Gender Relations and Women’s Off-farm Employment: a critical analysis of discourses

End of Project ReportThis project addresses gender relations on dairy farms in Irish Republic. Its aim was to explore the way women who are married to farmers but who are employed in paid employment off the farm are constructed in agricultural policy discourse. It was proposed that discourses encapsulate the values and interests of powerful actors and are constitutive in their effect. Hence they are implicated in women’s experience of life within a ‘farm family’. Following on from this it may be said that women’ s continued subordination in Irish farming or indeed their chances of achieving equal status are circumscribed by dominant discourses

Learning science: Sociocultural Dimensions of Intellectual Engagement

This paper takes a sociocultural perspective as it addresses the problem of engaging all students in learning science, in contrast to a companion (ASERA ’02) paper where I address the issue in relation to psychological issues, both papers arising from the same set of research studies in science education. In both cases I am asserting that the interaction between the teacher and student is critical in either engaging or alienating students, and, in this paper will address the language aspects of the relationship. Seen in the light of sociocultural, including sociolinguistic, theories, my research findings imply that `science literacy’ could usefully be reconceptualised as the learning of a discourse, or as the learning of a literacy or language—as literacy or language teachers might define these. This paper addresses the development of science literacy as a process of situated learning within a meaningful social context, what Lemke (1995) called an "ecosocial system". From this perspective, learning science is the learning of a discourse. This includes becoming familiar with genres but not in isolation from meaningful community practice. I conclude that if science is seen as a distinct discourse practice, then this has implications for the learning and teaching of science and for teacher education

Impact analysis of the CAP reform on main agricultural commodities

End of project reportThis study has been carried out for the European Commission's Joint Research Centre to analyze agricultural policies at Member State, EU15 and EU25 levels as well as for Bulgaria and Romania. The modelling tool allows for projections and policy analysis (up to a 10 year horizon) for the enlarged EU.This study has been carried out for the European Commission's Joint Research Centre, under Contract no 150267-2005-FIED-N

The importance of accounting for unobserved heterogeneity, state-dependence and differences in residual variances across groups: An application to Irish Farmers land market participation decisions

working paperLand is an essential input into agricultural production. A grwoing literature is concerned with the factors influencing farmers’ land market participation decisions in developing countries, with developed countries largely ignored. Current best-practise in the land market participation literature is exemplified by Holden et al. (2007) who use a dynamic model which allows for state-dependence and unobserved heterogeneity. Much of the literature fails to adequately deal with these features of land market decisions. In addition, a single model is used to represent all farm types. In this paper, we firstly consider the factors influencing land market participation decisions in a developing country, Ireland, while allowing for state-dependence, unobserved heterogeneity and differences across farm tyes. We compare these results to those that are obtained while ignoring state-dependence, unobserved heterogeneity and differences between farm types. Our results suggest that some caution may be warranted when these aspects are ignored when if fact they are present

The Rural Economy Research Centre

End of project report ENARPRIThe economic impact of trade policy reform receives less attention than the impact of trade policy on the environment. In part this may be due to the secondary importance attributed to environmental issues when economic consequences take centre stage. However, another consideration may be the difficulties of bringing together models which examine the economic impact of trade policy reform and models which can provide measures of environmental indicators. This study combines a partial equilibrium economic commodity model with a model for the estimation of agricultural input usage and GHG emissions. The paper examines one aspect of the relationship between trade policy and the environment, namely that between agricultural trade policy reform and indicators relating to emissions of Greenhouse Gases (GHG) from agriculture. The paper examines the impact of agricultural production levels and production practices on the level of GHG emissions from agriculture in Ireland under a Baseline of the recent reform of EU agricultural policy and an alternate scenario where trade policy reforms resulting from a future World Trade Organisation Doha Development Round agreement to reveal the extent to which there are significant environmental impacts which should be considered in addition to the conventional economic considerations.FAPRI-Ireland Partnershi

Lamb Production:grazing management, breeding policy and parasite control

Internal parasitic infection can pose major health problems in young livestock and this is particularly so in the context of lambs in organic production systems. In the context of sheep production on an organic farm the challenge to control parasite infection is especially difficult in situations where crop production is absent or a minor element of the whole farm system. Our investigations, to date at Athenry, have concerned an exploration of lamb production in an all-grass farming setting with particular attention being paid to the breeds employed and the seasonal patterns of gastrointestinal parasite challenge. This flock (about 110 ewes plus replacements) is wintered indoors and lambs in early March each year

Success in Salsa: Students' Evaluation of the Use of Self-Reflection When Learning to Dance

Achievement goal theory stipulates that achievement goals guide our beliefs and behaviour (Roberts, 2001). The two main achievement goals orientations identified in the sport and physical activity literature are task and ego orientations (Nicholls, 1984). A person with a strong task orientation defines success in self-referenced terms, as improving one’s own performance or mastering new skills. Someone with a strong ego orientation defines success normatively, as being better than others (Duda & Hall, 2001). The majority of existing research suggests that having a strong task orientation is a good thing, whether in regards to motivationally adaptive responses (Standage & Treasure, 2002), self-referenced sources of enjoyment (Yoo & Kim, 2002), adaptive sources of confidence (Magyar & Feltz, 2003), or students’ satisfaction with learning (Zandvliet & Straker, 2001). Similar to many studies with athletes, Nieminen, Varstala and Manninen (2001) found that dance students tended to have stronger task than ego orientations. Even so, any method that 2 encourages dance students to focus on the process of what they are doing rather than what others are doing (i.e., comparing themselves to others) would be beneficial in helping students attend to relevant cues and improve their skills. Both teachers and students can become frustrated when either the desired level of improvement in student skills is not being achieved or when teachers are repeatedly saying the same thing with no apparent result. While teachers may need to provide more accurate, detailed or individual feedback, or improve the motivational climate of the class, sometimes the situation is that the students need to engage more directly in the learning process. One possible intervention is the use of structured self-reflection. Using self-reflection sheets that cause respondents to focus on specific elements of technique or skills, and rate one’s own performance, should theoretically promote a task focus. Hanrahan (1999) suggested that engaging in self-reflection may enhance intrinsic motivation as well as performance. Selfanalysis and self-monitoring have been found to positively influence the acquisition of physical skills (Lounsbery & Sharpe, 1996; Zimmerman & Kitsantas, 1996). The purpose of this study was to have dance students engage in structured self-reflection for a number of weeks and then evaluate the self-reflection process

Potential WTO Trade Reform: Multifunctionality Impacts for Ireland?. CEPS ENARPRI Working Papers No. 16, 7 June 2006

The economic impact of trade policy reforms on various sectors of the economy receives more attention than the effects on the environment. This may be partly owing to the secondary importance attributed to environmental or multifunctionality issues when economic consequences take centre stage. An additional consideration, however, may be the practical difficulties of bringing together models that examine the economic impact of trade policy reforms and models that can measure environmental or multifunctionality indicators. This paper examines one aspect of the relationship between trade policy and the environment, namely that between agricultural trade policy reform and emissions from the agricultural sector. The paper analyses the impact of agricultural production levels and practices on the level of greenhouse gas (GHG) and ammonia emissions from this sector in Ireland. The study combines an economic, partial equilibrium, agricultural commodity and inputs model (the FAPRI-Ireland model) with a model for the estimation of GHG and ammonia emissions from agriculture. The paper considers a potential reform of agricultural trade policy under a possible World Trade Organisation agreement, to reveal the extent to which there are environmental effects associated with such a reform that need to be considered in addition to the conventional economic ones

Relations with the Third World: Views on the North-South Dialogue and Food Security - The United States

Food Security and Poverty,