Children &
Young Adults
Trinity College Dublin

November 2009

e-zine
 

The Children and Young Adults e-zine was initiated by the Children’s Research Centre (CRC) in TCD to inform interested groups and individuals about the contribution Trinity is making to improving the lives of children and young adults - through a rich array of research, educational and outreach activities.

For more information please visit:
www.tcd.ie/childrensresearchcentre

20th Anniversary: The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

The Children's Research Centre is pleased to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child on 20 November 2009.
Adopted in 1989 it is the most ratified human rights treaty in history, demonstrating a continuing commitment to the realisation of the rights of Children worldwide.

For more information please visit:
www2.ohchr.org/english/law/crc.htm

Launch of PhD in Child and Youth Research

Trinity College Dublin and NUI Galway are pleased to announce the launch of the Structured PhD in Child and Youth Research. The programme responds directly to society’s need to better understand the lives of children and young people, including those facing significant adversity, and the widely recognised need for evidence-informed policies and practices. As well as developing a whole new cohort of researchers with strong expertise in a wide range of research methods, the programme will produce cutting-edge research tailored to the needs of policy makers and service providers.
The Programme Directors welcomed the support received from the Office of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs and during the launch Emily Logan, Ombudsman for Children, announced that a studentship for this course has been awarded by the Office of the Ombudsman for Children.

For more information please visit:
www.childandyouthresearch.ie

Growing Up in Ireland Research Conference 2009

Growing Up in Ireland will host its inaugural Research Conference on Monday 7th December 2009 in Dublin Castle. The conference will be opened by Mr Barry Andrews T.D., the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs.
The aims of this one-day conference are to present research findings from the study, examine the contribution of the study to our understanding of children and childhood in Ireland, consider the study’s research and policy potential and place it in an international context.

For full details on the conference please visit: www.growingup.ie/index.php?id=177

Trinity Takes To The Streets

On 26 October 2009 Trinity students, alumni, staff and friends took to the streets of Dublin for the Dublin City Marathon. The aim was to raise funds to support College initiatives addressing educational disadvantage in Dublin and beyond.
It is not too late to be involved, why not sponsor a runner at www.trinitytakestothestreets.ie/runners.html?

For more information please visit:
www.trinitytakestothestreets.ie

Trinity Access Programmes Shadowing Day

The Trinity Access Programmes (TAP) continues its work in the area of educational disadvantage and held its most recent activity, the annual Shadowing Day Programmes in November. 110 fifth year students, 50 young adults and mature students from TAP’s university access courses and 75 students from VEC courses that are run in partnership with TAP, participated in the Day. A further 50 prospective mature students participated via the Mature Students Office.
Shadowing Day gave students the unique opportunity to experience first hand the physical, academic, cultural and social aspects of student life in Trinity College Dublin. As well as attending lectures and exploring the campus, students were introduced to a number of TCD college societies.

For more information please visit: www.tcd.ie/Trinity_Access

New Migrations, New Challenges

In the 21st century new population movements and migration flows are shaping European societies, particularly in countries transformed from emigration to in-migration, including, since 2004, the EU's new member states.
This conference, organised by the Trinity Immigration Initiative, a novel interdisciplinary research programme located in one of Europe’s new migration destination – aims to debate the global and national implications of these new migration flows for sending and receiving countries and for migrants themselves.
The conference will focus on a number of areas of Migration Studies, including 'Children, Youth and Immigration'.

For more information please visit:
www.tcd.ie/immigration/conference2010.php
or:
www.tcd.ie/immigration/css/downloads/2010Conference/Flyers01.09.09/CYM.pdf

Give it a Swirl- the National Day of Volunteering

To mark ‘Give it a Swirl- the National Day of Volunteering’ in September, the TCD Civic Engagement Office brought student volunteers to work alongside local volunteers- young and old- to paint a community centre which had fallen into disrepair and disuse for some 20 years. The paintwork was just a part of a huge community effort which saw the interior stripped and rebuilt to provide computer stations, offices for community services and an events space which will offer a venue for youth activities, lessons and social events.

For more information please visit: www.tcd.ie/Careers/news/view.php?articleId=218&ts=0.

Launch of Putting Research Evidence to Work (PREW)

A research report produced by Helen Buckley and Sadhbh Whelan of the Children's Research Centre called 'Putting Research Evidence to Work: Key Issues for Research Utilisation in Child Welfare' was launched.
The study focused on the extent of research use by practitioners in the four sectors of community, youth justice, child welfare and education and outlined the relevant barriers and facilitators. It made recommendations for the three constituencies involved in the production of research: research commissioners, research user (service provider organisations and policy makers) and research producers.

A podcast of the launch presentations is available at: www.caab.ie

To download the report please visit:
www.caab.ie/getdoc/2d63cc18-ba7a-426c-b01a-48e60276fead/Prew.aspx

Improving Inter-Ethnic Relations in Schools

The Children, Youth and Community Relations Strand of the Trinity Immigration Initative in association with the Children’s Research Centre has begun a two year study to assess the impact of cooperative learning strategies on inter-ethnic relations among school children.
Cooperative learning refers to a large family of teaching techniques which require children to work interdependently to complete given tasks. The primary aim of such techniques is to improve academic achievement but it has been argued that they also lead to improved social skills and when used in multi-ethnic classrooms to a reduction in prejudice and discrimination.
The purpose of the review is to bring together all available evidence, both published and unpublished, on whether Cooperative Learning is actually successful in enhancing inter-ethnic relations in classrooms. This evidence will be located and analysed through a systematic review which is a highly structured approach to identifying and analysing research evidence. The review is being conducted with the support of the Campbell Collaboration (www.campbellcollaboration.org/) which is an international voluntary organisation which seeks to improve decision-making through systematic reviews on the effects of interventions.
If the results of the review are encouraging it is hoped that cooperative learning strategies may be trailed in ethnically diverse schools in Ireland.
The review, being conducted by Philip Curry, Leyla De Amicis and Robbie Gilligan, is funded by The Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences (IRCHSS).

For more information please visit:www.tcd.ie/childrensresearchcentre/index.php?id=134&prid=64
Or: www.tcd.ie/immigration/community/index.php

Parenting Infants in Ireland, A Study of Irish, Nigerian and Polish Parents

Dr Elizabeth Nixon with Co-investigators: Professor Sheila Greene (Children's Research Centre), Professor Imelda Coyne (TCD School of Nursing) & Professor Kevin J. Nugent (University of Massachusetts at Amherst, USA) are undertaking research concerned with exploring "parental ethno-theories" or cultural models that parents hold regarding children, families and themselves as parents, among immigrant and Irish parents of infants in Ireland.
The study involves an exploration of parenting practices and parents' beliefs about their parenting role among three groups of parents who are the primary carers of their newborn infants: 12 Irish-born parents, 12 Polish parents and 12 Nigerian parents. These two immigrant groups have been selected because they represent two of the main immigrant communities in Ireland.
The study team is currently seeking participants of Polish and Nigerian nationality with babies under two months old to take part in the study. To take part please contact: Dr. Liz Nixon at enixon@tcd.ie or 018962867

For more information please visit: www.tcd.ie/childrensresearchcentre/index.php?id=134&prid=63

Volunteering Fair

On Monday November 16th, more than twenty different community organisations showcased their volunteering opportunities to the college community. 300 students stopped by to chat with existing volunteers, pick up leaflets and fill out applications to give of their time both at home and abroad. Many students signed up to work with children and young people on projects run by the Ballymun Regional Youth Resource, Fighting Words, Saint Vincent de Paul, A-Z Children’s Charity (Uganda), Operation Smile and Suas among others.

For more information please visit: www.tcd.ie/Careers/news/

Irish Postgraduate Children's Literature Network (IPCLN)

In November the Irish Postgraduate Children's Literature Network (IPCLN) hosted a day of workshops in Trinity College Dublin. There was a voice-workshop, sessions on preparing for conferences and publications as well as presentations by Valerie Coghlan of the Church of Ireland College of Education (CICE) and Mags Walsh of Children's Books Ireland (CBI).
The next IPCLN event will be held in the new year. The IPCLN aims to support and encourage postgraduate students and researchers of all aspects of children's literature, childhood and children's culture.

For more information please contact: ipclnetwork@gmail.com

Trinity College Vincent de Paul Society 'Big Chrimbo Panto'

Trinity VDP runs many activities that allow Trinity students to directly affect the lives of many children living and schooling in Dublin’s inner-city, these include St. Audeon’s Homework Club, St. Enda’s Homework Club, Dance Club, Art Club, Music Club, Drama Club and Kids Club.
This year for the first time, Trinity VDP is putting on a Christmas Pantomime – “The Big Chrimbo Panto”. Written, directed, produced and preformed by students involved in Trinity VDP, this production will enable many of the children involved in VDP activities to experience acting, dancing, singing, set design and performing in a fun, safe, and relaxed environment that Trinity VDP is uniquely suited to creating.

For more information please visit: www.trinityvdp.com/index.php?page=the-big-chrimbo-panto

'In Focus' - PhD Students in the Children's Research Centre

The Children's Research Centre currently hosts sixteen PhD Students, students join the Centre by different routes. Some are under the supervision of senior staff in the Centre and some under the supervision of other colleagues in Trinity College Dublin where there is a focus on work of relevance to the Centre; others are registered on the Structured PhD in Child and Youth Research.
In each edition of the Ezine the Children's Research Centre will highlight the work of one student, starting with Ms. Mary-Louise Corr, who has provided the following information about her PhD.

"I commenced my PhD, currently entitled ‘Understanding Young People’s Offending Trajectories’, in October 2006 in the School of Social Work and Social Policy and based in the Children’s Research Centre, under the supervision of Dr. Paula Mayock. It is a qualitative study investigating the onset and history of offending (or criminal ‘career’) among young people in contact with criminal justice agencies in Dublin. Using primarily the in-depth interview, the research aims to identify and understand factors related to young people’s offending transitions, set in the wider context of their ‘life histories’.
Despite a burgeoning interest in youth justice in Ireland in recent years and the publication of a number of related studies, gaps still remain in the current knowledge base of young people involved in offending. In this regard, the findings of the current study will make a significant contribution by first addressing the lack of qualitative research carried out in this area and will thus represent a view – that of the offender – which has, to date, been neglected in an Irish context. Secondly, it will not only identify factors in young people’s lives that increase their propensity to offend but also, through a detailed exploration of the life histories of young people, will explain how offending behaviour relates to young people’s understanding of their lives.
Finally, the study will generate a more rounded and nuanced understanding of the evolution of offending ‘careers’ among young people and will also assess how the findings can inform policy and practice within the criminal justice system.
The study follows a long history of the biographical perspective in criminology by using the life history interview as the main method of data collection. Such an approach is considered appropriate when investigating criminal careers from an interactionist perspective as is adopted in the current study. Life history data were supported by data from structured questionnaires administered to young people and semi-structured interviews with key informants working in criminal justice agencies. In total 37 young people aged 14-23 who were in contact with criminal justice agencies took part in the study. Contact and informal discussions were made with 42 professionals working with young people involved in offending and 9 of them completed a semi-structured interview. The data collection phase of the study was completed in August 2009 and the study findings are currently being written up. The thesis is due to be submitted in October 2010."

The study is funded by the Children’s Act Advisory Board (2006-2009) and School of Social Work and Social Policy (2009-2010).

For more information please contact Mary Louise: mcorr@tcd.ie

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Edited by:
The Children’s Research Centre, TCD
Tel: +353-1-8962901
Fax: +353-1-8962347