Dr Hilary Tierney: Following graduation from the first Irish professional undergraduate programme in youth work and community work, I worked across the community and youth work sectors, specialising in organisational development practice and in education and training for the emerging profession in both FE and third level. I am a lecturer in the Department of Applied Social Studies in NUI Maynooth, where I contribute across the professional programmes in the areas of youth work theory and practice, professional skills development and research theory and practice. I completed the first DSocSc programme in UCC in 2010 and my doctoral thesis analyses the stories and metaphors that inform fieldwork supervisors practice narratives.

My practice and research interests relate to youth work and community work practice with an emphasis on the role of fieldwork and supervision in professional education and training. My other interests relate to professional ethics, realising human rights through youth work, articulating the benefits and outcomes of youth work for young people, and the role of informal social education in developing young people’s critical capacities as local and global citizens.