I am currently undertaking my PhD at the School of Education, Trinity College Dublin.  I achieved my Masters from Maynooth University when I explored ‘Quality of Life’ outcomes from learning in 2003.

I am an active member of the research community in the School of Education, Trinity College Dublin and have co-authored a number of articles which have a particular focus on various aspects of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), Inclusion and Career Guidance.  

My research interests are “Universal Design for Learning” (UDL), “Inclusive Education”,  and “Career Guidance” “Adult Education” and “Inclusion”  and “Disability”

I am currently writing a book on Universal Design (due to be published with Routledge in Summer 2021) and have also co-authored a book ‘Sorted” in the past.  I have contributed to newspapers and engaged with the media – both radio and TV.  While I have had a variety of experiences in policy and practice, ultimately I believe that it is my actual engagement with learners seeking to navigate their way into a “successful career” and just to “be happy” in today’s complex world that has framed my practice. 

 

 

While working from home in 2021, I acted as Chair of the organising committee (5 ladies from around the world) for the 2021 Postgraduate Educational Research Conference in Trinity College Dublin. The conference was a great success with over 120 delegates from around the world! To open the conference we made a short video introducing ourselves and our research work. Please feel free to have a look!

Reports (Published)

Quirke. M, & McCarthy P. (2020). A Conceptual Framework of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) for the Irish Further Education and Training Sector Where Inclusion is Everybody’s Business. Dublin: SOLAS.

 

Papers (Published)

Quirke, M., & Mc Guckin, C. (2019). Is it time to rethink career guidance theory and practice – with a UDL hat on . . . ? Guidance Matters, Vol3 , 6-10 (ISSN 2009-6941). Available at: https://www.ncge.ie/sites/default/files/GM3-Feature%20Article-Universal%20design.pdf

Quirke, M., McCarthy, P., Treanor, D., & Mc Guckin, C. (2019). Tomorrow’s disability officer – A cornerstone on the universal design campus. Journal of Inclusive Practice in Further and Higher Education (JIPFHE), 11.1, June 2019, 29-42.

Quirke, M., McCarthy, P., & Mc Guckin, C. (2018). “I Can See What You Mean”: Encouraging Higher Education Educators to Reflect Upon Their Teaching and Learning Practice When Engaging with Blind/Vision Impaired Learners. AISHE-J: The All Ireland Journal of Teaching & Learning in Higher Education, 10(1).

 

Conference Presentations

McCarthy, P., Quirke, M., & Mc Guckin, C. (2020). Open education and disability – does inclusion need to be everyone’s business?. The Educational Studies Association of Ireland (ESAI) Annual Conference: Opening Up Education: Options, Obstacles and Opportunities, Institute of Education, Dublin City University, County Dublin, Ireland, 2^nd – 4^th April, 2020. Abstracts not published.

Quirke, M., & Mc Guckin, C. (2020). Career guidance needs to learn from ‘disability’ if it is to embrace an uncertain future . European Conference on Educational Research (ECER): “Educational Research (Re)connecting Communities”, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland, 24th – 28th August, 2020.

McCarthy, P. Quirke, M. & Mc Guckin, (2020). When thinking reconnections make no assumptions.  European Conference on Educational Research (ECER): “Educational Research (Re)connecting Communities”, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland, 24th – 28th August, 2020.

McCarthy, P., Quirke, M., & Mc Guckin, C. (2019).  UDL – Can you see what I see . . . is it an exclusive model or an inclusive model? Third Pan-Canadian Conference on Universal Design for Learning: Connecting the Dots – Sharing Promising Practices across Country, 2nd – 4th October, 2019, Royal Roads University, Victoria, Canada.

Quirke, M., & Mc Guckin, C. (2019). Career guidance needs to learn from ‘disability’ if it is to embrace an uncertain future.  European Conference on Educational Research (ECER): “Education in an Era of Risk – The Role of Educational Research for the Future”, Universität Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany, 3rd – 6th September, 2019. Abstracts not Published.

Quirke, M., McCarthy, P., Mc Guckin, C., Rath, V., & O’Siorain, C. A. (2019). Universal Design for an era of risk – A case for turning research inside-out. European Conference on Educational Research (ECER): “Education in an Era of Risk – The Role of Educational Research for the Future”, Universität Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany, 3rd – 6th September, 2019. Abstracts not Published.

Quirke, M., & McCarthy, P. (2019). ‘Dreaming differently’ – does the ‘language of disability’ enable learners while disabling transitions in a UDL environment? In symposium: The bubble under the carpet (Convenor: Twomey, M.). The Educational Studies Association of Ireland (ESAI) Annual Conference: Education in Times of Change, Choice and Challenge, St. Angela’s College and Radisson Blu Hotel, Sligo, County Sligo, Ireland, 11th – 13th April, 2019. Abstracts not published.  Abstracts not Published.

 Quirke, M., & Mc Guckin, C. (2018). Learning from the past . . . How career guidance might learn from inclusive education. European Conference on Educational Research (ECER): “Inclusion and Exclusion, Resources for Educational Research”, The Free University Bozen-Bolzano, Bolzano, Italy, 3^rd – 4^th September, 2018. Abstracts not Published 

 McCarthy, P., Quirke, M., Mc Guckin, C & Treanor, D. (2018).  The Universal Design and Higher Education in Transformation Congress (UDHEIT2018): “Transforming Our World Through Diversity, Design and Education”. Dublin Castle, 30^th October – 2^nd November, 2018.

Quirke, M., Mc Carthy, P., & Mc Guckin, C. (2018). “Seeing is believing”. NACADA (The Global Community for Academic Advising) 2018 International Conference, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland, 16^th – 19^th July, 2018. 

Quirke, M., & Mc Guckin, C. (2018).  Fellow practitioners – we need to take more than a robotic approach if we are to embrace the diversity of the future.  The International Centre for Guidance Studies 20th Anniversary International Conference “Imagining new perspectives on work – the role of career development in shaping futures.

 

 Conference Presentation (To Be  Presented)

McCarthy, P. Quirke, M. & Mc Guckin, (2021). Universal Design – Are we all singing from the same hymmsheet? Vision 2020 Conference: Imagining the Impossible, The Convention Centre, Dublin: Ireland.

 

As part of my  PhD experience with the School of Education, Trinity College Dublin, I am pleased to

• Be an active member of the ‘Inclusion in Education and Society Research Group’
• Convene the Special Interest Group on ‘Universal Design – Think Tank’
• Chair the Post Graduate Research Group – Virtual Conference 2021 ‘When Life Gives you Lemons – Make Lemonade’ – a conference focusing on the changes happening for researchers, research and researching as a consequence of COVID19.