In an Irish Higher Education (HE) context the careers of postdoctoral researchers (PDRs) have received little research attention. Within the international HE policy context they are positioned as important contributors to Higher Education Institutions' (HEIs) mission to be engines of the 'knowledge economy'. Yet, despite their importance to HEIs,…

Background: Scant attention has been paid to the quality of working life of social care workers in Ireland. This study sought to characterise both the quality of working life and the well-being of social care workers in the disability sector. Method: A cross-sectional survey of social care workers (n = 307) was conducted. Measures of work-related…

Workplace bullying is a widespread phenomenon within Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). Employee tendency to remain silent is one of the most common reactions to workplace bullying. Yet, employee silence in the context of workplace bullying is poorly studied. Building on the Conservation of Resources Theory (COR) and the Learned Helplessness…

The situation caused by coronavirus disease 2019 closures in the spring of 2020 resulted in various restrictions for universities and led to a reorganisation of their operations. This created unprecedented challenges for all academic work. This study aimed to analyse the pandemic-related work experiences of doctoral researchers from several…

This study explores the perceptions of early career STEM faculty about their teaching contexts and praxis after pursuing an accredited teaching and learning programme in an Irish university. A social realist approach using Archer's morphogenetic framework was employed to facilitate an exploration of their perceptions about teaching and the…

The well-being and mental health of principals is being threatened by changing working conditions such as a broader variety of roles and tasks. In this article, we argue that social capital might buffer against declining (mental) health. The purpose of this study was to investigate the potential influence of social capital, including both internal…

Aspirations to combat educational inequality and disadvantage in Ireland feature strongly in policy documents of recent decades. Teachers and their concerns are not always to the forefront in such publications or, indeed, in associated research. For this study, 20 teachers and school principals who work in schools located in communities with…

In recent times, the role of Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC), as a public service within Irish society has been illuminated. In the twenty-first century, although crises may unfold on a global scale, the response from society is galvanised at local level. Amongst other functions, ECEC is ideally positioned to form part of a local…

The last decade has revealed a global (re)configuring of the relationships between the state, society and educational settings in the direction of systems of performance management. In this article, the authors conduct a critical feminist inquiry into this changing relationship in relation to the professionalisation of early childhood education…

The early childhood education and care (ECEC) workforce is foundational for providing high-quality learning, development and well-being experiences for young children. Policies can support the development of this workforce by addressing requirements for initial education and continuing professional development, as well as the working conditions of…

The paper analyses how educators employed on non-permanent contracts in the non-compulsory education sector in Ireland have fared during the COVID-19 pandemic. These employees were starting from a low base in relation to the terms and conditions of their employment when their places of work dramatically pivoted online in March 2020. We argue the…

This study investigated the experiences of workplace bullying among primary and postprimary school staff in Ireland. A sample of 630 teachers and members of the Senior Management Team (SMT) completed an online survey inquiring about their own experiences of bullying in the workplace, as targets, bystanders, and perpetrators. Information about…

Stress is an inevitable part of school leadership. However, little is known about the main causes of school leaders' stress in Ireland, and their association with workplace wellbeing and leaders' daily responsibilities. The current paper aimed to address this gap. A cross-sectional, mixed-methods design survey was conducted with 267 school leaders…

Computerized assessments and interactive simulation tasks are increasingly popular and afford the collection of process data, i.e., an examinee's sequence of actions (e.g., clickstreams, keystrokes) that arises from interactions with each task. Action sequence data contain rich information on the problem-solving process but are in a nonstandard,…

This article employs five teacher autobiographies in an attempt to examine their contribution to the history of teaching in Ireland. The article argues that such autobiographies provide significant insights into the history of the classroom and often represent subversive and disruptive narratives. As such they represent a valuable but overlooked…