Arts partnerships involving teachers, artists and arts organizations continue to be popular as a means of delivering arts education. Acting as an intermediary between schools and artists, arts brokers can be crucial to the successful implementation of these partnerships. Characterized as individuals who can act as channels for innovative practice,…

With the inclusion of play as a right, schools are urged to consider whether "all" children can access play opportunities in schoolyards. Refocusing on play as occupation is identified as an important way in which occupational therapists can contribute within schools. Greater knowledges of children's play and teachers' practices, in…

Forest School, an experiential, nature-based pedagogy is attracting considerable interest in Ireland presently. This paper presents findings from the first national survey of Forest School pedagogy in Ireland, conducted in 2019-2020 as part of a larger study. The aim of the survey was to find out how Forest School pedagogy is understood by adults…

Injury and illness can occur in children. Since children spend a considerable amount of time in school, teachers must have the ability to assist when required. However, no research to date has examined Irish primary school teachers' experiences, training and knowledge in first aid. An online survey (n = 587) examined Irish male and female primary…

Purpose: Competence in fundamental movement skills (FMS) is purported to be linked with increased physical activity participation. Yet, recent research suggests a low level of FMS proficiency in children. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy, impact on gender, and influence of teacher fidelity on the Moving Well-Being Well…

The COVID-19 pandemic is an event that will be written about in history, given its impact on life across the globe, on ways of working, on mortality rates and on day to day living. How schools undertook their work changed across the pandemic, as school buildings both in Ireland and across the world closed for long periods of time. In this…

"Musical Futures" is an approach to music education grounded in the principles of informal learning. Research has shown that "Musical Futures" has profoundly impacted teaching and learning in music, pupil engagement and educational strategies for music (Green, Lucy. 2002. "How Popular Musicians Learn: A Way Ahead for Music…

In the Republic of Ireland, primary school teaching is a very attractive profession with pay being above the OECD average (Heinz and Keane 2018; Hennessey and Lynch 2017). This paper investigates how the Department of Education Inspectorate and the Teaching Council of Ireland position primary school teacher professionalism. The paper presents the…

The focus of this study is to investigate if a physical activity initiaitive (The Daily Mile) centred on running could be adapted to enhance primary school children's enjoyment of and engagement with physical activity. An intervention took place over a 4-week period consisting of two components: The Daily Mile and an adapted component, The Extra…

This is a small-scale qualitative participatory research study conducted in two large primary schools in Ireland with classes for autistic students. The paper reports how a menu of immersive technology learning experiences was thoughtfully designed and employed with autistic children who were communicating through their behavior an aversion to the…

This study describes the initial implementation of the writing component of the "Write to Read" ("W2R") literacy intervention in eight low-SES (socio-economically disadvantaged) elementary-level urban schools. Through customised onsite professional development provided by coaches, the writing component sought to build teachers'…

This exploratory study aimed to assess the strength of primary school students' (aged 11-12 years old) Science Self-Efficacy (SSE) beliefs, identify emanating sources, and investigate any gender-related differences. School SSE is defined here as perceived capacity to complete learning outcomes from the upper Irish primary science curriculum. The…

National policy initiatives in Ireland, such as Project Maths and the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Education Policy Statement have sought to increase the engagement and performance of students in mathematics and science. The current study investigated the performance of students in Ireland in these areas and in reading…

Purpose: This research seeks to explore the potential of Lesson Study as a vehicle to support professional development (PD) in a rural, Irish primary school. Lesson Study was utilised to design and implement integrated STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) lessons with young children (ages 4-7 years). Design/methodology/approach:…

This paper presents the lived experience of a practitioner researcher working as a teacher educator engaging in action research with primary pre-service teachers (PSTs). Aligning with the work of Cook (2009) ['The Purpose of Mess in Action Research: Building Rigour Though a Messy Turn.' "Educational Action Research" 17 (2): 277-291] this…