Head of the Department of Arts Education and Physical Education at MIC, Prof. Déirdre Ní Chróinín, has been awarded Irish Research Council funding to support research into the promotion of inclusive physical education in primary schools.
Prof. Ní Chróinín is one of 56 academics nationwide to be awarded funding under the IRC’s New Foundations scheme which helps bring researchers, civic society organisations and policy makers together to enhance the evidence base for policies and practices that have a tangible impact on society. The scheme enables awardees to pursue research, networking or dissemination activities within and across the diversity of disciplines.
Prof. Ní Chróinín’s research project, GROW VOICE PE, is a collaboration with the Irish Primary Physical Education Association and involves a research team of Prof. Ní Chróinín, Dr Maura Coulter (DCU), Dr Tony Sweeney (MU) and Grace Cardiff (MIC). It grows on VOICE-PE, for which Prof. Ní Chróinín was awarded New Foundations funding in 2022, and which identified strategies primary teachers can use to enact student voice in primary PE.
GROW VOICE PE aims to help more primary teachers to enact student voice strategies in physical education. Student voice strategies involve children in decisions about their participation including making choices about what activities they participate in and how they participate. Student voice strategies make a positive difference to how children experience physical education. Teachers and children from 20 classes will test out student voice strategies in PE from January-June 2024 and share their experiences with teachers and children in other schools.
According to Profesor Déirdre Ní Chróinín: “The research team is delighted to be collaborating with the Irish Primary Physical Education Association again to promote innovative student voice strategies in physical education. It is exciting to be working with teachers and children in Irish schools to promote PE that is inclusive and better matches children’s preferences. Collaborating with Maura Coulter (DCU) and Tony Sweeney (MU) is particularly special to this research as it will extend the reach of the project and help promote student voice in PE across teacher education programmes.”
According to Dr Richard Butler, Director of Research at MIC: "On behalf of the Research & Graduate School and the community of researchers at Mary Immaculate College, I would like to congratulate Dr Déirdre Ní Chróinín on this New Foundations funding award from the Irish Research Council. Déirdre's project will advance of our knowledge of primary physical education by developing frameworks that allow teachers to better integrate the perspectives of children in their own education. I wish Déirdre and the team working on this project the very best."
Announcing the New Foundation awardees, Peter Brown, Director of the Irish Research Council stated: “The Irish Research Council is very proud of the connections that have been enabled between researchers and wider stakeholders through the many awards made under the New Foundations programme over a number of years. This year will build further on the many successful partnerships, many of which endure and continue beyond the lifetime of the specific award. The research system and the experts that work within it, in myriad disciplines, are a strategic national resource and the New Foundations scheme helps to create a vibrant cross-stakeholder community to enhance evidence and knowledge for better policy and practice. I look forward to seeing fruitful and mutually beneficial collaborations develop between the awardees and their partners in civil society organisations and government departments & agencies.”
