This paper examines the challenges service providers encounter when supporting children in Direct Provision in Ireland. It focuses particularly on the organisations--both voluntary and statutory--that are charged with providing support for this vulnerable cohort. Specifically, the paper considers the roadblocks these organisations face helping…

As part of an international collaborative design-based research initiative, this study examines the applications and perceptions of generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) among pre-service primary teachers within an Irish educational program. It focuses on how personal and academic uses of Gen AI influence their perceptions of using Gen AI…

Over recent decades, higher education infrastructures have become increasingly digitized and datafied. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated adoption of online learning platforms, trading the walls of the classroom for digital systems. Yet the surveillance, privacy, and discrimination issues that such systems raise are minimally understood by those…

Yellow is a social networking application for adolescents aged 13 and over. It has raised concerns with parents and educators because of its potential to link and create friendships with strangers. The current study involved a content analysis of 298 Yellow profiles to determine the age and gender of Yellow users, their sharing of personal…

Internet-mediated focus groups (FGs) have become a feature of qualitative research over the last decade; however, their use within social sciences has been adopted at a slower pace than other disciplines. This paper considers the advantages and disadvantages of internet-mediated FGs and reflects on their use for researching culturally sensitive…

Research has established the life-altering effects of living with domestic violence on young people. Traumatic experiences negatively impact their education, leisure activities, and social-emotional learning (SEL). The secrecy concerning domestic violence means young people suffer self-blame, shame, fear of disclosure and family separation. The…

Background: This study explores the quality of life (QoL) of individuals with a severe intellectual disability (ID) who had recently moved from an institutional setting (i.e., "residential campus") to independent housing in the community (i.e., "community living") and whether aspects of their QoL were perceived to have changed…

This chapter discusses the main research ethical concerns that arise in internet research and reviews existing research ethical guidance in the Irish context in relation to its application to internet research. The chapter begins with a brief outline of high profile cases in the early history of the internet that highlighted specific emerging…

Open educational practices (OEP) is a broad descriptor of practices that include the creation, use, and reuse of open educational resources (OER) as well as open pedagogies and open sharing of teaching practices. As compared with OER, there has been little empirical research on individual educators' use of OEP for teaching in higher education.…

Surveillance is typically envisaged as the act of a person being physically watched, their movements and behaviour monitored in a given space and time. While this type of watching undoubtedly takes place, there is also the more subtle and pervasive monitoring of people through the data they accumulate in their daily lives. Contemporary Irish…

As internet research was gradually established as a discipline, whose focus and/or locus is the internet (Rall, 2007), ethical issues came to the fore. These issues, often centering around the shifting concept of privacy and ownership of text, consider new practices and communications online, and increasingly, the conduct of ethical research…

Privacy has been defined as "the protective buffer within which people can avoid another party's taking something from them, keeping watch over them, or entering into their lives in a way that is both unwelcome and undesirable". It is a premise of this paper that such a position needs to be taken very seriously in contemporary society,…

Respecting children's rights to be heard in matters that directly affect their everyday lives has become an established principle in Ireland and internationally. Accessing children's voices raises a number of important issues for researchers across a wide range of disciplines. This article reflects on the organizational, practical and ethical…

From 2000 to 2012 the number of Internet users rose from less than 0.4 billion to 2.4 billion. Scholarly, evidence-based Internet research is of critical importance. The field of Internet research explores the Internet as a social, political and educational phenomenon, providing theoretical and practical contributions to understanding, and…

The IFLA/FAIFE World Report Series is unique. It is the only source based on a systematic data collection process that provides an overview of how libraries around the world are tackling barriers to freedom of access to information and freedom of expression. This year's edition includes 84 country reports which detail the extent of Internet access…