Teachers Inspire is an Ireland-wide initiative that seeks to celebrate teachers and to recognise the transformative role they play in our lives and in our commu...
We conclude the series by meeting the four teachers who were presented with their Teachers Inspire award for 2023 at a special event in DCU in May.
The awards were presented by our curator, and podcast host, Louise.
The awardees for 2023 are: Jill Farrell, a primary school teacher in County Limerick, Joe O'Driscoll, who was a primary school teacher in County Cork, Dublin secondary school teacher Meg Offiah and Ursula O’Mahoney, a primary school teacher in County Tipperary.
Two were nominated by parents and the other two by former students. After the event they joined Louise to record this episode, which closes our podcast series.
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13:55
The teacher who inspired Abbott Elementary
For our penultimate episode we talk to Joyce Abbott, a teacher who inspired a student to name a hit TV series, set in a school, after her!
The former student is American comedian and actress Quinta Brunson and the show is Abbott Elementary.
As well as popular characters, great scripting and touching storylines, it portrays the huge efforts made by teachers, often with little resources, to do the best for their students.
Joyce spoke to Louise from Philadelphia about the programme, her love of teaching, what she recalls about Quinta and why, even though she is retired, she is still passionate about education.
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12:35
DCU’s unique Teacher Fellowship Programme
Providing teachers with the opportunity to work with student teachers while also progressing their own studies, is at the heart of the Teacher Fellowship Programme.
It is a unique programme offered by DCU and the second group of teachers began their fellowship a few months ago.
Louise is joined by two of them – primary school teacher Emma Farragher and secondary school teacher Niall Farrell.
They tell her why they applied for the fellowship, what they enjoy about it and what they will take from it back to their classrooms.
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17:36
Why are there more ‘Miss’ teachers than ‘Mr’ ?
The Teachers Inspire awardees have come from primary and secondary school level.
One question we have frequently pondered is why there are so many more women than men picking teaching as a career, particularly in primary school.
To discuss this, Louise is joined by Dr Alan Gorman who is Assistant Professor in the School of Policy and Practice lecturer in DCU Institute of Education.
He trained, and worked, as a primary school teacher before moving to third level and in 2022 he was awarded the DCU President's Award for Excellence in Teaching.
They discuss the possible reasons behind the gender divide and also hear from Alex Finnegan, who says he wanted to teach since his own days in primary school. He is recently qualified and teaches 5th class.
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21:04
Teachers Inspire awardee Gemma Maher
For the final time in this series we meet one of the 2022 Teachers Inspire awardees and the parent who nominated her.
Some of the most moving and powerful nominations are from parents and often it is because the teacher has noticed ‘something.’
Joining Louise is Gemma Maher, who is now the principal at Rathcoole Educate Together National School in county Dublin but, as you will hear, the nomination goes back a few years.
It was made by Kirsten FitzGerald who explains that Gemma played an important role in validating concerns about her daughter who at the time was one of Gemma’s first class pupils.
Gemma and Kirsten also recall teachers from their own school days.
Teachers Inspire is an Ireland-wide initiative that seeks to celebrate teachers and to recognise the transformative role they play in our lives and in our communities.
Hosted by acclaimed author Louise O’Neill, the Teachers Inspire podcast meets inspirational teachers, those whose lives they’ve touched along with researchers and educators, discussing topics including early childhood education, inclusion in education, mental health and wellbeing, teaching gifted children and STEM education.
To share your own story of a teacher who made a difference in your life, go to teachersinspire.ie.
Producer: Elaine Keogh
Ireland