Academic biography

After many years working in primary classrooms in Dublin, Lisa Clarke is now Assistant Professor of Primary Geography Education and Social and Environmental Education in the School of STEM Education, Innovation and Global Studies. Her work is grounded in a sustained commitment to bridging research, policy and classroom practice in primary geography education.

Lisa’s research focuses on place-based pedagogies, enquiry-based teaching and learning, and professional learning for primary teachers, with particular attention to how teachers engage with locality, community and curriculum reform. Her doctoral research examines Place-Based Learning in Irish primary schools, drawing on empirical work with multiple school communities. Having refined her focus and completed extensive fieldwork in school settings across a range of contexts, Lisa is now in the final phase of her doctorate and is increasingly concerned with the impact of her research on teachers’ understandings and enactment of place-based learning within the new Primary Curriculum Framework.

Lisa holds a Master of Education from Dublin City University (2021), where her research explored enquiry-based learning in primary geography and Communities of Practice as a model of sustained professional development for teachers.

She is a member of the Geography Association, the Centre for Human Rights and Citizenship Education at DCU, and a Changemaker Schools Network Fellow. Lisa served on the committee for the International Geographical Congress Olympiad (2024) and works closely with local schools to support meaningful engagement with place and locality as a central dimension of primary education.