In recent decades, it has become the case that leaving school early may no longer be the conclusion of one's educational experiences, with more alternative educational spaces for disenfranchised learners becoming accessible. This qualitative study examines the experiences of 14 young adults in Ireland who, having left their mainstream school prior…

Across Europe, assumptions are often made within the academic literature and by some social commentators that students have come to understand the purpose of higher education (HE) in increasingly instrumental terms. This is often linked to processes of marketisation and neo-liberalisation across the Global North, in which the value of HE has come…

Migration across the OECD this decade is reflected in increasingly diverse societies. Although migration into Ireland remains relatively low, increasing pupil diversity is evident in the physical, pedagogical, curricular, and socio-relational aspects of schooling. While the intensity of such changes are evident in teacher pedagogy, children's…

Volunteering among university students is an important expression of civic engagement, but the impact of this experience on the development of emerging adults requires further contextualization. Adopting interpretative phenomenological analysis as a qualitative research approach, we carried out semistructured interviews with 10 students of one…

Since 2004-05 first year students at the School of Environmental Sciences, Ulster University have engaged with senior student tutors (SSTs) in workshop activities aimed at preparations for their written examinations. Using a pedagogical action research methodology we evaluated the role of SSTs in bridging the experiential learning gap between…

A qualitative study examined the impact of training provided by the Education Studies Department in Dublin City University on adult educators in the sector. It investigated whether courses had an effect on their professional lives as educators within their individual centers and on their own lives as adult students in a formal university setting.…