Doctoral Fellows
Ciara Bradley - Doctoral Fellow
E-mail:c.bradley3@nuigalway.ie
PHD Topic: An exploration into the effect of economic circumstances and employment on parenting
Over the last two decades poverty and disadvantage have been addressed by social policy and family policy in Ireland across a number of fronts – including area based; individual focused; and family and child-centred approaches. Most recently Irish social policy has begun to stress the importance of connection to the labour market and personal responsibility. Political rhetoric highlights the negatives of childhood poverty and promotes the enabling effects of strong neighbourhoods and social inclusion. Within this context the study aims to contribute to a better understanding of the experiences, needs and strengths of parents raising children on low incomes, and apply these experiences to the study of service provision, to illuminate how social policy generally and family support policy and practice in particular is working on the ground, and how both can be improved to support families living in poverty.
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Michael Browne - Doctoral Fellow
E-mail: m.browne11@nuigalway.ie
PHD Topic: Children with Disability and their Social Support Networks
The study will inquire into the connection between perceived social support, coping capacity and wellbeing among children and young people with an intellectual disability in Ireland. The research will also seek to set out the implications for policy and practice taking into account social justice and human rights principles for children and young people living with a disability. The research will be based on the principle that all children and young people with a disability should be able to exercise choice, control and freedom and enjoy personal dignity in all aspects of social, community and cultural life in accordance with their own lifestyle preferences and aspirations. It will explore the experience of children and young people with an intellectual disability in relation to coping with key aspects of daily living and assess the impact of their social support networks on their lives. Social support networks will be interpreted broadly as meaning a range of family and community supports and services across the whole spectrum of daily living - in families, neighbourhoods, communities, schools and workplace/training, as well as those provided by statutory and voluntary/community organisations. The research will explore how social supports might be enhanced to maximise choice, independence, equality of access and person-centred planning for children/young people with an intellectual disability.
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Tereza
Brumovská
E-Mail: t.brumovska1@nuigalway.ie
PHD Topic: International comparative research in youth mentoring
Mentoring is relationship a relationship between an older, more experienced adult (mentor) and younger, unrelated child or youth (mentee). Mentor provides ongoing guidance, instruction, encouragement, support and care aimed at developing mentee’s competence. Mentoring relationship mediates the benefits, when based on developed qualitative features as trust and closeness (DuBois, Karcher, 2006). Formal mentoring is operated by formal mentoring programs, which create and supervise the mentoring relationships.
In the comparative research study on youth mentoring we will compare how the mentoring program Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) is implemented and operated in 4 different countries: Ireland, Lithuania, the Czech Republic and Bulgaria. We will compare the methods of operation together with the efficiency of programs. Than, in the second study, we will observe how the perceived quality and benefits of mentoring relationship from the mentee’s point of view relate with the mentor’s relationship developing style. How is the program implemented in 4 different countries?What do the programs consist of? How many quality mentoring relationships the programs create? How do mentees experience the relationships, their quality and benefits? How is the relationship developed by mentor? How does mentor’s approach style and his experience from relationship relate with the mentee's experiences and perception of benefits? These are the question we will seek to answer in the study.
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Catherine Carty - Doctoral Fellow
E-mail:c.carty2@nuigalway.ie
PHD Topic:
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Sheila McArdle - Doctoral Fellow
E-mail: s.mcardle3@nuigalway.ie
PHD Topic:
The recent revival in youth civic engagement (YCE) offers the promise of youth well-being and resilience for young people who participate, a strengthening of interpersonal networks and benefits for the community at large (Evans, 2005). But when exploring YCE, a complex interplay between political, economic, cultural and social factors begins to emerge. Young people’s YCE experiences may significantly vary, especially in situations where barriers to participation exist and are exacerbated by gender, membership of an ethnic minority, living with a disability and residing in a post-conflict area. It is mooted that YCE interventions that are effective in one context, if applied elsewhere without critical consideration, can be culturally inappropriate and contribute to the perpetuation of inequality.
If YCE is to contribute to a more equitable society, it is a necessity to facilitate young people, especially those facing barriers to participation, to have a voice in matters that affect them. A youth-centred approach applied in practice is a method that makes such facilitation possible. Youth-centred research commences with youth priorities, views a young person’s life holistically and systemically; forms an equal partnership between young people and adults in research design, progression and completion.
It is proposed to conduct a mixed method study: A youth-centred international comparative exploration of the perceptions of young Zambian, Irish and Bulgarian women (12-14years) of what it means to be civically engaged. The research will be progressed in a three phased sequence; 1) qualitative contextualisation; 2) quantitative survey; and 3) an in-depth qualitative element as a best-fit method to gather multi-sited, multi-level data from both young people and adults. The research purpose is to compare and contrast existing YCE opportunities, to generate knowledge to inform the future development of culturally appropriate YCE interventions that promote resilience.
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Brian Merriman - Doctoral Fellow
E-mail: Brian.Merriman@nuigalway.ie
PHD Topic: An investigation of enhancements to the verbal interview for children and adolescents
Children are sometimes interviewed in formal settings by allied health care and social services practitioners and it can be difficult to establish rapport in these interactions. There is evidence that incorporating activities such as drawing in interviews can make them easier for children and more productive for practitioners. The aim of this research is to compare standard verbal interviews, drawing interviews, and photo elicitation interviews with respect to memory and information, power, and rapport on a range of qualitative and quantitative measures. Participants will be drawn from schools and through practitioners in parallel phases. Using arts-based methods such as drawings and photographs may enhance the interview experience for both parties and may lead to more child-centred service provision. These results may also inform data collection procedures in children’s research.
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Connie O'Regan - Doctoral Fellow
E-mail: c.oregan2@nuigalway.ie
PHD Topic: Methodology and Evidence in Evaluation:
Lessons from the Youth Mentoring Field
The relationship between evaluation methodology and evidence in the area of youth mentoring is the central concern of this thesis. This relationship will be explored through a focus on the development of both the evaluation and youth mentoring movements internationally and more recently within Ireland. It will be argued that the ubiquity of youth mentoring as an intervention is partly a result of its success in terms of a much publicised randomised control trial into its effectiveness. The thesis will then explore the nature of the relationship between the evaluation methodology and evidence through an examination of data from a mixed methods evaluation of the Big Brothers Big Sisters Ireland youth mentoring programme. It will contribute to knowledge concerning the nature of the relationship between methodology and evidence in the conduct of “real world” evaluations. In so doing, it will contribute to the debate concerning the evaluation of youth mentoring in particular and the development of evaluation practise in Ireland in general.
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Jessica Ozan- Doctoral Fellow
E-mail: j.ozan1@nuigalway.ie
PHD Topic: Assessing Leadership in Interagency Work for Children
Increasingly, policy makers and service managers, planners and practitioners are encouraged, and often mandated, to work together to achieve better outcomes for children and young people (CFRC/CAWT, 2008). While interagency collaboration has its challenges, leadership is a critical factor in terms of engaging partnership members, and has a great impact on the developmental trajectory of interagency groups (Horwath and Morrison, 2007). Following from this the evaluation of interagency work should require a focus on institutional leadership. Yet, within the general literature on the evaluation of social interventions, limited attention is paid to this key area. This PhD research aims to contribute to evaluation methodology by exploring how to incorporate a focus on leadership in evaluations. The theoretical framework for the study will draw on extant literature on evaluation research, interagency work, and leadership in non profit organisations, among other areas. Its empirical basis will be a case study of the Childhood Development Initiative in Tallaght West.
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John Reddy - Doctoral Fellow
E-mail: l.reddy2@nuigalway.ie
PHD Topic: Investigating the Growing Appeal of ‘Community’ and ‘Partnerships’ in Addressing Crime and Disorder
Crime and the fear of crime, especially when combined with economic disadvantage and a poor physical environment has considerable negative impacts on the health and well-being of many children and families. ‘Community safety’ and other forms of multi-agency/community partnership responses to crime and disorder have evolved from these concerns and from the observation that crime control is increasingly difficult in areas marred by a range of social harms, and thus require different methods to traditional policing (Matthews and Pitts, 2001: 3). This PhD study investigates this relatively new concept of ‘community safety’ and its incorporation into efforts to address problems of crime and disorder and low social cohesion and insecurity in urban communities. The research explores the concurrent development and implementation of a local participatory crime prevention intervention that attempts to build networks, improve social cohesion and civic engagement within a disadvantaged urban community. The study is interested in addressing the question of how the development of multi-agency/sectoral and community based responses to problems of crime and disorder can promote ‘community safety’ in Irish society under circumstances of historic structural inequality? It will explore and offer insight regarding the incorporation of this new approach (design, implementation, outcomes) to urban security among strategies of public service enhancement and urban development. The study’s objective is to generate knowledge regarding how the state as anchor of these networks through distributing resources and acting as guardian of the public good, addresses the underlying issues of inequality and negative health and wellbeing that accompany the uneven spatial distribution of crime and antisocial behaviour in contemporary Irish society.
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