From Ireland to Taiwan: Niamh Boylan Attends AIESEP Conference
August 2026
An Article by PhD Researcher, Niamh Boylan
In June 2026, I had the fantastic opportunity to travel to Taipei, Tawain to attend the Association Internationale des Écoles Supérieures d’Éducation Physique (AIESEP) Conference. This opportunity became available to me after I was successfully selected as one of twenty PhD students to travel to Taiwan to attend a PhD Summer school at the AIESEP Conference.
As I am currently working on my research study with the help of Vision Sport Ireland to support Primary school teachers in their inclusion of children with a visual impairment in PE lessons, I felt that this would be an excellent opportunity to showcase my work to date and to raise awareness of this subject.
During the course of the conference, I had the opportunity to present a workshop to attendees which allowed participants to take part in two activities, an Irish Dance activity and a team-based challenge. This allowed the participants to take part in an activity which facilitated the inclusion of a child with a visual impairment and to identify the modifications which could be made to these two activities for the benefit of a child with a visual impairment as well as their fellow peers.
I also had the opportunity to present a section of my research to date which focused on the second data collection phase of my PhD study which took place from September 2025 – June 2026. This allowed me to showcase some of the resources which were created for the participating teachers in the research study such as the video supports and lesson outlines.
I had never travelled to Asia prior to my trip to Taiwan and the flights were the longest I had ever been on, which was a learning experience! Taiwan is very different to Ireland in terms of both food and culture. The food in Taiwan is very different to food in Ireland and many people head to the street markets to buy their food. There were some very interesting things which could be bought including chicken feet and fried pigs ears!
The people of Taiwan were some of the nicest people I have met and were always willing to help in any way they could due to language being a barrier in some situations. I have to admit being quite tall, I felt even taller during my time in Taiwan! Boarding the underground trams was another learning experience for me and the others I was with. When boarding the trams in Taiwan, everyone lines up in a single file line between two white lines on the ground beside the tram door. This is something I was not used to but quickly learnt after getting a few unusual looks from locals! The weather is another thing which was very different to Ireland. Temperatures rose to around 38 degrees Celsius during my time in Taiwan and the humidity was nearly 80% making it very sticky when walking around outside. We were very glad to have air conditioning when we got inside!
During my time in Taiwan, I met so many interesting people at the conference and during the summer school who are researching a wide variety of areas within the subject of Physical Education. I had the chance to get to know the other PhD candidates very well having spent nearly two weeks with all of them as a group and I know that we will remain friends going forward during our PhD studies and beyond!
Having reflected on this wonderful experience, I feel very lucky to have had this opportunity to travel to Taiwan. It is an experience which I will remember for a long time to come and I often find myself reflecting fondly on memories from this trip!