Let's Talk About Sociology of Education

1: Trailer

Let's Talk About Sociology of Education

Show Notes

This podcast includes interviews between Dr. Melanie Ní Dhuinn, an Assistant Professor in Teacher Education in Trinity College Dublin and leading researchers, academics, school principals, social justice activists, teachers and policymakers as they talk about the Sociology of Education and how it looks in day to day reality in its many forms and guises.

The podcast has been developed as a resource to support student teachers and others to try and make sense of and demystify some of the abstract and dense sociological theories and recognise them in real-time in practice. The podcast covers different Sociological Perspectives, Exploring LGBTQ+ educational experiences, Social Justice, Equity, Equality & Access, Disability and Inclusion, Cultural Capital, Values, Beliefs, Global Citizenship, The Family and the School and more.

More from Let's Talk About Sociology of Education

Apr 10, 2025

In this episode I chat to Anne Marie Kavanagh (PhD, FHEA). Anne Marie’s episode is called Decolonising the curriculum: Creating a more inclusive, diverse, and critically-engaged approach to education. We discuss the concept of decolonizing the curriculum and its importance in creating a more inclusive and diverse educational approach and Anne Marie explains that decolonizing involves questioning what counts as knowledge and whose knowledge is centralized in the curriculum.

Mar 20, 2025

In this episode I speak to Dr. Alison Egan in an episode entitled Navigating the Third Space in Higher Education Institutions where we discuss the concept of the "third space" in higher education, which is the juxtaposition of academic and administrative roles. Alison Egan, PhD is a Director of IT & eLearning at Marino Institute of Education, Dublin, Ireland since 2008. Her research interests are focused on digital literacy; artificial intelligence, technological self-efficacy; national and international digital education policies and technology enhanced learning. She completed her PhD in 2018 at Trinity College Dublin, by conducting longitudinal quantitative research into how technology was used by pre-service teachers during their undergraduate programmes. She is Vice-President of the Irish Learning Technology Association (ILTA) and Chair of the Consultative Council of Society for IT in Teacher Education (SITE), USA.

Mar 6, 2025

In this episode I speak to Niall Mulpeter in an episode entitled From Policy to Practice: Enacting Values in Publicly Managed Schools through Communities of Practice and Professional Learning Communities. Niall is an Educational Policy and Development Officer with Education and Training Boards Ireland (ETBI) and a final-year PhD scholar at the University of Limerick School of Education. With over 20 years of experience in education, Niall’s expertise lies in Values Education, Curriculum Development, and the enactment of values-based policy in schools—areas in which he has been published. Niall explains his interest in sociology of education, focusing on educational structures, policies, and student learning, identity, and inclusion.

Feb 27, 2025

In this episode I speak to Professor Dympna Devine in an episode entitled, "What has social justice got to do with pedagogy?" a title which Dympna explains was inspired by a question from a student in a module that she taught on equalities and social justice.

Feb 20, 2025

Declan Qualter is the Practice Placement Supervisor for the BEd with Gaeilge and/or Modern Languages Programme in the UCD School of Education. He also teaches on the Professional Masters in Education programme. Declan is a PhD candidate in UCD, with his doctoral research focusing on parental involvement in children's home-based digital learning.

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