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Biography

Originally from Tallaght, Dublin, I moved to Waterford at 19 to take up a course in WIT.  The South-East has been my home ever since.  I am a lover of learning and new challenges and have had an interesting and varied career to date.  I have qualifications in a number of areas including Social Care, Adult Guidance and Counselling and Further Education teaching.  I have worked in diverse areas such as young people in care, homelessness, addiction, probation, and adult and further education and training.  I joined the WIT School of Education and Lifelong Learning as a lecturer in September 2019.

I am passionate about supporting students to tap into their own strengths and resources and to learn how to be successful in the academic environment.  I also aim to support and encourage students to be effective workers and agents of change in their chosen occupational areas.  

I currently teach modules on initial teacher education programmes and on community education and development.  In the past, I have taught modules on undergraduate social care programmes both in WIT and IT Carlow and I lectured and coordinated a one-year evening course in Child and Social Studies for several years in WIT.

Before coming to work in WIT full-time I worked for over 10 years in Further Education and Training (FET) contexts.  These contexts included Local Training Initiatives, Back to Education Initiatives and Community Education programmes.

The vast majority of my teaching experience, both in Higher Education and FET, has been with mature or non-traditional students.

Research interests

My current research interests include:

  • Identity, structure and agency
  • Adult and Further Education and Training
  • Lifelong learning
  • Access routes for adult and disadvantaged learners into Further and Higher Education
  • Innovative research and teaching methods
  • Wellbeing practices for teaching and caring professionals

 

The CITO Project

I am currently part of a WIT research team who, with our European partners, are working on the development of a new online assessment tool for members of the public to assess their literacy, numeracy and digital skills.  This is an ERASMUS+ project entitled the Check-In-Take-Off (CITO) project.  The project begun in 2019 and is due to run until 2022.

To view more information about the CITO project, please go to: citoproject.eu

 

Current PhD research

I am currently completing a PhD research project entitled ‘Further Education and Training practitioners in transition – practitioner identities and sectoral change in Ireland’.

This PhD research project examines the professional identities of Further Education and Training (FET) practitioners in the Irish FET sector and considers the impact of recent significant sectoral changes upon those identities. 

To view a sample of papers and publications related to this project, please go to: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sarah_Bates_Evoy

Current professional memberships

  • Registered Further Education teacher with the Teaching Council of Ireland
  • ESREA membership
  • BERA membership

 

Past board memberships

  • Original board member of the Irish Men’s Sheds Association, 2010 – 2012
  • Board member of the Irish Foster Care Association, 1998 – 2003

 

Sample of previous employment

2010 – 2019:                           Waterford & Wexford ETB

                                                Adult Tutor and Facilitator, Staff trainer

 

2008 – 2010:                           Business in the Community

                                                Training and Education Officer

 

2007:                                       The Waterford Young Traveller Training Programme

                                                Manager

 

2003 – 2006:                           St. Vincent de Paul Men’s Hostel

                                                Project Leader

Pending Publications

Book chapter - ‘How Irish adult educators enjoy work despite poor employment conditions’, in Discourses We Live By,  Wright, H. & Høyen, M. (Eds).   Due to be published in 2020 by Aarhus University Press, Denmark.

 

Publications and conference papers

Bates Evoy, S.  (2018) ‘The Teaching Council and Irish Further Education and Training Contexts’.  Available through: https://www.aontas.com/knowledge/blog/the-teaching-council-and-further-education-and-training-contexts

 

Bates Evoy, S.  (2017) ‘Irish FET Practitioners – who are they?’, in ETBI Magazine, Summer 2017, P.51-53. Kildare: Education & Training Boards Ireland.  Available at: http://www.etbi.ie/wpcontent/uploads/2017/06/ETBI-Summer17.pdf

 

Bates Evoy, S.  (2017)  ‘Belong Drama Group: Summary Report on Drama & Film Project for Men with Acquired Brain Injuries’.  WWETB.  Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/323859020_Report_on_Drama_Film_Project_for_Men_with_Acquired_Brain_Injuries

 

Bates Evoy, S.  (2016)  ‘Open Space Technology: An effective tool for consultation’, in The Visionary Practitioner: Learning from the Research conference proceedings.  Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321106617_Open_Space_Technology_An_effective_tool_for_consultation

 

Bates Evoy, S.  (2015)  ‘Who are Further Education and Training Practitioners? – Exploring identities using Open Space Technology’, in Conference Proceedings: Reimagining Lifelong Learning – December 2015.   Available at:  https://issuu.com/centreforadultlearning/docs/reimagining_lifelong_learning_confe