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Home-school partnership has often been lauded as a key contributor in raising educational attainment. However, the level of partnership experienced by parents who use English as an Additional Language (EAL) can be limited by poor English-language proficiency and other unique challenges. This paper is concerned with a systematic review and analysis of the evidence of home-school partnership for learners with EAL in primary schools. It identifies international research trends, and gaps in research in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The analysis demonstrates that there is a dearth of literature pertaining to home-school partnership interventions in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It also identifies a global necessity for interventions aimed at instigating attitudinal change among teachers and systemic institutional change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Ireland and the UK it is accepted practice that agencies with formal responsibility for delivering school examinations allow examination candidates, and in many cases their teachers, to see their examination papers once they have been marked. Returned papers can carry various pieces of information; as well as the total score given for a performance, additional information is included in the form of the annotations left on the examination paper by the marking examiner. As far as we know there has been no research into how this information affects those who come into contact with it. The study uses teacher interview and survey data to explore whether a sociocultural approach to analysis can illuminate the factors that might influence their interpretation of those annotations. These analyses suggest that a key influence on the valid interpretation of an examiner's annotations is a teachers' involvement in examining activity. The analyses support further conceptualisation that these teacher-examiners' interpretative capacity is related to their positioning in a boundary zone between two different activity systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2011Forum on Patronage and Pluralism in the Primary Sectorpresented Ireland with an opportunity to rethink the issue of patronage in Irish primary schools, as well as to consider how ‘religious education’ might be approached in such schools in the future. This paper suggests that, for the first time since 1831, Ireland had an opportunity to provide ‘state schooling’ for all children, regardless of their religious beliefs or lack thereof. The paper proposes educatingallchildren in the state in non-denominational secular settings, leaving faith formation to the private domain of parents and communities. Although the concept of ‘secularism’ has negative connotations for those who belong to a religious community, this paper suggests that it provides a framework for inclusive and egalitarian education, offering children and young people the opportunity to learn alongside their peers, irrespective of religious backgrounds. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In 1965, following a review of second-level education in Ireland, the report Investment in Education was published. While a concern with educational inequality and disadvantage pre-dates this report, it clearly identified the significant socio-economic disparities in educational participation at the time and emphasised an urgent need for remedial action. However, while the discussions emanating from this seminal report are concerned with issues around educational disadvantage, less attention has been given to the processes at play in underlying such inequality. Moreover, it can be argued that overarching debates on educational investment over the last 50 years (as reflected in the papers in this special issue) have focused predominantly on post-primary and higher education, to the detriment of early education. Given the recent proliferation of research stemming from the USA around the significant human capital and societal gains of early years investment – which is especially pronounced for disadvantaged children – this paper argues that it is vitally important that early education is viewed as an important window of opportunity for increased public spending and treated on par with later educational investments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is based on the recollections of its author of the work of the Investment in Education team from its inauguration in summer 1962 until the completion of its work in early 1965. The author was a research assistant to the team throughout the period of the study and was directly involved in the collection and analysis of the data on which the findings of the report were based. The paper describes the conditions under which the team operated. It adverts to some of the contentious issues which arose out of the data analysis. It explores the evolving roles of the Steering Committee, of senior civil servants in the Department of Education and of the chairman and of individual members of the team during the two-and-a-half-year period. It discusses some of the external influences which impacted on members of the team and explores how the changing economic and cultural life of Ireland in the early 1960s affected their thinking. It touches on the setting up of the Development Branch in the Department of Education in 1966 and its premature disbandment by the Minister Richard Burke in 1973. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Beginning with a historical review of Irish education policy since the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922, this paper focuses on the issue of investment in education through the lens of theInvestment in Educationreport. Following this historical review, the author explores how the legacy of the past continues to define the ways in which education is structured and delivered in Irish schools. The key achievement of the 1965 report was its success in altering the Irish state's perception of expenditure on education. While this was previously viewed as an expense and an obligation, the report highlighted its longer-term economic value as an investment in the future. While acknowledging the transformative impact of the 1965 report in terms of subsequent trends in the scale of public investment in education, this paper argues that the report's advice in relation to the nature of investment and to the optimal configuration of resources has been largely ignored and neglected in the intervening years. This paper revisits what theInvestment in Educationauthors describe as ‘the question of the existing organisation of facilities’ in an attempt to understand contemporary challenges in Irish education. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper describes the findings of a one-year collaborative research project funded by the Standing Conference on Teacher Education North and South (SCoTENS). The paper is derived from a Short Report on this study prepared for SCoTENS on 16th May 2012. The study examined the role of physical education (PE) teachers as mentors to new members of the PE teaching profession. Research participants comprised 6 university tutors and 10 PE mentor teachers across three national research sites (Republic of Ireland, England and Northern Ireland). A range of qualitative data collection methods were employed, and the data were analysed thematically using a constructivist version of grounded theory. The paper reports two key findings: 1. Mentor teachers had a shared perception of the need to be selected on the basis of suitability; i.e. disposition and expertise and the need to be trained to mentor pre-service teachers effectively. 2. Mentor teachers perceived that they should provide a safe learning space for the pre-service PE teacher where he/she is free to take risks and explore praxis (theory-informed practice) in a variety of contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Mathematics is a core subject in the UK curriculum, with high standards achievement a policy of the UK government. Innovative approaches and strategies have been advocated to achieve these high standards. One approach that has been advocated is Precision Teaching, supported by its successful application in schools in the United States. For this study, a 12-week programme was devised to develop student fluency in the multiplication timetables. A key skill task was devised and scores compared before and after programme implementation. Pre-programme scores revealed poor student performance on this key skill. Post-programme results show an improvement for children using Precision Teaching, with some outperforming the average of their classmates. The paper endorses previous findings that fluency is important for student progress through the curriculum. It also endorses research findings that adding practice and timed assessment improve student performance levels. These results were achieved with minimal disruption and materials. The paper recommends educational practitioners to support further research into the practicalities and suggested benefits of fluency-orientated education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the potential for engaged learning among final-year undergraduate Education Studies students at a new, post-1992. It discusses a case study analysis of a ‘Directed Experiential Learning’ (DEL) intervention in the final year of an education studies degree designed to engage and motivate students and emphasise the links between theory and practice for them. Implementation took place in 2012–2013 with a cohort of 37 students and quantitative and qualitative analysis was performed afterwards to investigate the perspectives of students (online questionnaire and interview with 2 students) and tutors (4 individual interviews) on the DEL approach applied. The study described should be of particular interest to those teaching on and designing third level education studies programmes as well as related disciplines that might participate in integrated working arrangements in practice (e.g. nursing, social care). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The status of school placement in the Republic of Ireland has recently been elevated in importance within a reconceptualisation of initial teacher education (ITE). This paper shares the findings from one case study of a school–university partnership enacted in this regard. The partnership involved a researcher-in-residence at the school championing the concept of a structured authentic democratic partnership. The findings show the impact of a champion at the school site in developing professional conversations among a multiplicity of policy actors. An unexpected finding was the depth of higher order peer cooperation achieved in this first iteration of a structured setting by student teachers. However cultural and contextual challenges abound in seeking to build the trust required to enact authentic partnerships in this regard. The findings have significance for the Teaching Council as they build capacity for new and innovative models of the practicum in ITE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thirty years after the publication ofInvestment in Education, Patrick Clancy wrote that the report represented ‘“the” foundation document of education’ in the era since the introduction of economic planning in the late 1950s. This paper considers the importance of the report in disseminating theories of human capital formation (as well as other less recognised influences) among Irish political and educational elites.Investmentcontributed to a seminal shift in educational policy linked to a widely held conviction among politicians, officials and international advisers that education was vital to national economic salvation. This paradigm shift was informed not only by changing domestic priorities driven by a legacy of economic failure but also by wider international trends inseparable from the Cold War, especially the importance accorded to education and technological development as key battlegrounds in the global struggle between the capitalist West and the Soviet Union. Defining ideas ofInvestment– notably increased financing of education as an essential factor in economic development and the necessity for a far-reaching expansion of participation at post-primary and higher levels, not least to meet a perceived shortfall in the supply of well-qualified workers – became central to Irish educational policy over the two generations that followed publication of the report, as illustrated by quantitative trends examined here. Due to the extraordinary persistence of these features over this period, it is worthwhile examining their emergence as lasting forces in an ‘effective history’ of education that is much more than historiographical interpretation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]