Current research and teaching interests include emotions and emotional intelligence, and enhancing the emotional wellbeing of teachers and students
Qualifications & Memberships
Research Interests
My primary research interests are emotions, emotional intelligence (EI), emotion regulation and social emotional wellbeing of students and teachers, including during and post disaster. Recent projects include a Teaching & Learning Research Initiative (TLRI) project entitled, “Co-constructing a culturally and linguistically sustaining, Te Tiriti -based Ako framework for socio-emotional wellbeing in education”. I am also involved in other research projects investigating teachers’ wellbeing and EI, and students’ emotions in higher education, in New Zealand and Ireland, having been a visiting scholar at University of Limerick Ireland, in 2019. Current research includes the impacts of Covid-19 lockdowns on Irish teachers and principals. Previous research includes investigating the emotional impacts of the Christchurch February 2011 earthquake on Christchurch teachers, funded by the University of Canterbury Digital Archive (CEISMIC), and an investigation into emotions in tertiary teaching, funded by AKO Aotearoa. In 2011, the Fulbright-Cognition Scholar in Educational Research Award enabled me to spend six weeks at the Health Education and Behavior (HEB) Lab at Yale University, where key EI research programmes have been developed, and six weeks as Visiting Scholar to the Department of Educational leadership at Wichita State University, Kansas.
Recent Publications
- Denston A., Martin R., Fickel LH. and O'Toole V. (2023) Re- engaging a culturally and linguistically holistic approach to education in Aotearoa New Zealand: How teachers’ noticing fosters children’s socio- emotional development. Wellbeing: Global Policies and Perspectives: Insights from Aotearoa New Zealand and beyond: 101-122.
- Nohilly M. and O'Toole V. (2023) Teacher Self-Care Practices to Support Wellbeing during the Covid 19 Pandemic. In Mullings J; Paul TJ; Dunn L; Arbor S; Meeks-Gardener J (Ed.), Well-Being Across the Globe - New Perspectives - Concepts, Correlates and Geography Online First: IntechOpen.
- O'Toole V., Tynan F. and Nohilly M. (2023) Creating a shared understanding of wellbeing: A comparison in wellbeing discourse between Aotearoa New Zealand and Ireland. In Kamp A; Brown C; McMenamin T; O'Toole V (Ed.), Wellbeing: Global Policies and Perspectives Oxford, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, New York, Wien,: Peter Lang. http://dx.doi.org/10.3726/b18360.
- Denston A., Fickel L., Martin R. and O'Toole V. (2022) Laying the Foundation for Wellbeing in Youth in New Zealand: Developing socio-emotional understandings in students, families and teachers through a co-constructed culturally and linguistically sustaining framework.. In McLellan R; Faucher C; Simovska V (Ed.), Wellbeing and Schooling: Cross Cultural and Cross Disciplinary Perspectives: 121-133.Springer. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-95205-1.
- O'Toole V. and Martin R. (2019) The role of emotions in education in Aotearoa. In Kamp A (Ed.), Education studies in Aotearoa New Zealand: Key disciplines and emerging directions: 179-200. New Zealand: NZCER Press.