School of Education

It has been a delight and a pleasure to have had the privilege of working with this talented group of student teachers over the last few years: the BA in Education, Fine Art or Design Education and the Professional Master of Education (PME). The graduating art teachers of 2022 have come through an extraordinary time in their teacher education programmes. These teachers bore the brunt of COVID-19 whilst on their school placement and in their studio. It is wonderful to see the students back on campus and having normal face-to-face encounters with each other and with staff.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the world of teaching and learning is still being quantified. Our graduating teachers are better equipped than ever before to face into the future. They have faced huge challenges, through the pandemic with enforced school closures, uncertainty over college-state examinations and ruptured normality. The class of 2022 rose to the challenge. They managed to build relationships with their pupils in these socially distanced, disembodied spaces. They have become adept at digital learning, blended learning and delivering learning in a multitude of ways. As they take up positions as second level teachers, the lessons learnt through a pandemic will help to shape the next generation of young people. Our educational priorities have become clearer, the ordinary has become extraordinary, simple face-to-face interactions between teachers and their pupils, once taken for granted, are now recognised and valued as essential by all.

The School of Education builds on a philosophy of learning through the visual arts across the continuum of education. Our teacher education programmes provide both concurrent and consecutive models of teacher education and a qualification to teach art and design at second level. They are designed to enhance the dual identity and complementary practices of the artist/designer and the teacher. Student teachers on these programmes experience a range of educational experiences as part of their programme, from studio disciplines to primary, post primary, special educational needs settings, and gallery education.

We are so proud of our graduating class of 2022 and wish them an exciting and rewarding career in their chosen fields of art education and studio practice. We look forward to meeting them again in their future careers, wherever they choose to go in the education arena, in their classrooms when they become host teachers to our students on school placement, in museums and galleries, as artists and designers, as post graduate students who wish to progress their academic careers, and ultimately as leaders in their field who will promote and project the values of art and design education across the globe.

Professor Dervil Jordan
Head of School of Education