What better way to celebrate my beloved Sheffield United’s return to the Premier League than talking about soccer and education! In this interview, I talk to Mark Connaughton from KlaasKickz, a fantastic company that has produced a football boot to help teach children how to kick a football successfully. We talk all things soccer including … Read more
Technology is central to most people’s work and lives and, for schools, it’s no different. Despite this, the Department of Education failed to provide a regular stream of funding for almost two decades after the launch of IT2000 in 1997. Former principal and early pioneer of educational technology, Robbie O’Leary, famously said that technology in … Read more
I’m always giving out about our education system so when I got the opportunity to speak about the Canadian system, I was only happy to give Ireland a break for an episode. However, I didn’t expect to meet someone with such a rich and fascinating history as Maxwell Roach. A former musician that worked with … Read more
The best talks I ever saw live happened in the same conference. It was the IPPN conference in 2012. Imagine this as a lineup – Mary Robinson, who needs no introduction; Michael Fullan, one of the world’s greatest thinkers in education; Ben Waldon, a Shakespearean actor who tours the world giving talks on leadership; and … Read more
When I think of podcasting, I think of two Joes: Joe Molloy, the retired Irish primary teacher who started podcasting before the word was invented in the late 1990’s/early noughties; and also Joe Dale, one of the biggest names in education and podcasting in the world. I had the pleasure of having Joe on the … Read more
It’s probably quite fitting that the 10-year anniversary of the Patronage and Pluralism Forum Report ended in the same way it started – with a huge amount of apathy. When the Forum was set up to gather its data, the authors must have been seriously disappointed that despite having a multicultural 21st century Ireland, the … Read more
The voice of SNAs is often missing from primary education. For example, SNAs are not allowed to be on boards of management of primary schools as staff representatives. In this episode, I interview Magdalena Landziak who decided to create the first magazine for SNAs by SNAs. It’s called Amygdala and it’s great! I spent an … Read more
According to reports in the media, in January 2023, the CPSMA wrote to the Minister for Children, Roderick O’Gorman to say they were against the teaching of gender issues because what it means to be transgender would require to teach something about which “there is neither a scientific nor social consensus to highly impressionable young … Read more
In part 2 of the interview, we start to tackle some difficult questions about the Irish language and why we aren’t close to being a bilingual nation. We end up with a couple of interesting ideas, including one that we might try out some time!
For our Seachtain na Gaeilge special, I brought in some passionate Gaelgóirí to speak to me about the Irish language and the education system. I really wanted to delve in deeply to a number of areas and I hope you enjoy the outcome. In fact, we talked so much, we’ve had to divide the interview … Read more