Paul Downes

Biography

Professor Paul Downes is Professor of Psychology, Director of the Educational Disadvantage Centre, Institute of Education, Dublin City University, Ireland and Affiliate Professor University of Malta, Centre for Resilience and Socio-Emotional Health. He has been involved in various expert advisory roles for the European Commission, including for its School Policy Working Groups, the Pathways to School Success Expert Group 2022, the European Education and Training Expert Panel (2018-19) to support the EU’s post-2020 Strategic Cooperation Framework for Education and Training and was a member of the Irish Senate and Parliament Expert Advisory Group on early school leaving. A Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Victoria, Melbourne, the University of British Columbia, Vancouver (2017) and University of Cambridge, Lauterpacht Centre (2011), he is a member of the European Commission’s Network of Experts on the Social Aspects of Education and Training (NESET 2014-24) and was Chairperson of the Steering Committee for the Grangegorman Area-based Childhood interagency Programme, funded by Irish Department of Children and Youth Affairs. He led a 12 country European study on access to education, was author of 10 European city studies on parental involvement. His Ph.D at Trinity College Dublin interrogated a spatial reading of early Heidegger to reconstruct postmodernism and cognitive science. With over 120 peer-reviewed publications of in areas of psychology, philosophy, education, law, anthropology and social policy, Dr. Downes has given keynote lectures and invited presentations in 30 countries. His contribution to international policy and practice includes invitations from 16 different countries’ official ministries to present his research on inclusive systems and relational spaces. His books include: Reconstructing agency in developmental and educational psychology: Inclusive Systems as Concentric Space. New York/London/New Delhi: Routledge (2020), Concentric Space as a Life Principle Beyond Schopenhauer, Nietzsche and Ricoeur: Inclusion of the Other. New York/London/New Delhi: Routledge (2020) and The Primordial Dance: Diametric and Concentric Spaces in the Unconscious World. Oxford/Bern: Peter Lang (2012). He is the lead editor of The Routledge International Handbook of Equity and Inclusion in Education (Downes, Li, Van Praag & Lamb, Eds.) and Promoting Inclusive Systems for Migrants in Education (Routledge 2024 - Downes, P., Anderson, J., Behtoui, A., Van Praag, L. Eds.).

Education

Ph.D Trinity College Dublin, Ireland (1999)

Areas of Research / Professional Expertise

Conceptual Foundations of Inclusive Systems of Relation (Intersections between Phenomenology, Structuralism, Critical theory, Developmental Psychology, Psychoanalytic and Analytic Psychology and Poststructuralism).

Inclusive Systems in Education and Society (Early school leaving; Access to higher education and lifelong learning; Community development, nonformal education and outreach approaches; Multidisciplinary teams in schools, cross-sectoral working; Parental involvement and family support; Bullying and aggression;  Mental health and wellbeing; International right  to health and its interplay with education; Voices of children and young people, especially marginalised groups and ethnic minorities; Evaluation frameworks based on structural indicators)

These thematic strands run across a range of disciplines – Psychology, Philosophy, Education, Law, Social Policy, Sociology and Anthropology.

Personal Interests

Poetry, Travel, Soccer, Politics

Websites

• DCU

• DCU

• DCU

• FRESH Webinar

• IRNEYET (International Research Network on Equity in Education)

• NESET EU Commission

• RTE Irish Media

• The Primordial Dance Reviews

Books

Photos