This paper presents the lived experience of a practitioner researcher working as a teacher educator engaging in action research with primary pre-service teachers (PSTs). Aligning with the work of Cook (2009) ['The Purpose of Mess in Action Research: Building Rigour Though a Messy Turn.' "Educational Action Research" 17 (2): 277-291] this…

This paper examines the unbundling of research in the context of the Teachers' Research Exchange (T-REX) platform, the national flagship Internet platform in Ireland for teachers to access, use and engage in research. This paper draws on two theoretical frameworks: Laurillard's conversational framework and Salmon's five-stage model. The first…

This paper considers the practical implementation of constructivist grounded theory principles in a study of widening participation in Irish higher education. Following a brief introduction to the research study upon which this paper draws, a rationale is provided for the use of grounded theory and the objectivist-constructivist nexus is examined.…

Focusing on "The Bibliography of Irish Literary Criticism" (BILC, 2010), a bibliographical database of Irish literary criticism developed by humanities and information and communications technology (ICT) researchers in NUI Maynooth, this chapter investigates the opportunities and implications afforded the field of Irish literary studies…

The 2008 global financial crisis cast a long shadow over Ireland's higher education and research system. The IMF said Ireland experienced an "unprecedented economic correction", while Ireland's National Economic and Social Development Office said Ireland was beset by five different crises: a banking crisis, a fiscal crisis, an economic…

This study analyzed whether research collaboration patterns differ across higher education systems based on maturity of the systems, their language, and their geographical region. This study found that collaboration patterns differ across higher education systems: academics in developed systems are more collaborative than their colleagues in…

Peer observation of teaching (POT) has become common practice in many universities. However, it could be argued that existing models often have limited scope for understanding the student experience. This study presents a modified approach to POT in which the researchers adopted the roles of (1) lecturer, (2) peer-participant and (3)…

Arts-based researchers distinguish themselves from other qualitative researchers on the grounds that they use artistic processes and practices in their inquiries and in the communication of their research outcomes. Like artists, they operate out of a particular community of practice, with its own distinctive history of emergence, set of…