Dr. Maria Barry

Maria Barry, PhD, is Assistant Professor in history education and global citizenship education in the School of STEM Education, Innovation and Global Studies in DCU's IoE with over 25 years experience working in these areas as a teacher, practitioner, manager and scholar. Maria is also a co-Director of DCU's Centre for Human Rights and Citizenship Education. Prior to joining DCU, Maria worked as a post primary school teacher and in Trócaire's (NGDO) development education team.

In the field of research, Maria has 10 years experience working as a Principal Investigator or co-PI on research-to-pratice projects such as a student consultation on Heritage in Education, a national survey of Global Citizenship Education and Irish primary teachers; a scoping study on the possibilities and challenges for GCE in Early Childhood Education and a National Integration Fund Award to incorporate voices of young people with migrant and minority ethnic backgrounds within teacher education programmes at both pre-service and in-service levels. 

Maria is passionate about working in collaboration to support children, young people and teachers participate in and experience engaging and empowering educational processes and practices for positive social change. Scholarly interests include identity, history and heritage; dialogue and discussion in the classroom, critical digital literacy, making connections between history education and citizenship education, cultural diversity in school history, student and youth participation and, creative and participatory research methodology and dissemmination.

Maria has served on a number of Boards and committees in the areas of history education and global citizenship education over the last 20 years. Most recently, Maria sat on the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment's development group for Leaving Certificate History to support the development of a new specification from 2027. She also sits on the Management Committee for Global Village, and is a member of the DICE and Ubuntu networks and IDEA.