NUI Maynooth Eprint Archive
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Working with your Child to Address School Avoidance: A Resource for Parents
No full textThis resource is intended to offer information
and advice to parents and guardians who have a
child or young person who has difficulties going
to school. We call this ‘school-avoiding behaviour’.
There is a lot of information in this resource. If you need help working
through it, ask someone you trust to go through it with you.
This resource is designed to support parents or guardians of children and
young people of all ages. We recommend that you read this along with one
of the two National Educational Psychological Service’s (NEPS) guides.
There is one guide for primary school children and another for secondary
school children.
• ‘Supporting your Child when they are Reluctant to Attend School:
Guidance for Parents and Guardians of Primary Schools’
• ‘Supporting your Child when they are Reluctant to Attend School:
Guidance for Parents and Guardians of Post-Primary Schools.’
Towards the end of this document, you will find a locally developed list of
groups and organisations that can help to support while you manage school avoiding behaviour
Long-Term Evolution of Significant Wave Height in the Eastern Tropical Atlantic between 1940 and 2022 Using the ERA5 Dataset
No full textStudies on the variability in ocean wave climate provide engineers and policy makers with information to plan, develop, and control coastal and offshore activities. Ocean waves bear climatic imprints through which the global climate system can be better understood. Using the recently updated ERA5 dataset, this study evaluated the spatiotemporal distribution and variability in significant wave height (SWH) in the Eastern Tropical Atlantic (ETA). The short-term trends and rates of change were obtained using the Mann–Kendall trend test and the Theil–Sen slope estimator, respectively, and decadal trends were assessed using wavelet transformation. Significant, positive monthly and yearly trends and a prevailing decadal trend were observed across the domain.
Observed trends suggest that stronger waves are getting closer to the coast and are modulated by the Southern and Northern Atlantic mid-latitude storm fields. These observations have implications for the increasing coastal erosion rates on the eastern coast of the Tropical Atlanti
Investigating the potential for students to contribute to climate data rescue: Introducing the Climate Data Rescue Africa project (CliDaR‐Africa)
No full textThe majority of available climate data in global digital archives consist of data only from the 1940s or 1950s onwards, and many of these series have gaps and/or are available for only a subset of the variables which were actually observed. However, there exist billions of historical weather observations from the 1700s, 1800s, and early 1900s that are still in hard- copy form and are at risk of being lost forever due to deterioration. An assessment of changes in climate extremes in several IPCC regions was not possible in IPCC AR6 WGI owing, in many cases, to the lack of available data. One such region is Africa, where the climate impact research and the ability to predict climate change impacts are hindered by the paucity of access to consistent good- quality historical observational data. The aim of this innovative project was to use classroom- based participatory learning to help transcribe some of the many meteorological observations from Africa that are thus far unavailable to researchers. This project transcribed quickly and ef-fectively station series by enrolling the help of second- year undergraduate stu-dents at Maynooth University in Ireland. The newly digitized African data will increase the temporal and spatial coverage of data in this important data- sparse
region. Students gained new skills while helping the global scientific community unearth new insight into past African climate. The project managed to transcribe 79 months of data at Andapa in Madagascar and 56 months of data for Macenta in Guinea. The digitized data will be openly and freely shared with the scientific and wider community via the Pangaea data repository, the C3S Climate Data Store, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) data centre in the US. The pro-ject model has the potential for a broader roll- out to other educational contexts and there is no shortage of data to be rescued. This paper provides details of the project, and all supporting information such as project guidelines and templates to enable other organizations to instigate similar programs
Shadow Education Uptake in Ireland: Inequalities and Wellbeing in a High-Stakes Context
No full textThis paper assesses the role of shadow education (SE), i.e., orga-nised learning activities outside formal schooling, in the lives of secondary school students of different social backgrounds and in different school settings, in a high-stakes context. It draws on multilevel analysis of longitudinal Growing Up in Ireland data, alongside narratives from in-depth case study research in 10 schools. Framed within a social reproduction approach, we show how access to SE as an educational resource is socially stratified, accessible to those with greater levels of family resources, and those attending schools with higher socio- economic student intakes. SE is viewed as an investment, particularly among students with average and above average levels of prior attainment, while high attaining students are less likely to use SE. Perhaps reflecting the normalisation of SE in the Irish context, students do not directly link engagement in such tuition to their socio-emotional wellbeing
A Small Country with a Huge Diaspora, Ireland Navigates Its New Status as an Immigration Hub.
No full textFor the first time since 1851 (during the Great Famine), the Republic of Ireland’s population exceeded 5 million people in 2022, a tremendous growth from fewer than 4 million in 2002. This change is in part due to changing patterns of migration. More than 1.6 million people immigrated to Ireland over those 20 years, with net inward migration of around 520,000 people.
Historically a country of mass emigration, Ireland has rapidly emerged as a new immigrant destination. It is home to significant numbers of immigrants from other EU Member States and beyond, as well as a growing population of immigrants’ children who are contributing to greater racial and ethnic diversity. While emigration of Irish citizens and foreign nationals alike continues, the issue of immigration has in recent years received more political, policy, and public attention
Relative age and biological maturity-related selection biases in male youth soccer across different competitive levels within a national association
No full textObjectives and Methods:
This study aimed to examine whether biological maturation and relative age selection biases existed and varied by level of competition (regional, national, and international) in Under-15 soccer players (n = 951) within the Swedish Football Association’s male player pathway. A secondary aim was to examine the relationship between relative age and body height, body weight, predicted adult height, percentage of predicted adult height (PAH%), maturity Z-score, and biological age to chronological age offset.
Results:
The results showed a significant bias (p < 0.001), ranging from trivial-to-small in favour of relatively older players, with the most notable increase between the regional and national levels. There were also significant moderate-to-large biases in favour of early maturing players (p < 0.001), increasing in magnitude with levels of competition. PAH% (p < 0.001) and body weight (p = 0.014) showed the strongest differences across selection levels, where the bias compared to regional level was 0.23 standard deviations (SD) for PAH% at national level and 0.41 SD at international level, while body weight appeared to be particularly related to international team selection (0.36 SD in bias). Relative age showed a moderate positive correlation with PAH% (r = 0.38), but only trivial correlations with all the other biological and physical variables examined (r=-0.05–0.11).
Conclusions:
The lack of association between relative age and the estimates of biological maturity timing and the additional physical characteristics suggests that relative age and biological maturity are distinct constructs. We encourage critical examination of how associations select young players for national talent programmes; current practices significantly diminish the chances of selection for those who are late maturing and relatively younger
SERT: A transformer based model for multivariate temporal sensor data with missing values for environmental monitoring
No full textEnvironmental monitoring is crucial to our understanding of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution.
The availability of large-scale spatio-temporal data from sources such as sensors and satellites allows us to
develop sophisticated models for forecasting and understanding key drivers. However, the data collected from
sensors often contain missing values due to faulty equipment or maintenance issues. The missing values rarely
occur simultaneously leading to data that are multivariate misaligned sparse time series. We propose two
models that are capable of performing multivariate spatio-temporal forecasting while handling missing data
naturally without the need for imputation. The first model is a transformer-based model, which we name SERT
(Spatio-temporal Encoder Representations from Transformers). The second is a simpler model named SST-ANN
(Sparse Spatio-Temporal Artificial Neural Network) which is capable of providing interpretable results. We
conduct extensive experiments on two different datasets for multivariate spatio-temporal forecasting and show
that our models have competitive or superior performance to those at the state-of-the-art
Between Disability and Culture: The Search for a legal taxonomy of sign languages in the European Union.
No full textSince the 1960s sign languages have been identified as natural
human languages and conceived of as a key feature of Deaf culture and
identity. Eschewing the notion of disability, deaf advocacy organisations
have connected the use of sign language to linguistic and cultural rights.
Despite the clear preference of deaf advocates, the legal protection of
sign languages remains uneven and somewhat difficult to grasp, being
situated at the intersection of disability rights and linguistic rights. Few
attempts have been made to identify the extent to which sign languages
are recognised and enshrined within domestic legal systems. This article
aims to propose a novel taxonomy that focuses on the normative
conceptualisation of sign language and deaf people in national
legislation. Based on a comparative analysis and focusing on European
Union Member States, it identifies three main approaches: an explicit
‘minority’ approach—ie the express recognition of deaf persons as a
linguistic minority; a more nuanced ‘cultural approach’—which
acknowledges sign language as autonomous language and provides for
promotional measures; and a ‘disability’ approach—which mandates
and/or promotes the use of sign language primarily as an accessibility
measure
An Exploration of Change and Leadership in an Emerging Technological University.
No full textThe higher educational sector in Ireland is undergoing significant change due to the complexity of evolving multifaced roles and demands within a highly regulated environment where resources are limited. This is being compounded as institutes of technology merge to form new technological universities. Although effective leadership is required to successfully lead change initiatives, limited research on change leadership exists, especially for the higher educational sector.
The purpose of this mixed methods study is to explore stakeholder experiences and perceptions of change and leadership in an emerging Technological University (TU) in Ireland. The case study was guided by the following research question: ‘How do stakeholders experience and value change leadership?’ Linked to this overall research question are the following subquestions: (1) What are the main change drivers, cultural and contextual factors for change? (2) What are staff perceptions about change and leadership? (3) What are the challenges for change management and leadership? (4) What are the importance and presence of change leadership characteristics?
The study considers the important components of change leadership including context, culture, and change, while also synthesising change leadership characteristics from literature. Utilising complexity theory as a theoretical framework, relationships between these topics and complexity leadership are conceptualised. Through content analysis, focus groups with senior management, a survey with all staff and an interview with the president, this four-stage research approach highlights the importance of working within the context and dealing with challenges through change leadership. Furthermore, insights associated with the influence of context and the important of culture have been provided as well as considerations for leading change and leadership overall. New understandings of change and its dynamics as well as complexity are also revealed. This study has contributed to knowledge, policy and practice and has implications for future change leadership research, training, and development
The Impact of Crime Media on Peoples’ Perceptions of Crime, Perpetrators and Victims
No full textThis dissertation aims to analyse the potential negative impacts of crime-related media on
viewers’ perceptions about crime, perpetrators, and victims. It will be completed using
desk-based research as this is the most fitting and most practical method to answer the
research question. Using desk-based research allows me to compare and contrast various
perspectives on the same topic which will allow me to identify trends and patterns that
will allow me to answer my research question.
To conduct research for this dissertation I used Google Scholar, Scopus and EBSOhost
as my main sources of literature. Initial searches of “crime media” found around 3 million
results so I had to be more specific. Some of the search terms I used to utilise this search
engine and database more efficiently included: “crime media AND ethics” (approx. 1.86
million results), “crime media AND fear” (approx. 1.7 million results), “crime media
AND perpetrators” (approx. 270,000 results), “crime media AND police” (approx. 1.95
million results), “crime media AND race OR ethnicity” (approx. 870, 000), and “media
AND ideal victims” (approx. 440,000 results). Where appropriate, I also used both the
American English and UK English spellings of certain words (such as ‘sensationalization’
and ‘sensationalisation’, or ‘racialisation’ and ‘racialization’) to maximise the efficiency of
my searches.
Additionally, for the purposes of this dissertation I used some inclusion and
exclusion criteria to narrow down my searches to best fit my research question. I included
literature related to both fictional and non-fictional crime-related media; and media from
various sources, including television, newspapers, and true crime podcasts and
documentaries. When searching for literature I mainly limited myself to sources that were
written within the last four decades. I also limited myself to literature written in English.
While reviewing the existing literature I gathered to help me answer my research
question, I highlighted and took a note of the main findings of each relevant paper. This
allowed me to observe and keep track of common themes that emerge from the literature
in relation to this topic. These included: sensationalism in relation to ethics; biased
reporting; selective reporting that it at odds with official crime statistics; stereotyping; impacts related to police; impacts related to fear; differential treatment of minorities; and
typifying legitimate victims. Biased reporting involved either the over-representation or
underrepresentation of certain groups (Greer, 2007; Jewkes, 2015). Selective reporting
involved the overrepresentation of certain types of crimes (Jewkes, 2015; Grosholz &
Kubrin, 2007; Chermak, 1998; Greer, 2007), and victims and offenders (Grosholz &
Kubrin, 2007); as well as a focus on newsworthiness to create stories most appealing to
viewers (Dmitrieva, 2017; Greer, 2007). Stereotyping referred to stereotyping who
criminals are (including racial stereotyping and the racialisation of crime (Colburn &
Melander, 2018; Monk et al., 2007; Keating, 2002)) as well as stereotyping who victims
are (Christie, 1986; Dukes & Gaither, 2017). Impacts relating to police involved more
negative perceptions of police (Choi et al., 2020; Long, 2021); the impact of media on
perceptions of police efficiency (Dowler, 2002) and legitimacy (Jewkes, 2015); and the
link of perceptions of police to fear of crime (Choi et al., 2020). Impacts on fear of crime
examined the extent to which this occurs (Greer, 2007; Grabe & Drew, 2007; Choi et al.,
2020; Keating, 2002; Heath & Gilbert, 1996; Jewkes, 2015), including differences across
racial/ethnic groups (Callanan, 2012; Dowler, 2002). It also examined whether media
influences who one ‘should’ fear. Differential treatment of minorities examined the
overrepresentation of minorities as offenders (Callanan, 2012; Colburn & Melander,
2018), as well as minority victims and offenders being treated or portrayed differently and
more negatively (Dixon & Linz, 2002; Brennan & Vandenberg, 2009; Smiley & Fakunle,
2016; Long, 2021; Slakoff, 2018). The typification of legitimate victims focused on the
perpetuation of Nils Christie’s (1986) construct of ‘ideal victims’ in media (Long, 2021;
Greer, 2007), and how legitimate and illegitimate victims are treated differently (Slakoff,
2018; Lewis & Hamilton, 2021; DiBennardo, 2018). These themes will be further
elaborated on and explored throughout this dissertation