Biography
I am a former primary and post-primary teacher with experience of teaching in Ireland, West Africa, and North America. I have contributed extensively to the development of policy, practice, and assessment of music at postprimary level. I am particularly interested in the theory and practice of initial teacher education, specifically within the field of music education. I currently lead the Bachelor in Music Education and the Master in Education(Music) programmes. I am interested in inter-institutional partnerships and interdisciplinary learning.
My research spans three domains, (i) Performance Pedagogy (ii) Coteaching and (iii) Interdisciplinary Learning. Across my career, I have focused on promoting a culture of inclusive music education with specific emphasis on music performance in the classroom, the teaching of music at primary level, and the pedagogy of music performance. My empirical research involves documenting aspects of my three research interests. I am adept at navigating the space between instrumental/ vocal expertise and communication, student-teacher and partner teacher professional development, and interdisciplinary learning.
At Trinity, I have led studies such as Coteaching music at primary and post-primary and Performance Pedagogy for example. My research involves theorizing the practices which develop between individuals during the professional partnership. Much of my data comes from the "Coteaching music in the primary school" corpus, which I spearheaded in 2013. My doctoral research focused on collaborative practice in professional placement settings in initial teacher education. I specifically addressed coteaching as a methodology for developing both reflective practice and pedagogical content knowledge and as a means of reducing the theory/practice gap. This has facilitated a significant description of aspects of professional development via organizational buy-in to a school-university professional partnership via coteaching. My performance pedagogy research explores the artist-audience relationship in a range of domains.
I currently hold the position of Assistant Professor in Music Education at Trinity College Dublin where I teach on the Bachelor in Music Education, Master in Education (Music), and Doctor in Education courses.
Publications and Further Research Outputs
Peer-Reviewed Publications
Putting the A into STEAM in, editor(s)Murchan, Damian & Johnson, Keith , Media/ting educational reform: Junior Cycle reform in the media in, editor(s)Keith Johnston Damian Murchan , Curriculum Change within Policy and Practice: Reforming Second-Level Education in Ireland, London, Palgrave Macmillan, 2020, [Susan McCormick], Book Chapter, IN_PRESS, London, Palgrave Macmillan, 2020, [Susan McCormick & Marita Kerin]
marita kerin, A school - university partnership and the scholarship of reciprocity, 8th Annual Conference of Society of Music Edication Ireland, Society of Music Education Ireland, Royal Irish Academy of Music, 2nd and 3rd Nov 2018, 2018
Equal Temperament in, editor(s)Ailbhe Kenny and Catharina Renate Christophersen , Musical Alterations, New York, Routledge, 2018, [Marita Kerin & Colette Murphy]
Elina Lampert Shepel, Colette Murphy Marita Kerin, Learning to Reflect: Teachers mastery of the mediational means and the psychological tools of reflection, American Educational Research Association, American Educational Research Association, New York, April 2018, edited by AERA , 2018
Marita Kerin, Developing coteaching using video analysis as mediational means of supporting reflection, Music in Schools and Teacher Education Commission, Prague, July 2018, edited by MISTEC , 2018
Marita Kerin, Challenging the theoretical framework to explain the 'dramatic impact' of coteaching on the school: Is it all about CHAT, International Society for Cultural Historical Activity Research , Oxford UK, June 2018, edited by ISCAR Ian Thompson , 2018
Marita Kerin and Colette Murphy, Exploring the impact of coteaching on pre-service music teachers, Asia-Pacific Journal of Education, Vol 43, (Issue 4), 2015, p309 - 323
Marita Kerin & Michael Grenfell, Break a Leg! Raising the Curtain on Performance Pedagogy, The Internation Journal of Arts Education, The Arts in Society Conference, Budapest, June 2013, edited by Common Ground Publishers , Volume 6, Common Ground Publisher, 2015
Marita Kerin, Exploring the impact of coteaching on pre-service music teachers, BERA, London, September 2014, 2014
Ann Devitt, Marita Kerin, and Helen O'Sullivan, Threshold Concepts and Practices in Teacher Education: Professional, Educator and Student Perspectives, Fourth Bienniel Conference on Threshold Concepts: From personal practice to communities of practice, Trinity College, Dublin, 28-29 June 2012, edited by Catherine O'Mahony, Avril Buchanan, Mary O'Rourke and Bettie Higgs , NAIRTL, Ireland, 2014, pp129 - 132
Ann Devitt and Marita Kerin, Crossing the Threshold in Initial Teacher Education: Identity and Competencies , The European conference on educational research, Istanbul, 10-13 September 2013, 2013
Ann Devitt, Marita Kerin, Helen O'Sullivan, Threshold Concepts and Practices in Teacher Education: professional, educator and student perspectives, 4th Biennial Threshold Concepts Conference, Trinity College, Dublin, 28-29 June 2012, 2012
Ann Devitt, Marita Kerin, Helen O'Sullivan and Elizabeth Oldham, Thresholds Concepts and Practices for Teacher Education: a different lens or just a new pair of drapes, ESAI 2012 (37th Annual Educational Studies Association of Ireland Conference), University College Cork, 29-31 March 2012, 2012
Ann Devitt, Elizabeth Oldham and Marita Kerin, Beginning a career of learning about learning: a case study of student teachers in an initial teacher education programme in Ireland, Teachers' Life-cycle from Initial Teacher education to Experienced Professional: 2011 ATEE Annual Conference, Riga, 26-30 August 2011, edited by Irēna Zogla and Lūcija Rutka , Association for Teacher Education in Europe, 2012, pp283 - 296
Ann Devitt, Sean Devitt, Marita Kerin and Elizabeth Oldham, Back to school: how becoming a reflective learner impacts on practice, European Conference on Educational Research 2011, Berlin, Germany, 13-16 September 2011, 2011
Marita Kerin May Costello, Bravo!, 1, Dublin, Folens, 2009, 1 - 366pp
Marita Kerin May Costello, Bravo! Workbook, 1, Dublin, Folens, 2009, 1 - 174pp
Dominique Laflamme, Colette Murphy & Marita Kerin, Vygotsky's zone of proximal development: circulation of experiential knowledge in coteaching, Trinity Papers - School of Education
Marita Kerin & Michael Grenfell, Building competence in performance pedagogy, The Internation Journal of Arts Education, Arts in Society, Rome, June 2014, edited by Common Ground , Common Ground
Marita Kerin, A class act!, Research in Music Education, Exeter U.K., 2011
Marita Kerin, What counts as music education?, Voicings Conference, St Patrick's College Drumcondra, Dublin, Ireland, 2011, edited by Dr Patricia Flynn , 2012
Non-Peer-Reviewed Publications
Marita Kerin, Coteaching Music in the Primary School: Teacher Perspectives, TCD, 2019
Shane Bergin, Aiveen O'Callaghan Claudia Fracchiolla, Sorcha Browne Marita Kerin, Quavers to Quadratics - An informal transdisciplinary physics & music program, Physics Education Research Conference, Washington DC, 2018, 2018
marita kerin, 'The heart of teaching', hibernia College, 2018, -
Marita Kerin, The tightrope walker presents a rose: Artist and audience as partners in performance, 2018
Marita Kerin & Michael Grenfell, Reaching out and reaching in: Musical Performance Pedagogy in Practice, 2018
Marita Kerin & Shane Bergin, 'From Quavers to Quadratics', Teaching Council of Ireland Webinar on Cross-Curricular Teaching & Learning, Teaching Council of Ireland, 2017, -
Marita Kerin, Carmel OSullivan, Michael Grenfell, 'Artist Biography', Ralph McTell in Conversation, Youtube, Youtube, 2012, -
Marita Kerin & Colette Murphy, Are we getting there? Identifying the developmental stages in reciprocal learning during coteaching, ECER, Dublin, September 2016, edited by ECER
Marita Kerin, If all the world's a stage, shouldn't we consider performance pedagogy?, Research in Music Education, Exeter UK, April 2015
Marita Kerin & Colette Murphy, A neo-Vygotskian framework for supporting developmental stages in reciprocal learning during coteaching, Society for Music Education Ireland SMEI, University of Limerick Ireland, November 2016
Marita Kerin, Coteaching as a mechanism for school -university partnership, Loreto School Principals' Annual Conference, Athlone Ireland, September 2016
Marita Kerin & Colette Murphy, 'What's in it for me?' Coteaching as reciprocal professional development, Research in Music Education, Exeter UK, April 2015
Research Expertise
Description
Coteaching music in the primary school: The aim of this research is to examine from the perspective of the primary teacher the impact of a school-university coteaching partnership on music education provision in the school. The study seeks to better understand the practices, opportunities and challenges associated with coteaching music and to contribute to forming a robust research base upon which further development might take place. Interdisciplinary Learning: Coteaching involves co-planning, co-practice and co-reflection. This research involves student dyads visit the school to plan the NCH workshop with the teacher and children and return after the workshop to build and reflect on the workshop. Feedback from the schools suggests that coteaching facilitates significant consolidated, sustainable learning (Kerin et al, 2015). Performance pedagogy and Artistic Biography: As a founding member of the Arts in Education Research Group at Trinity College Dublin I hosted a series of Arts Biography seminars exploring the concepts of informal learning and the biography of place (habitus and field). My research includes projects such as Artistic Biography: An Evening with Ralph McTell and Storying the life of Dubliner John Sheahan. The research output from such projects has been used to generate greater understanding into how we as teachers provide education in the arts. Grants: Coteaching music in the primary school: Teacher Perspectives Trinity College Dublin Arts Humanities and Social Sciences Coteaching music is a longitudinal exploratory study involving reciprocal professional learning in the context of a school-university coteaching partnership. The study seeks to better understand the practices, opportunities and challenges associated with coteaching music and to contribute to forming a robust research base upon which further development might take place. Quavers to Quadratics Science Foundation Ireland Quavers to Quadratics is an inter-institutional interdisciplinary project which via an extended coteaching partnership between undergraduate music education students from Trinity College partnered with science education students from UCD and primary teachers from schools all over Dublin, an informal education programme linking music and science is presented to primary school children. Research explores the learning that occurs between the stakeholders. Ceolaíocht (Bringing Quavers to Quadratics to Gaeltareciprocalcht Schools) Creative Ireland Extending Quavers to Quadratics to a number of rural Gaeltacht schools a pilot was undertaken to explore the affordances and challenges of this informal learning initiative is based on a coteaching partnership between university students from TCD and UCD and local primary teachers.Projects
- Title
- Coteaching Music in the Primary School
- Summary
- Coteaching music in the primary school The aim of this research is to examine from the perspective of the primary teacher the impact of a school-university coteaching partnership on music education provision in the school. The study seeks to better understand the practices, opportunities and challenges associated with coteaching music and to contribute to forming a robust research base upon which further development might take place.
- Funding Agency
- Faculty of the Arts Humanities and Social Sciences TCD
- Date From
- 2013
- Date To
- 2019
- Title
- Quavers to Quadratics
- Summary
- Quavers to Quadratics is an inter-institutional interdisciplinary project which via an extended coteaching partnership between undergraduate music education students from Trinity College partnered with science education students from UCD and primary teachers from schools all over Dublin, an informal education programme linking music and science is presented to primary school children. Research explores the reciprocal learning that occurs between the stakeholders.
- Funding Agency
- Science Foundation Ireland
- Date From
- 2014
- Date To
- 2020
- Title
- Ceolaíocht
- Summary
- Extending Quavers to Quadratics to a number of rural Gaeltacht schools a pilot was undertaken to explore the affordances and challenges of this informal learning initiative based on a coteaching partnership between university students from TCD and UCD and local primary teachers.
- Funding Agency
- Creative Ireland
- Date From
- 2019
Recognition
Representations
External Examiner on the Bachelor in Education programme St. Mary's QUB Belfast
Member of Board of Management in Primary School
Advisor on professional partnership via coteaching to NCH Quavers to Quadratics outreach programme
Advisor on School -University partnership Loreto Schools
Advisor on music education and professional partnership Music Ceolaíocht
Member NCCA Sub-committee on new Junior Cert and Leaving Cert Music Syllabii
Awards and Honours
The Provost's Award: Nomination
Memberships
Member of the American Education Research Association ( AERA )
Nominated member of the Teaching Council of Ireland
Member of the Education Studies Association of Ireland
Member of the Society for Music Education Ireland