Conceptualisations and constructs of children and childhood are temporally and contextually grounded. Historical documents are rich sources of insight and understanding regarding how children were understood, valued and treated at various times by particular societies. This article explores the conceptualisation of children and childhood in the…

In recent years, there have been valuable studies of medical education that have highlighted the importance of shared educational activities and the changing image of the student. Less attention has been paid to how masculine ideals were passed on to students and how educational and extra-curricular spheres became sites for the maintenance of…

To date no major study exists on the impact of the Great Famine on patterns of participation in superior education in Ireland, or on the impact of superior education on the life courses and inheritance potential of boys from small farming families. This paper provides a historical analysis and interpretation of patterns of participation in…

The overall aim of the study was to gather evidence on effective policy reforms for broad competence development in school education, including better achievement of basic skills. The six key objectives are: Objective 1: To understand the key features of policy design and implementation of reforms for broad competence development and achievement…

This article explores the connections between official contemporary identity formation and colonial pasts. Using the case studies of India and Ireland the article explores how different traditions of theorisation are powerful in these formations. India and Ireland were two colonial domains that had many linkages outside the ambit of the British.…

Philanthropy in Irish higher education has an interesting historical reference point, with the role Atlantic Philanthropies played in steering the agenda for philanthropy in higher education institutions. To investigate the question of philanthropic culture in Ireland, this research draws on policy documents and academic literature related to…

This essay argues for the development of a research agenda on the comparative history of Catholic education internationally from the nineteenth century to the present. This requires, in the first instance, the production of a series of individual-country case studies, concentrating on relations between the Catholic Church and the particular state…

This paper uses Ireland--one of Europe's most rapidly changing societies--as a case study and examines progress towards an inclusive education system. It explores policy and progress on developing an inclusive system under a number of key headings: social class, ethnicity, gender and disability. On the basis of analysis of official statistics and…

This case study describes a 20-year journey of educational transformation from 1985 to 2005 in a bellwether, or highly developed, instance of one school, family, and community partnership--the Kileely Community Project--situated in a large social housing project in Limerick City in the Midwestern region of the Republic of Ireland. The study is a…

The article provides a history of the status of preservice and inservice teacher education in Ireland from the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922 to the present, noting the role of educational research. It also examines the relationship of teacher education and educational research, focusing on six related themes. (SM)

Research problems and issues of concern to educators in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland are discussed in 21 papers. Papers fall into the general categories of educational history and current practices. Papers in the first category cover the following topics: a history of the Education Inquiry of 1824-1826, the "hedge" or…

This volume contains papers submitted to the 11th Annual International Conference of the Bulgarian Comparative Education Society (BCES), held in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, 14-17 May 2013, and papers submitted to the 1st International Distance Partner Conference, organized by the International Research Centre "Scientific Cooperation,"…

In this report, the role of women's community education in combating poverty and disadvantage in Ireland over the past 10 years was examined, and future directions for policy and practice were suggested. The following data collection approaches were used: literature and policy document reviews; case studies involving regional workshops with…