The projects examine mental health among farming families in Ireland, the potential for VR in teacher training to boost inclusive practice, more meaningful interactions with environmental data, and a WhatsApp based professional development model for maths teachers in South Africa.

They are among 19 projects all of which are under way, totalling €4.7m in funding. 

Tackling national and international challenges

Research Ireland’s Collaborative Alliances for Societal Challenges (COALESCE) programme supports excellent research across a broad range of disciplines, tackling national and international challenges. 

COALESCE comprises three strands, with DCU projects receiving funding in the Research Ireland Awards and Better World Awards Strands.

Three of the four funded projects come in the Research Ireland Awards strand which focuses on interdisciplinary projects led by an AHSS (Arts, Humanities or Social Sciences) researcher working in collaboration with a STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) researcher.

In this category, Dr Anna Donnla O'Hagan is working with Dr Siobhan O'Connor on the Mental Health Help-Seeking in Irish Farm Families project.

This project aims to understand the difficulties facing Irish farming families today, by exploring the prevalence of mental health issues and associated factors in these communities.

Mental health is a major societal issue in Ireland, with international research reporting that farm families are particularly at risk with higher rates of depression and suicide.

While supports are available, unless individuals reach out and engage with these services, they are ineffective. The project will work with farming families and key stakeholder representatives to establish a bespoke, evidence-based mental health education programme to improve Irish farm families’ knowledge of mental health issues and help seeking.

Both Dr O'Hagan and Dr O'Connor have conducted extensive work in this area. 

The second DCU project in this category sees Dr Enda Donlon teaming up with Dr Hyowon Lee. For teachers, preparation for making teaching environments as inclusive as possible begins at the point of Initial Teacher Education. However, these pre-service teachers often find issues of inclusion to be particularly challenging while on placement, and their training programmes also face difficulties in teaching and developing these crucial skills.

Immersive virtual classroom

This new project seeks to create an immersive virtual classroom and a range of simulations whereby teachers in training can practise inclusive teaching. The VR environment enables provides a less stressful setting, but with advantages of capturing fine-grained information about teaching that can be used to reflect upon and improve core skills.

The project involves teachers, experts from the fields of inclusive education and virtual reality, pre service teachers, and teacher educators. These stakeholders will help develop and test highly immersive virtual simulations to foster and improve inclusive educational practices among the teachers of tomorrow.

Also featuring in the Research Ireland Awards strand, Dr Trish Morgan and Dr Shirley Coyle will collaborate on the SEED (Sensory Experiences of Environmental Data) project.

Our environment in Ireland is under pressure in many ways, from water and air pollution, to how land is used and how our climate is changing. We also have environmental data on these pressures. However, the public do not necessarily know what this data is showing, nor can they interact with it in meaningful ways.

A form of ‘data visualisation’

Online media is also saturated with visuals showing these environmental pressures. This is a form of ‘data visualisation’ which appeals to people who like to receive information in a visual way. However, the media also represent environmental pressures in ways that might not be helpful for encouraging action by citizens on these issues.

The SEED project aims to bridge some of these gaps in public understanding and awareness of environmental pressures. Prior research has shown that environmental data can not only be made visible, but we can hear it, touch it, and even smell and taste it. The project will use Irish environmental data and sensors to make creative objects that provide examples of how environmental data can be communicated in innovative and exciting ways.

The Better World Awards 2024 (five awards currently funded) strand is funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs, specifically Irish Aid. These projects are designed to support research collaboration and capacity-building between Ireland and target global south countries.

In this strand, Dr Hamsa Venkatakrishnan is teaming up with Dr Lynn Bowie from the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa.

The Hybrid Maths Knowledge for Teaching (MKT) development in South Africa will design, implement and study a hybrid WhatsApp-based programme of development of mathematical knowledge for teaching in South Africa. 

Dr Hamsa Venkatakrishnan.

Maths Knowledge for Teaching incorporates both mathematical knowledge and knowledge of how to present mathematical ideas in coherent, well-connected and responsive ways. The research base in South Africa notes widespread concerns with this knowledge among primary teachers.

The novel hybrid WhatsApp-based model of professional development looks to capitalise on near universal cellphone coverage in South Africa in contrast to much lower availability of tablets and laptops. It offers potential for more comprehensive rollout of MKT programmes for teachers and youth facilitators.