The risks of ‘university speak’: relationship management and identity negotiation by mature students off campus

Research finds that participation in higher education is generally empowering for mature students but that it can also create tensions in their off-campus relationships. This article reports on findings from an ongoing study of the experiences of mature students at university in Ireland and draws from interviews with 15 such students in the final year of their studies. Following similar research by Baxter and Britton in the UK, the article considers how mature students experience and represent changes in identities and social relationships brought about by entry to higher education. Specifically, the article focuses on the risks associated with using newly acquired academic language (or ‘university speak’) off campus. The findings reported here complement existing research and offer support for Baxter and Britton’s suggestion that mature students often experience compartmentalisation and fragmentation in their self-identities.     

Establishing respectful educative relationships: a study of newly qualified teachers in Ireland

Interpersonal respect is a fundamental aspect of relating to others. This is especially true for teachers, as cultivating relationships is implicit in effective teaching. This three-year qualitative study examines a developing understanding of respect for pre-service teachers that progresses on to their first year’s teaching to examine the influential factors on that understanding. These teachers’ pupils were also asked to comment on their perceptions of respect. The findings indicate that interpersonal respect in an educative relationship is influenced by the level of autonomy afforded pupils and minimising the power differential between teachers and pupils.     

What's trust got to do with it? The ‘washback effect’ of engagement in the 2020 calculated grades process on teachers' trust and future senior cycle reform in Ireland

In Ireland, the high-stakes Leaving Certificate Examination at the end of upper secondary education was abruptly cancelled in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Instead, calculated grades were introduced, necessitating for the first time the involvement of secondary school teachers in the assessment of their own students for certification. This article reports on analysis of responses to an online survey with 713 respondents conducted in the autumn of 2020, focusing on teacher experiences of engagement in the process of calculated grades in their schools and how this might inform perceptions of their future roles as assessors. Among the key findings to emerge from re-analyses of these data are inter alia that, for some teachers, (1) negotiation of student grades with colleagues—particularly those at grade boundaries—caused them to question the professional judgements of peers; (2) release by the Department of Education and Skills of student ranks, in addition to grades, constituted a breach of trust because it ran contrary to what they understood had been agreed initially; and (3) living and working in small towns or rural communities in Ireland left them very vulnerable to disgruntled students and their families—resulting in the perception that trust in their professional judgements had been undermined. Hence, the conclusion that the success of Senior Cycle reform efforts is contingent on both rebuilding teachers' trust over time while also working, in the immediate term, with teachers interested in exploring further their roles in school-based assessment for certification purposes.     

Face-to-face contact in blended learning for intercultural education: the role of teachers

In societies experiencing or emerging from conflict, teachers often deliver educational programmes designed to build community cohesion. We report on research which examined teachers’ views of the implementation of a programme involving both face-to-face and online contact between pupils. Findings suggest that this blended approach is highly motivational, enhancing online work and relationship building. The research underlines the importance of the political, educational and historical context for work of this sort and the impact this has on the particular blend of online and face-to-face interaction. Implications for policymakers and teachers include value for money and sustainability of blended intercultural education in similar contexts.     

爱尔兰图书馆危机管理实践及启示

文章简述了危机管理的内涵,通过网络调查法,对爱尔兰图书馆协会、爱尔兰国家图书馆及爱尔兰25所大学图书馆与危机管理有关的实践情况进行了深入研究。参考爱尔兰图书馆危机管理的经验,提出对我国图书馆危机管理实践的几点建议:积极参与国际交流与合作、积极贯彻相关法律法规、将相关预防对策贯彻到具体的规章制度中、积极制定危机预案、进一步完善图书馆规章制度,以期对我国图书馆危机管理提供借鉴。     

Creating advantage in peripheral regions: The role of publicly funded R&D centres

Regional investment in R&D, technological development and innovation is perceived as being strongly associated with productivity, growth and sustained international competitiveness. One policy instrument by which policy makers have attempted to create regional advantage has been the establishment of publicly funded research centres (PRCs). In this paper we develop a logic model for this type of regional intervention and examine the outputs and longer-term outcomes from a group of (18) publicly funded R&D centres. Our results suggest some positive regional impacts but also identify significant differences in terms of innovation, additionality and sustainability between university-based and company-based PRCs. University-based PRCs have higher levels of short-term additionality, demonstrate higher levels of organisational innovation but prove less sustainable. Company-based PRCs demonstrate more partial additionality in the short-term but ultimately prove more sustainable.     

The role of school leadership in the implementation of the Transition Year Programme in Ireland

Introducing an educational innovation into any school context involves some challenge to existing practices. Transition Year is an innovative, optional, one-year programme taken by approximately half the 15–16-year age cohort in schools in the Republic of Ireland. Based on data from an extensive study of TY operating in six different schools, programme co-ordinators and school principals are identified as having key roles in the successful implementation of TY. However, exercising the collegiality both roles demand goes against established cultures of isolated individualism in Irish schools. Furthermore, maintaining TY's coherence and integrity in the face of threats from more established programmes offers particular challenges. For this innovation to be successful, active curriculum leadership by school principals is seen as crucial. The paper interrogates the evidence through the lens of the 2008 OECD study on school leadership and poses questions about the relevance and value of the OECD perspective.     

Where are we now? A review of research on the history of women's soccer in Ireland

ABSTRACT

It is a common fact that women's sport and leisure history, especially in male dominated spheres, and more specifically football, have been ignored by many academics. However, in recent years there have been major developments in digital technology that have changed the nature of the type of research that can be done. Access to tools to facilitate field research are relatively cheap and with the high volume of digitisation projects that have taken place over the last few years as well as the increasing number of born digital resources that have been published, there are new opportunities. In relation to women's soccer in Ireland, this paper asks the question – where are we now? The argument will review the current literature on this subject and outline potential approaches for future research.     

Many Voices: Building a Biblioblogosphere in Ireland

ABSTRACT

Blogging has been associated with the Library and Information Science (LIS) community for some time now. Libfocus.com is an online blog that was founded in 2011. Its goal was to create a communal communication space for LIS professionals in Ireland and beyond, to share and discuss issues and ideas. The content of the blog is curated by an editorial team and features guest bloggers from across all sectors and experience levels. Using a qualitative methodological approach, open-ended surveys were conducted with twelve previous guest bloggers, in order to explore how and why Irish-based LIS professionals choose to communicate through blogging. It is hoped that this evidence will provide a greater understanding of both the value and effectiveness of blogging as an outreach and communication tool within the profession, helping both libraries and librarians to be more strategic in their use of it as a medium.     

‘With the Irish in France’

In January 1916 a party of journalists from seven Irish newspapers visited Irish regiments serving on the western front. Such a privilege came at a price. Organised by the Department of Recruiting for Ireland, it was made clear to the journalists that this embedded tour had an agenda: they were ‘to set down what they saw there for the benefit of recruiting in Ireland’. This article examines the extent to which the three national titles included on the tour accepted this role of communicating and legitimising recruitment policy. It sheds light on the involvement of two national newspaper editors in shaping recruitment policy in Ireland, illustrates how each of the three national titles reported the tour, and examines the effects such reportage had on recruiting in Ireland.