John McMullen
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jdmcmullen.bsky.social
John McMullen
@jdmcmullen.bsky.social
Programme Director of the Doctorate in Educational, Child and Adolescent Psychology at QUB. Research/intervention with war-affected children (DRC, Uganda, Palestine, NI)
📢 “Beat the Traffic; improving air quality to help children learn”.

We are hosting a free, online ESRC Festival of Social Science event, exploring links between traffic-related air pollution and child cognitive development. Details below-

festivalofsocialscience.com/events/beat-...
Beat the traffic: improving air quality to help children learn | Events | Festival of Social Science
Interactive online session exploring links between traffic-related air pollution and child cognitive development — and actions to address it Join Dr Aoibhe Kieran and Dr John…
festivalofsocialscience.com
September 29, 2025 at 11:04 AM
Reposted by John McMullen
A statement from our CEO Moazzam Malik on the news that the government is cutting the UK aid budget to fund an increase in defence spending:
February 25, 2025 at 1:02 PM
📢 Call for #edpsychs for a DECAP study on the knowledge of EPs on preterm birth & its impact on assessing children born pre-term (a repeated measures intervention study). Details below
Pre-questionnaire:
www.psytoolkit.org/c/3.4.4/surv...
Post-questionnaire:
www.psytoolkit.org/c/3.4.4/surv...
February 19, 2025 at 4:53 PM
January 21, 2025 at 10:10 AM
A ceasefire at last. The exact same agreement could have happened over a year ago. 18,000 children dead. Every school, every hospital, every university destroyed.
What was the point? What was achieved? Why did so many of our societies, public figures, churches etc refuse to call for a ceasefire?
January 15, 2025 at 9:40 PM
January 8, 2025 at 4:47 PM
Reposted by John McMullen
414 full classrooms of school-aged children, more than 11,000, have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza since October 2023.

As children go back to school this week a Save the Children volunteer went to Westminster to take a stand against the war on children in Gaza.
January 6, 2025 at 4:34 PM
If there had been more US presidents like Carter we wouldn’t have spent the past year witnessing a genocide

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024...
From Panama to Palestine, Jimmy Carter refused to let his moral voice be silenced
Carter signed treaties to hand over the Panama Canal and criticized Israel, drawing respect and fury past his one term
www.theguardian.com
December 30, 2024 at 5:37 PM
Reposted by John McMullen
Absolutely thrilled for this one… thank you @uel-eprap.bsky.social for the opportunity to share my work.
December 19, 2024 at 8:09 PM
‘For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men’
www.theguardian.com/world/2024/d...
Death feels imminent for 96% of children in Gaza, study finds
Needs assessment by NGO reveals the huge psychological impact of the war with Israel on young people
www.theguardian.com
December 15, 2024 at 4:05 PM
Such an interesting and important keynote by @joniholmes.bsky.social
at our @decap_qub CPD day, focussing on neurodiversity and ‘learning beyond the label’. 180 EPs, AEPs and TEPs in attendance!
December 12, 2024 at 10:27 AM
Graduation day. Lovely to celebrate with our new #edpsychs 🥂
December 10, 2024 at 9:36 AM
December 9, 2024 at 1:45 PM
Reposted by John McMullen
My thesis article on social justice in EP practice has now been published in the Journal of Educational and Child Psychology (BPS) in a special edition on Intersectional Identities, Education, Psychology and Social Justice:
explore.bps.org.uk/content/bpse...

#edpsychs
‘If you see something that’s not right, we need to challenge it.’ A critical review and qualitative exploration of Educational Psychologists’ perceptions of social justice and practice in local authority services in the West Midlands
AimsThere has been relatively little research into social justice in educational psychology in the UK. A qualitative exploration of Educational Psychologists (EPs’) views of social justice in educational psychology practice in England was undertaken, aiming to comprehend how EPs understand and define the term in relation to their role; and what EPs can do to work towards social justice, noting perceived barriers to working towards social justice in EP practice.Method11 EPs employed in four West Midlands Local Authorities (LAs) took part in semi-structured interviews, analysed using Reflexive Thematic Analysis.LimitationsThis was a small-scale exploratory case study design. It was likely to have recruited participants who were already attuned to social justice agendas. Thus, responses were relatively uniform in their orientation. The study also did not capture the voices of EPs working outside of local authority settings, or privately, or outside of the West Midlands who also may have significant contributions to how best to facilitate social justice work.ConclusionsThe final psychological framework presented may inform EP reflection, to develop and further refine cycles of EPs’ own social justice praxis.
explore.bps.org.uk
November 22, 2024 at 5:20 PM
Reposted by John McMullen
🌟New blog post

Esther writes about her work developing an educational resilience programme - the RESTA programme.

Lots here about strengths-based and relational approaches, moving from research to practice, and professional collaboration.

Read here: edpsy.org.uk/blog/2024/wo...

#edpsychs
November 27, 2024 at 7:43 PM
‘The physical exercise and emotional stretching that children enjoy in unorganized play is more varied and less time-bound than is found in organized sports. Playtime—especially unstructured, imaginative, exploratory play—is […] an essential component of wholesome child development.
November 23, 2024 at 4:15 PM
“You need two flames burning in the human heart: the flame of anger against injustice, and the flame of hope you can build a better world” #TonyBenn
November 22, 2024 at 4:33 PM
I’ve only spent about 15mins on here but already randomly came across two interesting papers. It’s like what Twitter used to be before it was putrefied
November 20, 2024 at 9:54 AM
Interested in training to become an Educational Psychologist? We are holding our online open event on Monday 2 December at 4.30pm 👇
ow.ly/hrRb50U31br
November 18, 2024 at 9:41 AM
Making tentative steps towards moving over here. Any #edpsychs around?
November 14, 2024 at 10:33 AM
November 13, 2024 at 10:12 PM