Dr Thomas Walsh is an Associate Professor in the Department of Education, Maynooth University. Tom joined the Department in 2014 having previously worked as a primary school teacher, a researcher in early years education and a primary school inspector. Tom’s research interests primarily focus on the history of education and contemporary education policy developments across all sectors of the education system in Ireland.

As part of his Fulbright project at Northwestern University, Tom hopes to explore education policy development, mediation and enactment processes in the Chicago Public School system. The dynamics at play within the meso level of the policy landscape will be a central focus of the research, exploring the factors and actors that impact on policy mediation and enactment. The research will enhance current understandings regarding the potential of the meso level infrastructure to support education policy development in the Irish context.