In this episode of the EPI·STEM podcast, Geraldine Simmie PhD and Michelle Starr PhD welcome Liam Maquet as their special guest. Liam Maquet is an Assistant Professor in Technology Education in the School of Education and an EPI·STEM Affiliate. Liam’s most recent resource on polymers for engineering teachers and students can be found in the Engineering section of our EPI·STEM Academy of STEM Teachers (https://epistem.ie/resources/). Here we regularly upload free research-led CPD resources for teachers to adapt in their classroom and school contexts.

In the podcast today, Liam recalls his experiences growing up in Ardara in County Donegal and going to St Columba’s Comprehensive School in nearby Glenties. Liam speaks to the fishing and weaving lifestyles and their impact on the culture and heritage of the area. During his teen years, Liam designed a working loom using a process of reverse engineering from an older wooden loom and today continues to enjoy weaving on this loom whenever he visits Donegal.

This rich background was inspirational in shaping Liam’s passion for teaching and research in engineering, graphics and technology. In the University of Limerick, Liam not only completed an undergraduate teacher education degree in this area but was enabled to remain on as a university teacher to influence the next generation of student teachers in these subjects.

Currently, Liam Maquet is in the final phase of his PhD study in Technology Education exploring productive pedagogies that enable the teaching of spatial reasoning, skills and spatial intelligence. His research is undertaken in the Technological University of the Shannon (TUS) under the supervision of Dr Jeff Buckley and Dr Ronan Dunbar from TUS and Dr Sheryl Sorby from the US.

In the podcast, Liam teases out the complexity of his research problem and the multiple approaches to framing this teaching and learning problem, especially from an intersectional perspective of gender, social class, race and ethnicity. Finding a productive framework that holds the tensions in play clearly matters, given that engineering and technology education aim to make a difference to the public-interest and sustainability needs of a future-oriented economy, society and environment.

The music today is performed by Aisling Kearns, from Castlebar and a third-year student in the BA in World Music in the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance. Here Aishling plays a piece written by the contemporary traditional composer, Liz Carroll from Chicago, called ‘The Island of Woods’.