Sarah O'Grady
Dr
Dr Sarah O’Grady is Assistant Professor in Education in the School of Language, Literacy and Early Childhood Education. Sarah teaches on the BEd in Gaeilge, and French or German or Spanish (BEdLan) programme. She is also Academic Coordinator of Professional Placement for the BEdLan programme, and is a member of the BEdLan Steering Committee. She inputs on the Teacher Education Policy Analysis module (ED9012) of the Teacher Education Area of Professional Focus on the Doctor of Education Programme at DCU. Sarah is also coordinator of the post-primary courses offered as part of the Partnership for Learning programme and is a member of the Professional Development and Partnerships Committee at DCU.
Prior to joining the Institute of Education at DCU, Sarah was seconded to the Teaching Council. As a Teaching Council Associate, she worked in the Initial Teacher Education and Induction Section of the Council, and her work was focused on the development of national teacher education policy. Sarah also taught modern languages for fifteen years in an all boys’ post-primary school in Dublin, where she was Coordinator of the French Department. There, Sarah led and took part in several whole-school policy initiatives, she was Chairperson of the Education and Ethos Committee, and was elected by colleagues to the Board of Management of the school.
Sarah’s doctoral research focused on exploring how recent changes to policy and initial teacher education programmes were perceived and experienced in practice by school-based stakeholders in post-primary schools.
Sarah is a member of DCU CREATE, the Centre for Collaborative Research Across Teacher Education at DCU, and is a memeber of the Centre's Steering Committee.
Chomh maith le sin, is ball í do SEALBH?. lárionad atá tiomanta do thaighde a dhéanamh ar fhoghlaim agus ar theagasc na Gaeilge.
Conference Contribution
Peer Reviewed Journal
| Year | Publication | |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Doyle, A., Conroy Johnson, M., Scanlon, D., Logan, A., Silke, A., Gorman, A., … O’Grady, S. (2024) 'Reconceptualising school placement assessment in initial teacher education: a figurational perspective'. European Journal of Teacher Education, 47 (2):305-329. [Link] https://doi.org/10.1080/02619768.2024.2345904 |
Enterprise Engagement
Research Interests
Sarah’s research interests include;
teacher education policy,
school-university partnerships,
student teachers’ experiences of placement,
second language teaching and learning,
teachers as teacher educators, and
the development of professional teacher identity and curriculum making identity among student teachers.
Sarah has presented her research at both national and international conferences.
Current Projects: Sarah is Co-Principal Investigator on a three-year research project (2024-2026) that has been commissioned by the NCCA. Sarah along with Dr. Aisling Ní Dhiorbháin (co-PI) and members of Sealbhú will carry out a mixed-methods, multi-dimensional research study and follow-on review of the early enactment of the Junior Cycle Irish Curriculum (T1&T2).
Sarah is also engaged in research with colleagues from the School of Policy and Practice, which is exploring how initial teacher education programmes can support the development of pre-service teacher agency as curriculum makers.
Teaching Interests
Teacher education policy
Policy analysis
Preparing for Professional Placement
Active teaching methodologies in the language classroom
The development of curriculum making identity among student teachers.