1,721,027 research outputs found
A life course perspective: Life course learning for adult learners in Higher Education - an examination of the NUI Diploma in Applied Social Studies and the BA in Applied Social Studies
No full textThis research study examines the concept of the life course and why it may be considered an issue of critical importance in the context of teaching and learning policy and practice for adult learners in higher education. By choosing to adopt a life course perspective this research seeks to understand the learning experiences of part-time adult learners in higher education within the context of wider society and changing social structures. It is imperative that the needs, expectations, voices and life realities of adult learners feature in the decision making, design and implementation of programmes of higher education. Higher education as an institution of society has a fundamental role to play in promoting the ideals of democracy, justice, and human rights in addition to contributing to the economic and social development of society as a whole. As the author is a practitioner within the field of adult education focusing on the ‘real world’ problem of the ‘lived life’ realities of adult learners in higher education, this study adopts a pragmatic research perspective utilising mixed methods research. The purpose of the research is to examine life course influences on adult learning in order to contribute to a conceptual model of life course learning for adult learners in higher education through an examination of two part-time community education programmes: the NUI Diploma in Applied Social Studies and the BA in Applied Social Studies. Research findings are discussed in terms of messages to the adult learner, recommendations for higher education institutes, and suggestions for national and international educational policy makers influencing the development of wider civic society.2023-04-1
The Voice of Children in Social Work Assessments: What They Say? or What They Play?
No full textChild protection and welfare social work practice is faced with many challenges in its statutory duty to protect children at risk of abuse and/or neglect. Numerous child care tragedies have highlighted the importance of social workers engaging with children in relation to their experiences. Child care policy strongly advocates for the voice of the child to be represented in all assessments concerning the protection and welfare of children. One of the primary arguments underpinning this research is that social workers need to be skilled communicators to engage with children about deeply personal and painful issues. This study examines social work education and training in Ireland with regard to the acquisition of age-appropriate communication skills to engage with children. There is a wide range of research that maintains play is the language of children and the most effective way to learn about children is through their play. Considering this, the overarching aim of this study was to investigate the role of play skills in supporting communication between children and social workers during child protection and welfare assessments. To establish a theoretical base for the study, four core themes were examined: play and play therapy; attachment theory; child protection and welfare social work practice; and social work education.
A mixed methods approach was used to collect data. The quantitative study captured the views of a wide range of child protection and welfare social workers (n=122) and veteran social work practitioners (n=25) in Ireland. The qualitative study involved a team of child protection and welfare social workers and managers, two classes of social work students and one focus group of social workers. The data collection was designed to establish the thoughts and/or experiences of participants in relation to a Play Skills Training (PST) programme designed by the author. The study identifies participants¿ views regarding pre- and post-qualifying social work training in Ireland.
The key findings of the study reveal that the majority of social work participants rate the use of play skills in social work assessments as a key factor to effective engagement with children involved in the child protection and welfare system. These findings have implications for policy, practice, research, education and training. The author concludes the study by recommending a number of messages for each sector to consider. Of particular importance, these messages address how social work services can ensure, in a child-friendly manner that the voice of children is heard and represented in all assessments of their well-being and future care options
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
An Explorative Study on the Connection between Leadership Skills, Resilience and Social Support among Youth
No full textA growing interest in how young people can contribute to their communities has sparked a rise in the development of youth leadership initiatives. Whether these programmes yield benefits to youth beyond leadership and into the areas of social support and resilience are core to this research. This study involved a mixed-methodology approach, incorporating both quantitative and qualitative components in order to explore the impact of a youth leadership programme. The research included a quasi-experimental design focusing on 267 young people who received the Foróige Leadership for Life programme and a comparison group of 164 respondents who did not. Questionnaires were collected at baseline, post-intervention and 6 months follow-up over an eighteen month time frame. Standardised measures of Life skills, Leadership skills, Resilience, Social Support and Empathy were utilised. Interviews were also carried out at three time points with 22 young people categorised as high and low risk in terms of well-being. In addition, focus groups were held with 23 programme facilitators.
Key findings indicate that youth leadership participants demonstrated statistically significant improvements over time when compared to the comparison group in goal setting, empathy, critical thinking, communication skills, team work, problem solving, leadership skills, resilience, sibling support, total social support, emotional support, esteem support and community involvement. High risk youth also demonstrated significant improvements over time, indicating that the programme may have benefits for youth experiencing adversity. The study identified a set of factors key to developing young leaders including; resilience, self-belief, adolescent well-being, empathy, understanding oneself and social support. Qualitative evidence indicates additional improvements in social skills, sense of achievement, self-control, confidence, public speaking, assertiveness and ability to access more leadership opportunities. This study concludes there is a strong connection between youth leadership and resilience, and a more subtle connection between youth leadership and social support
Involving children and young people in social research: navigating the balance between protection and participation
No full textThis thesis is an article-based PhD. Against the backdrop of the almost universal acceptance of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the scholarly works comprising the ‘new social studies of childhood’, the thesis reflects on a core ethical dilemma facing social scientists today. It explores how researchers can navigate the dichotomy between protecting children and young people from harm and respecting their competence and autonomy as individual beings to participate in research of relevance to their lives. The study is exploratory in nature, utilising primarily reflective strategies of inquiry to: reflect on participation and protection discourses and their influence on children and young people’s involvement in research; examine a researcher’s ethical duties and rights-based responsibilities; and explore solution focused strategies to support researchers to navigate the balance between protection and participation.
The main body of the thesis comprises three publications. The first publication, referred to as paper one, reflects on a qualitative study with young carers in the Irish population. The paper reflects on the participation and protection discourses at play when seeking to access a representative sample of young carers. The success and limitations of the approaches adopted when obtaining parental consent and imposing limits on confidentiality are evaluated. The second publication, referred to as paper two, provides a more in-depth understanding of a researcher’s ethical duty to obtain parental consent. Drawing on the literature and a critical review of ethical frameworks, it explores how researchers can negotiate this ethical standard in the interests of involving young people in research when parental consent is not feasible or appropriate due to the nature of the study or the young participants involved. The third publication, referred to as paper three, argues that central to achieving a balance between participation and protection is the researcher’s ethical duty to conduct a rigorous and balanced assessment of harm and benefit. Reflecting on the author’s experience of conducting an assessment of harm and benefit, during the course of a baseline study on children and young people’s participation in social care services and a youth-led research project on mental health awareness, the paper presents a strategy for conducting such an assessment. The thesis concludes by integrating the learning across the three publications. It distils key messages for ethical oversight bodies and the research and academic community
Transformative learning: An exploration of the BA in Community and Family Studies graduates’ experiences
No full textThis thesis explored the existence and impact of transformative learning experiences among adult learner graduates of the BA in Community and Family Studies programme (BCFS). The researcher sought to consider whether graduates of the BCFS programme which is a part-time distance learning degree programme for adult learners accredited by NUI Galway; experienced transformative learning during the course of the BCFS programme. The overarching research question that this empirical study sought to respond to was: What effect(s) has the BCFS programme on the personal and professional development of graduates’ life paths? Therefore, this core research question was addressed in this study through four study objectives which underpinned the research purpose and mission of this empirical study. Comparisons across and between BCFS graduate participants’ experiences and their fellow graduates’ respective experiences were drawn. The empirical study sought to inform future andragogical practice, teaching and policy both nationally and internationally based on the learning and insight drawn from the diverse graduate perspectives, programmes of study (BCFS and Non-BCFS), modes of study (full-time and part-time), and personal life circumstances.
Transformative Learning theory (TL) according to Mezirow (2000) is constituted from historical, social and development experiences that occur in ‘epochal’ and/ or ‘incremental’ stages for learners. Mezirow developed TL theory to document the positive stages of development that were identified in adult learners’ personal and educational life paths.
The study participants were all graduates of the BA in Community and Family Studies programme (BCFS) between the years 2010-2014. The graduate participants for this study were selected based on the premise that they were BCFS graduates. The emprical data was collected through a mixed methods approach which included surveys, interactive management and semi-structured interviews. Interactive management was used in this study as it is a new methodology to the social science discipline. It is a thought and action mapping strategy to aid individuals and groups from diverse perspectives to develop dispositions and outcomes through engagement in discussion and deliberations as a collective. The multi-modal approach used in this study enabled respondents to deliberate upon their experiences in Higher Education and to offer insight on future andragogical research, policy and practice.
The overall study findings indicated that the developmental experiences; emotional intelligence awareness and growth were the most self-professed evident aspect of the TL journey for the BCFS graduates. In particular, the impact of the transformative learning experiences through participation on the BCFS programme increased graduates’ interest in community engagement; the second impact of the BCFS programme was that it enhanced graduates social relationships and networks at a personal and community level. Thirdly, the graduates shared that their participation on the BCFS programme had developed their mentoring and peer support roles towards other learners in their social network.
In conclusion, Transformative Learning (TL) was considered a key experience of the BA in Community and Family Studies programme (BCFS) graduates within this study. The andragogical process was considered core to the acquisition of the skills and qualities the graduates now possess. All respondents agreed that these attributes belonged to them on completion of the programme and have positively impacted on their life paths.2023-04-1
An exploration of the perceived friendship, social support and understanding of empathy among the membership of four Gaelic Athletic Association juvenile clubs
No full textBased on the premise that little is known about the social benefits of sport to youth, this study explores the perceived friendship, social support and understanding of empathy among the membership of four Gaelic Athletic Association juvenile clubs. The study is underpinned by a review of the literature relating to youth development, formal and non-formal education, friendships, social support, and empathy. The study utilises a mixed methods approach including the use of reliable and validated instruments comprising measurements for perceived sources and quality of supportive relationships; amounts and types of support and understanding of empathy. In total, 130 respondents completed all questionnaires, while 20 youth participated in one to one interviews, with the researcher completing a further 64 individualised observations of respondents.
Key results indicate that participants perceived high levels of social support as available to them from family, friends and within their local GAA Clubs. Furthermore, respondents perceived themselves as capable of making and sustaining friendships and see having fun as a core medium for building relationships through sport. Respondents understand the concept of empathy and can give examples of compassion within a sporting context. Respondents do not see online friendships as being ‘real-life’ friends when compared to face to face alliances through sport. Respondents perceive adult coaches as friends and important sources of support. Based on findings, recommendations are made for youth work and social services as well as sporting organisations
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