Dr Eimear Holland is an Assistant Professor in Education. Having taught on post-primary initial teacher education programmes in the Faculty of Science and Health since 2009 (and previously Liverpool John Moore University), Eimear recently joined the School of Policy and Practice in the DCU Institute of Education where she teaches on to both primary and post primary teacher education programmes and the Educational Doctorate programme. Similar to her previous DCU role, Eimear is a Professional Placement Coordinator for the Primary BEd and PMEP Programmes. Eimear has also taught as a post-primary teacher where she acted as an education consultant for the local education authority and as a ‘teacher researcher’ in her school which led to a ‘Best Practice Research Scholarship’ and an invitation onto the prestigious ‘National Teacher Research Panel’. Eimear has (co)-founded and (co) facilitated a variety of communities of practice across the teacher education continuum, sectors, domains and spaces. She is vice-chair of the International Professional Development Association (Ireland branch) and a member of a number of research centres e.g. Centre of Possibility Studies and the Centre for  Collaborative Research Across Teacher Education. 

Eimear’s research interests include: professional learning and development [PLD]; prospective use of learning theories in pedagogical and research design and evaluation; research active communities of practice and how they can be operationalised; mentoring and mentor education; school placement partnership development; PLD model meta-design for empowering change and leadership; participatory action learning action research as a research strategy and pedagogical vehicle for PLD; the impact of socio-cultural, historical and political barriers to PLD engagement and implementation, supporting strategies to build an implementation bridge for overcoming barriers and power asymmetries and enacting change.