A theological critique of Christian education, with special reference to developments in Northern Ireland since 1944

The perspective adopted in this thesis is that of a Northern Irish Catholic Christian, a teacher by profession. The field is that of the theology of education. The thesis has three principal aims; firstly, to provide a justification for a confident Christian education in an increasingly secular and agnostic world; secondly, to evaluate the development and present status of Christian education in Northern Ireland in the light of its sectarian history and current situation of community conflict; thirdly, to consider the remit of Christian education and its role in promoting societal harmony. The thesis consists of eight chapters. Its overall design may be discerned in a general introduction and seven other chapters of which four engage the issue of Christian education in the Northern Ireland context. Of the other three, one chapter criticizes analytical philosophy and positivist influences in contemporary liberal education, especially where these have affected conceptions of religious education. The second attempts a validation of Christian education, and in addition promotes Christian apologetics as both a viable and needed response to relativistic agnosticism. The third consists of the conclusions to be drawn. The scope of the thesis embraces considerations of the assumptions and values of Christian education; the nature of religious education; theistic belief the Christian tradition, the nature of confessionalism; Northern Ireland confessionalism; the influence of ideologies; the separate schools system; the question of integrated education; the historical background to the divided communities; the challenge of the great Christian imperatives of love and forgiveness in respect of community reconciliation and of implementing a Christian education fully alive to its responsibilities. The penultimate chapter confronts practical issues and suggests models and approaches in Christian education with outreach towards reconciliation

Mental health and learning disability nursing students' perceptions of the usefulness of the objective structured clinical examination to assess their competence in medicine administration

The aim of this study was to evaluate mental health and learning disability nursing students’ perceptions of the usefulness of the objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) in assessing their administration of medicine competence. Learning disability (n = 24) and mental health (n = 46) students from a single cohort were invited to evaluate their experience of the OSCE. A 10-item survey questionnaire was used, comprising open- and closed-response questions. Twelve (50%) learning disability and 32 (69.6%) mental health nursing students participated. The OSCE was rated highly compared to other theoretical assessments; it was also reported as clinically real and as a motivational learning strategy. However, it did not rate as well as clinical practice. Content analysis of written responses identified four themes: (i) benefits of the OSCE; (ii) suggestions to improve the OSCE; (iii) concern about the lack of clinical reality of the OSCE; and (iv) OSCE-induced stress. The themes, although repeating some of the positive statistical findings, showed that participants were critical of the university setting as a place to conduct clinical assessment, highlighted OSCE-related stress, and questioned the validity of the OSCE as a real-world assessment. The OSCE has an important role in the development of student nurses’ administration of medicine skills. However, it might hinder their performance as a result of the stress of being assessed in a simulated environment

Stopped-Flow Studies of Reactions of Chromium(VI) and Iron(III)

Stopped-flow devices have been constructed and are described. Using this technique reactions of iron(lll) and chromium(VI) with organic substrates in aqueous perchlorate media have been investigated. Iron(IIl) has been found to react in the form of Fe3+ (aq) and FeOH2+ (aq) with both salicylaldehyde and salicylamide. The results obtained in this study not only confirm that Fe(H20)50H2+ reacts by an 1d mechanism but also indicate that a similar mechanism operates in the case of Fe(H2O)63+. This latter finding is of some particular interest in view of the current controversy regarding the mode of anation of this latter ion. HCrO4- has been found to oxidise L-cysteine via the formation of intermediate sulphur-bonded esters which have been identified spectrophotometrically. The rate constant for the acid-catalysed formation pathway has been found to be markedly smaller than has been measured previously for other ligands with this metal-ion. The significance of this phenomenon is discussed, as also is the interpretation of the second-order substrate dependence of the redox rate. Chromate(VI) esters have also been shown to form in the course of the reduction of HCrO4- by both malic and thiomalic acids. Absorbance-time profiles have been simulated in order to aid the analysis of the kinetics of this latter reaction. As has been found for other metal-ions, the most significant common factor in the reactions of these two substrates with chromium(VI) is the participation of intermediate complexes. The influence of the disimilar chemical natures of oxygen and sulphur is discussed with particular reference to the relative kinetic complexities of these systems

Elemental trauma: A case study of living with contaminated water near sites of Marcellus Shale gas extraction

This qualitative research study examines the experiences of individuals living with contaminated water near sites of unconventional Marcellus Shale extraction (commonly called “fracking”) in western Pennsylvania. Five individuals across three households were recruited following IRB approval. Fieldwork was completed in a small town in western Pennsylvania from July of 2013 to April of 2014. This project examines how participant’s relationship to the materiality of water undergoes a drastic transformation. Water is explored as a dynamic, elemental substance that creates the conditions for both life and disease and death for participant-households. Water becomes a re-animated character in participant lives that restructures their attention towards valuing and conserving water as it becomes finite and irreversibly contaminated. Forms of embodiment are then explored, as they are forced into highly precarious and hazardous conditions. Participant-households describe ways that boundaries between their own bodies and their eco-contexts dissolve. The location of water contamination becomes the body and the blood. The emotional impact of water contamination on the participants and their social network are described as they relate to the social and ecological violence of the fracking process, such as community conflict, social strife, and personal and collective grief. Finally, the role of technology as it mediates survivability of the participants is examined. Industrial technology, in relation to the expansion of fracking in participant-household lives, can neither be characterized as good or bad, but must be instrumentally deployed in order to attempt to reduce the ecologically catastrophic aspects of energy production. Additionally, technology will be explored in relation to the human body as it clashes with obstacles to transparent medical care due to legislation. Demand for energy to power the planet and support immense population growth is in overdrive. Energy production and consumption is the central pursuit of the current epoch. This has come with immense cost. Energy production has created the worst environmental disasters currently known on the planet. Of the various causalities of these events, elemental substances are continually damaged. The concept of elemental trauma is defined as a way of thinking catastrophic change due to large-scale industrial processes of energy production