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Ciaran Sugrue

Ciaran Sugrue - School leadership, continuing professional learaning
Position/Status

Reader, School Leadership and School Improvement

E-mail Address:

cs533@cam.ac.uk

Phone:

+44 (0)1223-67743

Qualifications
  • Teaching Diploma (Primary), St. Patrick's College, Dublin
  • BA (Psychology and Philosophy) University College Dublin (UCD)
  • Higher Diploma in Education (Secondary) UCD
  • MA (Philosophy) (UCD)
  • MEd Dublin University, Trinity College
  • PhD Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto
Membership of Professional Bodies/Associations
  • Educational Studies Association of Ireland
  • European Educational Research Association
  • American Educational Research Association

Profile

Ciaran Sugrue worked as a primary teacher in disadvantaged schools in Dublin, and as a schools inspector before becoming a teacher educator. He has been General Editor of Irish Educational Studies for the past decade, and is on the editorial boards of several international journals. He is a former president/chair of the International Study Association of Teachers and Teaching (ISATT), and currently represents the ESAI as a participant in the recently formed group sponsored by AERA which is in the process of creating a 'world educational research association'. He has been a visiting scholar at the faculty of education in Stanford University and at the International Centre for Educational Change at OISE/ University of Toronto.

Academic Area/Links

While focused on school leadership, I am keen to connect this with continuing professional learning, initial teacher education and learning across the lifespan, while having an interest in the interface between policy and the lives and work of teachers, school leaders and teacher educators. This work extends also to how these issues are approached in various cultural contexts from a comparative perspective, and these concerns are central to the work currently being undertaken within the Centre for Commonwealth Education within the Faculty.

Research Topics

Research Interests include—school leadership and improvement and organisational change within a policy perspective, qualitative research methods, continuing professional development and educational reform in developing countries, as well as the role of research and researcher in the context of a globalised world. In the context of the Centre for Commonwealth Education (CCE) within the Faculty of Education, along with colleagues, there is ongoing collaboration with the Institute for Educational Development, Aga Khan University in Dar es Salaam, on capacity building regarding pedagogy, leadership, and the improvement of teaching and learning in primary schools.


Current Research Projects

  • A Comenius project (9 countries) on: School leadership in challenging circumstances
  • Professional identity formation of teacher educators
  • Leading diverse schools in increasingly diverse communities

Course Involvement

  • Masters: MPhil, MEd
  • PhD

Principal Publications

Books

Sugrue, C. (ed) (2008) The Future of Educational Change: International Perspectives, London and New York: Routledge.

Sugrue, C. (ed) (2005) Passionate Principalship: Learning from Life Histories of School Leaders, London and New York: RoutledgeFalmer.

Sugrue, C. (ed.) (2004) Curriculum And Ideology: Irish Experiences, International Perspectives, Dublin: The Liffey Press.

Sugrue C., Day, C. (eds) (2002) Developing Teachers and Teaching: International Research Perspectives, London; Routledge/ Falmer Press.

Sugrue, C. (1997) Complexities of Teaching: Child-centred Perspectives, London: Falmer Press.

Book Chapters

Sugrue, C. (2008) The Plate Tectonics of Educational Change In Ireland: Consequences for Research Quality, Policy and Practice? In Sugrue, C. (ed) The Future of Educational Change: International Perspectives, London and New York: Routledge.

Sugrue, C. (2008) The Future of Educational Change? (Epilogue), in Sugrue, C. (ed) The Future of Educational Change: International Perspectives, London and New York: Routledge.

Sugrue, C. (2006) Three Decades of Teacher Education Reform: 1973-1999, in Kelly, J. (ed) A History of St. Patrick's College, Dublin: Four Courts Press, chapter 8, pp. 225-265.

Sugrue, C. (2005) Putting 'real life' into school leadership: connecting leadership, identities and life history, in: C. Sugrue (Ed) Passionate Principalship: Learning from the life histories of school leaders (London and New York, RoutledgeFalmer).

Sugrue, C. (2005) Creating Continuity Through Change: comfort with uncertainty, in: C. Sugrue (Ed) Passionate Principalship: Learning from the Life Histories of School Leaders (London and New York, RoutledgeFalmer).

Sugrue, C. (2005) Being Principal: Leadership inside out, in: C. Sugrue (Ed) Passionate Principalship: Learning from the life histories of school leaders (London and New York, RoutledgeFalmer.).

Sugrue, C. (2005) Principalship: beyond pleasure, pain and passion, in: C. Sugrue (Ed) Passionate Principalship: Leaning from the life histories of school leaders (London and New York, RoutledgeFalmer).

Sugrue, C. (2004) Introduction, Curriculum and Ideology: Irish Experiences, International Perspectives, Dublin: The Liffey Press, pp. 1-15.

Sugrue, C. (2004) Whose Curriculum Is It Anyway? Power, Politics and Possibilities in the Construction of the Revised Primary Curriculum, in: C. Sugrue (Ed) Curriculum and Ideology: Irish Experiences, International Perspectives (Dublin, The Liffey Press).

Sugrue, C. and Gleeson, J. (2004) Signposts and Silences: Situating the Local within the Global, in Curriculum and Ideology: Irish Experiences, International Perspectives (Dublin, The Liffey Press).

Sugrue, C. (2004) Rhetorics and Realities of CPD Across Europe: From cacophony towards coherence? in Day, C. and Sachs, J. (eds) Handbook On Continuing Professional Development, Buckingham: Open University Press.

Journal Articles

Sugrue, C., and Morgan, M. (2008) The Seven Challenges and Four Rewards of Being a Principal: Results of a National Survey, Oideas, 53.

Sugrue, C. (2006) A Critical Appraisal of the Impact of International Agencies on Educational Reforms and Teachers' Lives and Work: The Case of Ireland? European Educational Research Journal, Vol.5, Nos 3 and 4, pp. 181-195.

Sugrue, C. (2004) Revisiting Teaching Archetypes: identifying dominant shaping influences on student teachers' identities, in European Educational Research Journal, Vol. 3, No. 3, pp. 583-602.

Sugrue, C. (2003) Principals' Professional Development: Realities, Perspectives and Possibilities, Oideas 50, pp.8-39.

Sugrue, C. (2002) The Cosmologies of Irish Principals' Identities: Between the Modern and the Postmodern? International Journal of Leadership in Education Theory and Practice, Vol. 5, No. 2, pp. 189-210.

Sugrue, C. (2002) Irish Teachers' Experience of Professional Learning: Implications for Policy and Practice, Journal of Inservice Education, Vol. 28, No. 2, pp. 311-338.

Sugrue, C. (1999) 'Primary Principals' Perspectives on School Evaluation', in Irish Journal of Education, Vol. Xxx, pp. 54-76.