- Education Department
St. Patrick's College, Drumcondra
Dublin 9
Ireland - Audrey.bryan@spd.dcu.ie
Audrey Bryan
Dublin City University, Human Development, Faculty Member
- Sciences Po, Paris, Paris School of International Affairs, Faculty MemberSt Patrick's College Dublin City University, Education, Faculty Memberadd
- Sociology, Multiculturalism (Sociology), Citizenship (Anthropology), Gender, Race, Class, and Gender, Sociology of Education, and 27 moreSociology of Education, Social Stratification and Inequality, LGBT Youth, LGBT Issues, LGBT Health, Global Citizenship; International Development; Development Education, LGBT Issues in Education, Education and Conflict, Postcolonial Studies, Lauren Berlant, Education, Teacher Education, Human Rights, Globalization, Intercultural Education, Ethnic, Cultural, Religious Diversity, Race and Class, Theories of Mobility and Inequality, Inductive Theory Building, Children and Youth, International Development, Immigration, Curriculum Studies, Racism, Childhood and Youth Studies, and Ideologies of Motherhood(Sociology of Education, Social Stratification and Inequality, LGBT Youth, LGBT Issues, LGBT Health, Global Citizenship; International Development; Development Education, LGBT Issues in Education, Education and Conflict, Postcolonial Studies, Lauren Berlant, Education, Teacher Education, Human Rights, Globalization, Intercultural Education, Ethnic, Cultural, Religious Diversity, Race and Class, Theories of Mobility and Inequality, Inductive Theory Building, Children and Youth, International Development, Immigration, Curriculum Studies, Racism, Childhood and Youth Studies, and Ideologies of Motherhood)edit
- COURSES TAUGHTReflection and Enquiry (BEd I)Analysis of Teaching (BEd I)Social Contexts of Childhood (BA I Human Deve... moreCOURSES TAUGHTReflection and Enquiry (BEd I)Analysis of Teaching (BEd I)Social Contexts of Childhood (BA I Human Development)Constructions of Childhood (BEd I)Sociology of Education (BEd III)Sociology of Education (Grad Diploma in Education)Social Movements: Equality and Diversity (EdD)Education and Development (MA/MEd)Development Education (MA/MEd)Gender, Youth and Development (MDP)Childhoods in a Global Context (MSc Childhood Studies)Research Design (MA in Education)Sociological Approaches to Psychopathology (BA III)Ways of Knowing in Educational Research and Practice (EdM/PhD/EdD)PhD SUPERVISION Benjamin Mallon. From understanding, towards responsibility?: Cross-border education for reconciliation on the island of Ireland. (IRCHSS Doctoral Fellowship Recipient, 2012-2014).This research project seeks to examine how learning opportunities for young people are created, given meaning and experienced within cross-border education programmes, whilst exploring the connections and tensions between such projects and aspects of the formal curricula involving issues of peace, conflict and social justice.Anne Marie Kavanagh. Emerging Models of Intercultural Education in Irish Primary Schools: A Critical Multiple Case Study Analysis (With Fionnuala Waldron)This dissertation critically explores the models of intercultural education emerging in three Irish primary schools. Adopting a whole school approach it examines the extent to which selected variables (leadership, ethos, culture, formal curriculum, pedagogy, interactions) support and determine the models of intercultural education emerging in each of the schools. Drawing on critical multicultural theory, transformative leadership theory and discourse theory, the study critically interrogates and highlights fault lines between policy and practice at the schools. Adopting a mixed methods case study methodology, the study employs the methods of interviews, observations, questionnaires and document analysis.MASTERS THESIS SUPERVISIONMiriam Denningan (2011-2012, MEd) An Investigation of teachers’ experiences and perspectives of teaching Religious Education in Catholic primary schools.REVIEWER FOR: Journal of Curriculum StudiesJournal of Development StudiesSocial Sciences and Humanities Research Council of CanadaAmerican Sociological ReviewAsia Pacific Journal of EducationChildren and SocietyIrish Educational StudiesIrish Journal of SociologyPolicy and Practice: A Development Education ReviewRace , Ethnicity and EducationRoutledgeSocial ForcesSociologyTranslocations: Migration and Social ChangeYouth Studies Ireland(COURSES TAUGHTReflection and Enquiry (BEd I)Analysis of Teaching (BEd I)Social Contexts of Childhood (BA I Human Development)Constructions of Childhood (BEd I)Sociology of Education (BEd III)Sociology of Education (Grad Diploma in Education)Social Movements: Equality and Diversity (EdD)Education and Development (MA/MEd)Development Education (MA/MEd)Gender, Youth and Development (MDP)Childhoods in a Global Context (MSc Childhood Studies)Research Design (MA in Education)Sociological Approaches to Psychopathology (BA III)Ways of Knowing in Educational Research and Practice (EdM/PhD/EdD)PhD SUPERVISION Benjamin Mallon. From understanding, towards responsibility?: Cross-border education for reconciliation on the island of Ireland. (IRCHSS Doctoral Fellowship Recipient, 2012-2014).This research project seeks to examine how learning opportunities for young people are created, given meaning and experienced within cross-border education programmes, whilst exploring the connections and tensions between such projects and aspects of the formal curricula involving issues of peace, conflict and social justice.Anne Marie Kavanagh. Emerging Models of Intercultural Education in Irish Primary Schools: A Critical Multiple Case Study Analysis (With Fionnuala Waldron)This dissertation critically explores the models of intercultural education emerging in three Irish primary schools. Adopting a whole school approach it examines the extent to which selected variables (leadership, ethos, culture, formal curriculum, pedagogy, interactions) support and determine the models of intercultural education emerging in each of the schools. Drawing on critical multicultural theory, transformative leadership theory and discourse theory, the study critically interrogates and highlights fault lines between policy and practice at the schools. Adopting a mixed methods case study methodology, the study employs the methods of interviews, observations, questionnaires and document analysis.MASTERS THESIS SUPERVISIONMiriam Denningan (2011-2012, MEd) An Investigation of teachers’ experiences and perspectives of teaching Religious Education in Catholic primary schools.REVIEWER FOR: Journal of Curriculum StudiesJournal of Development StudiesSocial Sciences and Humanities Research Council of CanadaAmerican Sociological ReviewAsia Pacific Journal of EducationChildren and SocietyIrish Educational StudiesIrish Journal of SociologyPolicy and Practice: A Development Education ReviewRace , Ethnicity and EducationRoutledgeSocial ForcesSociologyTranslocations: Migration and Social ChangeYouth Studies Ireland)edit
The chapter’s contribution is threefold. Firstly, drawing on Michael Rothberg’s figure of the implicated subject (Rothberg, 2019), it advances a new theorisation of human rights in order to address complex scales of responsibility for... more
The chapter’s contribution is threefold. Firstly, drawing on Michael Rothberg’s figure of the implicated subject (Rothberg, 2019), it advances a new theorisation of human rights in order to address complex scales of responsibility for climate-related harms and injustices in the Anthropocene. Secondly, it addresses mainstream sustainability education’s failure to articulate the role of political-economic structures, cultural values, power relations, and vested interests in perpetuating behaviours that result in ecological harm, while discouraging those that mitigate climate-related injustices (Leichenko et al., 2022; Wilhite, 2016). Highlighting the complex interaction between wider social forces and individual behaviours, SERF transcends either/or approaches to climate responsibility which privilege either personal actions or the governance, practices and behaviours of corporations, governments, industry and so on. Thirdly, it highlights the importance of foregrounding emotion in discussions of global warming and provides concrete suggestions for how to ethically confront children with the difficult knowledge of their own implications in the climate crisis.
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This chapter offers a critical exploration of global citizenship as a public pedagogy which seeks to transform the way that citizens think about and engage with international development issues. Using a case study approach, it provides a... more
This chapter offers a critical exploration of global citizenship as a public pedagogy which seeks to transform the way that citizens think about and engage with international development issues. Using a case study approach, it provides a critical exploration of the Global Poverty Project, a transnational education and advocacy project that seeks to engage Northern publics with issues of global poverty and inequality. It argues that, rather than fostering deep understanding of global poverty or promoting meaningful responses to it, the Project enables participants to “feel good about feeling bad” in relation to the suffering of distant others by affirming one’s humanitarianism through apolitical and personalised forms of development engagement that reap personal rewards. In this way, “doing good” becomes an individualistic and self-interested endeavour through which one can advance one’s sense of moral well-being.
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Research Interests: Globalization, International Development, Human Rights, Curriculum Studies, Immigration, and 9 moreGlobal Citizenship, Securitization, Racism, Transmigration, Xenophobia, Social Conflict, Comparative and International Education, Comparative and Internationl Development Education, Democracy and Citizenship Education, and Citizenship identities
According to the UN (2020), almost 1.6 billion people, or circa one-fifth of the world’s population, across 190 countries and all continents, have been impacted in terms of disruption to education globally. To put the scale of this in... more
According to the UN (2020), almost 1.6 billion people, or circa one-fifth of the world’s population, across 190 countries and all continents, have been impacted in terms of disruption to education globally. To put the scale of this in some sort of perspective, this equates to largely the samenumberof people as populated the planet during theflupandemic of 1918–1920. Then, as now, education has been impacted severely by enforced restrictions on society wrought by the onset of a global, indiscriminate pandemic. SinceMarch 2020, when schools and campuses in Ireland first started to close, the effects of COVID-19 in education have been wide-ranging, from major changes and disruption to state examination systems to large-scale learning online and outside of school. Some of the key questions to arise for all educators in this precarious contemporary moment include: how has education been affected by the pandemic; andwhere can we go from here? Furthermore, there has been much discourse around the pandemic serving as a lever for change, potentially opening up new possibilities for learning, teaching and assessment, and alongside this the tentative vision of an improved education system post-pandemic. However, what might be learnt from the current situation, to inform the design of more engaging and inclusive educational futures for all? In October 2020, to locate and reflect upon the implications for education now emerging, as a consequence of the present pandemic, Irish Educational Studies invited articles for a special issue of papers exploring key aspects of the impact of COVID-19 on education in Ireland, situated in the global context. Furthermore, while there emerged in the immediate months after the pandemic a body of rapid research on COVID-19 and its implications for education, the aim of this special issue has been to take a longer view of the effects of the pandemic across key aspects of education in Ireland and internationally. Now in its 40th year, Irish Educational Studies has ab initio always been a generalist educational journal, covering education and its key, constituent concepts, perspectives and theoretical orientations, construed in a broad and inclusive way. As the inaugural editorial board of the journal wrote in 1981: ‘The policy of publishing articles from a wide range of educational studies – psychology, sociology, history, philosophy, curriculum, evaluation, methodology and educational management – is continued in Irish Educational Studies’. Thus, faithful to the journal’s original and continuing mission, the call for papers for this special issue sought a wide and diverse set of research studies examining the impact of COVID-19 on Irish education and, or comparing developments in Ireland with the wider international situation. The different types of contributions invited, included, for example empirical papers, viewpoints, case studies, conceptual papers and literature reviews.
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Background: Pedagogical approaches to learning about LGBTQI+ themes and experiences remain a largely understudied topic in teacher education. This is partly due to anxieties around exploring these themes in nuanced and sensitive ways,... more
Background: Pedagogical approaches to learning about LGBTQI+ themes and experiences remain a largely understudied topic in teacher education. This is partly due to anxieties around exploring these themes in nuanced and sensitive ways, with many teacher educators feeling ill-equipped to navigate the complexities of exploring so-called "difficult knowledge." Purpose: In response to this, the purpose of this paper is to offer reflections on the pedagogical value of comedy for exploring such themes and experiences in teacher education, focusing especially on the situational comedy (sitcom) Schitt's Creek. We turn to comedy given our interest in the capacity of comedic modalities to offer "slantwise" pedagogical encounters with LGBTQI+ themes and experiences, that is, nonaffronting encounters that resist damage-centered narratives of LGBTQI+ people and are open to multiple queer futures. Research design: In exploring how the sitcom offers teacher educators and student teachers these kinds of encounters, we provide a reading of three episodes of Schitt's Creek through a "queer utopian" lens. We analyze a purposive sample of episodes from the series that speak directly to LGBTQI+ themes and experiences. We accompany this analysis with prompts for teacher educators to use in discussing these episodes in the teacher education classroom. Conclusions: We suggest that the sitcom offers teacher education an opportunity for student teachers and teacher educators to access a queer utopianism that can be encountered not only in the specifics of Schitt's Creek's plotlines, characters, and/ or settings, but also, perhaps more primarily, through the affective dimensions of
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This article critically considers the implications of 'crisis transformationism' for development education's radical agenda of cultivating politically engaged, self-reflexive global citizens who have a deep understanding of power and... more
This article critically considers the implications of 'crisis transformationism' for development education's radical agenda of cultivating politically engaged, self-reflexive global citizens who have a deep understanding of power and politics and who are firmly committed to working collectively toward fundamental change. Crisis transformationism is a mobilising ideological framework which deploys crisis rhetoric in order to consolidate the corporate takeover of education from a democratically controlled system to one designed and run by private actors in service of the global economy. In this article, we demonstrate how this takeover has accelerated in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. We draw on the 2022 United Nations' Transforming Education Summit (TES) as exemplary of a growing trend in global educational governance whereby the values and interests of global corporationsthrough the ascendancy of Big Tech philanthropic foundationsincreasingly shape educational policy and programming. Our primary purpose is to consider the implications of crisis transformationism for the future of development education's genuinely transformative goal of achieving global and ecological justice. Applying critical discourse analytic techniques, we explore the ways in which the discourse of crisis transformationism is being deployed by influential policy actors to legitimise the expansion of the private sector in the delivery of education and to accelerate depoliticised notions of the 'global' via a
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This paper explores comedy as a queer pedagogical form that subverts problematic representational tropes of queerness pervading mainstream depictions of queer experience. Articulating ‘form’ less as a fixed arrangement of characters,... more
This paper explores comedy as a queer pedagogical form that subverts problematic representational tropes of queerness pervading mainstream depictions of queer experience. Articulating ‘form’ less as a fixed arrangement of characters, images, objects, and ideas, and more as a kind of formation that positions these in dynamic relation to the wider context in which comedies are encountered, we mobilise the idea of queer pedagogical forms to capture how comedy can foster new modes of thinking about and embodying queerness for, and with, audiences. Drawing on specific examples from Schitt’s Creek and Derry Girls, we document the potential of specific comedic modalities (e.g. irony, sarcasm, irreverence, and slapstick) to foster alternative representations of queerness, in which normative tropes are poked fun at, problematised, and reimagined. Through these examples, we demonstrate how comedies can enable us to ‘laugh ourselves out of the closets’ we live by, feel, navigate, and embody.
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This paper explores comedy as a queer pedagogical form that subverts problematic representational tropes of queerness pervading mainstream depictions of queer experience. Articulating 'form' less as a fixed arrangement of characters,... more
This paper explores comedy as a queer pedagogical form that subverts problematic representational tropes of queerness pervading mainstream depictions of queer experience. Articulating 'form' less as a fixed arrangement of characters, images, objects, and ideas, and more as a kind of formation that positions these in dynamic relation to the wider context in which comedies are encountered, we mobilise the idea of queer pedagogical forms to capture how comedy can foster new modes of thinking about and embodying queerness for, and with, audiences. Drawing on specific examples from Schitt's Creek and Derry Girls, we document the potential of specific comedic modalities (e.g. irony, sarcasm, irreverence, and slapstick) to foster alternative representations of queerness, in which normative tropes are poked fun at, problematised, and reimagined. Through these examples, we demonstrate how comedies can enable us to 'laugh ourselves out of the closets' we live by, feel, navigate, and embody.
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This article analyses UNESCO’s advocacy of social emotional learning (SEL) as key to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)—particularly SDG target 4.7. It interrogates the agency’s growing emphasis on digital SEL and... more
This article analyses UNESCO’s advocacy of social emotional learning (SEL) as key to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)—particularly SDG target 4.7. It interrogates the agency’s growing emphasis on digital SEL and conscious ‘whole brain’ approaches as part of a wider neuroliberal turn towards the behavioural, psychological and neurological sciences and considers their implications for UNESCO’s status as the ‘conscience of humanity.’ It argues that ‘SEL for SDGs’ operates as a ‘flag of convenience’ hoisted by UNESCO to garner legitimacy in a global governance landscape increasingly shaped by private/corporate interests, new (tech-based) philanthropy, and neoliberal policies and funding infrastructures. It demonstrates how the privileging of biological or neuropsychological explanations for complex global problems is reconfiguring UNESCO’s global citizenship work towards a depoliticised, individualistic and neuroliberally-inflected ‘conscious human brain’ response to complex societal challenges which forestalls political dialogue and undermines an appreciation of their material and economic determinants.
Research Interests: Neuroscience, Unesco, Educational Neuroscience, Neoliberalism, Global Citizenship Education, and 13 moreEdtech, Social Emotional Competencies, Social Emotional Learning, Comparative International Education, Education for Sustainable Development, Mindfulness in Education, Global Competencies, Transversal Skills, Neuromania, Compare, UN Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs), Neuroliberalism, and Precision Education(Edtech, Social Emotional Competencies, Social Emotional Learning, Comparative International Education, Education for Sustainable Development, Mindfulness in Education, Global Competencies, Transversal Skills, Neuromania, Compare, UN Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs), Neuroliberalism, and Precision Education)
(Edtech, Social Emotional Competencies, Social Emotional Learning, Comparative International Education, Education for Sustainable Development, Mindfulness in Education, Global Competencies, Transversal Skills, Neuromania, Compare, UN Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs), Neuroliberalism, and Precision Education)
This article analyses UNESCO’s advocacy of social emotional learning (SEL) as key to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)—particularly SDG target 4.7. It interrogates the agency’s growing emphasis on digital SEL and... more
This article analyses UNESCO’s advocacy of social emotional learning (SEL) as key to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)—particularly SDG target 4.7. It interrogates the agency’s growing emphasis on digital SEL and conscious ‘whole brain’ approaches as part of a wider neuroliberal turn towards the behavioural, psychological and neurological sciences and considers their implications for UNESCO’s status as the ‘conscience of humanity.’ It argues that ‘SEL for SDGs’ operates as a ‘flag of convenience’ hoisted by UNESCO to garner legitimacy in a global governance landscape increasingly shaped by private/corporate interests, new (tech-based) philanthropy, and neoliberal policies and funding infrastructures. It demonstrates how the privileging of biological and neuropsychological explanations for complex global problems is reconfiguring UNESCO’s global citizenship work towards a depoliticised, individualistic and neuroliberally-inflected ‘conscious human brain’ response to complex societal challenges which forestalls political dialogue and undermines an appreciation of their material and economic determinants.
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This article analyses UNESCO’s advocacy of social emotional learning (SEL) as key to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)—particularly SDG target 4.7. It interrogates the agency’s growing emphasis on digital SEL and... more
This article analyses UNESCO’s advocacy of social emotional learning (SEL) as key to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)—particularly SDG target 4.7. It interrogates the agency’s growing emphasis on digital SEL and conscious ‘whole brain’ approaches as part of a wider neuroliberal turn towards the behavioural, psychological and neurological sciences and considers their implications for UNESCO’s status as the ‘conscience of humanity.’ It argues that ‘SEL for SDGs’ operates as a ‘flag of convenience’ hoisted by UNESCO to garner legitimacy in a global governance landscape increasingly shaped by private/corporate interests, new (tech-based) philanthropy, and neoliberal policies and funding infrastructures. It demonstrates how the privileging of biological or neuropsychological explanations for complex global problems is reconfiguring UNESCO’s global citizenship work towards a depoliticised, individualistic and neuroliberally-inflected ‘conscious human brain’ response to complex societal challenges which forestalls political dialogue and undermines an appreciation of their material and economic determinants.
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Supporting LGBT lives: a study of the mental health and well-
This article locates itself within an emergent, counter-discursive body of scholarship that is critical of universalizing depictions portraying queer-identified or LGBT youth as vulnerable and ‘at-risk’ of a range of negative mental... more
This article locates itself within an emergent, counter-discursive body of scholarship that is critical of universalizing depictions portraying queer-identified or LGBT youth as vulnerable and ‘at-risk’ of a range of negative mental health outcomes, including self-harm and suicidality. Drawing on key findings from a large-scale, mixed-methods study exploring the mental health and well-being of LGBT people, we seek to contribute to the development of a more expansive understanding of LGBT lives by demonstrating the diverse ways people engage with their sexuality and gender identity and illuminating the complex meanings that those LGBT people who have experienced psychological and suicidal distress ascribe to their feelings, thoughts and actions.
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This issue of Policy & Practice: A Development Education Review is devoted to the theme of 'Professionalisation and Deradicalisation of Development Education'and is centrally concerned with a number of paradoxes and... more
This issue of Policy & Practice: A Development Education Review is devoted to the theme of 'Professionalisation and Deradicalisation of Development Education'and is centrally concerned with a number of paradoxes and contradictions that characterise the field in an era of neo-liberal shaped globalisation. It addresses, in particular, the question of why the development education sector endorses, tacitly or otherwise, the very ideologies and political-economic arrangements that are responsible for producing or exacerbating ...
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This article addresses the psychic and emotional challenges associated with enabling learners to apprehend their role in, and vulnerability to, the evolving climate crisis. Global warming is arguably one of the most cognitively as well as... more
This article addresses the psychic and emotional challenges associated with enabling learners to apprehend their role in, and vulnerability to, the evolving climate crisis. Global warming is arguably one of the most cognitively as well as emotionally complex topics for learners or members of the public more generally to engage with. Given the emergent nature of climate change, many educators are unsure about how best to enable citizens to navigate the complex emotions that they experience in response to their proximity to, and responsibility for, a myriad of injustices and environmental catastrophes associated with global warming. Meanwhile, new emotions, including ecological grief and heightened levels of climate-related anxiety amongst young people have been reported in epidemiological studies, our understanding of which is as of yet underdeveloped. This article argues that a psychosocial approach to climate change education (CCE) which emphasises the mutual interaction between psychic and social processes which affect the climate crisis and how we relate to it should comprise part of a broader and sustained public response to the climate crisis, especially in contexts where climate-related anxiety and grief are becoming more widespread. It introduces a conceptual toolkit to inform the psycho-affective aspects of CCE, with a particular emphasis on the pedagogical complexities of engaging learners located in emissions-intensive societies with their role as 'implicated subjects' in the climate crisis (Rothberg, 2019).
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This report presents the findings of a nation-wide survey of public attitudes towards, and perceptions of, aspects of the drug issue in Ireland. The questionnaire on which the research was based constituted a module of the 1998 Irish... more
This report presents the findings of a nation-wide survey of public attitudes towards, and perceptions of, aspects of the drug issue in Ireland. The questionnaire on which the research was based constituted a module of the 1998 Irish Social Omnibus Survey. A total of 1,000 individuals, randomly selected from the 1997 Register of Electors for Ireland (26 counties), took part in the study. Data was collected using face-to-face interviews between February and April 1998. The survey found that members of the general public were generally aware of the kinds of illegal drugs most commonly used. Self-reported cannabis use (as measured by lifetime prevalence) stood at 12 per cent. The younger urban sector of society tended to have greater personal experience of cannabis, to know people who had taken cannabis or had 'a drug problem'. The results indicated a high level of concern about the current drug situation among the general public. Three quarters of the respondents were of the o...
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Although the role of education in addressing the challenges of climate change is increasingly recognized, the education sector remains underutilized as a strategic resource to mitigate and adapt to climate change. Education stakeholders... more
Although the role of education in addressing the challenges of climate change is increasingly recognized, the education sector remains underutilized as a strategic resource to mitigate and adapt to climate change. Education stakeholders in many countries have yet to develop a coherent framework for climate change education (CCE). This article underscores the critical role that education can and should play in addressing and responding to climate change in all of its complexity. It provides rationales as to why CCE should be addressed in the context of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). Advancing CCE in the context of ESD, or Climate Change Education for Sustainable Development (CCESD), requires enhancement of learners’ understanding of the causes and consequences of climate change and their readiness to take actions to address it. The article presents key organizing principles of CCESD and outlines key knowledge, skills, attitudes, dispositions and competences to be foster...
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This paper considers the educational implications of the recent emphasis on the mental health and well-being of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning/queer (LGBTQ) people in Ireland. Operating from the perspective that... more
This paper considers the educational implications of the recent emphasis on the mental health and well-being of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning/queer (LGBTQ) people in Ireland. Operating from the perspective that discourses constitute rather than merely reflect material reality, thereby shaping or ‘structuring’ how we think about, and act, in relation to queer experience, the paper critically engages with discourses which position LGBTQ youth as universally at risk of mental health difficulties, including self-harm and suicidality. It also challenges the corresponding preoccupation with homophobic bullying as the primary lens through which queer experience is understood and addressed in schools, arguing that more space needs to be devoted to other, less harrowing narratives of LGBTQ experience and identity. It highlights some of the more problematic effects of LGBTQ mental health research which frame LGBTQ experience primarily in terms of vulnerability and victimhood and makes the case for a more expansive engagement with LGBTQ identities. The article illuminates the potential that after-queer scholarship holds for a re-imagining of queer youth, sexuality and gender within educational and social research, curriculum materials and educational institutions more generally and concludes with a consideration of specific knowledge and skills that educators should be equipped with in order to disrupt normative understandings of gender and sexuality.
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While recent years have witnessed a growing recognition of the importance of attending to the complex affective dimensions of teaching and learning, emotion remains under-researched and under-theorised as an aspect of education. This... more
While recent years have witnessed a growing recognition of the importance of attending to the complex affective dimensions of teaching and learning, emotion remains under-researched and under-theorised as an aspect of education. This paper explores what it means to engage with emotionality in the classroom, particularly in terms of how difficult (sociological) knowledge is experienced, felt and understood by learners, i.e. how they are affected by knowledge that is historically or socially traumatic and hence difficult to bear. Drawing on qualitative data gathered as part of an action research project undertaken during a postgraduate course on globalisation, it offers insights into how course participants felt, experienced and engaged with difficult knowledge about their participation in harmful global economic institutions and practices. The paper concludes by considering some of the theoretical considerations and pedagogical conditions that are necessary if we are to engage learne...
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This paper draws on the Republic of Ireland as a case study of the 'new' development advocacy, i.e. government, philanthropic, and celebrity humanitarian engagement with international development and statutory efforts to deepen... more
This paper draws on the Republic of Ireland as a case study of the 'new' development advocacy, i.e. government, philanthropic, and celebrity humanitarian engagement with international development and statutory efforts to deepen understanding of international development among citizens in the global North (Biccum, 2010; 2011). It outlines some of the culturally specific narratives that inform the 'new' development advocacy in an Irish context, with reference to a set of recurrent tropes that have come to dominate both official and popular discourses of development 'at home'. Utilizing critical discourse analytic techniques, it illuminates the self-constituting function these public pedagogical efforts perform and highlights the function that remembering instances of historical trauma and suffering, and of forgetting or ignoring Ireland's role in the history of imperialism, play in shaping and constituting the nation through orthodox development discourses....
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The authors sought to apply evidence from research to nursing practice. Research about infant states, cues, and behaviors was presented to a birthing center nursing staff and expectant parent class instructors. Posttest results indicated... more
The authors sought to apply evidence from research to nursing practice. Research about infant states, cues, and behaviors was presented to a birthing center nursing staff and expectant parent class instructors. Posttest results indicated that the staff's knowledge and skill in interpreting infant behavior for parents increased after an educational session. The results are important, for research supports the idea that parent-infant attachment affects both parents and infants by promoting a loving relationship and improved infant development, a healthy self-image, and better relationships later in life. Cue sensitivity has been documented as the origin of parent-infant attachment. Cue sensitivity involves recognition of individualized infant body language and provision of an appropriate response. Parents who are sensitive to their infant's needs and who respond consistently and appropriately foster a mutually satisfying reciprocal interaction that leads to a healthy relationship. Incorporating information about infant states, cues, and behaviors into prenatal education can provide parents with an introduction to quality parent-child interactions.
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Foreword: Global Learning in Europe: Looking Back and Moving Forward' Helmuth Hartmeyer 1. Introduction: Transformative Learning in the Age of Neo-liberalism Stephen McCloskey PART I: SOFT VERSUS CRITICAL DEVELOPMENT EDUCATION 2. Soft... more
Foreword: Global Learning in Europe: Looking Back and Moving Forward' Helmuth Hartmeyer 1. Introduction: Transformative Learning in the Age of Neo-liberalism Stephen McCloskey PART I: SOFT VERSUS CRITICAL DEVELOPMENT EDUCATION 2. Soft versus Critical Global Citizenship Education Vanessa de Oliveira Andreotti 3. Learning to Read the World? Educating for 'Active (Global) Citizenship' in the Formal Curriculum Audrey Bryan 4. Typologies of Development Education: From Learning About Development to Critical Global Pedagogy Douglas Bourn 5. Critical thinking and Development Education: How do we develop meta-cognitive capacities? Roland Tormey PART II: DEVELOPMENT EDUCATION SECTORS 6. Young People and Development: The Role of Global Youth Work in Engagement and Learning Paul Adams 7. Moving Beyond Boundaries: Development Education in Initial Teacher Education Fionnuala Waldron 8. Strengthening Development Education Practice in the Higher Education Sector: Reimagining research Su-ming Khoo PART III: DEVELOPMENT EDUCATION & SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT 9. Striking A Faustian Bargain? Development Education, Education for Sustainable Development and the Economic Growth Agenda David Selby and Fumiyo Kagawa 10. Development Education and Climate Change Glenn Strachan Part IV: NEW DEVELOPMENT PARADIGMS: LESSONS FOR DEVELOPMENT EDUCATION 11. Groping Towards a New Future: Educating for Paradigm Change Peadar Kirby 12. New Paradigms for Social Transformation in Latin America Ronaldo Munck 13. Political Society and Subaltern Social Movements (SSM) in India: Implications for Development/Global Education Dip Kapoor 14. The Deglobalisation Paradigm: A Critical Discourse on Alternatives Dorothy Grace Guerrero PART V: DEVELOPMENT EDUCATION'S SHIFTING POLICY LANDSCAPE 15. Development Education in a European Context Gerard McCann 16. Beyond the MDGs: Toward a new Development Framework Mwangi Waituru 17. Conclusion: Whither Development Education in a Shifting Policy Landscape? Stephen McCloskey
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Research Interests: Discourse Analysis, Sociology, Education, Ethnography, Intercultural Education, and 14 moreStrategic Planning, Education Policy, Policy Development, Ethnic minorities, Discourse of multiculturalism, Cultural Diversity, Multiculturalism (Sociology), Immigrants, Criticism, Cultural Differences, Sociology of Ducation, Ethnic Groups, Ethnic Minorities, and Public Policy
This chapter seeks to advance our understanding of how intercultural education is practised on the ground in schools, based on findings from a twelve month critical ethnographic case study of one school’s efforts to promote a policy of... more
This chapter seeks to advance our understanding of how intercultural education is practised on the ground in schools, based on findings from a twelve month critical ethnographic case study of one school’s efforts to promote a policy of ‘positive interculturalism’, carried out between September 2004 and December 2005. Combining ethnographic and discourse analytic techniques, it offers a critical exploration of how ethnic minority cultural identities are represented in the formal and informal curriculum. In so doing, it subjects the philosophy and practices of interculturalism to critical scrutiny; it explores ethnic minority students’ perceptions of formal curricular knowledge about their ethnic identities (along religious, cultural and nationality lines), and their experiences of engaging with, and negotiating, this knowledge in the classroom. Collectively, the chapter seeks to advance our understanding of the problems associated with ‘add diversity and-stir’ approaches to curricular and school reform which seek to accommodate the presence of ethnic minorities without altering the existing curriculum or school policies and practices to any significant extent (Bryan, 2008a). In other words, it seeks to demonstrate the limitations of existing educational responses to cultural diversity in an Irish context and stresses the need for radical curricular and educational reform as it relates to inclusion, equity, and curricular justice for ethnic minority students (Connell, 1993).
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Education, conflict and development brings together a number of important contributions–focused on a range of different geographical contexts and circumstances–to inform the debate about the complex interrelationships between education,... more
Education, conflict and development brings together a number of important contributions–focused on a range of different geographical contexts and circumstances–to inform the debate about the complex interrelationships between education, international development and conflict. Collectively, the volume offers valuable insights into different dimensions of the education–development–conflict nexus, drawing upon contexts as varied as Nepal, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, China, Japan, South Korea and Uganda. Paulson's introductory ...
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The 1960s are widely characterised as an optimistic decade in education. The advent of human capital theory in the late 1950s and early 1960s provided the theoretical justification for greater educational expenditure, which encouraged... more
The 1960s are widely characterised as an optimistic decade in education. The advent of human capital theory in the late 1950s and early 1960s provided the theoretical justification for greater educational expenditure, which encouraged many countries, Ireland included, to embark upon radical programmes of egalitarian reform and educational expansion. The decade marked a turning point in the history of Irish education; until this point, the education system had been relatively neglected by successive governments who perceived their role as that of a facilitator (through the provision of finance) of a privately-owned, Church-run system. In the words of Imelda Elliot, ‘From independence until the 1950s, the [Education] Ministers and the Department of Education did not have a pro–active stance. Instead they deferred to the most powerful interest group, the Catholic Church and also to the Department of Finance which was not well disposed to increasing spending on education.’ The 1960s, however, witnessed unprecedented levels of state intervention and the implementation of numerous educational polices, prompted by the economic recession of the 1950s and a newfound faith in the power of education to promote individual prospects and economic development.
This essay has, as its focus, the ‘Scheme for Free Post-Primary Education’ (hereafter the ‘free scheme’ or ‘scheme’)—a radical expansionist programme, premised ostensibly at least on egalitarian principles, which, it is claimed, produced a ‘societal transformation’ in Ireland. Introduced in 1967/1968, the ‘free scheme’ was an ambitions and wide-ranging reform which resulted in the abolition of post-primary tuition in the vast majority of second-level schools and the authorisation of a statutory payment of a supplementary grant to all schools that were willing to discontinue charging fees. Although enrolment rates were increasing prior to the introduction of the scheme, there was an accelerated growth in participation rates following the elimination of second-level fees. Before the scheme was introduced, two-thirds of students had left school by the time they reached 16 years of age, and half of these had left on or before their fourteenth birthday. By the late 1970s, over 90 percent of students completed junior cycle level exams and the percentage completing the terminal secondary school examination—the Leaving Certificate—more than doubled between 1967 and 1974, when it accounted for almost one in two students of the relevant age-group.
This essay has, as its focus, the ‘Scheme for Free Post-Primary Education’ (hereafter the ‘free scheme’ or ‘scheme’)—a radical expansionist programme, premised ostensibly at least on egalitarian principles, which, it is claimed, produced a ‘societal transformation’ in Ireland. Introduced in 1967/1968, the ‘free scheme’ was an ambitions and wide-ranging reform which resulted in the abolition of post-primary tuition in the vast majority of second-level schools and the authorisation of a statutory payment of a supplementary grant to all schools that were willing to discontinue charging fees. Although enrolment rates were increasing prior to the introduction of the scheme, there was an accelerated growth in participation rates following the elimination of second-level fees. Before the scheme was introduced, two-thirds of students had left school by the time they reached 16 years of age, and half of these had left on or before their fourteenth birthday. By the late 1970s, over 90 percent of students completed junior cycle level exams and the percentage completing the terminal secondary school examination—the Leaving Certificate—more than doubled between 1967 and 1974, when it accounted for almost one in two students of the relevant age-group.
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This chapter presents a critical overview of the literature concerning the reception and content of citizenship education which has been taught as a compulsory subject to lower-secondary level students in Irish second-level schools since... more
This chapter presents a critical overview of the literature concerning the reception and content of citizenship education which has been taught as a compulsory
subject to lower-secondary level students in Irish second-level schools since the late 1990s in the form of Civic, Social and Political Education (CSPE). It seeks to
illuminate the “placebo” function that citizenship education serves (Gillborn, 2006). While ostensibly concerned with enabling young people to come to a deeper understanding of social and global injustice and empowering them to take action against these injustices, it presents evidence to suggest that CSPE works to constrain young people’s imagination about what is possible and how they might engage in struggle for a more egalitarian world (Kennelly, 2011). The chapter also interrogates the recent reframing of citizenship within a newly foregrounded well-being discourse in contemporary educational policy, paying particular attention to the ideological work performed by the civic dimensions of a newly implemented well-being program in Irish schools. Specifically, it is argued that the citizenship-as-well-being discourse serves to amplify earlier individualized versions of citizenship promoted in CSPE and to encourage citizen-subjects who are self-reliant, self-responsible, self-managing, and resilient. In so doing, it seeks to demonstrate the ways in which the contemporary focus on well-being detracts from the actual social and material determinants of well-being and considers what forms of citizenship are foreclosed by a citizenship-as-well-being discourse.
subject to lower-secondary level students in Irish second-level schools since the late 1990s in the form of Civic, Social and Political Education (CSPE). It seeks to
illuminate the “placebo” function that citizenship education serves (Gillborn, 2006). While ostensibly concerned with enabling young people to come to a deeper understanding of social and global injustice and empowering them to take action against these injustices, it presents evidence to suggest that CSPE works to constrain young people’s imagination about what is possible and how they might engage in struggle for a more egalitarian world (Kennelly, 2011). The chapter also interrogates the recent reframing of citizenship within a newly foregrounded well-being discourse in contemporary educational policy, paying particular attention to the ideological work performed by the civic dimensions of a newly implemented well-being program in Irish schools. Specifically, it is argued that the citizenship-as-well-being discourse serves to amplify earlier individualized versions of citizenship promoted in CSPE and to encourage citizen-subjects who are self-reliant, self-responsible, self-managing, and resilient. In so doing, it seeks to demonstrate the ways in which the contemporary focus on well-being detracts from the actual social and material determinants of well-being and considers what forms of citizenship are foreclosed by a citizenship-as-well-being discourse.
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This chapter offers a critical exploration of global citizenship as a public pedagogy which seeks to transform the way that citizens think about and engage with development issues. Using a case study approach, it provides a critical... more
This chapter offers a critical exploration of global citizenship as a public pedagogy which seeks to transform the way that citizens think about and engage with development issues. Using a case study approach, it provides a critical exploration of the Global Poverty Project (GPP), a transnational education and advocacy project that seeks to engage Northern publics with issues of global poverty and inequality. It argues that, rather than fostering deep understanding of global poverty or promoting meaningful responses to it, GPP enables a participants to “feel good about feeling bad” about the suffering of distant others by affirming their one’s humanitarianism through apolitical and personalised forms of development engagement that reap personal rewards or dividend. In this way, “doing good” becomes an individualistic and self-interested endeavor through which one can advance one’s sense of moral well-being.
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This chapter seeks to contribute to the literature on the pedagogical challenges associated with teaching about ‘controversial’ issues – particularly those which demand that learners’ acknowledge their own privilege and complicity in... more
This chapter seeks to contribute to the literature on the pedagogical challenges associated with teaching about ‘controversial’ issues – particularly those which demand that learners’ acknowledge their own privilege and complicity in systems of inequality and injustice rooted in racism, classism, sexism and global capitalism. (e.g., Allen & Rossatto, 2009; Boler, 1999; Solomon, Portelli, Daniel, & Campbell, 2005). It explores the use of international development-themed film as a pedagogical resource through which to ‘do’ critical versions of development education. Critical development education is an educational process that enables us to come to a deeper understanding of the ideologies, political economic systems, and other structures that create and maintain exploitation, and the ways in which human beings – often through their ordinary actions – are implicated in the suffering of ‘distant others’ (Andreotti, 2006). The ‘pedagogy of discomfort’ referred to in the title involves disrupting learners’ deeply entrenched, often tacit understandings of how the world works, to produce alternative ways of seeing, hearing, and ‘reading’ the world (Boler, 1999). Taking inspiration from Megan Boler’s critique of dominant approaches to multiculturalism which are based on cultivating empathy with those who are discriminated against (Boler, 1999), the chapter seeks to problematise the definitional and empathetic frameworks underlying mainstream or ‘soft’ versions of development education, which contend that global injustices can be reduced through a deeper understanding of the plight of ‘Others’ and/or through charitable acts or volunteerism to alleviate their suffering. Instead, it privileges an alternative understanding of the development education classroom as a pedagogical site of discomfort that involves asking participants to analyse their own positionalities and complicities in local and global hierarchies (Andreotti, 2006; Boler, 1999; Bryan, 2011; Cook, 2008; Dobson, 2006; Jefferess, 2008).
This chapter draws on recent research examining teachers’ understandings of diversity and racism and their experiences of teaching within ethnically and racially diverse settings. It considers the question of how teacher educators can... more
This chapter draws on recent research examining teachers’ understandings of diversity and racism and their experiences of teaching within ethnically and racially diverse settings. It considers the question of how teacher educators can prepare their students to understand and address issues of racism,
inequality and discrimination in their own classrooms, and to work with culturally diverse student groups. The research is contextualised within a broader critique of intercultural educational approaches to diversity in education. The
stated aim of intercultural education in Ireland is to contribute to the development of Ireland as an intercultural society (NCCA, 2006).
inequality and discrimination in their own classrooms, and to work with culturally diverse student groups. The research is contextualised within a broader critique of intercultural educational approaches to diversity in education. The
stated aim of intercultural education in Ireland is to contribute to the development of Ireland as an intercultural society (NCCA, 2006).
This chapter examines state-crafted strategies for ‘managing diversity’ in Ireland during the so-called ‘Celtic Tiger’ era, which lasted from the mid 1990s until the global economic downturn of 2008. It focuses on two seemingly disparate... more
This chapter examines state-crafted strategies for ‘managing diversity’ in Ireland during the so-called ‘Celtic Tiger’ era, which lasted from the mid 1990s until the global economic downturn of 2008. It focuses on two seemingly disparate dimensions of diversity management which came to dominate the legislative and educational domains during this period, namely the state’s efforts to curtail the automatic right to citizenship to certain children born in Ireland, as well as statutory attempts to manage the negative side effects of unaccepted diversity, through educational initiatives designed to ‘celebrate’ and ‘respect’ diversity, and alleviate racism. At the heart of the analysis is the question of how to understand and interpret the paradoxical co-existence of political-economic arrangements and legislative developments that were implicated in the intensification of racism alongside a host of other state-sanctioned social policies and programmes aimed at promoting inclusiveness and contesting racism within Irish society. Offering a critique of the civic nationalist potential of citizenship and intercultural education initiatives implemented during the Celtic Tiger era, I examine the seemingly contradictory co-existence of state-led anti-racist initiatives and interventions grounded in civic nationalism, alongside state-led racist initiatives which construct Irishness along narrowly-prescribed, ethnic nationalist lines.
This chapter seeks to critically explore the global dimension in schools as it is articulated in the formal curriculum in the Republic of Ireland. Civic, Social and Political Education( CSPE) was introduced as a compulsory subject at... more
This chapter seeks to critically explore the global dimension in schools as it is articulated in the formal curriculum in the Republic of Ireland. Civic, Social and Political Education( CSPE) was introduced as a compulsory subject at lower secondary (junior cycle) level in schools in 1997; in 2009, a national-level public consultation on a draft syllabus for an optional upper secondary (senior cycle) subject titled Politics and Society was initiated (National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, 2009). Using critical discourse analysis as a methodology for analysis (Fairclough, 2003), and drawing on representative examples from citizenship education textbooks designed for use with lower secondary students, I seek to examine how knowledge about global and development issues is constructed, and how the developing world is made intelligible to young people in an Irish context. At the heart of the analysis is an examination of the kinds of development intervention and activism that are made possible, or indeed precluded, by the images and discourses they make available (Doty, 1993). Focusing on how development and global issues are represented, and in particular on how specific development “problems” and “solutions” are constructed, I argue that dominant curricular constructions of development and global issues offer limited scope for understanding the complexity of global injustices or informing the practice of solidarity with inhabitants of the majority world, thereby acting as a barrier to, as opposed to an enabler of, social transformation.
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This chapter examines the interplay of national and inter/national forces that influenced the evolution of educational policy responses to cultural diversity and the intensification of racism in the Republic of Ireland during the... more
This chapter examines the interplay of national and inter/national forces that influenced the evolution of educational policy responses to cultural diversity and the intensification of racism in the Republic of Ireland during the so-called ‘Celtic Tiger’ era. The chapter seeks to contribute to that body of knowledge which underscores interculturalism’s “susceptibility to appropriation” by the state and dominant groups, as we have seen in such contexts as Australia, Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom (McCarthy, Crichlow, Dimitriadis & Dolby, 2005, p. xxiii). Drawing on the intellectual oeuvre of Pierre Bourdieu, I characterize interculturalism as a form of “symbolic violence” to convey how racial domination operates on an intimate and subtle level within the context of social and educational policies, practices, and curricula that are purportedly liberal and multiculturalist (Bourdieu, 2001). It seeks to provide a critical analysis of national anti-racism and intercultural policies as well as a consideration of how they are instantiated and interpreted locally by profiling one school’s efforts to promote a policy of “positive interculturalism” in the greater Dublin area.
This chapter explores the use of international development-themed documentary film as a resource through which to ‘do’ critical forms of development education, namely those versions that enable us to come to a deeper understanding of the... more
This chapter explores the use of international development-themed documentary film as a resource through which to ‘do’ critical forms of development education, namely those versions that enable us to come to a deeper understanding of the ideologies, political economic systems, and structures that create and maintain exploitation and the ways in which we, through our ordinary actions, are implicated in others’ suffering (Andreotti, 2006). Qualitative data were gathered as part of an action research project spanning three academic semesters from successive cohorts of students who participated in an elective postgraduate course exploring a range of development education themes and issues — such as global poverty, conflict, war, and militarism, ‘natural’ disasters, and health pandemics such as HIV/AIDS — through a critical media literacy lens. The chapter discusses students’ personal reflections on one documentary film that is chosen here as an illustrative case study of how to engage learners with critical versions of development education. Participants’ reflections — comprising both cognitive and emotional reactions to the ‘text’ — gathered through group discussions, online discussion forums and written reflections — are presented to illuminate the process of engaging with development themes and issues through a critical development education framework
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Event Location: IDEA Offices 6 Gardiner Row, Dublin 1, Ireland. IDEA is delighted to welcome Larry Siems, the editor of Mohamedou Ould Slahi’s Guantánamo Diary. In the Diary, Mohamedou tells the story of his rendition, torture and... more
Event Location: IDEA Offices 6 Gardiner Row, Dublin 1, Ireland.
IDEA is delighted to welcome Larry Siems, the editor of Mohamedou Ould Slahi’s Guantánamo Diary. In the Diary, Mohamedou tells the story of his rendition, torture and detention without charge at the hands of the US government. Audrey Bryan will engage Larry in a conversation about Mohamedou, the diary, how Larry became involved as editor, the issues the diary raises, and how the diary might be used in a Development Education context. Audience members will be invited to respond to excerpts from this powerful text and to reflect upon how it could be used in their own practice. The event is free but we ask you to register in advance.
18/05/2015
Time: 15:30 – 17:00
IDEA is delighted to welcome Larry Siems, the editor of Mohamedou Ould Slahi’s Guantánamo Diary. In the Diary, Mohamedou tells the story of his rendition, torture and detention without charge at the hands of the US government. Audrey Bryan will engage Larry in a conversation about Mohamedou, the diary, how Larry became involved as editor, the issues the diary raises, and how the diary might be used in a Development Education context. Audience members will be invited to respond to excerpts from this powerful text and to reflect upon how it could be used in their own practice. The event is free but we ask you to register in advance.
18/05/2015
Time: 15:30 – 17:00
This workshop will be of interest to those who wish to know more about, or who want to address—in their own educational practice—some of the challenges associated with teaching ‘controversial’ or critical development themes and issues.... more
This workshop will be of interest to those who wish to know more about, or who want to address—in their own educational practice—some of the challenges associated with teaching ‘controversial’ or critical development themes and issues. Combining conceptual tools, experiential learning, and practical ‘hands on’ activities, the workshop will focus on some of the ethical, emotional and cognitive complexities involved in critical literacy-based approaches to development education. Specific questions that the seminar will address include: What is the role of critique in development education? What inhibits or enables critical thinking in a range of teaching and learning environments? How can educators disrupt habitual ways of thinking, to produce alternative ways of seeing, hearing, and ‘reading’ the world? How can we enable learners to read and critique written and visual messages in order to better understand issues of power, inequality, and injustice in society? How should educators respond to learners’ resistances to ‘difficult knowledge’ i.e., knowledge which asks us to confront our own implicatedness in a range of social and environmental injustices?
This paper offers a critical interrogation of recent policy, curricular, and advocacy efforts to enhance the well-being of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and/or Transgender (LGBT) children and young people in Irish schools. As with statutory... more
This paper offers a critical interrogation of recent policy, curricular, and advocacy efforts to enhance the well-being of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and/or Transgender (LGBT) children and young people in Irish schools. As with statutory efforts to ‘recognise’, ‘celebrate’ and ‘value’ racial and ethnic diversity through various intercultural educational initiatives, recent years have witnessed a number of policy interventions aimed at addressing minority sexuality issues in Irish education, particularly in relation to the prevalence of homophobic and transphobic bullying in schools. This paper offers a critical analysis of the discursive construction of LGBT children and youth within dominant official, non-governmental and media discourses. We consider some of the main implications of a discourse which defines LGBT people primarily, if not exclusively, in terms of their vulnerability to bullying, their experiences of homophobic, lesbophobic, biphobic or transphobic violence, and their ‘at-riskness’ for depression, self-harm and suicidality.
While the increased focus on LGBT experiences is important in terms of overcoming the invisibilisation of minority sexuality in schools, we highlight a number of negative implications associated with dominant discursive framings which positions LGBT children and youth as “always-already-at-risk” of poor social and educational experiences and adverse mental health outcomes (Marshall, 2010). In particular, we stress their potential to foreclose important discursive spaces where all young people can think critically about their bodies and their sexuality. Drawing on empirical research (author and author 2012), we challenge the view that vulnerability is endemic to being LGBT and underscore the crucial significance of painting a more nuanced picture which captures the diverse experiences and lived realties of LGBT children and youth. We conclude by underscoring the need for comprehensive sexual literacy programmes in schools which promote the physical and mental well-being of all children (Robinson, 2013), and which recognise LGBT youths’ agency and their capacity for pleasure, joy and human flourishing.
While the increased focus on LGBT experiences is important in terms of overcoming the invisibilisation of minority sexuality in schools, we highlight a number of negative implications associated with dominant discursive framings which positions LGBT children and youth as “always-already-at-risk” of poor social and educational experiences and adverse mental health outcomes (Marshall, 2010). In particular, we stress their potential to foreclose important discursive spaces where all young people can think critically about their bodies and their sexuality. Drawing on empirical research (author and author 2012), we challenge the view that vulnerability is endemic to being LGBT and underscore the crucial significance of painting a more nuanced picture which captures the diverse experiences and lived realties of LGBT children and youth. We conclude by underscoring the need for comprehensive sexual literacy programmes in schools which promote the physical and mental well-being of all children (Robinson, 2013), and which recognise LGBT youths’ agency and their capacity for pleasure, joy and human flourishing.
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Over the last three decades, sexuality-related suicide – and sexuality-related youth suicide in particular – have become major foci of LGBT activism and academic scholarship. This paper teases out some of the main implications of a... more
Over the last three decades, sexuality-related suicide – and sexuality-related youth suicide in particular – have become major foci of LGBT activism and academic scholarship. This paper teases out some of the main implications of a discourse which defines LGBT people primarily, if not exclusively, in terms of their vulnerability to bullying, their experiences of homophobic, lesbophobic, biphobic or transphobic violence, and their ‘at-riskness’ for depression, self-harm and suicidality. It critically examines these tropes of risk within the context of a study examining the mental health and well-being of LGBT identified persons in Ireland, conducted in 2007-2008 and which was subsequently published in report form, titled ‘Supporting LGBT Lives: The Mental Health and Well-being of LGBT People’ (Mayock, Bryan, Carr and Kitching, 2009). We seek to challenge representations of LGBT youth which take, as their point of departure, their vulnerability and ‘at riskness’ for a range of adverse mental health outcomes by illuminating the diversity of LGBT lived experience, as revealed in the research’s qualitative findings. We conclude by asking how can we—as researchers, educators, advocates and policy-makers—do justice to the diversity, complexity and mutifacetedness of LGBT lived experiences, while remaining hyper-vigilant to the realities of homophobic and transphobic violence?
This paper is concerned with some of the core challenges associated with evaluating and assessing the impact of development educational interventions in formal and non-formal settings. Its goal is neither to eschew all attempts to... more
This paper is concerned with some of the core challenges associated with evaluating and assessing the impact of development educational interventions in formal and non-formal settings. Its goal is neither to eschew all attempts to evaluate or engage with questions about the efficacy of development education practice, nor to imply that development educators should not be concerned about the effects of their pedagogical efforts to enhance the struggle for global justice on learners. It does, however, seek to highlight some of the difficulties associated with the application of more standardized instruments and frameworks to development education that are primarily concerned with capturing and quantifying attitudinal or behavioural change which are expected to follow from learning about global themes, issues and crises. Posing the question, ‘what does impact measurement do to development education?’ I seek to problematise the logic undergirding dominant evaluative frameworks that are applied to development education and to complexify the nature of the learning process that is at the heart of more critical versions of development education (Andreotti, 2006). The paper argues that the increasing culture of performativity within development education serves as an obstacle to what with what Deborah Britzman (1998) refers to as the ‘interminable work of social justice and ethical understanding’ (p. 119) by privileging a focus on tangible and expressible indictors and measures which determine the goals and targets of development education interventions, rather than the indictors being determined by, and following from, the goals themselves. The paper draws on psychoanalytic insights (e.g., Britzman, 1998; Ellsworth, 1997; Felman, 1982; Lesko & Bloom, 1998; Logue, 2008), to elucidate the function that ignorance serves in the learning process—not as a lack of knowledge—but as a desire to ignore or a desire not to know—and how this ‘passion for ignorance’ (Felman, 1982) can get in the way of pedagogical efforts to educate about a range of social and global injustices. The paper concludes by proposing a range of alternative questions that can be posed of learners when confronted with ‘difficult knowledge’ about a range of historical and contemporary global injustices to enable them to confront their self-implication in development knowledge (Britzman, 1999).
This research project seeks to examine how learning opportunities for young people are created, given meaning and experienced within cross-border education programmes, whilst exploring the connections and tensions between such projects... more
This research project seeks to examine how learning opportunities for young people are created, given meaning and experienced within cross-border education programmes, whilst exploring the connections and tensions between such projects and aspects of the formal curricula involving issues of peace, conflict and social justice.
This dissertation critically explores the models of intercultural education emerging in three Irish primary schools. Adopting a whole school approach it examines the extent to which selected variables (leadership, ethos, culture, formal... more
This dissertation critically explores the models of intercultural education emerging in three Irish primary schools. Adopting a whole school approach it examines the extent to which selected variables (leadership, ethos, culture, formal curriculum, pedagogy, interactions) support and determine the models of intercultural education emerging in each of the schools. Drawing on critical multicultural theory, transformative leadership theory and discourse theory, the study critically interrogates and highlights fault lines between policy and practice at the schools. Adopting a mixed methods case study methodology, the study employs the methods of interviews, observations, questionnaires and document analysis.