- Relationship between the IPPN and the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO)
- On having the Secretary General and not the Minister address the conference
Brian O’Doherty
- Difference between roles of President/Deputy President and Chief Executive Officer of IPPN
- Being principal of a large school
- Working collaboratively with an administrative Deputy Principal
- Principalship and school budgets
- The financial and support services unit (FFSU) and reporting procedures
- Challenges in managing cash flow in schools
- Questions principals should ask about school finances
Páiric Clerkin
- Reflecting on life for principals before the IPPN (on the 20th anniversary of its founding)
- Progress made over the last 20 years
- The importance of dialogue in our education system
- Reflecting on factors that brought about the establishment and success of the IPPN
- The challenge of sustainability for principals
- The importance of remembering small schools and teaching principals when considering policy changes
- What he’s reading: Uplifting Leadership: How organisations, teams, and communities raise performance by Hargreaves, Boyle and Harris.
Wednesday Jan 22, 2020
Podcast 386, Professor Mark Morgan on Psychology and Education (22-1-20)
Wednesday Jan 22, 2020
Wednesday Jan 22, 2020
Presented and produced by Seán Delaney
On this week's programme I speak to Professor Mark Morgan from Dublin City University about psychology, education, his career and his thoughts on education. Among the topics we discuss are the following:
- How he became interested in psychology as a student teacher in St. Patrick’s College
- Being taught by John McNamara (who was known for his study of bilingualism)
- Completing postgraduate studies in London
- Being appointed as lecturer in St. Patrick’s College
- Having Albert Bandura as a tutor when offered a fellowship at Stanford University
- The idea of self efficacy
- His interest in TV and violence, resilience and substance misuse prevention
- The use of quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods data in psychology
- His doctoral research on intrinsic and extrinsic motivation
- His research on adversity and resilience
- What teachers can do to be more resilient
- How he planned his classes as a teacher educator
- How early home and school experiences influenced his subsequent interests and ideas
- Why psychology is useful for student teachers
- How the field of educational psychology has evolved over the last 50 years
- His involvement in the Growing Up in Ireland study
- Learning in later years
- He recommended Albert Bandura's book Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory.
Wednesday Jan 15, 2020
Podcast 385, New Educate Together CEO, Emer Nowlan (15-1-20)
Wednesday Jan 15, 2020
Wednesday Jan 15, 2020
Presented and produced by Seán Delaney
This week I bring you an interview with the new Chief Executive Officer of Educate Together, Dr. Emer Nowlan in the week she takes up her new appointment. Among the topics we discuss are:
- Her career in education to date: becoming a PE teacher, running a language school in Portugal
- Doing a masters and doctorate in UCD
- Being project manager for setting up second level Educate Together schools
- Working on the Migrant Teacher Project
- Challenges faced by migrant teachers who wish to teach in Ireland
- Lessons learned from the Migrant Teacher Project to date
- Anticipating her new role as CEO of Educate Together
- Plans for establishing new Educate Together schools
- How Educate Together has evolved over the last 40 years
- What equality-based education looks like
- How to promote equality-based education without stereotyping
- Educate Together’s role as school patron
- Enrolment policies for schools
- The work of CEO in Educate Together
- Her priorities for her term as CEO
- Challenges facing the Educate Together sector
- Characteristics of a principal in an Educate Together school
- Facilitating denominational religious instruction in Educate Together Schools
She names some people whose work she admires.