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Departments

English

Human Development Studies

International Office

Short Description

Academic Qualifications

1. BA (Hons) in English Language and Literature, The Queens University of Belfast, 1970
2. MA in Anglo –Irish Literature, University of Leeds, 1972
3. D.Phil in Anglo – Irish Literature, Ulster University, 1980

Teaching Responsibilities

1. I coordinate and teach modules in Anglo- Irish prose and poetry for BED 3 and LA3 undergraduates.
2. For BEd2 and LA2 English undergraduates, I co-ordinate and teach modules on Romantic and Victorian Literature.
3. I teach Professional Studies for BEd2 post primary students on various aspects of key Stage 3 /4 English Methodology.
4. I teach a writing skills element for LA students within the Human Development Studies section of the LA Undergraduate Programme
5. I teach a number of modules on the MEd Programme for serving teachers. These modules can vary from year to year, depending on uptake. The modules include: (a) The literature of Conflict and Resolution; (b) Literature and Creative Writing: Modules and Catalysts.

Administration

1. Chairman of the English Department, 2018-2021.
2. Research Mentor for colleagues developing their skills /output.
3. Deputy Chairman of the Research Committee, 2018- ongoing.
4. Co-organiser of the Research Seminar Series ( RSS).
5. Co-ordinator for incoming and out- going Erasmus students.

Outreach

1. As St. Mary’s representative on the Pushkin Trust for many years, I have been actively involved in its development work at third level through its Partnership in Education Programme.
2. Through active participation in career fairs in a number of schools throughout Northern Ireland, I help to foster/schools links, Ireland, thereby supporting the work of the College’s Outreach and Widening Participation Programme.

Current Research

Research Grants/ Programmes

In September 2007, I received a grant of £88500 from the Esmee Fairburn Foundation in London to fund the literature of the Troubles Project. This cross- community project, involving thirty post primary schools, in Northern Ireland and six hundred pupils, focused on using a carefully chosen sample of Troubles Literature to enable pupils to interrogate their allegiances and identities and, hopefully arrive at a fuller understanding of what Heaney calls, 'The Other Side', of people sharing the same small space but have very different traditions and attitudes to their own. Literary materials, highlighted by the Project, and associated pedagogical methodologies, have been included in CCEA's GSCE English Syllabus as an option. The work of the Project has been favourable reviewed in The Irish Times and The Time Educational Supplement ( 16/1/09). An article on the Project appeared in February 2009, in Anglofiles, the Danish Journal of English Teaching. I have given Seminars on the Project in the University of Huelva (Spain) and Nijmegen (Holland) and was the keynote speaker at a conference in the Post Graduate Green College, at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver.

Research

• Sixth Form Reading The Troubles: A Cross Community Investigation. Irish Educational Studies, Vol.23. No. 2, 2004, pp 19-36.
• The Pushkin Trust: Experiential Learning and Children with Special Needs. An Investigation. Irish Educational Studies, Vol.24 September 2005, Nos2-3, pp. 243-252.
• A Shared Humanity. Using Literature to Develop the Global Dimension for Key Stage Four Pupils (and above) In Northern Ireland. Citizen, Social and Economics Education, Vol.7:2 2007, pp. 90-103.
• Opening the Windows of the Wonder. A Critical Investigation into the Teaching and Learning of Poetry at Key Stage Four in Northern Ireland. Irish Educational Studies, Vol.27, No.2.June 2008, pp 147-158.
• Poetry and Gender: A Composite Evaluation of Boys’ and Girls’ Responses to Poetry at Key Stage Four in Northern Ireland. Research papers in Education, Vol.26, No.4, December 2011, pp.413-425.
• A Critical Evaluation of the Literature of the Troubles Project : Philosophy, Methodology, Findings/Outcomes. Research papers in Education, Vol. 28, No 5, Nov. 2013. Pp 519-538.
• Teaching a Selection of Heaney’s Troubles Poetry to Upper Post- Primary Pupils in Northern Ireland’s Divided Schools: Educational Contexts and Pedagogical Opportunities. Changing English, Vol.24, No.3, September 2017 .pp. 285-298.
• Selected Representations of Teachers and Teaching in the Twentieth Century Anglo Irish Fiction and Memoir. Some Literary Critical and Pedagogical Explorations. Changing English, Vol .25,No 1, March 2018, pp 29-44.
• Refocusing the Teaching of Poetry at Key Stage Two in Northern Ireland : Some Literary –Critical and Pedagogical Explorations. Changing English, Published on line: 1 Nov. 2018, pp63-76.
• 'Between the Contingent and the Transcendent. Heaney's 'Poetics' and their Implications for Teaching Poetry and Creative Writing in the Upper Post-Primary School.' Changing English, Vol.2, Issue 2, April 2020, pp.137-151.
• Teaching The Twentieth-Century Irish Short Story in the Sixth-Form Classroom in Northern Ireland: A Literary-Critical Exploration. Changing English, Published on line: Vol.28, Number 1, 22 March 2021, online reference:10,1080/1358684X.2021.1893155
• (2022) Reading Rebecca in the Sixth-Form Classroom: Some Literary-Critical and Pedagogical Explorations, Changing English, 29:3, 323-332.

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