Rebecca Jeffers

Becci is a lecturer in Social Policy and the Director of the Higher Diploma in Social Policy (online), which is the School’s first completely online programme. She is a member of the Bachelor of Social Science, Postgraduate Diploma in Youth Work, and Masters in Social Policy and Social Justice course teams. Becci's interests in the social sciences are extensive, across numerous and substantive issues, but recently her work focuses on the intersections of pedagogy, well-being, and political engagement. Becci was involved in Socio-Cycle: Exploring the socio-cultural significance of cycling in an Irish regional city an IRC funded research project. This project is a collaborative research initiative with Cork Environmental Forum and the Cork Cycling Campaign. Becci was a co-PI on the Social Policy Educators: Enhancing Digital Skills (SPEEDS) project, which was a two year project funded by the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning. Becci is a member of the ISS21 Research for Civil So

As a lecturer in social policy, Becci's research interests are significantly concerned with issues of well-being, social justice, and relationships of care. Her PhD research explores the multiple expressions of young people’s activism including the diverse activist and institutional settings traversed by young people to achieve social, cultural, or policy change. This study examines young people’s navigation of politics and their negotiation of their activist identities. Previously, Becci was involved involved in a research project examining the experiences of lone parent families in post-2008 Ireland. In 2017, Becci conducted research for a project funded by the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, which investigated approaches to enhancing social research methods education through authentic assessment strategies. Becci is acted as the co-PI for a second project funded by the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, which aimed to enhance social policy education through the development of digital skills. Other interests include, digital cultures, politics and practice; e-democracy; inequalities, injustice, and misrecognition; caring relationships and inclusion; power and oppression; social movements, activism, and citizenship; youth culture and participation.

My teaching interests are many and varied, but are typically at the nexus of social policy and social movements. Questions relating to power and oppression; social need and well-being; inequality and injustice; and citizenship, participation, and activism, inform most of my interests. In UCC, I am involved in teaching a number of core social policy modules to the Bachelor in Social Science, Bachelor of Social Work, Higher Diploma in Social Policy (online and campus-based), and Masters in Social Policy programmes. My main interest as an educator is to support students in their learning and to foster a learning environment that is critical, inclusive, and collaborative. Since commencing work as a social policy educator, my primary interests are to: a) Inspire interest and understanding in social policy by supporting students in navigating disciplinary knowledge, ideas, and skills. b) Improve student engagement through creative, interactive, and collaborative participation inside and outside the classroom. c) Uphold research informed teaching and learning strategies, through the implementation of student feedback; the exploration of contemporary literature on social science education; and complementing lectures with useful empirical and conceptual literatures. A critical interest of mine is to nurture students’ critical and collaborative abilities. By building learning environments that aim to motivate students and encourage independence, I have been fortunate to have many fruitful and engaging exchanges with learners, which serves to expand my teaching interests from year to year.