This paper draws on an Irish government-commissioned study of parents' views about the sexualisation and commercialisation of children. We examine how parents understand 'sexualisation' qualitatively, through their evoking of past, present and future images of childhood. The data underlines how sexualisation becomes rationalised as something to…

Background: Parents of children with intellectual or developmental disabilities have unique challenges in navigating the developmental period of adolescence. The present study explored the experiences of parents connected with disability services throughout the island of Ireland of parenting their child during adolescence. Method: Five focus…

The everyday lives of children with disabilities are not well understood, with few studies exploring how participation in everyday life is conceptualized and given meaning. The overall aims of this study were, first, to explore parental views of their children's participation and, second, to identify barriers and facilitators in relation to…

The "Exploring Masculinities" (EM) programme was piloted in 22 Irish single-sex boys' post-primary schools during the late 1990s. Following objections from some influential journalists and an organisation representing parents whose sons attended Catholic secondary schools, the Minister for Education and Science put the planned…

This paper outlines research that was conducted among students, parents, teachers and senior management teams in six secondary schools in the Greater Dublin area of Ireland. The research involved semi-structured interviews and observations. The findings of this research are significant in that it was the first time any data had been gathered on…