Dr Ingeborg Birnie

Senior Lecturer

Strathclyde Institute of Education

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Personal statement

I am a senior lecturer in the School of Education. My research interests are focussed on (minority) languages in and for teaching that go beyond the bounded notions of identity and culture. I lead the Council of Europe's European Centre for Modern Languages PALINGUI - language learning pathways of young children – making language learning visible - project and I am the co-chair of the Scottish Council of Deans of Education Languages Group which is responsible for the National Framework for Languages and associated resources as well as the Plurilingual Classrooms in Action MOOC (hosted through FutureLearn) - for which I created the content for the diversity and intercultural awareness section. The promotion of social networks (real and virtual) for the use of (minority) language(s) is at the heart of my research and I am the Chair of Working Group 4 of the COST+ Action Language in the Human Machine Era (LITHME) and also influences my work with the Erasmus+ project Diversity in Science towards Social Inclusion. I lead and teach on a range of different modules across the School of Education, many focussed on the teaching and learning of languages or on the Early Years and Childhood practice. I supervise a large number of doctoral students, typically with a focus on language learning and teaching. I am currently the chair and Editor in Chief of the Northern Scotland Journal (Edinburgh University Press). I am registered with the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) and am a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Institute. I have acted as an external examiner for EdD and PhD doctoral thesis and I was invited to be external expert on an initial teacher education reaccreditation panel. I hold a number of external examiner positions at different Universities. I regularly appear on BBC programmes, including news contributions and input to current affairs programmes to talk about my work in Gaelic and education.

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Teaching

Dr Birnie leads and teaches on a range of different modules across the Institute of Education, many focussed on the teaching and learning of languages or on the Early Years and Childhood practice. She is the course leader for the BA (Hons) Primary Education with Gaelic Medium Education, and was previously (2018 - 2020) course leader of the Postgraduate Certificate in Educational Issues and Impact, delivered face-to-face in Pakistan, and the MEd (blended pathway).

She supervises a large number of doctoral students, typically with a focus on language learning and teaching. 

 

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Research Interests

Dr Birnie's research interests are focussing on minority languages, both within and outside of the educational domain - in real and virtual spaces. She has received research grants from Bòrd na Gàidhlig to evaluate the use of spoken Gaelic in public settings within different communities as a measure of the vitality of the language.  The findings of this study have resulted in the establishment of a charity (An Taigh Ceilidh) which promotes Gaelic social network through the creation of a physical 'breathing space' for the language. Her research has also evaluated the use of Gaelic in social media and how these can contribute to creating networks of communal practice.

More recently her work has also focussed on new technologies, and in particular the use of generative Artificial Intelligence in and for minority languages and aligning these developments with human rights, democratic principles, and ethical data use. 

 

 

Professional Activities

86th Plenary meeting
Consultant
30/6/2025
Il Coordinatore nazionale incontra a Roma la Delegazione del Consiglio d’Europa
Contributor
30/4/2025
Roma, Tutela Minoranze Linguistiche: l’associazione Rivista Kamastra al tavolo tecnico con Confemili e la delegazione del Consiglio d’Europa
Contributor
12/4/2025
Linguistic injustices and inequality in the public domain
Speaker
6/3/2025
Co-labhairt. Cò tha a' labhairt? Cò a labhras?
Contributor
26/2/2025
Languages matter: Silver Jubilee Celebration of International Mother Language Day
Keynote/plenary speaker
20/2/2025

More professional activities

Projects

Erasmus+ Project: Integrating primary and pre-school virtual exchange projects into language teacher education
De Britos, Angela (Co-investigator) Birnie, Inge (Principal Investigator) Mouat, Clare (Co-investigator)
Ongoing consultancy for the INVITED project (integrating primary and pre-school virtual exchange projects into language teacher education) seeks to promote the use of virtual exchange (VE) projects in primary and pre-school language education and to develop teachers' competences regarding VE by integrating VE projects with young learners into pre- and in-service language teacher education. Project members are teacher educators from five different universities in Europe in cooperation with local schools.

Outputs:
The project is going to implement a survey on teachers´ experiences with VE in pre-school and primary language education to find out about teachers´ needs.
A community for teachers interested in VE is created in the form of an e-twinning group to exchange experiences and materials and display good practice.
A teacher education module that includes the implementation of a VE project in a local school is developed, adapted for a professional development course and made available on the ESEC platform.

The project provides opportunities for pre- and in-service teachers to connect through the online community and offers support for their VE projects. It develops a teacher education module that will be part of the partners´ curricula and made available as an online training course. These outcomes will help promote the use of VE in young learner language education, develop teachers´ competences regarding VE and foster children´s and teachers´ cultural, linguistic and digital competences.
01-Jan-2023 - 01-Jan-2026
Rannsachadh Àrainn Eucoir: Am Puffin Bochd (English: Crime Science Investigation: The Poor Puffin)
Ross, Kirsty (Principal Investigator) Birnie, Inge (Co-investigator) Essex, Jane (Co-investigator)
01-Jan-2022 - 30-Jan-2023
Plurilingualism in Action - FutureLearn Massive Open Online Course
Birnie, Inge (Academic)
MOOC to develop teachers' understanding of learning and teaching languages to explore the transformative role of languages in education.
01-Jan-2021
Diversity in Science towards Social Inclusion
Essex, Jane (Principal Investigator) Ross, Kirsty (Co-investigator) Salehjee, Saima (Co-investigator) Birnie, Inge (Research Co-investigator)
An Erasmus+ project that seeks to explore teaching strategies that could overcome barriers to full involvement of science by school pupils with a range of personal characteristics.
15-Jan-2020 - 14-Jan-2023
PALINGUI – Language learning pathways of young children – Making early language learning visible
Birnie, Inge (Principal Investigator)
ECML project - Language learning pathways are becoming more and more diverse as a result of linguistic and cultural diversity. This diversity means that young people can grow up with multiple languages and cultures, different practices and customs, as well as different ways of speaking and writing. The new PALINGUI project of the European Centre for Modern Languages of the Council of Europe (ECML) will be looking at these diverse linguistic journeys of young learners in educational contexts and how to make these visible through a range of methods and tools. These will make it possible to identify, understand and document language learning of children age 3 to 12 and thereby create learning opportunities allowing them to progress along their language learning pathways.
01-Jan-2020 - 31-Jan-2023
Potential for use of language observation
Birnie, Inge (Principal Investigator)
01-Jan-2018 - 31-Jan-2019

More projects

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Contact

Dr Ingeborg Birnie
Senior Lecturer
Strathclyde Institute of Education

Email: ingeborg.birnie@strath.ac.uk
Tel: 444 8088