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Dr. Owen Barden

Dr. Owen Barden

Assistant Professor, Education

https://www.tcd.ie/tcpid/research-innovation-hub/staff/owen-barden.php

Biography

Owen is Assistant Professor in Intellectual Disability and Inclusion at the Trinity Centre for People with Intellectual Disabilities (TCPID) within the School of Education at Trinity College Dublin (TCD). He is the Course Co-ordinator for the highly innovative Level 5 Certificate in Arts, Science and Inclusive Applied Practice offered by TCPID. Owen joined TCPID in October 2024 after twelve years at the Centre for Culture and Disability Studies at Liverpool Hope University. During that time he taught on a range of undergraduate and Masters programmes relating to disability studies in education and special educational needs. He was also Programme Director for the Professional Doctorate programme, which comprised awards in Education, Social Work, and Health & Social Care. Owen holds a Doctorate in Education awarded by the University of Sheffield in 2011, and this thesis project explored relationships between dyslexia, technology, literacies and learning. His most recent work has focussed on cultural histories of learning disability, and devising innovative and participatory methods for researching those histories. Current and future projects are building on this work through developing partnerships with academic researchers and advocacy groups in places like the Open University and the University of Iceland.

Publications and Further Research Outputs

  • Disability and Inclusion in, editor(s)Louis Tay and Beth McCuskey , The Oxford Handbook on Well-being in Higher Education, OUP, 2025, [Sarah Arduin]Book Chapter, 2025
  • Owen Barden, Steven J. Walden, Davey Bennett, Nicole Bird, Stella Cairns, Rhiannon Currie, Lynne Evans, Stephen Jackson, Emily Oldnall, Sarah Oldnall, Dawn Price, Tricia Robinson, Amber Tahir, Samantha Taylor, Christine Wright, Claire Wright, Antonia's story: Bringing the past into the future, British Journal of Learning Disabilities, 2022Journal Article, 2022, DOI
  • Owen Barden, Getting inside histories of learning disabilities, Educational Action Research, 29, (4), 2021, p619--635Journal Article, 2021, DOI
  • Owen Barden, Demanding Money with Menaces, Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies, 14, (1), 2020, p91--108Journal Article, 2020, DOI
  • Owen Barden, Building the mobile hub: mobile literacies and the construction of a complex academic text, Literacy, 53, (1), 2018, p22--29Journal Article, 2018, DOI
  • Owen Barden, Mark Bygroves, `I wouldn"t be able to graduate if it wasn"t for my mobile phone." The affordances of mobile devices in the construction of complex academic texts, Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 2017, p1--11Journal Article, 2017, DOI
  • Owen Barden, Heterotopic affinity spaces, Power and Education, 8, (3), 2016, p222--236Journal Article, 2016, DOI
  • Owen Barden, Facebook levels the playing field: Dyslexic students learning through digital literacies, Research in Learning Technology, 22, 2014Journal Article, 2014, DOI
  • Owen Barden, Winking at Facebook: Capturing Digitally Mediated Classroom Learning, E-Learning and Digital Media, 11, (6), 2014, p554--568Journal Article, 2014, DOI
  • Owen Barden, New approaches for new media: moving towards a connected methodology, Qualitative Research Journal, 13, (1), 2013, p6--24Journal Article, 2013, DOI
  • Owen Barden, ""If we were cavemen we'd be fine": Facebook as a catalyst for critical literacy learning by dyslexic sixth-form students, Literacy, 46, (3), 2012, p123--132Journal Article, 2012, DOI
  • Owen Barden, From "Acting Reading" to Reading for Acting: A Case Study of the Transformational Power of Reading, Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 53, (4), 2011, p293--302Journal Article, 2011, DOI
  • The Metanarrative of Learning Disability in, editor(s)Bolt, David , Metanarratives of Disability: Culture, Assumed Authority, and the Normative Social Order, Abingdon, Oxon, Routledge, 2021, pp77 - 93, [Barden, Owen & Walden, Stephen J.]Book Chapter, 2021, TARA - Full Text
  • A Cultural History of Learning Difficulties in the Modern Age in, editor(s)snyder, Sharon L. & Mitchell, David T. , A Cultural History of Disability in the Modern Age., London, 2020, pp111 - 132, [Barden, Owen]Book Chapter, 2020, DOI , TARA - Full Text
  • Dyslexics "knowing how" to challenge Lexism in, editor(s)Ellis, K. & Kent, M. , Disability and Social Media., Abingdon, Oxon, Routledge, 2017, pp227 - 238, [Collinson, C. & Barden, O]Book Chapter, 2017, TARA - Full Text
  • Challenging dyslexia in, editor(s)Bamber, P.M. & Moore, J.C. , Teacher Education in Challenging Times., Abingdon, Oxon, Routledge., 2016, pp155 - 165, [Barden, O]Book Chapter, 2016, TARA - Full Text
  • Including Learners from Diverse Cultural Backgrounds in, editor(s)Fehring, H., & Rodrigues, S. , Learning, Teaching, Coaching and Mentoring Adult Learners. Lessons for Professionalism and Partnership, Abingodn, Oxon, Routledge, 2016, pp60 - 71, [" Barden, O., Youl, W., & Youl, J.]Book Chapter, 2016, TARA - Full Text
  • Avoiding New Literacies in, editor(s)Bolt, D. & Penketh, C. , Disability, Avoidance, and the Academy: Challenging Resistance., Abingdon, Oxon, Routledge, 2015, pp45 - 56, [Barden, O]Book Chapter, 2015, TARA - Full Text
  • Changing social attitudes toward disability: perspectives from historical, cultural, and educational studies. in, editor(s)Bolt, D. , Dysrationalia: an institutional learning disability?, Abingdon, Oxon, Routledge, 2014, pp142 - 154, [Barden, O]Book Chapter
  • McCoy, Selina; Smyth, Emer, Learning to Succeed, 2011, -Miscellaneous

Research Expertise

  • Title
    Inside the History of Learning Difficulties
    Summary
    a two-year participatory learning disability history project, unique in combining conventional archival research techniques with participatory methods with learning-disabled researchers
    Funding Agency
    British Academy / JISC

Higher education, Social sciences, Sociology of education, Education, Inclusive education, Education policy, sociology, psychology and philosophy, Curriculum and pedagogy, Special education and disability, Cultural Studies, Disability Studies, Learning, motivation and emotion, Curriculum and pedagogy theory and development, Heritage, archive and museum studies,

Recognition

  • Liverpool University Press Reviewer of the Year 2024
  • Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy