News Congratulations to Dr Niall Mac Uidhilin

Congratulations to Dr Niall Mac Uidhilin who has successfully defended his PhD thesis, entitled: "Ag Spreagadh Gasúir Ghaeltachta chun Ceangal a dhéanamh le hAcmhainní Teanga Saibhre Digiteacha agus ag Cruthú Deiseanna Idirghníomhaíochta idir na Glúnta a thrasnaíonn teorainneacha Baile-Scoile-Pobail (Encouraging Gaeltacht Children’s Engagement with Rich Digital Language Resources and Creating Opportunities for Intergenerational Interaction across Home-School-Community Boundaries)".

Niall’s research examined the trajectory of a pedagogic intervention that was designed to support the language development of native-speaking children of Irish through their sustained engagement with rich language resources from the RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta archive and with resources brought in from home.  Design-based research, which is an interventionist, iterative approach for designing practical solutions to complex educational problems was a suitable approach to take in the context of the precarious nature of Irish as a community language in the Gaeltacht.  The theories guiding the design of the intervention included socio-cultural theory, new literacies studies, multimodality and a number of theories that link school-based and out-of-school literacy practices.  These include funds of knowledge, knowledge producing schools, artefactual literacies and identity texts.