Agency or Dependency?: The Mixed Peppers Theatre Arts Training Project for young people with disabilities

This article provides a reflection on my past practice as Creative Director of The Mixed Peppers Theatre Arts Training Programme. Drawing upon discourses of Disability Studies it considers how this ostensibly emancipatory project that sought to provide access to theatre activity for young people with physical disabilities living in Northern Ireland was flawed, and was eventually disbanded, partly due to a failure on the part of its non-disabled leadership to address imbalances of power in its relationship with its young disabled constituency. The article is framed within a survey of recent debates that focus upon the historical lack of a sustained, indigenous, disability-led theatre activity in Northern Ireland and the recent efforts by non-disabled professional arts practitioners to establish such activity in the region. It offers, as an exemplar to current discussion, an analysis of how the choice and agency of the young members of The Mixed Peppers were compromised by the well-meaning but potentially oppressive practices of its leadership. It questions whether the project was unduly influenced by parental desire to see their disabled children `normalized' in a high-profile theatrical production. Finally, it considers how The Mixed Peppers' institutional situation, as a project controlled and administered by a disability charity, was implicated in the premature demise of the initiative.

Strange, But True? Object-oriented Programming Is Best Taught, And Learnt, While Sitting On The Floor.

There is a perception amongst some of those learning computer programming that the principles of object-oriented programming (where behaviour is often encapsulated across multiple class files) can be difficult to grasp, especially when taught through a traditional, didactic ‘talk-and-chalk’ method or in a lecture-based environment.
We propose a non-traditional teaching method, developed for a government funded teaching training project delivered by Queen’s University, we call it bigCode. In this scenario, learners are provided with many printed, poster-sized fragments of code (in this case either Java or C#). The learners sit on the floor in groups and assemble these fragments into the many classes which make-up an object-oriented program.
Early trials indicate that bigCode is an effective method for teaching object-orientation. The requirement to physically organise the code fragments imitates closely the thought processes of a good software developer when developing object-oriented code.
Furthermore, in addition to teaching the principles involved in object-orientation, bigCode is also an extremely useful technique for teaching learners the organisation and structure of individual classes in Java or C# (as well as the organisation of procedural code). The mechanics of organising fragments of code into complete, correct computer programs give the users first-hand practice of this important skill, and as a result they subsequently find it much easier to develop well-structured code on a computer.
Yet, open questions remain. Is bigCode successful only because we have unknowingly predominantly targeted kinesthetic learners? Is bigCode also an effective teaching approach for other forms of learners, such as visual learners? How scalable is bigCode: in its current form can it be used with large class sizes, or outside the classroom?

Celtic languages in European Higher Education: CRAMLAP - Celtic, Regional and Minority Languages Abroad Project

The Celtic, Regional and Minority Languages Abroad
Project (CRAMLAP) is funded by the European Commission
to research the provision and pedagogy of regional
and minority languages outside their national borders in
Europe. The teaching of Celtic languages across Europe
was the focus in year one (2003-2004). This article summarizes
the qualitative data received in response to
questionnaires sent to institutions across Europe offering
Celtic Studies. Responses indicated that Celtic Studies
are quite widely available across Europe. The languages
are taught in comparative linguistics, linguistics and English
departments, with few dedicated Celtic departments
or sections outside the Celtic countries. Irish is supported
abroad by Irish government grant aid which will
become more widely available in the immediate future.
Many of the teachers have considerable experience, but
limited pedagogic training. The lack of suitable teaching
resources is the most commonly expressed concern.

New Circus: the benefits of Circus Training for young people in a residential setting,

Circus 1 to 3 is a circus school, based on the concept of New Circus, for boys resident in St. Patrick's Training School, Northern Ireland. The project is designed, not only to teach Circus skills, but also to foster social and personal skills. This report details an evaluation undertaken to assess die extent to which this programme meets these aims. A study of participants Circus records indicated that significant gains in co-operative behaviour, team-work, attitude and participation, as rated by Circus tutors, were evident over the course of boys involvement. A qualitative study was also conducted. These interviews with Circus 1 to 3 participants indicated that this project enhanced the quality of life for boys resident in St. Patrick's Training School. In addition the project, through the use of positive feedback, provides opportunities for boys to develop their social and personal skills. This evaluation concludes that Circus 1 to 3 is a worthwhile and successful endeavour.

Helping the most vulnerable out of the poverty trap and reducing inequality: Policies, strategies, and services for individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder, including intellectual and neurodevelopmental disabilities: Benchmarking Autism Services Efficacy: BASE Project (Volume 3) Secondary Data analysis

1) Executive Summary
Legislation (Autism Act NI, 2011), a cross-departmental strategy (Autism Strategy 2013-2020) and a first action plan (2013-2016) have been developed in Northern Ireland in order to support individuals and families affected by Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) without a prior thorough baseline assessment of need. At the same time, there are large existing data sets about the population in NI that had never been subjected to a secondary data analysis with regards to data on ASD. This report covers the first comprehensive secondary data analysis and thereby aims to inform future policy and practice.
Following a search of all existing, large-scale, regional or national data sets that were relevant to the lives of individuals and families affected by Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in Northern Ireland, extensive secondary data analyses were carried out. The focus of these secondary data analyses was to distill any ASD related data from larger generic data sets. The findings are reported for each data set and follow a lifespan perspective, i.e., data related to children is reported first before data related to adults.
Key findings:
Autism Prevalence:
Of children born in 2000 in the UK,
• 0.9% (1:109) were reported to have ASD, when they were 5-year old in 2005;
• 1.8% (1:55) were reported to have ASD, when they were 7-years old in 2007;
• 3.5% (1:29) were reported to have ASD, when they were 11-year old in 2011.
In mainstream schools in Northern Ireland
• 1.2% of the children were reported to have ASD in 2006/07;
• 1.8% of the children were reported to have ASD in 2012/13.

Economic Deprivation:
• Families of children with autism (CWA) were 9%-18% worse off per week than families of children not on the autism spectrum (COA).
• Between 2006-2013 deprivation of CWA compared to COA nearly doubled as measured by eligibility for free school meals (from near 20 % to 37%)
• In 2006, CWA and COA experienced similar levels of deprivation (approx. 20%), by 2013, a considerable deprivation gap had developed, with CWA experienced 6% more deprivation than COA.
• Nearly 1/3 of primary school CWA lived in the most deprived areas in Northern Ireland.
• Nearly ½ of children with Asperger’s Syndrome who attended special school lived in the most deprived areas.

Unemployment:
• Mothers of CWA were 6% less likely to be employed than mothers of COA.
• Mothers of CWA earned 35%-56% less than mothers of COA.
• CWA were 9% less likely to live in two income families than COA.

Health:
• Pre-diagnosis, CWA were more likely than COA to have physical health problems, including walking on level ground, speech and language, hearing, eyesight, and asthma.
• Aged 3 years of age CWA experienced poorer emotional and social health than COA, this difference increased significantly by the time they were 7 years of age.
• Mothers of young CWA had lower levels of life satisfaction and poorer mental health than mothers of young COA.
Education:
• In mainstream education, children with ASD aged 11-16 years reported less satisfaction with their social relationships than COA.
• Younger children with ASD (aged 5 and 7 years) were less likely to enjoy school, were bullied more, and were more reluctant to attend school than COA.
• CWA attended school 2-3 weeks less than COA .
• Children with Asperger’s Syndrome in special schools missed the equivalent of 8-13 school days more than children with Asperger’s Syndrome in mainstream schools.
• Children with ASD attending mainstream schooling were less likely to gain 5+ GCSEs A*-C or subsequently attend university.



Further and Higher Education:
• Enrolment rates for students with ASD have risen in Further Education (FE), from 0% to 0.7%.
• Enrolment rates for students with ASD have risen in Higher Education (HE), from 0.28% to 0.45%.
• Students with ASD chose to study different subjects than students without ASD, although other factors, e.g., gender, age etc. may have played a part in subject selection.
• Students with ASD from NI were more likely than students without ASD to choose Northern Irish HE Institutions rather than study outside NI.

Participation in adult life and employment:
• A small number of adults with ASD (n=99) have benefitted from DES employment provision over the past 12 years.
• It is unknown how many adults with ASD have received employment support elsewhere (e.g. Steps to Work).
•
Awareness and Attitudes in the General Population:
• In both the 2003 and 2012 NI Life and Times Survey (NILTS), NI public reported positive attitudes towards the inclusion of children with ASD in mainstream education (see also BASE Project Vol. 2).

Gap Analysis Recommendations:
This was the first comprehensive secondary analysis with regards to ASD of existing large-scale data sets in Northern Ireland. Data gaps were identified and further replications would benefit from the following data inclusion:
• ASD should be recorded routinely in the following datasets:
o Census;
o Northern Ireland Survey of Activity Limitation (NISALD);
o Training for Success/Steps to work; Steps to Success;
o Travel survey;
o Hate crime; and
o Labour Force Survey.
• Data should be collected on the destinations/qualifications of special school leavers.
• NILT Survey autism module should be repeated in 5 years time (2017) (see full report of 1st NILT Survey autism module 2012 in BASE Project Report Volume 2).
• General public attitudes and awareness should be assessed for children and young people, using the Young Life and Times Survey (YLT) and the Kids Life and Times Survey (KLT); (this work is underway, Dillenburger, McKerr, Schubolz, & Lloyd, 2014-2015).
 

QA and Enhancement Marketplace for HEIs – An Erasmus+ project

Improving European education and training system quality has been set as a key target in Europe’s strategy to become a smart, sustainable and inclusive economy by 2020 (European Commission, 2010). These objectives are more specifically defined in the so called Modernisation Agenda (European Commission, 2011). More specifically it sets a goal to improve the quality and relevance of higher education. In this process external evaluation and
Proceedings of the 11th International CDIO Conference, Chengdu University of Information Technology,
Chengdu, Sichuan, P.R. China, June 8-11, 2015.
self-assessment are seen in a key role! In the CDIO approach the 12 CDIO standards provide a framework for continuous improvement. Each institution/institutional department are encouraged to regularly do the self-evaluation using the CDIO Standards. Eight European universities identified a need for further enhancement of the self-evaluations and creation of processes with peers to reduce the inertia of heavy accreditations/evaluations in HEIs. In September 2014 these universities started an Erasmus+ project (QAEMarketPlace4HEI) aiming at
1. Developing a collaborative, comprehensive and accessible evaluation process model, methods and tools for HEIs to complement the accreditation systems.
2. Promoting, increasing and exploiting further the European collaboration in the evaluation processes and the exchange of best practices.
3. Disseminating the model, best practices and widen the cooperation to new HEIs in Europe through the partner networks.