Dr. Manuel Catena

Dr Manuel Catena received his Doctorate in Education from the School of Social Sciences and Education at Queen’s University of Belfast in 2016. He has a post-graduate Diploma, and a Post-graduate Certificates in Higher Education awarded by the University of Ulster. He also received a Master’s degree in Education (with Specialism) awarded by the University of Ulster in 2009. He received a Diploma in Research Practice at LYIT in 2008. He is a graduate of the University of Málaga (Spain) where he studied Philosophy and Arts; BA (Hons), and a Higher Dip. in Education. He also have postgraduate qualifications in Pedagogy awarded by the Institute of Education, Pontifical University of Salamanca (Spain).

Manuel has more than twenty years of teaching experience. He currently works as a lecturer in Spanish at the Department of Law and Humanities of the School of Business Studies at Letterkenny Institute of Technology (Ireland). He coordinates modules of the MA in Learning and Teaching and supervises dissertations at Master’s level. He is visiting lecturer at Málaga University, and at the University of Murcia.

Before moving to Ireland, Manuel obtained academic experience in Spain and Sweden, where he worked as a secondary school teacher. In addition, he has published and presented papers on linguistic studies at European conferences.

My main area of research and interest is linguistics, particularly the factors that affect language-learning motivation in Anglophone settings. Other areas of research also include educational leadership; the management of change in educational institutions; pedagogy, and the influence of homework on student’s performance. An additional research interest is the impact of policy on core fundamental values of educational institutions.