April New Professors’ Inaugural Lecture Series at NUI Galway Continues..

Public Lecture by Professor Gerry Mac Ruairc: “Caution: Children at School, Perspectives on Learning, Leaders and Learners, Imperatives for Inclusive Schools.”

The College of Arts, Social Sciences, and Celtic Studies at NUI Galway, New Professors’ Inaugural Lecture series will continue with Professor Gerry Mac Ruairc, the Established Professor of Education and Head of the School of Education. The Public Lecture will be hosted in the Moore Institute on Tuesday, 10 April at 5.30pm.

The lecture is designed to be of interest to educators and parents. Professor Mac Ruairc will address elements in our current school system with a view to identifying ways in which schools can become more inclusive, nurturing spaces for all learners irrespective of class, gender, ability, culture, sexuality or the intersectional interconnected nature of these social categorisations. In doing this, Professor Mac Ruairc will outline a number of articles that represent issues or dilemmas within the Irish education system. These articles draw on personal and professional experiences. Some are autobiographical, based on experience as a student, a teacher, a school inspector and more recently a researcher and teacher educator; others are based on media interpretations of aspects of the school system more broadly.

The lecture will also focus on exploring ways in which many of the issues identified can be explored differently, and explore ways that change the learning experience of children and young people in school. Explaining how schools can work with diversity and difference and by problematizing the ways in which exclusionary practices succeed in schools, it is possible to identify a number of ways forward.

Dr Seán Crosson, Vice-Dean (Research, Reputation and Impact), College of Arts, Social Sciences and Celtic Studies at NUI Galway said: "We are delighted to continue the New Professor's Inaugural Lecture series. The series provides a great opportunity for the College of Arts, Social Sciences, and Celtic Studies at NUI Galway to introduce to the general public and academics across the University new professorial appointments and to foreground the world-leading innovative research being undertaken in the college. The lectures will run on a monthly basis throughout the calendar year in the Moore Institute and all are welcome to attend."

Subsequent speakers in the series will include:

• Professor Brian McGuire, School of Psychology on Thursday, 3 May
• Professor Niamh Reilly, School of Political Science & Sociology on Thursday, 21 June
• An tOllamh Tadhg Ó hIfearnáin,  Roinn na Gaeilge on Thursday, 4 October

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