Inclusive education policy, the general allocation model and dilemmas of practice in primary schools

Background: Inclusive education is central to contemporary discourse internationally reflecting societies’ wider commitment to social inclusion. Education has witnessed transforming approaches that have created differing distributions of power, resource allocation and accountability. Multiple actors are being forced to consider changes to how key services and supports are organised. This research constitutes a case study situated within this broader social service dilemma of how to distribute finite resources equitably to meet individual need, while advancing inclusion. It focuses on the national directive with regard to inclusive educational practice for primary schools, Department of Education and Science Special Education Circular 02/05, which introduced the General Allocation Model (GAM) within the legislative context of the Education of Persons with Special Educational Needs (EPSEN) Act (Government of Ireland, 2004). This research could help to inform policy with ‘facts about what is happening on the ground’ (Quinn, 2013). Research Aims: The research set out to unearth the assumptions and definitions embedded within the policy document, to analyse how those who are at the coalface of policy, and who interface with multiple interests in primary schools, understand the GAM and respond to it, and to investigate its effects on students and their education. It examines student outcomes in the primary schools where the GAM was investigated. Methods and Sample The post-structural study acknowledges the importance of policy analysis which explicitly links the ‘bigger worlds’ of global and national policy contexts to the ‘smaller worlds’ of policies and practices within schools and classrooms. This study insists upon taking the detail seriously (Ozga, 1990). A mixed methods approach to data collection and analysis is applied. In order to secure the perspectives of key stakeholders, semi-structured interviews were conducted with primary school principals, class teachers and learning support/resource teachers (n=14) in three distinct mainstream, non-DEIS schools. Data from the schools and their environs provided a profile of students. The researcher then used the Pobal Maps Facility (available at www.pobal.ie) to identify the Small Area (SA) in which each student resides, and to assign values to each address based on the Pobal HP Deprivation Index (Haase and Pratschke, 2012). Analysis of the datasets, guided by the conceptual framework of the policy cycle (Ball, 1994), revealed a number of significant themes. Results: Data illustrate that the main model to support student need is withdrawal from the classroom under policy that espouses inclusion. Quantitative data, in particular, highlighted an association between segregated practice and lower socioeconomic status (LSES) backgrounds of students. Up to 83% of the students in special education programmes are from lower socio-economic status (LSES) backgrounds. In some schools 94% of students from LSES backgrounds are withdrawn from classrooms daily for special education. While the internal processes of schooling are not solely to blame for class inequalities, this study reveals the power of professionals to order children in school, which has implications for segregated special education practice. Such agency on the part of key actors in the context of practice relates to ‘local constructions of dis/ability’, which is influenced by teacher habitus (Bourdieu, 1984). The researcher contends that inclusive education has not resulted in positive outcomes for students from LSES backgrounds because it is built on faulty assumptions that focus on a psycho-medical perspective of dis/ability, that is, placement decisions do not consider the intersectionality of dis/ability with class or culture. This study argues that the student need for support is better understood as ‘home/school discontinuity’ not ‘disability’. Moreover, the study unearths the power of some parents to use social and cultural capital to ensure eligibility to enhanced resources. Therefore, a hierarchical system has developed in mainstream schools as a result of funding models to support need in inclusive settings. Furthermore, all schools in the study are ‘ordinary’ schools yet participants acknowledged that some schools are more ‘advantaged’, which may suggest that ‘ordinary’ schools serve to ‘bury class’ (Reay, 2010) as a key marker in allocating resources. The research suggests that general allocation models of funding to meet the needs of students demands a systematic approach grounded in reallocating funds from where they have less benefit to where they have more. The calculation of the composite Haase Value in respect of the student cohort in receipt of special education support adopted for this study could be usefully applied at a national level to ensure that the greatest level of support is targeted at greatest need. Conclusion: In summary, the study reveals that existing structures constrain and enable agents, whose interactions produce intended and unintended consequences. The study suggests that policy should be viewed as a continuous and evolving cycle (Ball, 1994) where actors in each of the social contexts have a shared responsibility in the evolution of education that is equitable, excellent and inclusive.

An exploration of leadership in Irish post-primary education

The purpose of this study is to explore the nature and how of leadership in Irish post-primary schools. It considers school leadership within the context of contemporary Distributed Leadership theory. Associated concepts such as Distributed Cognition and Activity Theory are used to frame the study. From a distributed perspective, it is now widely accepted that other agents (e.g. teachers) have a leadership role, as part of collaborative, participative and supportive learning communities. Thus, this study considers how principals interact and build leadership capacity throughout the school. The study draws on two main sources of evidence. In analysing the implications of accountability agendas for school leadership, there is an exploration and focus on the conceptualisations of school leadership that are fore-grounded in 21 WSE reports. Elements of Critical Discourse Analysis are employed as an investigative tool to decipher how the construction of leadership practice is produced. The second prong of the study explores leadership in 3 case-study post-primary schools. Leadership is a complex phenomenon and not easy to describe. The findings clarify, however, that school leadership is a construct beyond the scope of the principal alone. While there is widespread support for a distributed model of leadership, the concept does not explicitly form part of the discourse in the case-study schools. It is also evident that any attempt to understand leadership practice must connect local interpretations with broader discourses. The understanding and practice of leadership is best understood in its sociohistorical context. The study reveals that, in the Irish post-primary school, the historical dimension is very influential, while the situational setting, involving a particular set of agents and agendas, strongly shapes thinking and practices. This study is novel as it synthesises two key sources of evidence. It is of great value in that it teases out the various historical and situational aspects to enhance understandings of school leadership in contemporary Ireland. It raises important questions for policy, practice and further research.

Assessment in primary education in Ireland

This doctoral study examines assessment in primary education in the Republic of Ireland. The nature and purpose of assessment offer an insight into the values which are prioritised by an education system. In 2011, in the Republic of Ireland, the Department of Education and Skills (DES) published a strategy aiming to improve standards of literacy and numeracy. The document, entitled, Literacy and numeracy for learning and life: the national strategy to improve literacy and numeracy for children and young people 2011-2020, contains improvement targets as measured by standardised tests. It also mandates the increased use of standardised tests in primary education, and directs that aggregated scores should be reported to both Boards of Management and the DES. The study is framed by the theoretical perspectives of Michel Foucault and Pierre Bourdieu. Both of these commentators examine social policy and practice in an effort to provide insight into the history and operation of social institutions. This study is especially influenced by Foucault’s archaeology and genealogy of knowledge, and his notion of governmentality. It is also particularly cognisant of Bourdieu’s thoughts on habitus, doxa and capital. The study contains reviews of literature in the areas of assessment, assessment policy, and assessment policy in Ireland. These reviews highlight current debate in each of these areas while also grounding this debate in an historical context. The dissertation contains four empirical sections. 1) It analyses policy documents prepared in the development of the published strategy as well as investigating the strategy itself. In so doing it is aware of the burgeoning influence of pan-national bodies on policy development. 2) A number of high profile policy makers were interviewed as part of the study and their views are interpreted in light of the findings of the literature reviews. 3) The perspective of teachers was sought through a questionnaire survey. This gathered data on these teachers’ views on the purpose of assessment as well as their actual practice. 4) Finally, children were also included as participants in this study. They were interviewed in focus groups and encouraged to contribute drawings as well on their views of assessment in primary school. Literacy and numeracy for learning and life is seen as a seminal document in Irish education. This study is significant in its analysis of original data from high profile policy makers, including two Ministers for Education and Skills. It is also significant in its inclusion of the perspectives of primary school pupils. Finally, the study considers the nature and role of assessment in a holistic manner by including the views of policy makers, teachers and pupils. The study notes that policy development in Ireland underwent a change in the preparation of Literacy and numeracy for learning and life and that international influences, while present, are also mediated to suit the local context. It also highlights a lack of clarity in the definition of assessment in primary education and argues that there is a lack of balance in the approaches that are prioritised. The study demonstrates that teachers are impacted by the strategy but that they also change it by focusing on their own concerns while using assessment tools. The children provide compelling evidence of the impact of assessment on the learner. The study shows how assessment tools (and school subjects) are valued with differing levels of importance by a variety of stakeholders.

Team-teaching for inclusive learning: Purposes, practices and perceptions of a team-teaching initiative in Irish post-primary schools

Background. Schools unequivocally privilege solo-teaching. This research seeks to enhance our understanding of team-teaching by examining how two teachers, working in the same classroom at the same time, might or might not contribute to the promotion of inclusive learning. There are well-established policy statements that encourage change and moves towards the use of team-teaching to promote greater inclusion of students with special educational needs in mainstream schools and mainstream classrooms. What is not so well established is the practice of team-teaching in post-primary settings, with little research conducted to date on how it can be initiated and sustained, and a dearth of knowledge on how it impacts upon the students and teachers involved. Research questions and aims. In light of the paucity and inconclusive nature of the research on team-teaching to date (Hattie, 2009), the orientating question in this study asks ‘To what extent, can the introduction of a formal team-teaching initiative enhance the quality of inclusive student learning and teachers’ learning at post-primary level?’ The framing of this question emerges from ongoing political, legal and educational efforts to promote inclusive education. The study has three main aims. The first aim of this study is to gather and represent the voices and experiences of those most closely involved in the introduction of team-teaching; students, teachers, principals and administrators. The second aim is to generate a theory-informed understanding of such collaborative practices and how they may best be implemented in the future. The third aim is to advance our understandings regarding the day-to-day, and moment-to-moment interactions, between teachers and students which enable or inhibit inclusive learning. Sample. In total, 20 team-teaching dyads were formed across seven project schools. The study participants were from two of the seven project schools, Ash and Oak. It involved eight teachers and 53 students, whose age ranged from 12-16 years old, with 4 teachers forming two dyads per school. In Oak there was a class of first years (n=11) with one dyad and a class of transition year students (n=24) with the other dyad. In Ash one class group (n=18) had two dyads. The subjects in which the dyads engaged were English and Mathematics. Method. This research adopted an interpretive paradigm. The duration of the fieldwork was from April 2007 to June 2008. Research methodologies included semi-structured interviews (n=44), classroom observation (n=20), attendance at monthly teacher meetings (n=6), questionnaires and other data gathering practices which included school documentation, assessment findings and joint examination of student work samples (n=4). Results. Team-teaching involves changing normative practices, and involves placing both demands and opportunities before those who occupy classrooms (teachers and students) and before those who determine who should occupy these classrooms (principals and district administrators). This research shows how team-teaching has the potential to promote inclusive learning, and when implemented appropriately, can impact positively upon the learning experiences of both teachers and students. The results are outlined in two chapters. In chapter four, Social Capital Theory is used in framing the data, the change process of bonding, bridging and linking, and in capturing what the collaborative action of team-teaching means, asks and offers teachers; within classes, between classes, between schools and within the wider educational community. In chapter five, Positioning Theory deductively assists in revealing the moment-to-moment, dynamic and inclusive learning opportunities, that are made available to students through team-teaching. In this chapter a number of vignettes are chosen to illustrate such learning opportunities. These two theories help to reveal the counter-narrative that team-teaching offers, regarding how both teachers and students teach and learn. This counter-narrative can extend beyond the field of special education and include alternatives to the manner in which professional development is understood, implemented, and sustained in schools and classrooms. Team-teaching repositions teachers and students to engage with one another in an atmosphere that capitalises upon and builds relational trust and shared cognition. However, as this research study has found, it is wise that the purposes, processes and perceptions of team-teaching are clear to all so that team-teaching can be undertaken by those who are increasingly consciously competent and not merely accidentally adequate. Conclusions. The findings are discussed in the context of the promotion of effective inclusive practices in mainstream settings. I believe that such promotion requires more nuanced understandings of what is being asked of, and offered to, teachers and students. Team-teaching has, and I argue will increasingly have, its place in the repertoire of responses that support effective inclusive learning. To capture and extend such practice requires theoretical frameworks that facilitate iterative journeys between research, policy and practice. Research to date on team-teaching has been too focused on outcomes over short timeframes and not focused enough on the process that is team-teaching. As a consequence team-teaching has been under-used, under-valued, under-theorised and generally not very well understood. Moving from classroom to staff room and district board room, theoretical frameworks used in this research help to travel with, and understand, the initiation, engagement and early consequences of team-teaching within and across the educational landscape. Therefore, conclusions from this study have implications for the triad of research, practice and policy development where efforts to change normative practices can be matched by understandings associated with what it means to try something new/anew, and what it means to say it made a positive difference.

Understanding teacher collaboration in disadvantaged urban primary schools: uncovering practices that foster professional learning communities

This study is set in the context of disadvantaged urban primary schools in Ireland. It inquires into the collaborative practices of primary teachers exploring how class teachers and support teachers develop ways of working together in an effort to improve the literacy and numeracy levels of their student. Traditionally teachers have worked in isolation and therefore ‘collaboration’ as a practice has been slow to permeate the historically embedded assumption of how a teacher should work. This study aims to answer the following questions. 1). What are the dynamics of teacher collaboration in disadvantaged urban primary schools? 2). In what ways are teacher collaboration and teacher learning related? 3). In what ways does teacher collaboration influence students’ opportunities for learning? In answering these research questions, this study aims to contribute to the body of knowledge pertaining to teacher learning through collaboration. Though current policy and literature advocate and make a case for the development of collaborative teaching practices, key studies have identified gaps in the research literature in relation to the impact of teacher collaboration in schools. This study seeks to address some of those gaps by establishing how schools develop a collaborative environment and how teaching practices are enacted in such a setting. It seeks to determine what skills, relationships, structures and conditions are most important in developing collaborative environments that foster the development of professional learning communities (PLCs). This study uses a mixed method research design involving a postal survey, four snap-shot case studies and one in depth case study in an effort to establish if collaborative practice is a feasible practice resulting in worthwhile benefits for both teachers and students.

An investigation of post-primary students' images of mathematics

This research study investigates the image of mathematics held by 5th-year post-primary students in Ireland. For this study, “image of mathematics” is conceptualized as a mental representation or view of mathematics, presumably constructed as a result of past experiences, mediated through school, parents, peers or society. It is also understood to include attitudes, beliefs, emotions, self-concept and motivation in relation to mathematics. This study explores the image of mathematics held by a sample of 356 5th-year students studying ordinary level mathematics. Students were aged between 15 and 18 years. In addition, this study examines the factors influencing students‟ images of mathematics and the possible reasons for students choosing not to study higher level mathematics for the Leaving Certificate. The design for this study is chiefly explorative. A questionnaire survey was created containing both quantitative and qualitative methods to investigate the research interest. The quantitative aspect incorporated eight pre-established scales to examine students‟ attitudes, beliefs, emotions, self-concept and motivation regarding mathematics. The qualitative element explored students‟ past experiences of mathematics, their causal attributions for success or failure in mathematics and their influences in mathematics. The quantitative and qualitative data was analysed for all students and also for students grouped by gender, prior achievement, type of post-primary school attending, co-educational status of the post-primary school and the attendance of a Project Maths pilot school. Students‟ images of mathematics were seen to be strongly indicated by their attitudes (enjoyment and value), beliefs, motivation, self-concept and anxiety, with each of these elements strongly correlated with each other, particularly self-concept and anxiety. Students‟ current images of mathematics were found to be influenced by their past experiences of mathematics, by their mathematics teachers, parents and peers, and by their prior mathematical achievement. Gender differences occur for students in their images of mathematics, with males having more positive images of mathematics than females and this is most noticeable with regards to anxiety about mathematics. Mathematics anxiety was identified as a possible reason for the low number of students continuing with higher level mathematics for the Leaving Certificate. Some students also expressed low mathematical self-concept with regards to higher level mathematics specifically. Students with low prior achievement in mathematics tended to believe that mathematics requires a natural ability which they do not possess. Rote-learning was found to be common among many students in the sample. The most positive image of mathematics held by students was the “problem-solving image”, with resulting implications for the new Project Maths syllabus in post-primary education. Findings from this research study provide important insights into the image of mathematics held by the sample of Irish post-primary students and make an innovative contribution to mathematics education research. In particular, findings contribute to the current national interest in Ireland in post-primary mathematics education, highlighting issues regarding the low uptake of higher level mathematics for the Leaving Certificate and also making a preliminary comparison between students who took part in the piloting of Project Maths and students who were more recently introduced to the new syllabus. This research study also holds implications for mathematics teachers, parents and the mathematics education community in Ireland, with some suggestions made on improving students‟ images of mathematics.

Student voice in Irish post-primary schools: a drama of voices

This research is an exploration of the expression of student voice in Irish post-primary schools and how its affordance could impact on students’ and teachers’ experiences in the classroom, and at whole-school level through a student council. Student voice refers to the inclusion of students in decisions that shape their experiences in classrooms and schools, and is fundamental to a rights-based perspective that facilitates students to have a voice and a say in their education. Student voice is essential to the development of democratic principles, active citizenship, and learning and pedagogy. This qualitative research, based in three post-primary case-study schools, concerns teachers in eighteen classrooms engaging in dialogic consultation with their students over one school year. Teachers considered the students’ commentary and then adjusted their practice. The operation of student councils was also examined through the voices of council members, liaison teachers and school principals. Theorised within socio-cultural (social constructivist), social constructionist and poststructural frames, the complexity of student voice emerges from its conceptualisation and enactment. Affording students a voice in their classroom presented positive findings in the context of relationships, pedagogical change and students’ engagement, participation and achievement. The power and authority of the teacher and discordant student voices, particularly relating to examinations, presented challenges affecting teachers’ practice and students’ expectations. The functional redundancy of the student council as a construct for student voice at whole-school level, and its partial redundancy as a construct to reflect prefigurative democracy and active citizenship also emerge from the research. Current policy initiatives in Irish education situate student voice in pedagogy and as dialogic consultation at classroom and whole-school level. This work endorses the necessity for and benefit of such a positioning with the author further arguing that it should not become the instrumental student voice of data source, accountability and performativity.

The double bind for non-traditional families in post-primary settings; to tell or not to tell their family identity

This thesis involved researching normative family discourses which are mediated through educational settings. The traditional family, consisting of father, mother and children all living together in one house is no longer reflective of the home situation of many Irish students (Lunn and Fahey, 2011). My study problematizes the dominant discourses which reflect how family differences are managed and recognised in schools. A framework using Foucauldian post structural critical analysis traces family stratification through the organisation of institutional and interpersonal relations at micro level in four post-primary schools. Standardising procedures such as the suppression of intimate relations between and among teacher and student, as well as the linear ordering of intergenerational relations, such as teacher/student and adult/child are critiqued. Normalising discourses operate in practices such as notes home which presume two parents together. Teacher assumptions about heterosexual two-parent families make it difficult for students to be open about a family setup that is constructed as different to the rest of the schools'. The management of family difference and deficit through pastoral care structures suggests a school-based politics of family adjustment. These practices beg the question whether families are better off not telling the school about their family identity. My thesis will be of interest to educational research and educational policy because it highlights how changing demographics such as family compositions are mis-conceptualised in schools, as well as revealing the changing forms of family governance through regimes such as pastoral care. This analysis allows for the existence of, and a valuing for, alternative modes of family existence, so that future curricular and legal discourses can be challenged in the interest of equity and social justice.

Beginning primary teachers’ perspectives on becoming a teacher in the workplace: Contextual, emotional, and temporo-spatial dimensions of identity shaping

The issue, with international and national overtones, of direct relevance to the present study, relates to the shaping of beginning teachers’ identities in the workplace. As the shift from an initial teacher education programme into initial practice in schools is a period of identity change worthy of investigation, this study focuses on the transformative search by nine beginning primary teachers for their teaching identities, throughout the course of their initial year of occupational experience, post-graduation. The nine beginning teacher participants work in a variety of primary school settings, thus strengthening the representativeness of the research cohort. Privileging ‘insider’ perspectives, the research goal is to understand the complexities of lived experience from the viewpoints of the participating informants. The shaping of identity is conceived of in dimensional terms. Accordingly, a framework composed of three dimensions of beginning teacher experience is devised, namely: contextual; emotional; temporo-spatial. Data collection and analysis is informed by principles derived from sociocultural theories; activity theory; figured worlds theory; and, dialogical self theory. Individual, face-to-face semi-structured interviews, and the maintenance of solicited digital diaries, are the principal methods of data collection employed. The use of a dimensional model fragments the integrated learning experiences of beginning teachers into constituent parts for the purpose of analysis. While acknowledging that the actual journey articulated by each participant is a more complex whole than the sum of its parts, key empirically-based claims are presented as per the dimensional framework employed: contextuality; emotionality; temporo-spatiality. As a result of applying the foci of an international literature to an under-researched aspect of Irish education, this study is offered as a context-specific contribution to the knowledge base on beginning teaching. As the developmental needs of beginning teachers constitute an emerging area of intense policy focus in Ireland, this research undertaking is both relevant and timely.

The development of a model of continuing professional development for teachers of primary science

A new science curriculum was introduced to primary schools in the Republic of Ireland in 2003. This curriculum, broader in scope than its 1971 predecessor (Curaclam na Bunscoile, 1971), requires teachers at all levels of primary school to teach science. A review carried out in 2008 of children’s experiences of this curriculum found that its implementation throughout the country was uneven. This finding, together with the increasing numbers of teachers who were requesting support to implement this curriculum, suggested the need for a review of Irish primary teachers’ needs in the area of science. The research study described in this thesis was undertaken to establish the extent of Irish primary teachers’ needs in the area of science by conducting a national survey. The data from this survey, together with data from international studies, were used to develop a theoretical framework for a model of Continuing Professional Development (CPD). This theoretical framework was used to design the Whole- School, In-School (WSIS) CPD model which was trialled in two case-study schools. The participants in these ‘action-research’ case-studies acted as co-researchers, who contributed to the development and evolution of the CPD model in each school. Analysis of the data gathered as part of the evaluation of the Whole-School, In- School (WSIS) model of CPD found an improved experience of science for children and improved confidence for teachers teaching at all levels of the primary school. In addition, a template for the establishment of a culture of collaborative CPD in schools has been developed from an analysis of the data

Who pays and who plays? Mapping the discourse of publicly funded instrumental music education in Ireland

Instrumental music education is provided as an extra-curricular activity on a fee-paying basis by a small number of Education and Training Boards, formerly Vocational Education Committees (ETB/VECs) through specialist instrumental Music Services. Although all citizens’ taxes fund the public music provision, participation in instrumental music during school-going years is predominantly accessed by middle class families. A series of semistructured interviews sought to access the perceptions and beliefs of instrumental music education practitioners (N=14) in seven publicly-funded music services in Ireland. Canonical dispositions were interrogated and emergent themes were coded and analysed in a process of Grounded theory. The study draws on Foucault’s conception of discourse as a lens with which to map professional practices, and utilises Bourdieu’s analysis of the reproduction of social advantage to examine cultural assumptions, which may serve to privilege middle-class cultural choice to the exclusion of other social groups. Study findings show that within the Music Services, aesthetic and pedagogic discourses of the 19th century Conservatory system exert a hegemonic influence over policy and practice. An enduring ‘examination culture’ located within the Western art music tradition determines pedagogy, musical genre, and assessment procedures. Ideologies of musical taste and value reinforce the more tangible boundaries of fee-payment and restricted availability as barriers to access. Practitioners are aware of a status duality whereby instrumental teachers working as visiting specialists in primary schools experience a conflict between specialist and generalist educational aims. Nevertheless, study participants consistently advocated siting the point of access to instrumental music education in the primary schools as the most equitable means of access to instrumental music education. This study addresses a ‘knowledge gap’ in the sociology of music education in Ireland. It provides a framework for rethinking instrumental music education as equitable in-school musical participation. The conclusions of the study suggest starting-points for further educational research and may provide key ‘prompts’ for curriculum planning.

Learning to 'understand backwards' in time: children's temporal cognition and the primary history curriculum

This study examines children’s temporal ways of knowing and it highlights the centrality of temporal cognition in the development of children’s historical understanding. It explores how young children conceptualise time and it examines the provision for temporal cognition at the levels of the intended, enacted and received history curriculum in the Irish primary school context. Positioning temporality as a prerequisite second-order concept, the study recognises the essential role of both first-order and additional second-order concepts in historical understanding. While the former can be defined as the basic, substantive content to be taught, the latter refers to a number of additional key concepts that are deemed fundamental to children's capacity to make meaningful sense of history. The study argues for due recognition to be given to temporality, in the belief that both sets of knowledge, the content and skills, are required to develop historical thinking (Lévesque, 2011). The study addresses a number of key research questions, using a mixed methods research design, comprising an analysis of history textbooks, a survey among final year student teachers about their teaching of history, and school-based interviews with primary school children: What opportunities are available for children to develop temporal ways of knowing? How do student teachers experience being apprenticed into the available culture for teaching history and understanding temporality at primary level? What insights do the cognitive-developmental and sociocultural perspectives on learning provide for understanding the dynamics of children’s temporal ways of knowing? The study argues that the skill of developing a deeper understanding of time is a key prerequisite in connecting with, and constructing, understandings and frameworks of the past. The study advances a view of temporality as complex, multi-faceted and developmental. The findings have a potential contribution to make in influencing policy and pedagogy in establishing an elaborated and well-defined curriculum framework for developing temporal cognition at both national and international levels.

Intersections: proceedings of the youth work and music education symposium

The ‘Intersections: Youth Work and Music Education’ Symposium took place on Friday, 27th June 2014 in University College Cork. This event, held in association with the Institute of Social Sciences in the 21st Century (ISS21), was made possible thanks to funding from UCC’s Strategic Research Fund. The principle aim of this seed funding is to generate new research interests and this presented the ideal opportunity for developing collaborative relationships between youth work and music education lecturers, researchers and practitioners across the island of Ireland. This led to the formation of a new ‘Intersections’ research cluster, comprising representatives from four third-level institutions, each of which offers both youth work and music education undergraduate and/or postgraduate programmes, namely: University College Cork; National University of Ireland, Maynooth; Dundalk Institute of Technology; and, University of Ulster. This document presents some preliminary findings from primary research conducted through each of the participating institutions in their local areas. Data was also collected during the symposium, through engaging in small group discussions populated by the event’s participants. The publication and dissemination of this document was included in the original Strategic Research Fund proposal. Its intended audience includes youth workers, music educators, community-based practitioners, policy-makers and academics who are motivated and enthused by the possibilities of music-oriented youth work in Ireland and beyond.

The implementation of a literacy intervention 'Station Teaching' in infant classes in Irish primary schools

Background: I conducted my research in the context of The National Literacy Strategy (DES, 2011), which maintains that every young person should be literate and it outlines targets for improving literacy in schools from 2011 to 2020. There has been much debate on the teaching of literacy and in particular the teaching of reading. Clark (2014) outlines how learning to read should be a developmental language process and that the approaches in the early years of schooling will colour the children’s motivation and their perception of reading as a purposeful activity. The acquisition of literacy begins in the home but this study focuses on the implementation of a literacy intervention Station Teaching in the infant classes in primary school. Station Teaching occurs when a class is divided into four or five small groups of pupils and they receive intensive tuition at four or five different Stations with the help of Support teachers: New Reading, Familiar Reading, Phonics, Writing and Oral Language. Research Questions: These research questions frame my study: How is Station Teaching implemented? What is the experience of the intervention Station Teaching from the participants’ point of view: teachers, pupils, parents? What notion of literacy is Station Teaching facilitating? Methods: I chose a pragmatic parallel mixed methods design as suggested by Mertens (2010). I collected and analysed both the quantitative and qualitative data to answer the study’s research questions. In the study the quantitative data were collected from a questionnaire issued to 21 schools in Ireland. I used Excel as a data management package and thematic analysis to analyse and present the data in themes. I collected qualitative data from a case study in a school. This data included observations of two classes over a period of a year; interviews with teachers, pupils and parents; children’s drawings, photographs, teachers’ diaries and video evidence. I analysed and presented the evidence from the qualitative data in themes. Main Findings: There are many skills and strategies that are essential to effective literacy teaching in the early years including phonological awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, comprehension and writing. These skills can be taught during Station Teaching. Early intervention in the early years is essential to pupils’ acquisition of literacy. The expertise of the teacher is key to improving the literacy achievement of pupils Teachers and pupils enjoy participating in ST. Pupils are motivated to read and engage in meaningful activities during ST. Staff collaboration is vital for ST to succeed ST facilitates small group work and teachers can differentiate accordingly while including all pupils in the groups. Pupils’ learning is extended in ST but extension activities need to be addressed in the Writing Station. More training should be provided for teachers on the implementation of ST and more funding for resources should be available to schools Significant contribution of the work: The main significance of the study includes: insights into the classroom implementation of Station Teaching in infant classes and extensive research into characteristics of an effective teacher of literacy.

A Jaworskian analysis of four senior class primary teachers endeavouring to teach mathematics from a constructivist-compatible perspective

A constructivist philosophy underlies the Irish primary mathematics curriculum. As constructivism is a theory of learning its implications for teaching need to be addressed. This study explores the experiences of four senior class primary teachers as they endeavour to teach mathematics from a constructivist-compatible perspective with primary school children in Ireland over a school-year period. Such a perspective implies that children should take ownership of their learning while working in groups on tasks which challenge them at their zone of proximal development. The key question on which the research is based is: to what extent will an exposure to constructivism and its implications for the classroom impact on teaching practices within the senior primary mathematics classroom in both the short and longer term? Although several perspectives on constructivism have evolved (von Glaserfeld (1995), Cobb and Yackel (1996), Ernest (1991,1998)), it is the synthesis of the emergent perspective which becomes pivotal to the Irish primary mathematics curriculum. Tracking the development of four primary teachers in a professional learning initiative involving constructivist-compatible approaches necessitated the use of Borko’s (2004) Phase 1 research methodology to account for the evolution in teachers’ understanding of constructivism. Teachers’ and pupils’ viewpoints were recorded using both audio and video technology. Teachers were interviewed at the beginning and end of the project and also one year on to ascertain how their views had evolved. Pupils were interviewed at the end of the project only. The data were analysed from a Jaworskian perspective i.e. using the categories of her Teaching Triad of management of learning, mathematical challenge and sensitivity to students. Management of learning concerns how the teacher organises her classroom to maximise learning opportunities for pupils. Mathematical challenge is reminiscent of the Vygotskian (1978) construct of the zone of proximal development. Sensitivity to students involves a consciousness on the part of the teacher as to how pupils are progressing with a mathematical task and whether or not to intervene to scaffold their learning. Through this analysis a synthesis of the teachers’ interpretations of constructivist philosophy with concomitant implications for theory, policy and practice emerges. The study identifies strategies for teachers wishing to adopt a constructivist-compatible approach to their work. Like O’Shea (2009) it also highlights the likely difficulties to be experienced by such teachers as they move from utilising teacher-dominated methods of teaching mathematics to ones in which pupils have more ownership over their learning.