Social Lives
Authors: Tadhg E. MacIntyre Assistant Professor, Dept. of Psychology, Maynooth University and scientific coordinator of the H2020 project GoGreenRoutes. Chloe Mooney is a third year BSc. Psychology student and was an intern for GoGreenRoutes this semester. Cassie Murphy MA is second year MU Psychology doctoral student, on a scholarship funded by GoGreenRoutes, supervised by Dr. Elaine Gallagher and Dr. Tadhg MacIntyre.
The Maynooth University green campus with 700-year-old trees provided an authentic backdrop to our GoGreenRoutes project Autumn School concerned with understanding the links between nature and health. Our award winning campus venue (see here for Green Shoots feature) was a highlight for participants who had a tour of the grounds with Stephen Seaman supported by Rachel Freeman (TU Dublin, PhD candidate on GoGreenRoutes).
The wonder of our bucolic campus, recently featured on RTÉ, was not lost upon our new President Eeva Leinonen who noted how nature may be vital for effective leadership too. Our president, a psychologist, quoted as she opened the event, the 44th President of the United States Barack Obama who, in his memoirs had said, how the one-minute open-air commute along the colonnades that bookmarked his day helped him clear his mind and free him from stress. This speech was followed by a superb strategic overview of gender, inclusion and diversity at Maynooth University and beyond, by Vice-President for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Dr Gemma Irvine, which set the tone for event, with strong gender representation across all the sessions (over 60% Women speakers) and more emphatically, an appreciation for inclusion at every level.
Methods of accessing lesser heard voices in academia
The event opened up the floor to the postgraduate and early career researchers to share their plans and experiences in their research careers so far. These are often the lesser heard, or in some cases silenced voices in knowledge exchange events. Experiential learning is effective, and learning from peers’ experiences, and in some cases their mistakes, is helpful in developing individual research. Additionally, across the consortium, researchers and innovators are passionate about the concept of practicing what you preach – all internal activities should echo our research practices.
With that being said, the concept of giving the lesser heard voices the opportunity to be amplified in what we do is always important. One example of how this is done in GoGreenRoutes is through the modified-Delphi methodology, which was presented at the autumn school. This methodology is being used to investigate the concept of urban nature connectedness by MU Psychology postgraduate Cassie Murphy, a PhD researcher supervised by Dr Elaine Gallagher and Dr Tadhg MacIntyre. This research aims to include the opinions of the academic experts already conducting research in this area, alongside the opinions of a group she refers to as the ‘expanded experts.’ These individuals are urban citizens with a passion for nature, who have gone on to share their passion with others through their career. That could be through the arts, politics and activism or even through city planning and design. These are often the voices with lived experience who are not featured in research. Not only are the participants sharing their knowledge with the research team, but they are also involved in evaluating each phase of the methodology so others have the opportunity to learn what was effective or what can be altered to make the process more enjoyable for all involved. Novel methods such as this allow for richer and more inclusive narratives to emerge, clearly aligned to the Assisting Living and Learning (ALL) Institute approach. Cassie has shared the planned use of this methodology at international conferences such as ICEP 2021 in Siracussa and CEP 2021 in Lillehammer allowing fellow early career researchers to comment and help shape the future of engaged research.
A particularly poignant moment at the Autumn School was the presentation of a plaque from Charlie Burke (Coillte) to H.E. Bulgarian Ambassador to Ireland, Gargana Karadjova, in memory of the late Jana Koleva (1978-2021). Jana was the EU projects officer for the Burgas Municipality and had contributed greatly to nature-based solutions innovations in the city. Her legacy will live long beyond our project.
Among the feedback from attendees were that it was “fascinating to see the breadth of work being carried out within the University, very enjoyable!” This illustrative quote range of innovative practices was enlightening and the connection to the community, region and internationally was excellent and a portent of great things to come. Other approaches highlighted included the novel benchmarking parklife methodology, which seeks to understand the range of urban dwellers that use park benches and a range of research syntheses including health impact assessment and scoping reviews.
Among the goals of the Autumn School was amplifying the voice of young researchers and the three-day Autumn school provided a novel opportunity for third year psychology student Chloe Mooney to hear about the research currently being conducted here by faculty. Members of the ALL Institute across three departments highlighted how their research initiatives connected to the theme of nature and health. In a 90 minute session, chaired by Prof Mac MacLachlan, we were, introduced to the research activity of Dr Ronan Foley (Dept. of Geography) focusing on blue space, the role of nature in reminiscence therapy articulated by Dr Richard Roche (Dept. of Psychology) and the novel concept of the Kyrie Farm project was presented by Dr Catriona O’Toole (Dept. of Education).
Chloe’s own words tell this story best. “I had the opportunity to hear many speakers ranging from Postgraduates to highly experienced researchers. I got an insight into what life working as a researcher is like and the highs of it but also the challenges. It really gave me a great overview of what the world of research is really like and whether it was something I wanted to pursue or not.”
“I found it very interesting, as a student, we don’t get to hear much about what researchers do outside of lecturing. It was interesting to see the topics they taught us about such as memory applied in a real-world application.” These insights show the value of the internship experience in enriching the student experience.
And Chloe gave a candid opinion of her first-time hearing and seeing the new president: “I got a great first impression of her from her very welcoming, well-conceived speech. She discussed her experiences with nature coming from Finland and showed great enthusiasm for the project.”
All in all, the objectives of the Autumn school, complete with the session showcasing the ALL Institute was deemed a success. Attendee feedback suggested that extremely high levels of satisfaction with the quality of the learning sessions. Notably, the campus tour, the robust roles given to voice of early career researchers and the gender balance, were highlighted as excellent.
This event has only sowed the seeds for future initiatives, with the Department of Psychology leading a new MSc. in Environmental Psychology, commencing in September 2022, which will ensure that Maynooth University becomes a hub of expertise in research, practice and teaching in this field.
Funding Acknowledgement: The GoGreenRoutes Autumn School was funded through support from EPA, Enterprise Ireland, MU RDO and the All-Institute (thanks to Stacy Campbell) The GoGreenRoutes project is supported by European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 869764.