Míde's research project is among 37 other funded projects across 11 institutions in Ireland. These projects tackle a wide range of topical issues, from improving patient care, to preserving Ireland’s natural heritage, and fostering inclusive communities. Through this co-funded model, postgraduate researchers gain valuable experience in applying their expertise beyond academia, while enterprise partners benefit from fresh perspectives and innovative solutions aligned with their goals.
Míde's project is titled "Challenging the social norms that sustain sexual misconduct: Exploring Bystander Intervention training for college students using an applied sociological research framework".
Bystander Intervention (BI) training aims to empower leaners with knowledge and skills to recognise and address sexual violence and harassment as a witness, and to challenge the social norms that underpin and reproduce sexual misconduct. Recent research urges future BI training programmes to educate learners about violence and intervention through an intersectional, social justice-based framework. Such intersectional BI training would reflect on the influence of power, identity and structural oppression on sexual misconduct and on the unique opportunities and risks associated with intervention based on a person's own identity. This study aims to address the current gaps through an applied sociological research approach. A gap analysis, including a campus survey, interviews and focus groups, has been carried out with TCD undergraduate students to inform the training content of an intersectional BI programme. The findings will be used to design an immersive, role-play based training game in collaboration with the TCD company Transformation in Learning and Training (TiLT). The training programme will be piloted with undergraduate student groups in TCD, employing a randomised controlled trial approach to assess the impact of the training. The key hypothesis of this study is that students who undertake the intersectional BI training will demonstrate higher self-reported confidence to implement BI, report lower levels of inhibition to intervene, perceive more positive social norms about BI and will have higher self-reported levels of implementation of BI in practice to address sexual misconduct, compared to the control group of students who do not undertake the training.
Speaking of the Scheme, Míde said:
I am extremely grateful to Research Ireland for creating the opportunity for postgraduate researchers to collaborate with leading organisations and bodies across so many sectors. For me, the Enterprise Partnership Scheme offers an invaluable way to undertake research that centres the community and the public - both in Ireland and beyond. It is a real honour to be supported by Cuan on this project, in particular, by my mentor, Ms. Marie-Claire McAleer, the Assistant Principal Officer of Research at Cuan. I am also very grateful to my PhD supervisor, Professor Anne Holohan, for her academic guidance and for the opportunity to collaborate with the TCD campus company she co-founded, Transformation in Learning and Training, to build the training programme at the heart of my project. Finally, I wanted to mention the fantastic community of researchers and professionals continuously developing Bystander Intervention training in the higher education sector in Ireland, with whom I have enjoyed collaborating over the past few years.