National University of Ireland, Maynooth
MURAL - Maynooth University Research Archive LibraryNot a member yet
18981 research outputs found
Sort by
“It Never Gets Easier”: Understanding the Adaptation and Shattered Realities of First-Time Prison Entrants and Their Loved Ones
Get PDFThe abstract is included in the text
Reauthoring my career narrative towards hope and agency twenty years in Adult Guidance Counselling Practice.
Get PDFThe focus of this research is seeking to reflexively engage with my experiences of the impact of recent rapid transformations in my adult guidance counselling practice, culminating in working with increasing numbers of migrant learners. Inquiring into these experiences of finding myself at a crossroads in my career after twenty years in practice, questioning if I can continue in the role. I chose a narrative inquiry self-study methodology to engage with my narrative of these experiences and how I had constructed this narrative in relation to broader organisational, policy and societal narratives over time. The lens of System Theory Framework, storytelling narrative career counselling approach and Narrative Therapy Informed Approach are used to identify these four key emerging, dynamic and recursive themes: changing context and its impact; social justice - a core value; recommitment to self-care; connectedness and collaboration in practice. Engaging with these themes enabled a process of reauthoring to a more agentic, hopeful narrative of my practice. This research has the potential to be useful for other practitioners navigating contexts requiring rapid transformations in their practice. And it points to the potential of using these narrative career approaches in working with clients also navigating career transitions over their lifespan. Recommendations for further research are offered including moral distress in the field of guidance counselling and relevant career adaptability skills for working in neoliberal environments
Regeneration through Collaboration
Get PDFGenerational renewal and succession planning must tackle the challenge of aging farmer populations. Collaborative farming may be a solution, but requires greater research and planning from policymakers
Financial literacy practices on family farms.
Get PDFFinancial literacy has attracted significant interest in the past two decades with researchers predominantly
focusing on two dimensions of its conceptualisation; knowledge and application. This paper answers calls for
research on how context shapes financial literacy in Micro, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (MSMEs) using a
practice framework drawn from established literacy theory. Financial literacy practices manifest in events and
are influenced and shaped by social, cultural, temporal, technological, historical and institutional circumstances.
This context-driven approach facilitates the examination of financial literacy in MSMEs where the owner-manager’s financial literacy is entwined with that of the enterprise’s practices. Using in-depth longitudinal case
studies, we show how social and financial literacy practices on family farms are intrinsically interlinked and
frame the timing of financial activities, the roles and tasks people undertake, the location where these activities
occur, and how they are articulated. Institutional power relationships manifest in the disconnect between farm
level financial literacy practices, many of which are informal and idiosyncratic, and those required by banks and
government agencies. This power divide leads to frustration and sometimes apparent indifference to conducting
more formal financial literacy practices. Temporality also emerges as a critical contextual factor. We identify the
important moments in the farming calendar when farmers are focused on the financial aspects of the farm and
propose that educational programmes aimed at improving the farmers’ financial literacy could be more effectively targeted using a social practice lens
Biological maturity but not relative age biases exist in female international youth soccer players relative to the general population
Get PDFThis study investigated the extent to which biological maturity and relative age biases existed
and varied with chronological age in female international youth soccer players relative to the general population.
A total of 113 players (52 under-15 (U15), 32 under-16 (U16) and 29 under-17 (U17)) selected by the Football
Association of Ireland participated in this study. All players were assessed for height, body weight and relative
age. Biological maturity status and timing were assessed in U15 and U16 players only. Relative to population
norms, the results showed a significant but small bias in favour of more biologically mature players (P < 0.001,
d = 0.39) that increased with age from U15 (P = 0.007, d = 0.36) to U16 (P = 0.009, d = 0.44). U16 players
had achieved a significantly higher percentage of their predicted adult height than U15 players (T = 7.4,
P 0.05).
There was no significant difference in height, weight or relative age of the players between the three age
groups and no significant difference between the U15 and U16 age groups in terms of predicted adult height
or biological to chronological age offset. This study demonstrates that biological maturity but not relative age
biases exist in female international youth football relative to the general population, with notable differences
in pattern and magnitude compared to those previously observed in male international youth football
Looking beyond relative age to understand relative advantage and disadvantage in talent development
Get PDFIn this perspective article, we argue for a broader consideration of relative advantages and disadvantages in youth sport; a lens that considers the complex biopsychosocial factors that influence athlete development beyond relative age. We begin with a brief overview of Relative Age Effects (RAEs), with a particular focus on the proposed underlying mechanisms, followed by a discussion of the cultural and organisational considerations and implications that talent systems must consider when implementing interventions to counteract RAEs. We conclude by proposing key directions for future research in respect to RAEs and talent development more broadly. We argue that there is a need to consider the highly complex nature of RAEs, but also that there are no clear solutions to the issue of RAEs in youth sports, and that proposed solutions may come with unintended consequences. This should encourage us to experiment more, not less, with diverse ways of providing meaningful sports experiences that promote learning, psychosocial development, and performance. We suggest an urgent need for greater practical and research focus on supporting coaches, as they have the greatest capacity to understand the needs of individual athletes. In addition, systemically working towards equal access to skilful coaches. We encourage a shift in focus beyond descriptive methodologies of RAEs toward transformative research methodologies that include action-based research, complex interventions that incorporate context-sensitive qualitative methods, and other participatory research approaches
Riding the wave: a prospective exploration of the temporal impact of perceived challenges on the development of relatively early high performing national-level youth soccer players
Get PDFResearch investigating the challenges experienced by high-performing athletes throughout development has predominantly used retrospective designs. Consequently, there is limited empirical and prospective data to inform the temporal dimensions of these experiences and their perceived impact on development. Therefore, this investigation sought to prospectively explore the temporal impact of perceived challenges on the development of six national-level youth footballers during their entrance into, and first season in, a selective national talent development environment. Participants engaged in monthly semi-structured interviews over a season, with data analysed using Reflexive Thematic Analysis. Findings demonstrated that each player’s experience in the national system was characterised by exposure to significant biopsychosocial challenges. The dynamics of these challenges were highly individualised, with variations in the temporal nature, emotional disturbance, and the psycho-behavioural skills deployed to navigate such challenges. Within the national system, the perceived judgement and the ongoing selection and deselection processes were a pervasive feature of each player’s experience, presenting significant challenge across the season. Yet, the temporal impact of this challenge varied among players. In practice, we advocate for talent systems to adopt a personalised approach to managing challenges faced by athletes and to recognise the individualised nature of the temporal impact of such challenges
State of the Climate 2024. Update for COP29
Get PDFThe World Meteorological Organization (WMO) is proud to be a sponsor of the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) and to be able to support the production of this report. WMO is a specialized agency of the United Nations and is its authoritative voice for weather, water and climate. It sponsors and implements an integrated suite of programmes which cover all aspects of climate research, observations, assessment, modelling and services.
The WMO has produced a State of the Global Climate report every year since 1993 to provide an annual summary and update of key climate indicators. These reports complement the more detailed, less frequent synthesis provided by the IPCC’s Assessment Reports. Since 2016 WMO has also been reporting preliminary findings on key climate indicators to inform the UNFCCC Conference of Parties (COP) before the end of each year. In July 2024, an international workshop organized by WMO and kindly hosted by the Deutscher Wetterdienst in Germany, agreed to a more condensed format, focusing on key messages for policymakers' needs at COP. The State of the Climate Update 2024 for COP29 highlights preliminary headline climate indicators consolidating the most up-to-date datasets available at the time of writing, along with examples of extreme events and progress in climate actions.
The headlines in the State of the Climate Update 2024 give cause for great concern. Greenhouse gas concentrations continue to steadily rise, driving further long-term temperature increases, highlighting the rapid changes in our climate system in the space of a single generation. We are on track for 2024 to be the hottest year on record joining 2023 as the two hottest years on record. Ocean heat content values continued an upward trend in 2023 and 2024, contributing to other changes in the climate system such as sea level rise and fueling intense storms. Antarctic and Arctic sea ice extent in 2024 have both been well below average.
The record-breaking rainfall and flooding, rapidly intensifying tropical cyclones, deadly heat, relentless drought and raging wildfires that we have seen in different parts of the world this year are unfortunately our new reality and a foretaste of our future. We must continue to strive to limit warming as much as possible, recognizing that staying well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit warming to 1.5°C remains critical to significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change. At the same time, we need to step up support for climate change adaptation through climate services and early warnings
UNITES Project: National Mapping and Review of Home Visiting Programmes in Ireland. Report Number One
Get PDFThe UNITES project was commissioned (in 2022) by the Department of Children Equality Disability Integration and Youth (DCEDIY). The project involved two separate, but related stages, the aims of which were: (1) to profile and critically review home visiting provision in Ireland (Stage One); and (2) to elicit the insights, views and experiences of a wide range of stakeholders involved in managing, implementing, delivering or receiving home visiting programmes and services across the country with a view to identifying some proposed actions or ‘options’ that may provide key stepping stones toward a more standardised, effective and sustainable ‘model’ of home visiting service delivery in Ireland (Stage Two). This report presents the findings from Stage One of the UNITES project. The results of Stage Two are described in a second companion report (McGilloway et al., 2024).
The aims of Stage One were to: (1) map/scope out home visiting service provision in Ireland; and (2) to critically examine relevant evidence of effectiveness and implementation produced in a national context. The specific objectives of this desk-based study (each of which corresponds to a separate section in this report) were to:
1. Profile, map and describe current home visiting provision across Ireland
2. Examine the development and nature of provision
3. Assess the evidence of impact/outcome achievement based on the academic literature and
4. Explore aspects of implementation
Putting Critical Learning at the Heart of Ethical Global Development Communications among INGOs.
Get PDFThis research is designed to support the implementation of the Guide to Ethical Communications
(Dóchas 2023), which reiterates the importance of ethical global development (GD) communications
and suggests renewed commitment on the part of INGOs in Ireland to good practice in this area. In
doing so, it explores the training and learning aspects of ethical GD communications practice among
INGOs in Ireland. Drawing on a survey, research workshops and documentary analysis, it argues
that if implementation of the Guide is to be meaningful, INGOs need to put training and learning at
the heart of ethical GD practice.
This training and learning needs to apply an organisational learning approach rather than one
focused on individual skills deficits or development. This requires that INGOs (individually or through
Dóchas) offer many different opportunities for training and learning for all those working in and with
INGOs, including all staff, management, volunteers, partners, board members and contractors, and
that links are made between this training and learning and wider organisational policy and practice. In
addressing communications at all levels of practice, relationships and culture within and across INGOs
in Dóchas, approaches should ensure that training and learning spaces and facilitation support deep,
critical, applied learning for ethical GD communications’ practice among participants. Because of the
challenges and complexities involved in ensuring ethical GD communications’ practice, this training
and learning needs to address the many power relations which underlie communications practices at
different levels (see Diagram 1 below).
The research highlights the current tendency within many INGOs to limit ‘training’ to distribution of the
Dóchas Guide, some induction training and / or short-term training for certain cohorts of staff, e.g.,
communications staff. This research shows that, at best, these practices only support surface level
understanding of what’s required for ethical GD practice. In its exploration of different approaches to
training and learning around ethical GD communications, it shows that those framed by diversity and
localisation concerns can help organisations go deeper into addressing power relationships in the
organisations themselves. In order to address the deep roots of stereotyping, paternalism, ‘othering’,
transactionalism, white supremacy, ethnocentrism and racism in GD communications, critical global
citizenship education (GCE) or anti-racism approaches are also needed. When guided by critical
and dcolonial pedagogies and critical race theory focused on systemic change, these approaches
support critical engagement and action around ethical GD communications at all levels.
In short, the research shows the need to put critical learning at the heart of GD communications’
practice through the development of INGO critical learning strategies, which are well-resourced and
supported by organisational management and Dóchas