Now in its eighth year the International Research Methods Summer School (IRMSS) will take place at Mary Immaculate College (MIC) on 25 May with Leading, Leaders and Leadership in Schools, Communities and Society as this year’s theme.
According to Prof. Jim Deegan, Director of IRMSS and Head of Graduate School at MIC; IRMSS 2019 is “committed to bringing forward global issues and local realities through the sharing of high quality educational research. It is especially committed to stimulating conversation-building between seasoned and novice researchers surrounding the debates, controversies and tensions between policy decisions driven by ideology versus those driven by evidence”.
The focus this year is on raising perennial questions and innovative responses that examine leading, leaders, and leadership as contested terrain in ideology, policy and practice in the research on schools, communities and society. By doing so it is hoped to draw on the findings of empirical research and critical studies to consider and evaluate current policies and practices, to generate fresh thinking and to bring a humanising influence to bear on proposals for reform and renewal across schools, communities and broader society.
Speakers at the event include:
- Dr Alan Wall, Assistant Secretary, Central Policy Unit, Department of Education and Skills, Dublin, Ireland: Leadership as a Policy Perspective in the Republic of Ireland
- Prof. Joanne Hughes, UNESCO Chair on Globalising a Shared Model for Improving Relations in Divided Societies, Queen’s University, Belfast, Northern Ireland: Leading Research in the Area of Shared Education: Exploring the Research to Policy Nexus
- Prof. Rebecca Lowenhaupt, Professor of Educational Leadership and Higher Education, Boston College, USA: School Leadership in the Context of Immigration: Leading for Diversity in Times of Change
- Prof. Helen Gunter, Professor of Education Policy, Manchester Institute of Education, University of Manchester, UK: The Dynamics of Our Educational Histories as Educational Leaders
Returning again this year is the popular '3 Minute Thesis' Competition, which is open to all those undertaking postgraduate studies. This event will take place on a separate weekend; Saturday 18 May in T116, TARA Building, MIC Limerick, at 3pm with a prize title of €100. Those wishing to enter should register their interest here.
IRMSS, taking place at MIC Limerick on 25 May, is open to all researchers engaged in researching policy, ideology and evidence as contested terrain across qualitative, quantitative and hermeneutical traditions and disciplinary, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary worldviews.
Full conference programme available to view here. Information regarding registration can be found here.
