School of Inclusive & Special Education header
School of Inclusive & Special Education

Dr
Fiona
King

Primary Department
School of Inclusive & Special Education
Role
Academic Staff
Phone number:
01 700
9066
Campus
St Patrick's Campus
Room Number
F348

Academic biography

Fiona King is an Associate Professor in the School of Inclusive and Special Education, Dublin City University (DCU). Fiona began her career as a primary teacher and spent 25 years teaching in a variety of contexts. She moved into teacher education in 2011 as an advisor with the Professional Development Service for Teachers (funded by the Department of Education and Science). In January 2014 she joined St. Patrick’s College of teacher education and now currently works in DCU, Institute of Education where she specialises in the following areas: teachers' professional learning.  social justice leadership and teacher leadership, collaboration and collaborative practices, change, and inclusive practice.


Fiona is Programme Chair for the Professional Doctorate in Education (EdD) in the Institute of Education. She has supervised a number of students at Master's and Doctorate level, one of whom won the prestigious 2015 Literacy Association of Ireland’s Biennial Award for an Outstanding Master’s Thesis on Literacy. 

Her doctoral thesis Developing and Sustaining Teachers’ Professional Learning: A Case Study of Collaborative Professional Development received three awards; IPDA, AERA and BELMAS respectively. Fiona is a committee member of the international network Leadership for Professional Learning. 

Fiona was appointed to the Teaching Council external advisory panel. She is a member of the International Professional Development Association (IPDA) committee and Chair of IPDA Ireland. Fiona is an Associate Editor of the fully refereed SSCI Rated international journal,  Professional Development in Education.  She is a critical friend to the Teaching Council's Cosán Working Group looking at teachers' learning and development and a member of DCU Changemaker Schools Advisory Group. Fiona is an Affiliate Faculty Member of the Lastinger Center for Learning at the University of Florida. 

Research interests

Fiona's current research areas include:
teacher leadership. teacher professional learning and development (including impact and evaluation).collaborative practices. leadership for inclusion (including: social justice leadership, collaboration and collaborative practices, inclusive teaching practices, individual education plans, and student voice);teacher education, and 
self-study as a research methodology. 
Her recent work around social justice leadership has involved collaborations with research colleagues at various institutions across 20+ countries within the ISLDN (International Social Justice Leadership Development Network).

She also has experience of supervising PhD students while working part-time for the University of Lincoln (June 2012 - September 2014). 
Supervised PhD thesis, University of Lincoln, 2011-2015. The Individual Education Plan (IEP) Process for Students with Intellectual Disabilities in Saudi Arabia: Challenges and Solutions.Supervised PhD thesis, University of Lincoln, 2010-2014. Inclusive Education for Deaf Students in Saudi Arabia: Schools' Principals, Teachers and Parents Perceptions.