Dr Eemer Eivers, Education Team Lead
Dr Mira Dobutowitsch
Dr Suzanne O’Keeffe
Dr Regina Murphy
Emma Farragher
Dr Liz Dunphy
Dr Eemer Eivers
Eemer is Director of the team evaluating Dublin City University’s Futures initiative, and an independent research consultant. Her interests include programme evaluation, early school leaving, and structural aspects of education systems (she insists the latter is much more interesting than it sounds!). She has worked in educational research for over 25 years, and has contributed to significant policy changes affecting children’s lives in Ireland, Northern Ireland and Malta.
Scamp arrived in our house shortly before I was born and lived long enough to see me off to college. Free spirit, escape artist, brilliant footballer, hearing so sharp she could hear a sweet being unwrapped in the next county. Infamously escaped our locked house to have a wander round the altar during mass. And of course, me, the mortified youngest, was sent up to catch her. Forgiven, but not forgotten.
Dr Mira Dobutowitsch
Mira Dobutowitsch has a background in psychology and education. She completed her PhD in 2019. This Irish Research Council funded project was a mixed-methods investigation of associations between children’s screen time use and wellbeing, and parents’ strategies for navigating their children’s engagement with digital devices. Mira has worked as an independent researcher, consultant, and data analyst on a number of projects.
Dr Suzanne O’Keeffe
Suzanne lectures in sociology of education and social, personal and health education (SPHE) in the Froebel Department of Primary and Early Childhood Education at Maynooth University. Suzanne has 10 years teaching experience in a primary school classroom. Her research interests include children and childhood, education, gender and masculinities.
This is me at 4 years of age visiting my grand-aunt in Limerick city. I think I was told to “mind” the toddler on the chair and smile for the photo!
Dr Regina Murphy
Regina is an Associate Professor in the School of Arts Education and Movement at DCU Institute of Education, a member of the music education team, and former Head of the School of Arts Education and Movement. Her interests include socially inclusive music education, creativity, embodied knowledge, and teacher identity.
Regina as a child in Cork.
Emma Farragher
Emma is a primary school teacher and teacher fellow at DCU Institute of Education. She is a passionate advocate for the arts and has a keen interest in children’s literature.
As a child, I loved to imitate my mother (and embrace my creative side by using her make-up … on the walls).
Dr Liz Dunphy
Liz Dunphy is Emeritus Associate Professor of Early Childhood Education at DCU in the school of Language Literacy and Early Childhood Education. She has twenty years of experience teaching in primary schools, as well as twenty years of experience in primary teacher education. Her interests include issues related to early learning at preschool and primary school, as well as a specialist interest in early childhood mathematics education. She also enjoys engagement in curriculum development whenever an opportunity arises.
This is a photo of me at the start of Junior Infants, just prior to my fourth birthday. The bábóg (doll) was produced for the taking of the photo. Her role was strictly as a prop for the teaching of Irish. I don’t believe I ever had her in my hands again. I started school in a midlands town where I was living with my Aunt for three months to facilitate me starting school. Meanwhile my parents and younger siblings stayed with various other relatives while they waited for the completion of our new house in Dublin. The new house was great!!