Academic biography

Aoife Brennan is an Associate Professor and Head of School of Inclusive and Special Education in DCU Institute of Education. She previously worked as a mainstream and learning support/resource primary teacher and as a Literacy Advisor with the National Professional Development Service for Teachers (PDST). Aoife teaches across a number of undergraduate and postgraduate teacher education programmes up to and including doctoral level, She has chaired a number of programmes, including the Professional Diploma in Special and Inclusive Education, Diploma in Inclusive and Special Education and the Masters in Special Educational Needs and she has coordinated the professional placement modules on the Grad Dip in Inclusive and Special Education. She is Chair of the International Professional Development Association (IPDA) Ireland and an Advisory Board Member for the International Symposium on Leadership for Professional Learning. 

Aoife's doctoral research (http://doras.dcu.ie/21956/) focused on exploring the impact of a professional learning community on teacher learning for inclusive practice. Since then, she has continued to engage in research on professional learning for inclusion, inclusive pedagogy, professional learning policy development and inclusive school leadership, which has been published in high-impact teacher education journals. She has led research projects including a Teaching Council funded project on the development of a university-school partnership to support collaborative teacher professional learning in PLCs for inclusive pedagogy in primary and post-primary schools and an international collaborative project on special classes in mainstream schools. She has supervised doctoral students in the areas of professional learning and inclusive school leadership, teacher resilience, and inclusive mathematics. Aoife is a member of the leadership team for the recently established Centre for Inclusive Pedagogy.