Drs. B.W. Mahoney (Barry)

Barry Mahoney (1981) is teacher at the teacher education program for citizenship education. He is currently also conducting PhD-research as researcher of the Centre for Applied Research in Education. Barry received his teacher’s degree (2008) from the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (AUAS) and his master’s degree in Sociology (2012) from the University of Amsterdam (UvA). From 2005 until 2016 Barry worked as teacher in citizenship education at a school for secondary vocational education. Since 2013 he is part of the AUAS, first as teacher in the minor program Religion and Society, then a year later as teacher trainer and since 2020 as PhD-student.

How to train for critical thinking is an issue which has had Barry’s interest for quite some time. In our secondary vocational education little attention is given to critical thinking, because a lot of the educational programs are aimed at learning professional skills and attitudes. Nevertheless, also practical professionals will benefit from well developed thinking skills. This assumption was important for Barry in teaching citizenship education, and today this is an important part of his teacher training methods. In 2021 Barry received funding from the Dutch Research Council to conduct PhD-research. This allows him to pursue his dream of researching the conjunction between thinking skills and professional development in secondary vocational education. His project is named ‘Is Socrates able to learn critical thinking to students in secondary vocational education?’. This research project will be finished in 2025.