AISHE-J - The All Ireland Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education
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Review of Ben Berger, Attention Deficit Democracy: The Paradox of Civic Engagement. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2011.
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The impact of service-learning on voluntary and community organizations in the west of Ireland
No full textThe aim of this study was to investigate the impact of student volunteers on community organizations and to identify deficits in training within service learning modules which, if addressed, could enable community organizations to benefit more from student volunteers. An anonymous survey aimed to measure students’ impact, as perceived by host community organizations, relative to non-student volunteers and paid staff, and to investigate if their impact and the types of work they undertook was correlated with organization attributes. The perceived impact of student volunteers on the organization mission was high, but the nature of their work was functional and not academic in nature. Host organizations felt that student preparedness, prior to their engagement, could be enhanced by members of the organizations either addressing the student body within a classroom context, or by playing a role in the design of modules which may have an impact on their area of focus
Critical Pedagogy and Higher Education: �Really Useful Civic Engagement�
No full textCivic engagement is making a very welcome debut in the strategic plans of many Higher Education Institutions, HEIs, but many senior officers are sitting at their PCs, furiously Googling to find out what it is all about. In adult and community education, we have had a long history of community and civic engagement, particularly with people who would have otherwise been outside the interest of educational institutions, except, perhaps to swell the numbers of non-traditional students. However, the social purpose of community engagement would be seriously undermined if HEIs adopted it without interrogating their own motives, and ensuring that it is a mutually beneficial co-operation. Critical pedagogy is a fundamental process in the interrogation for social purposes. Critical HE educators have a responsibility towards creating a challenging and consciousness raising learning environment for their students, but what about the responsibility towards those, outside the institutions, who are integrally involved in civic engagement? This article will argue that critical educators have to look at their own practice and philosophy, using the lens of critical pedagogy. It will draw on the work of Freire, with regards to adult basic education, Giroux, in the overall educational context, but most specifically, with bell hooks on her advocacy around engaged pedagogy, with its grounding in feminist and civil rights education. Thus, it will explore the potential of these approaches to underpin the community engagement visions to ensure that communities are not stripped of their intellectual assets, on the one hand, and that HEIs are open to the learning emanating from their involvement with communities. 
Review of Deiric O’Brion and Mary P. Murphy, Eds., Politics Participation and Power: Civil Society and Public Policy in Ireland, Glasnevin Publishing: Dublin, 2013
No full textWhat can be learned from the Rural Clinic School in the Northern Territory (Australia): Community Engagement impacts at the Katherine Rural Clinical School.
No full textA Letter from our Overseas Correspondent, Dr Pascale Detwiller from Northern Territory Clinical School, NT Rural Clinical School (Katherine) of Flinders University.  
Strategies for Advancing Global Trends in University Civic Engagement � the Talloires Network, a Global Coalition of Engaged Universities
No full textThis article discusses trends in the global university civic engagement movement: the dynamic leadership being exerted by the heads of universities, diversity of approach with universality of vision, the increasing integration of civic engagement in teaching and research, and the growing role and impacts of global, regional and national networks. It then presents selected programs and activities of the Talloires Network, a global coalition of institutions committed to strengthening the civic roles and social responsibilities of higher education. The co-authors reflect on the Network’s strategies for advancing key trends: providing and increasing financial resources, co-producing new knowledge for action, increasing public awareness for university civic engagement, investing in faculty and staff professional development, and fostering South-North dialogue and collaboration. 
A study of non-completion in dual sector further education in Northern Ireland.
No full textPurposeThe paper deals with an empirical question in the under-researched area of student retention in higher education in Northern Ireland; specifically, it explores the barriers to learning and programme completion that full-time higher education students encountered in a specific dual-sector further and higher education college in Northern Ireland from the perspective of ten withdrawn students .Research DesignData was gathered with the support of interpretive paradigm and analyzed with the grounded theory method of data analysis.FindingsOn the basis of this analysis, barriers to learning were identified to illustrate students non-completion of studies within the case institution and, in doing so, the theories of hot knowledge, capitals and habitus were explored, modified and added to in the context of this study. However, these barriers in isolation did not lead students to withdraw, it is only when barriers combined that the desire to withdraw was outweighed by the decision to complete.Contribution to the FieldThis subject area of student retention is poorly investigated in an environment which has a long history of conflict, with a legacy of high unemployment and significant poverty. This study will form the foundation blocks and commence a body of knowledge on student non-completion in dual-sector further and higher education institutions in Northern Ireland. Furthermore, this study adds to both national and international knowledge on the barriers to completion which students encounter as members of a dual-sector educational system
Engagement and Employability: Student Expectations of Higher Education
No full textAbstract The rise in tuition fees and moves towards the privatisation of higher education has changed the relationship between tutor and student to what many see as one of ‘customer’ and ‘provider’. As universities become increasingly concerned with attracting a student market there is a risk that education itself assumes an instrumental rather than a developmental focus, preparing students for employment in return for the fees they pay. Indeed employability agendas and the discourse of employability are to be found across higher education institutions, and often don’t sit easily alongside a parallel but perhaps contradictory focus on social responsibility and community engagement. This research article summarises the findings of a small scale project undertaken at the University of Brighton between 2012 and 2013. The project involved conversations with new undergraduates entering the university paying tuition fees that were three times as high as those entering the previous year, about their expectations of university life and their attitude towards social engagement and community based learning. Their responses, gathered through a face book poll, through surveys and through focus groups are supplemented by additional discussions with colleagues involved in employability or engagement programmes and with second and third year students who had undertaken engagement modules. Findings indicate that while undergraduates do come to university primarily concerned with themselves and their own futures, and looking for ‘a good degree, a good time and a good job’ these narrow views are open to challenge during their time there. It concludes that as educationalists we have a duty to confront narrow or instrumentalist views of higher education and should guard against a tendency to conflate ‘social engagement’ or an exploration of issues of equality and social justice, with notions of ‘employability’ or ‘enhancing your CV’
Can The Use Of Online Learning And Reflective Journals Improve Students’ Performance For A Practically Taught Timber Jointing Module?
No full textThe Dublin Institute of Technology is one of the largest multi-level higher education providers in Ireland. The Institute’s traditional mission has always been focused on teaching and learning in the field of advanced technical vocational education and training (TVET), and one of its agendas is to foster and encourage changes in teaching practice and methodology in order to enhance the student learning experience.This research concerned the performance levels of first year students of the Timber Product Technology (TPT) programme. I wanted to investigate whether the use of independent online learning and reflective journals would encourage these students to continue their learning outside of the timetable class contact hours and improve their performance in the practical class.The methods used were informed by a constructivist underpinning with students being encouraged to take more responsibility for their own learning. Independent learning was encouraged by using a purpose built website, where material relating to this module was provided using a variety of mediums.Learner reflection and the use of reflective journals formed a substantial aspect of this research and students were encouraged to record the daily progress of their practical work and actively use estimated and actual time charts to plan practical work.The findings of this research saw a more informed student than the previous year’s cohort. This was evident in both the assessment stage of the research study and in the language used in the student’s journal writing. The findings of this research also showed that the students did take charge of their own learning by coming to class well prepared with a plan of action.