Academic biography

Francis Ward is a music educator and ethnomusicologist based in the School of Arts Education and Movement, Institute of Education, Dublin City University.  His varied research interests include music education in formal, informal and non-formal learning contexts, technology in music education and online learning, multicultural music education and social inclusion, Irish traditional music and dance, creative processes in music and dance, and the use of GenAI as a teaching and assessment co-pilot in higher education.  In 2019-20 he was awarded a Fulbright Scholar fellowship and spent six months at the School of Music at the University of Washington.  He completed his PhD studies at University of Limerick as an Irish Research Council scholar investigating the development of a virtual orality in the processes of transmission in Irish traditional music.  He has worked previously as lecturer in music and dance, lecturer in music and educational technologist at University of Limerick, Dundalk Institute of Technology and Mary Immaculate College respectively. Francis is also a well-respected teacher, performer and composer/choreographer of Irish traditional music and dance.

** Current Research Projects **

• GenAI as an Co-Pilot in the Assessment of Third Level Capstone Research Projects in Education
• CeoLingua - Music and Action-Oriented Language Learning in the Primary Classroom (funded under Teaching Council’s John Coolahan Research Support Framework)
• Creative Linguistic Strategies for Embodied Learning: Verbal Language in Competitive Irish Dance Instruction

** Current Doctoral Students **

• Dave Flynn
• Veronica Ward