DR Aideen Cassidy joins EQI

Dr Aideen Cassidy is an Assistant Professor of Education and Director of School Placement on the Bachelor of Religious Education and English / History / Music (BREHM) programme at the School of Policy and Practice, DCU Institute of Education. Aideen started her teaching career in Finglas before teaching in Jobstown in Tallaght. After thirteen years she was appointed national coordinator of the Junior Certificate School Programme, a programme to support the curriculum delivery to students at risk of early school leaving, and worked in the Curriculum Development Unit for fifteen years. She, with a team, designed and delivered a national CPD programme for all of the junior cycle subjects along with full school staff CPD in teaching and learning, assessment and literacy/numeracy across the curriculum. Over this period the JCSP LIteracy and Numeracy strategy was put in place under the National literacy and numeracy strategy as well as the JCSP Library project where state-of-the-art libraries were built in 30 disadvantaged schools and are run by a team of librarians who received bespoke training in literacy and curriculum at second level. The impact of the literacy and numeracy interventions, along with the library programme, were researched by Aideen and the team of researchers. Her research has focused on adolescent learning in the context of educational disadvantage. Before joining the academic staff of DCU she was principal of an all-boys second-level school in Finglas for twelve years. She now supports the BREHM students on placement with briefing lectures as part of the Professional Preparation and Practice modules in all four years of the programme and lectures in the area of literacy across the curriculum and teaching in DEIS schools and also shares a module on BEd Teacher as Professional, education and the Law.