Digital Commons Network^™

Assessing The Grit And Mindset Of Incoming Engineering Students With An Emphasis On Gender, Ines Direito, Shannon Chance, Emanuela Tilley, John Mitchell

Conference papers

Engineering programs can be very demanding, particularly in the first years where students encounter new forms of highly challenging coursework. To better prepare and support students, educators must acknowledge non-academic factors, such as the role of self-beliefs and personal attributes. Education research suggests that students are more likely to give up and disengage from their studies when they lack grit or assume a fixed mindset. Previous studies suggest that female students are generally grittier but less confident when compared to male students. This paper presents the initial work of an ongoing study to explore self-confidence and motivations to study engineering …

The Power Of Wine Language - Critics, Labels And Sexism, Diarmuid Cawley

Conference papers

Within the accepted daily language used to describe wine is a type of social exclusion, an absence of meaning for those lacking the cultural capital to engage with it and Watson (2013, p.16) underpins this by stating that “the language of wine has its own rhetoric”. Today’s wine writers and critics have become “powerful actors…involved in the public discourse about wine” (Rössel et al., 2016. p.16; Hommerberg, 2011) and often assume the role of quality assessor. Wine language too has evolved from a more technical and economic format to one which focuses on authenticity and cultural capital. To Rössel et …

Preliminary Findings Of A Phenomenological Study Of Middle Eastern Women’S Experiences Studying Engineering In Ireland, Shannon Chance, Bill Williams

Conference papers

This paper reports analysis of phenomenological interviews conducted with eight women studying engineering, all Arabic speakers and practicing Muslims, and all from the countries of Oman and Kuwait. Data were collected as part of a larger study of women’s experiences learning engineering in institutions of higher education in Poland, Portugal, and Ireland. The eight women contributing data for the analysis for this paper were all enrolled on engineering degree programs in Dublin, Ireland, where they studied together. The larger study involves conducting longitudinal data via interviews with 47 women around Europe to understand what their undergraduate experiences in STEM have …

Form, Function Or Fiction: Gender And Diversity In Engineering Programmes In Ireland, Domhnall Sheridan, Una Beagon, Eabhnat Ni Fhloinn

Conference papers

Messe agus Pangur Bán, cechtar nathar fria shaindán: bíth a menmasam fri seilgg, mu menma céin im shaincheirdd.

I and Pangur Bán, my cat 'Tis a like task we are at; Hunting mice is his delight Hunting words I sit all night.

The poem Pangur Bán [1] was written by an unknown Irish monk in the Benedictine Abbey of Reichenau, in southern Germany in the ninth century. The Abbey, founded in 724 by Saint Pirim, was a centre of learning in Europe for many centuries, reaching its apex under Abbot Berno of Reichenau (1008–48). The Christian church was the sole …

A Phenomenological Study Of Irish And Portuguese Women’S Experiences Of Receiving Family Support When Studying Stem Subjects At Technical Institutes, Shannon Chance, B. Williams

Conference papers

This paper reports a research study of women’s experiences of receiving family support when studying science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects at technical institutes in Ireland and Portugal. Specifically, it reports phenomenological analysis of 19 interviews conducted during the 2014-­2015 academic years with female students studying engineering subjects at technical institutes in Ireland and Portugal. It identifies forms of positive support received from family as well as problematic family dynamics and concerns. Parents, uncles, and aunts provide many positive forces, as do surrogates (i.e., adopted family and close mentors). Cousins and brothers also provide role models and information. For …

An Indigenous Women Perspective Of Work And Organisation: The Maya Way, Jennifer Manning, J. Miguel Imas, Paul Donnelly

Conference papers

Western literature in management/organisation studies focuses primarily on gender issues that affect inequalities experienced by women at work. Adopting, in some cases, critical and feminist theoretical positions, the gender debate unfolds questions on the prevailing male discourse that is dominant in management and business organisations. Most of these theoretical assumptions tend to influence, subsequently, the way in which we understand the experiences of women in the developing or under-developed world. That is, these theoretical positions occupy a privileged voice upon which to write, describe and analyse the experiences of women in contexts where these Western discourses seem either alien or …

To Stay Or Leave? A Plan For Using Phenomenology To Explore Gender And The Role Of Experiential Learning In Engineering, Shannon Chance, Brian Bowe

Conference papers

No abstract provided.

Resolving Communication Deficits Contributing To The ‘Crisis In Men’S Health’. Is It ‘Get Men Talking’ Or ‘Get Listening To Men’?, Darach Murphy

Conference papers

Men die significantly younger than women and also die more frequently from all the leading causes of death than their female counterparts. These and other figures would suggest that irrespective of the state of health in general, male health is surely in bad shape. Women’s health is positioned as superior to men because of their greater contact with health facilities and their greater cooperation and compliance with health professionals. Hence men are encouraged to ‘take a leaf out of the female book’ and adopt the health behaviours of their female counterparts.

It is due to a random mutation – evolution …

Madness, Maleness And Method, Darach Murphy

Conference papers

A common perception prevails in contemporary society that men don’t talk. Research such as that entitled ‘Death rather than Disclosure’ even suggests that taking one’s own life is preferred by men, than the disclosing of deep psychological distress. However a number of Men’s Groups in Dublin contradict this common and disturbing perception. These Men’s Groups contain individuals who have been affected by some of the most difficult psychological issues experienced in contemporary society. They come to the Men’s Groups in order to deal with the legacy of these issues and they do this by communicating their own personal experience in …

Masculinities And Affective Equality: Love Labour And Care Labour In Men’S Lives, Niall G. Hanlon

Conference papers

No abstract provided.