Mary Immaculate College

The inclusion of canines in educational practice is becoming increasingly popular in Irish schools. The primary objective of this systematic literature review was to examine the emerging phenomenon regarding the application of certified canines in educational settings to support the social communication competency of children aged 4 to 14 years. Following a review of the literature it became apparent that, to date, little research has been conducted regarding the concept of animal assisted education and social communication competency. The results of this literature review clearly indicate that a certified therapy canine can positively enhance social skills. More specifically, this systematic literature review found that a therapy canine can positively influence the educational experience of all students inclusive of children with additional needs. Whilst the concept of animal assisted education has become an increasingly popular topic of research worldwide, it is clear that additional research pertaining to the benefits of therapy canines and the impact on a child’s educational experiences needs to be conducted. This paper supplements and enhances the current level of research in an endeavour to address the disparity in literature and investigate how the educational experience of a child is influenced by the bond established with a canine. The objectives of this review are to establish: Effective animal assisted education interventions in classroom settings for teaching children aged 4 years to 14 years, and social communication competency components that should be incorporated into the design of classroom-based animal assisted interventions for children. Whilst, the studies in this review have provided some evidence regarding the benefits associated with the application of animal assisted education within a classroom environment, it is apparent that there still exists a significant gap in literature in this area.

Background Third‐level education is a relatively new opportunity for people with intellectual disabilities. The development of third‐level educational opportunities for this population rests on understanding their experiences and suggestions for programme development and improvement. The aim of this study is to establish how inclusive third‐level education is experienced by people with intellectual disabilities. Method A scoping review was conducted using Arksey and O'Malley's framework of peer‐reviewed empirical research published between 2002 and 2023 that reported on the experience of third‐level education for people with intellectual disabilities. Findings People with intellectual disabilities are engaging in third‐level education courses within University Campuses. They consider such programmes as opportunities to meet aspirations and to enable independent living especially through employment. Their experiences are influenced by supportive staff, initiatives and challenges and they have opinions on how to improve third‐level programmes. Conclusions People with intellectual disabilities value and embrace the opportunities to engage in third‐level education. Their experience is mixed with positive personal outcomes and challenges. Future research is needed to examine effective approaches to overcoming challenges and finding ways to develop programmes that meet the needs of adults with intellectual disabilities.

Paul Woodruff, who sadly passed away last year (28 August 1943–23 September 2023), left us an extraordinary and timely gift in his book Living Toward Virtue , ¹ a masterpiece on practical ethics that engages with and goes beyond the Socratic philosophy found in Plato's dialogues. The book is a tour de force of scholarship, intellectual humility, and philosophical acuity. It offers a neo-Socratic approach to virtue ethics – often contrasting it with neo-Aristotelian virtue ethics – based on the Socratic idea of taking care of our souls, which entails relentless self-examination that maintains us aware of our cognitive limitations and could help us avoid moral injury.

The Greater Amanzule Peatlands (GAP) in Ghana is an important biodiversity hotspot facing increasing pressure from anthropogenic land-use activities driven by rapid agricultural plantation expansion, urbanisation, and the burgeoning oil and gas industry. Accurate measurement of how these pressures alter land cover over time, along with the projection of future changes, is crucial for sustainable management. This study aims to analyse these changes from 2010 to 2020 and predict future scenarios up to 2040 using multi-source remote sensing and machine learning techniques. Optical, radar, and topographical remote sensing data from Landsat-7, Landsat-8, ALOS/PALSAR, and Shuttle Radar Topography Mission derived digital elevation models (DEMs) were integrated to perform land cover change analysis using Random Forest (RF), while Cellular Automata Artificial Neural Networks (CA-ANNs) were employed for predictive modelling. The classification model achieved overall accuracies of 93% in 2010 and 94% in both 2015 and 2020, with weighted F1 scores of 80.0%, 75.8%, and 75.7%, respectively. Validation of the predictive model yielded a Kappa value of 0.70, with an overall accuracy rate of 80%, ensuring reliable spatial predictions of future land cover dynamics. Findings reveal a 12% expansion in peatland cover, equivalent to approximately 6570 ± 308.59 hectares, despite declines in specific peatland types. Concurrently, anthropogenic land uses have increased, evidenced by an 85% rise in rubber plantations (from 30,530 ± 110.96 hectares to 56,617 ± 220.90 hectares) and a 6% reduction in natural forest cover (5965 ± 353.72 hectares). Sparse vegetation, including smallholder farms, decreased by 35% from 45,064 ± 163.79 hectares to 29,424 ± 114.81 hectares. Projections for 2030 and 2040 indicate minimal changes based on current trends; however, they do not consider potential impacts from climate change, large-scale development projects, and demographic shifts, necessitating cautious interpretation. The results highlight areas of stability and vulnerability within the understudied GAP region, offering critical insights for developing targeted conservation strategies. Additionally, the methodological framework, which combines optical, radar, and topographical data with machine learning, provides a robust approach for accurate and detailed landscape-scale monitoring of tropical peatlands that is applicable to other regions facing similar environmental challenges.

Online communication via video platforms has become a standard component of workplace interaction for many businesses and employees. The rapid uptake in the use of virtual meeting platforms due to COVID-19 restrictions meant that many people had to quickly adjust to communication via this medium without much (if any) training as to how workplace communication is successfully facilitat- ed on these platforms. The Interactional Variation Online project aims to analyse a corpus of virtual meetings to gain a multi-modal understanding of this context of language use. This paper describes one component of the project, namely guidelines that can be replicated when constructing a corpus of multi-modal data derived from recordings of online meetings. A further aim is to determine typical fea- tures of virtual meetings in comparison to face-to-face meetings so as to inform good practice in virtual workplace interactions. By looking at how non-verbal behaviour, such as head movements, gaze, pos- ture, and spoken discourse interact in this medium, we both undertake a holistic analysis of interaction in virtual meetings and produce a template for the development of multi-modal corpora for future analysis.

Once I walked as an accidental autoethnographer through the entrance door of a repurposed children’s orphanage. There on the doorstep, I witnessed a former resident in the final moments of a secular pilgrimage of unforgetting and cradling. Unforgetting is understood, in this article, as a metaphor for the thousands of women and children robbed of their truth, agency, and sometimes their future in state and religious-run orphanages. Cradling is understood as a metaphor for a desiring, sensual, performative, and singular/universal reparation. Influenced by phenomenological writings on the buildings we inhabit and those that inhabit us, and embodied, rhythmic, sensory, and experimental qualitative inquiry writing, I challenge the erasure of violence-toleration in official discourses of church and state-run institutions through a performative aesthetic of witnessing, evoking, and inscribing the lost sensations of a denied, difficult, and violent past into the grand narratives of mothers, children, and childhood.

Online communication via video platforms has become a standard component of workplace interaction for many businesses and employees. The rapid uptake in the use of virtual meeting platforms due to COVID-19 restrictions meant that many people had to quickly adjust to communication via this medium without much (if any) training as to how workplace communication is successfully facilitat- ed on these platforms. The Interactional Variation Online project aims to analyse a corpus of virtual meetings to gain a multi-modal understanding of this context of language use. This paper describes one component of the project, namely guidelines that can be replicated when constructing a corpus of multi-modal data derived from recordings of online meetings. A further aim is to determine typical fea- tures of virtual meetings in comparison to face-to-face meetings so as to inform good practice in virtual workplace interactions. By looking at how non-verbal behaviour, such as head movements, gaze, pos- ture, and spoken discourse interact in this medium, we both undertake a holistic analysis of interaction in virtual meetings and produce a template for the development of multi-modal corpora for future analysis.

Most European countries accept the necessity of school based Religious Education (RE). In Ireland, where almost 89% of primary and 47% of second level schools have a Catholic patron, the Catholic Bishops recognise the importance of RE in holistic education and uphold RE as an expression of school ethos. However, in an increasingly diverse society with rapidly falling numbers of people who identify and practice as Catholic, can the provision of RE in Catholic schools be sustained into the future? This paper examines the results of the first large scale, mixed methods empirical study into Catholic school (primary and secondary) ethos in the Republic of Ireland, of which Religious Education is an essential dimension. Through an examination of survey and semi-structured interview data from teachers and leaders, it analyses their views and experiences of RE and highlights the role and reality of RE in Catholic schools in Ireland today. Findings demonstrate a level of commitment and professionalism among stakeholders, and much in the way of good practice and commitment to the subject. However, they also indicate that support for RE as a subject, and for RE teachers and leaders, is urgently needed. Without ongoing, high-quality support for teachers, and systematic evaluation of the teaching and learning of RE, the future of RE in Catholic schools in Ireland looks bleak. While the study is carried out in Ireland, it is also of interest to other jurisdictions where schools are faced with similar challenges and to Catholic education systems looking to the future of Religious Education.

In recent years, we have seen an increased politicisation and objectification of what teachers should know, what teachers should do and who teachers should be while they are doing it. While evident across the continua of teacher education, such politicised constructions are particularly acute at initial teacher education. Given such attention to constructing what has been described as a ‘preferred’ teacher identity, this paper explores how prospective teachers construct themselves in ethico‐political terms (i.e., how prospective teachers construct the relationship that they have with themselves and how they account for themselves in that regard). Informed by a Foucauldian perspective and using a composite case that draws on interview data (photovoice and semi‐structured interviews) from a small sample (n = 4) of prospective Irish primary school teachers at various stages during their final semester of initial teacher education, this paper addresses ethico‐political identity in terms of substance, authority sources, self‐practices and telos. Findings illuminate prospective teacher ethico‐political identity as: (i) substance as the basis for nascent teacher practical knowing‐in‐action and pedagogical sensitivities; (ii) temporally organised authority sources; (iii) dynamic and interrelated self‐practices; and (iv) telos as a form of identity prolepsis that emphasises three major valuational endpoints. The paper concludes by contemplating the generativity of an ethico‐political conceptualisation of teacher identity (re)formation for teacher education purposes in terms of its conceptual, contextual, critical and reflective utility.

Article 12 of the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) (1989) sets out the right for all children to be heard and for their opinions to be given due weight. However, the voices of children with disabilities often remain silenced as their perspectives are rarely consulted. This paper describes how a visual, participatory research method called Photovoice was used to elicit the voices of students with Intellectual Disabilities (ID) in mainstream post-primary schools in the Republic of Ireland. Thirteen students with ID in four schools across Ireland participated by taking photographs of aspects of their school life that were meaningful to them. Photographs focused on places, spaces, objects and examples of learning, including their role in decision making. This paper details the stages of the Photovoice method which was adapted to support students to participate in the research process. It provides guidance on how to address the ethical and methodological concerns which arise when researching with children. It outlines a two-step approach to analysis, where participating students interpreted and created meaning which was further developed by the Principal Investigator. Employing Photovoice repositions students in this study as co-researchers and co-creators of meaning. Its use operationalises Lundy’s Model of Participation (2007) by providing space, voice, audience and influence which are necessary for children to express their views and have their voices heard in an ethical and inclusive manner.

This article explores the post‐Brexit increase in applications for Irish passports through descent, and in so doing, seeks to develop a social/political psychology of diasporic citizenship. It draws on a focus group and 10 individual interviews, all conducted in 2018–19; participants were all based in England and had applied, or were in the process of applying, for Irish passports through descent in the aftermath of Brexit. Analysis, using perspectives from discursive psychology, attended to both rhetoric and narratives of citizenship in participants' talk about the application process and identification with Ireland and Irishness. Participants draw on discourses of both effortfulness and essentialism in working up claims to Irish identity, with effortfulness in acquiring transnational knowledge being particularly central in rhetorically legitimizing less secure claims. The analysis thus builds on previous political psychological work highlighting the centrality of “effortfulness” to contemporary constructions of citizenship, particularly in the United Kingdom (Anderson & Gibson, 2020; Gibson, 2009). It is furthermore suggested that explicitly labeled “noneffortfulness” can act as a rhetorical marker of belonging. The implications of these findings for concepts of diasporic citizenship and debates around jus soli versus jus sanguinis citizenship in both Ireland and Britain are discussed.