Assoc ProfessorDeirdre McGillicuddy

Working as a primary school teacher in a designated disadvantaged (DEIS) school has profoundly impacted on my teaching philosophy. The values of respect, equality and social justice underpinning my practices as a primary school teacher are core to the work I do with my current students, where I aim to promote an interactive, dynamic, compassionate and positive learning environment using a creative and student focussed approach

My approach to teaching and learning is influenced by my Initial Teacher Education in the tradition of Fredrick Froebel and by the educator/philosopher Paulo Freire. While Froebel espoused the importance of “play as the highest expression of human development”, Freire believed education to be “the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world”.