NUI Maynooth Eprint Archive
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Security, Emotions and Radical Right Populism: Beyond a ‘Flaunting of the Low’?
No full textThe rise of exclusionary populism is widely regarded as one of the most significant phenomena in today’s political world. Despite this, the relationship between populism and security remains under-explored in the literature, including the affective power of populist security narratives. Against this background, this paper conducts a comparative analysis of radical right populist discourse in response to two recent shocking crimes in France and Ireland. The different expression given to security concerns in the two countries, such as a much less antagonistic ‘flaunting of the low’ in France, is suggestive of a more contingent and institutionally mediated relationship between security and populism than the existing literature would suggest
Introduction: The Twenty-First Century Social Novel in French
No full textUpon awarding the 2022 Nobel Prize in Literature to Annie Ernaux, the jury noted that her œuvre ‘examines a life marked by strong disparities regarding gender, language and class’, adding that ‘she with great courage and clinical acuity reveals the agony of the experience of class’.1 In 2018, Nicolas Mathieu won the Goncourt Prize for Leurs enfants après eux, a novel about class differences and youth in the deindustrialization context of North Eastern France. A commentator remarked that ‘Nicolas understands the destitute, the working class, in a way that most writers don’t’.2 Since 2014 and the critically acclaimed En finir avec Eddy Bellegueule, Édouard Louis has likewise been committed to shedding light on his childhood in a poverty-stricken village in the North of France and regularly examines how politics affects the lives of working-class individuals, because it is a matter of ‘life or death’.3 In the same vein, Mauritian-French writer Nathacha Appanah's work, including Tropiques de la violence (2016), plunges the reader into the intimacy of its characters while discussing social injustice, marginalization and immigration in a slum in Mayotte; Haitian writer Kettly Mars's Aux frontières de la soif (2013) denounces the precarious post-earthquake living conditions of those living in refugee camps and their experience of poverty, famine or prostitution; Cameroonian writer Djali Amadou Amal's Les Impatientes (2020) examines the feminine condition among the Peuls in Cameroon; and Québécois writer Kevin Lambert's Querelle de Roberval (2018), a queer ‘fiction syndicale’, tells the story of a strike in northern Quebec and explores conflict, desire and domination. All of these writers make contributions to the contemporary social novel genre, as they seek to raise awareness about social issues, injustices and the conditions of the working class and marginalized groups
A case study of teacher beliefs and school culture in developing assessment literacy in Irish Post-Primary Schools
No full textThroughout the education system, assessment is a multi-faceted concept used in various forms and
for various purposes such as accountability and improvement (OECD, 2012). Post-Primary education
in Ireland has experienced significant changes to the curriculum and with that assessment reform.
This is evident in lower secondary, where we are now in steady state at junior cycle since the
introduction of the Framework in 2015, and in the upper secondary, where senior cycle reform is
underway with a number of new specifications fully published within the system. Central to this
change is the development of a learning outcome approach to teaching, learning, and assessment,
which places the learner at the centre of the assessment process facilitated by the teacher. Learner
voice and the rights of the learners are at the centre of teachers' practice. These recent changes have
provided a shift in the paradigm in relation to teaching, learning, and assessment across education,
as the approach to assessment places greater emphasis on the learner at the centre of this process.
The development of assessment knowledge and competency, known as teacher’s assessment
literacy, is a challenge for teachers particularly in the area of how to use assessment, and this
challenge is central to their beliefs and cultures. This doctoral study examines a case study of teacher
beliefs and school culture in developing assessment literacy in Irish Post-Primary Schools. The study
is conducted through the lens of a case study analysis with semi-structured interviews in a post�primary school. The aim of the research is to identify the role teachers’ beliefs and cultures play in
developing assessment literacy. Data was gathered across a number of semi-structured interviews
and an engagement with the teaching and learning group of the school across a six-month period.
This study was conducted during the school academic year 2021-2022. It will assist in contributing to
the research in Ireland relating to teachers’ beliefs and culture relating to assessment. This research
captures the importance of engaging with schools directly, to provide valid and meaningful evidence
relating to teachers practice over a period of time. In this instance, it is related to teachers’
assessment literacy and the role played by beliefs and cultures in developing this practice. By
engaging with the school on a one-to-one basis, the researcher was able to address the challenges
and concerns that the teachers were facing in the here and now, relating to curriculum change with a specific focus on the development of their assessment literacy.
Additionally, the study examines the role played by continuing professional development (CPD), the
continuum of education, teachers’ assessment literacy and the role that the participants experience
in teaching has on their own learning as teachers. The study concludes by outlining the implications
for the system and future research in the area of assessment literacy relating to teachers' beliefs and
culture
The Role of the European Union in Ensuring Accessibility of Cultural Goods and Services: All about that … Internal Market?
No full textThis article aims to explore the extent to which current European Union (EU) legislation promotes accessibility of cultural goods and services for persons with disabilities. It investigates the
way in which diverse pieces of EU legislation interact, overlap and complement each other in promoting
access to culture for persons with disabilities, and discusses the current and future role of article 114
TFEU in furthering accessibility of cultural goods and services. The UN Convention on the Rights of
Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and its wide-ranging obligations will be used to contextualise and
critically examine this “jigsaw” of accessibility legislation. Further, this article reflects on what
balance has been achieved between market integration and the right to participate in cultural life of
persons with disabilities, building upon the longstanding debate around the indirect regulation of
culture beyond the limits of article 167 TFEU
Exploring the effects of socioeconomic factors on voter preferences: A case-study of France 2022.
No full textUnderstanding the reasons behind voter preferences in elections is time-consuming and
resource intensive using traditional methods such as surveys. In this paper, we describe a
flexible statistical modelling approach to investigate the effect of different socioeconomic
factors on voters’ preferences for the 2022 French presidential election. Our results show that
socioeconomic factors have a significant effect on the voters’ preferences in this election. The
methodology developed can be used to investigate these effects for elections in other countries
where appropriate socioeconomic and spatial data is available
Expressed Willingness of STEM Teachers to Teach Engineering
No full textTeaching engineering at the middle and high school levels has been a topic of discussion among scholars
regarding the challenges it creates. One of the most critical challenges at the school level is identifying
qualified teaching staff to lead engineering courses. The present study explored teachers’ willingness to
lead an engineering course and the reasons behind their willingness or unwillingness to do so. The study
involved 434 participants, who were enrolled in a STEM professional development program and were
diverse regarding their teaching subjects, the grade levels they taught, and the locations of their schools
in Turkey. In this mixed-methods study, researchers collected data at the beginning of an online
professional development program. Quantitative data were analyzed descriptively, while qualitative data
were analyzed with a data-driven codebook. Almost two-thirds of the participants were keen to teach an
engineering course, yet differences were observed according to the subjects they taught and their
professional backgrounds. Most of the mathematics teachers, the group with the highest percentage of
willingness, seemed to have a holistic approach towards engineering, with half emphasizing collaboration
between teachers and engineers. The study provided further insights into how initial teacher training and
continuous professional development programs can be structured based on teacher expectations and
needs
Editorial: Advances in drought analytical tools for better understanding of current and future climate change
No full textThe abstract is included in the text
The enhanced future Flows and Groundwater dataset: development and evaluation of nationally consistent hydrological projections based on UKCP18
No full textThis paper details the development and evaluation of the enhanced future FLows and Groundwater
(eFLaG) dataset of nationally consistent hydrological projections for the UK, based on the latest UK Climate Projections (UKCP18). The projections are derived from a range of hydrological models. For river flows, multiple
models (Grid-to-Grid, PDM (Probability Distributed Model) and GR (Génie Rural; both four- and six-parameter
versions, GR4J and GR6J)) are used to provide an indication of hydrological model uncertainty. For groundwater, two models are used, a groundwater level model (AquiMod) and a groundwater recharge model (ZOODRM:
zooming object-oriented distributed-recharge model). A 12-member ensemble of transient projections of present
and future (up to 2080) daily river flows, groundwater levels and groundwater recharge was produced using
bias-corrected data from the UKCP18 regional (12 km) climate ensemble. Projections are provided for 200 river
catchments, 54 groundwater level boreholes and 558 groundwater bodies, all sampling across the diverse hydrological and geological conditions of the UK. An evaluation was carried out to appraise the quality of hydrological
model simulations against observations and also to appraise the reliability of hydrological models driven by the
regional climate model (RCM) ensemble in terms of their capacity to reproduce hydrological regimes in the current period. The dataset was originally conceived as a prototype climate service for drought planning for the UK
water sector and so has been developed with drought, low river flow and low groundwater level applications as
the primary objectives. The evaluation metrics show that river flows and groundwater levels are, for the majority
of catchments and boreholes, well simulated across the flow and level regime, meaning that the eFLaG dataset
could be applied to a wider range of water resources research and management contexts, pending a full evaluation
for the designated purpose. Only a single climate model and one emissions scenario are used, so any applications
should ideally contextualise the outcomes with other climate model–scenario combinations. The dataset can be
accessed in Hannaford et al. (2022): https://doi.org/10.5285/1bb90673-ad37-4679-90b9-0126109639a9
Relating drought indices to impacts reported in newspaper articles
No full textRelating drought indicators and real-world impacts is fundamental for understanding and addressing drought vulnerability. We link drought indices and
impacts from newspapers compiled in the Irish Drought Impacts Database
(IDID) for the period 1900–2016. For three catchment clusters across the island
of Ireland we link the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) with land-based
impacts and the Standardized Streamflow Index (SSI) with water-based
impacts by matching total reported articles per month with concurrent
drought indices. Using logistic regression we find SPI-3 links best with land based impact reports, whereas SSI-2 links best with water-based impact
reports. Catchments in the east/southeast display the highest sensitivity to
land- and water-based impacts; however, in summer months at low deficits
northwestern catchments show a higher likelihood of impact reports. In winter
months the likelihood of water-based impacts is considerably greater than the
land-based equivalent, particularly in east/southeastern catchments. Moreover,
the likelihood of news-worthy drought impacts has changed over the 117 year
period. More severe deficits are required to induce a high likelihood (0.6) of
land- and water-based impacts in east/southeastern and southwestern catchments during 1961–2016 compared with 1900–1960. Largest changes emerge
in the southwest with SPI-3 values of −2.51 (<−3.00) required to reach the
high impact likelihood threshold in the pre (post) 1961 period. Even greater
reductions are found for water-based impacts in the southwest with SSI-2
values associated with high impact likelihoods changing from −2.04 to −2.58.
Conversely, for catchments in the northwest more moderate drought deficits
result in high impact likelihoods for both land-based (from <−3.00 to −2.32
SPI-3) and water-based impacts (from <−3.00 to −2.29 SSI-2) for the 1961–
2016 period. These findings show the value of newspaper archives for understanding regional sensitivities to drought plus their potential for underpinning
a near real-time, drought monitoring and warning system in Ireland
Electrodeposition of bismuth at a graphene modified carbon electrode and its application as an easily regenerated sensor for the electrochemical determination of the antimicrobial drug metronidazole
No full textMetronidazole is a well-known antimicrobial drug that belongs to the nitroimidazole family of antibiotics. It has been widely used in the treatment of infections, but its accumulation in aquatic environments is an emerging concern. In this study a glassy carbon electrode was modified with graphene (Gr) nanoplatelets and bismuth. Both the Gr and Bi were electrochemically deposited onto the glassy carbon and the modified electrode was employed in the electrochemical detection of metronidazole. At the modified electrode, the reduction of metronidazole was found to be an adsorption-controlled reaction. The optimised sensor, which was fabricated within 6 min, exhibited good selectivity in the presence of various inorganic and organic compounds, good recovery in tap water, and exhibited a linear calibration curve extending from 0.005 to 260 μM, with a limit of detection of 0.9 nM. The sensor was easily regenerated through the simple oxidation of the Bi deposit followed by a 100 s reduction period in the Bi(III) solution to give a newly generated surface. Good reproducibility was achieved using this simple regeneration approach