The Autumn NEARIMeet, held on 23 October 2025, centred on the theme Teachers as Researchers. Attendees greatly enjoyed hearing from outstanding teacher-researchers Eimear Colreavy and Ciara Mc Kevitt, as well as the internationally esteemed Prof. Marilyn Cochran-Smith. It was an uplifting and intellectually stimulating gathering.
As always, NEARI would like to express our gratitude to the Educational Studies Association of Ireland and their Special Interest Group (SIG) programme for supporting NEARI.
The meeting began with the ethical considerations. Bernie Sullivan invited attendees to listen to and amend NEARI’s ethical statement:
The first speaker at the NEARIMeet was Eimear Colreavy, a primary teacher who has recently completed a masters degree with Maynooth University’s Froebel Department on her research in her practice.
Eimear’s presentation inspired some sparkling discussion:
The guest speaker for the evening was renowned scholar Prof. Marilyn Cochran-Smith. Marilyn Cochran-Smith is the Cawthorne Professor of Teacher Education, Emerita, at the Lynch School of Education and Human Development, Boston College, where she directed the doctoral program in Curriculum and Instruction from 1996- 2017, and served on the faculty until her retirement in 2023. She has published extensively and received many prestigious awards for her work. Her research interests include teacher research, practitioner inquiry, and teacher education with a focus on social justice and equity issues in research, practice, and policy. She spoke about Teachers as Researcher: Ideas with Staying Power.
The group then had the opportunity to discuss Marilyn Cochran-Smith’s presentation:
The second inspirational teacher-researcher presentation was from Ciara McKevitt. Ciara is a post-primary maths teacher and is also a doctoral student in the University of Galway.
Ciara’s presentation inspired some interesting discussion:
The meeting concluded with updates from Jane O’Connell on the Collaborative Action Research Network’s (CARN) work and from Marie Huxtable on the Educational Journal of Living Theories (EJOLTs).
The next NEARIMeet will be in February 2026.
