PhD Progress

I began a PhD in Education at Trinity College Dublin on 1 September 2026, supported by the Trinity Research Doctorate Award. This section brings together the literature map behind my proposal, Beyond Compliance: Muslim Educators’ Philosophical Identity as a Shaper of UDL Engagement in Irish Educational Settings.

This page is a working record rather than a finished account. The research is supervised by Dr Joanne Banks in the School of Education, and the first year is given largely to reading. Rather than let that reading accumulate unread, I am mapping it here as I go. Each strand listed in the site map below will have its own page, and each will become a link here once there is something worth reading on it.

I also write while I read. Short pieces of synthesis are posted alongside the map rather than held back until the reading is complete, on the view that writing is part of how reading gets done rather than what follows it. The map will therefore be uneven for some time, thick in places and thin in others. Dated entries under Current progress record where things stand.

Current progress

Updated 20 September 2026. Stage: Year 1, literature mapping.

Formal supervision is under way, with the first supervision meeting held on 17 September 2026. The agreed emphasis for this phase is threefold: building and strengthening the literature base; keeping the reading tracked, mapped and organised rather than merely accumulated; and writing continuously alongside the reading rather than deferring it until the reading is finished. This page is where the second and third of those are made visible.

The Year One research methodology sessions in the School of Education began on 18 September 2026 and continue to May 2027. Alongside them, I intend to take up conference, workshop and publication opportunities within Trinity and beyond as they arise, and to keep the doctorate in balance with my advocacy and school commitments rather than holding the two apart.

Current reading focus
The genealogy of Universal Design, from its architectural origins through to Universal Design for Learning and its uptake in Irish policy; and the structural fit between UDL and al-tafkir al-maqasidi as a mode of reasoning.
Next milestone
The Year 1 progression review, with the report due in April 2027.

Site map

Each category below outlines a strand of the literature, with its subcategories listed beneath it. The outline is deliberately complete while the pages behind it are not. Items appear as plain text until the page is written, and become links once it is published.

Underlined items are published. Plain items are in preparation.

  • History of UDL
    • Universal Design
    • Universal Design for Learning
    • UDL as a Policy
    • Ireland
  • UDL Justification
    • Overjustified empirically
    • Under-justified normatively
    • Consequence
    • Gap this study addresses
  • UDL in Action
    • Classroom practice
    • Enablers
    • Institutional barriers
    • Instructional barriers
    • Belief-to-barrier relationship
  • Engagement
    • Current Literature
    • Gap
    • Engagement as a construct
  • Islamic Foundation
    • Maqasid Syariah
    • Maqasidi Thinking
    • Islamic educational philosophy
    • Usul al-fiqh toolkit
    • Guardrails
  • Educators
    • Muslim Educators, Ireland
    • Muslim Educators, Outside Ireland
    • Non-Muslim Educators, Ireland
    • Non-Muslim Educators, Outside Ireland
    • Sampling and recruitment
    • Positionality
  • Tools
    • Research Methods
    • Data Analysis
    • Ethics
  • Constructs and Definitions
    • Philosophical identity
    • Worldview
    • Operational model
    • Key distinctions
  • Contribution and Outputs
    • Theoretical
    • Empirical
    • Methodological
    • Practice and policy
    • Dissemination
  • Programme and Governance
    • Institution
    • Supervision
    • Milestones
  • Risks and Critiques
    • Anticipated objections
    • Responses
    • Citation integrity