Conflict, transition and education for ‘political generosity’: learning from the experience of ex-combatants in Northern Ireland

This article suggests that opportunities exist to harness the potential of history and citizenship education with the processes of transition in developing programmes which support young people in exploring conflict and the challenges associated with attending to its legacy. Drawing on the experience of Northern Ireland, it is suggested that the narratives of those who have been involved directly as both combatants in conflict and latterly as agents of change in their communities provide unique opportunities for young people to reflect on these issues. By way of illustration, an account of one such initiative is presented: ‘From Prison to Peace: learning from the experience of political ex-prisoners’; a structured programme which invites young people to engage directly with loyalist and republican ex-combatants in the Northern Ireland conflict. The article suggests that such programmes have the potential to assist young people in exploring the complexity of conflict and the intricacies of transition. Furthermore it is suggested that the relationships which exist between these ex-combatants arguably can challenge sectarian perspectives and foster capacity for ‘political generosity’ towards those with opposing political aspirations.

Assessing and measuring impact of a digital collection in the humanities: An analysis of the SPHERE (Stormont Parliamentary Hansards: Embedded in Research and Education) Project

Although a substantial corpus of digital materials is now available to scholarship across the disciplines, objective evidence of their use, impact, and value, based on a robust assessment, is sparse. Traditional methods of assessment of impact in the humanities, notably citation in scholarly publications, are not an effective way of assessing impact of digital content. These issues are problematic in the field of Digital Humanities where there is a need to effectively assess impact to justify its continued funding and existence. A number of qualitative and quantitative methods exist that can be used to monitor the use of digital resources in various contexts although they have yet to be applied widely. These have been made available to the creators, managers, and funders of digital content in an accessible form through the TIDSR (Toolkit for the Impact of Digital Scholarly Resources) developed by the Oxford Internet Institute. In 2011, the authors of this article developed the SPHERE project (Stormont Parliamentary Hansards: Embedded in Research and Education) specifically to use TIDSR to evaluate the use and impact of The Stormont Papers, a digital collection of the Hansards of the Stormont Northern Irish Parliament from 1921 to 1972. This article presents the methodology, findings, and analysis of the project. The authors argue that TIDSR is a useful and, critically, transferrable method to understand and increase the impact of digital resources. The findings of the project are modified into a series of wider recommendations on protecting the investment in digital resources by increasing their use, value, and impact. It is reasonable to suggest that effectively showing the impact of Digital Humanities is critical to its survival.

SPHERE: Stormont Parliamentary Hansards: Embedded in Research and Education

SPHERE (Stormont Parliamentary Hansards: Embedded in Research and Education) was a JISC-funded project based at King’s College, London and Queen’s University, Belfast, working in Partnership with the Northern Ireland Assembly Library, and the NIA Official Report (Hansard). Its purpose was to assess the use, value and impact of The Stormont Papers digital resource, and to use the results of this assessment to make recommendations for a series of practical approaches to embed the resource within teaching, learning and research among the wider user community. The project began in November 2010 and was concluded in April 2010.

A series of formal reports on the project are published by JISC online at http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/digitisation/impactembedding/sphere.aspx

SPHERE Impact analysis summary
Portable Document Format
SPHERE interviews report
SPHERE Outreach use case
SPHERE research use case
SPHERE teaching use_case
SPHERE web survey report
SPHERE web analysis

Film, history and education website

This website, which forms part of a wider AHRC-funded project, provides a range of historical resources including interpretative essays, archival sources, recorded debates and further information to support the The enigma of Frank Ryan documentary (Desmond Bell, 2012). The website is designed to encourage film viewers to make their own assessments of the wider historical issues with which the films engage.

Environmental Education and Education for Sustainable Development

This article attempts a broad characterization of environmental education (EE) and education for sustainable development (ESD), and includes a short overview of the history of the field, key debates, the main approaches to ESD and EE, and a look toward the future. However, such a brief account should not be considered to be fully comprehensive, and can only be considered to provide a broad overview of the field from the authors’ perspectives

The potential role of fruit and vegetables in aspects of psychological well-being: a review of the literature and future directions

The objective of the present paper was to review the literature investigating the potential relationship between fruit and vegetables (FV) and psychological well-being. The rising prevalence of mental ill health is causing considerable societal burden. Inexpensive and effective strategies are therefore required to improve the psychological well-being of the population, and to reduce the negative impact of mental health problems. A growing body of literature suggests that dietary intake may have the potential to influence psychological well-being. For example, studies have suggested that particular dietary constituents, including vitamins and minerals, might be beneficial to psychological health. However, in order to better reflect normal dietary intake, health-based research has increasingly begun to focus on whole foods and dietary patterns, rather than individual nutrients. One food group that has received increasing attention with regard to psychological health is FV. This is probably a result of the strong evidence base, which exists in relation to their protective association with a number of chronic diseases, as well as the fact that they are a rich source of some of the nutrients which have been linked to psychological health. While some promising findings exist with regards to FV intake and psychological well-being, overall, results are inconsistent. Possible reasons for this, such as methodological issues related to study design and the measurement of psychological well-being and FV intake, are discussed within this review. Based on the predominantly observational nature of existing literature, the present paper concludes that future well-designed randomised controlled trials are required to investigate the relationship further.