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Associate Faculty & Advisors

Prof Dermot Stokes

Dermot Stokes was appointed as Adjunct Professor within DCUs Further Education and Trainign Rsearch in April 2017. He works primarily with the Further Education & Training Research Centre (FETRC) within DCUs Institute oif Education in an advisory capacity. Throughout his career Professor Stokes has worked as a teacher, curriculum developer, lecturer and researcher. He was National Coordinator of the Youthreach programme for the Department of Education and Skills from 1988 until his retirement in 2012. He was a member of the Implementation Group for President Higgins’ youth initiative in 2012 and National Expert for the OECD LEED programme’s review of local youth employment strategies in Ireland in 2012/3.

Throughout his career the principal focus of Dermot’s work has been young people in transition from childhood to adulthood and the contribution made by VET to that process. In 1997 he co-authored Vocational Education and Training in Ireland - A Guide, published by the Leonardo da Vinci programme in Ireland. He has a particular interest in educational disadvantage and social exclusion. His 1987 report Beyond School recorded the experience of educational innovators involved with the European Transition Programmes and contributed to the development of the Youthreach programme. His doctoral research explored the matrix of influences involved in early school leaving.

Associate Professor Annelies Kamp

Associate Professor Annelies Kamp is a sociologist with over 25 years of experience in senior leadership roles and strategic management in Crown agencies, community services and industry training in both New Zealand and Australia.  Her doctoral research was undertaken at Deakin University in Australia and focused on partnership and collaboration as a policy response for working with youth at risk of disengagement from education, training and employment.  Subsequent to the award of her PhD she was appointed as Research & Policy Manager –Through School to Work with the Brotherhood of St Laurence before being appointed as Strategy and Development Manager for Mission Australia.  Annelies has been a Ministerial Board appointment in the adult, community and further education sectors (in both Australia and New Zealand).

Annelies has taught at the University of Waikato, Deakin University, University of Melbourne and Monash University.  Most recently, Annelies has been Deputy Director at the Higher Education Research Centre at Dublin City University in Ireland.  From 2011 until her return to New Zealand she was Programme Co-ordinator of the MSc in Education & Training Management (Leadership) in DCU's School of Education Studies. She was an inaugural member of the UN recognized Regional Centre of Expertise in Education for Sustainability and currently serves as External Examiner for the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland. 

Dr Kamp regularly presents at national and international conferences.  From 2013-2015 she served on the Executive of the Educational Studies Association of Ireland, co-convening the annual international conference of the ESAI as well as a number of conferences for post-graduate students. She is a member of the Editorial Board of the Youth Voice Journal and regularly reviews for the Journal of Youth Studies.  She regularly publishes in academic journals; her two most recent books are Rethinking Learning Networks: Collaborative Possibilities for a Deleuzian Century (Peter Lang, 2013) and a major co-edited collection A Critical Youth Studies for the 21st Century (Brill, 2014).

Professor Matt O’Leary

Dr Matt O’Leary is Professor of Education and director of the education research centre CSPACE at Birmingham City University. Matt’s main research interests focus on the impact of education policy on teaching and learning and the interface between the two, especially in the context of professional learning and teacher development in further and higher education. He is internationally renowned for his extensive body of work on the use of classroom/lesson observation in understanding and improving teaching and learning. His research has had significant impact in the UK and internationally on education policy and the thinking and practice of education leaders, practitioners and researchers working in all education sectors over the last decade.

Professor O’Leary’s original, groundbreaking research in the further education (FE) sector in England, funded by the University and College Union (UCU), has had and continues to have far reaching impact on education policy and practice nationally (UCU 2013). This body of work has been instrumental in challenging engrained orthodoxies and influencing policy and practice across education sectors. It has shaped the policy of one of the world’ largest unions, with a dedicated web presence created to capture some of its outputs https://www.ucu.org.uk/lessonobservation, along with a review of the main teaching unions’ policies on observation across colleges and schools in the UK. The findings from the UCU project report were widely reported in the national media (e.g. Allen 2014; Morrison 2015) and led to a landmark policy change by Ofsted with the removal of graded lesson observations from its inspection framework.

Matt’s books include: Classroom observation – A Guide to the Effective Observation of Teaching and Learning – Second Edition (Routledge 2020) Reclaiming lesson observation: supporting excellence in teacher learning (Routledge 2016) and Teaching Excellence in Higher Education: Challenges, Changes and the Teaching Excellence Framework (Emerald 2017)

Dr Andrew McCoshan

Dr Andrew McCoshan has over 30 years’ experience as a researcher, consultant and facilitator in policies and practices in the field of vocational education and training (VET), working in both academia and the private sector.  He currently works as an independent consultant at European level, advising EU institutions. He is the external consultant to Working Group of EU Member States on innovation and digitalisation in VET coordinated by the European Commission (2018-20) and played the same role on the VET Working Group on teachers and trainers in apprenticeships and work-based learning (2016-18). He is currently an expert on the EC Apprenticeship Support Service, providing advice to Greece and Romania on the development of their apprenticeship systems, presenting webinars (on teachers and trainers, and careers guidance) and moderating live discussions (on remote learning). He also led the mapping exercise that has laid the foundations for the development of Centres of Vocational Excellence in Europe. His research work includes playing a key role in the consortium conducting the Cedefop study on the changing nature and role of VET in Europe, and he is now participating in the follow-up ‘Future of VET’ study.  He wrote and contributed to several chapters of the recent ILO publication, ‘Skills for a Greener Future’, and authored the 2018 European synthesis report for Cedefop on ‘Skills for Green Jobs’. Until March 2011 he was a Director of the Ecorys Group, in which capacity he was responsible for the Group's work with the European Commission and other EU agencies in education and training. He has previously been an Associate Fellow at the University of Warwick Centre for Education and Industry, and a Visiting Research Fellow with the UK Commission for Employment and Skills. He is currently on the review panel of the European Journal of Education. He has also conducted academic research, having been on the research staff at the London School of Economics during which time he co-authored two books on the UK’s education, training and skills systems. Andrew was educated at the University of Cambridge (MA) and the London School of Economics (PhD).

Dr Rory O’Sullivan

Dr Rory O’Sullivan, Principal of Killester College of Further Education since 2001, is Chair of the FET Committee of the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals, and a member of the NAPD National Executive. He has been involved in several international projects related to FET - in 2013, he was invited to speak at the European Parliament on the work being done in Killester College on inclusive further education. He was a member of the FETAC Council (2007-12), of the National Council for Special Education (2007-10), and is currently a member of the Board of AHEAD, of the QQI Appeals Panel, the QQI Consultative Forum and of the PLC Programme Improvement Advisory Committee. He is Chair of the FET2HE Project Steering Committee and he represents City of Dublin ETB on the Dublin Regional Skills Forum and Dublin Chamber. He is a member of the Editorial Board of the Education Matters Yearbook. In 2018, Rory was conferred with a PhD in FET Policy from Trinity College, Dublin. Dr O’Sullivan has a long-standing relationship with FETRC and has acted in an advisory role and supported its work since its inception.