Based on classroom observations and semi-structured interviews with teachers, parents and students, this comparative study looks at how social cohesion is promoted in Islamic Religious Education (IRE) lessons in Muslim schools in Ireland and non-faith schools in Finland. The study analyses teaching in the following areas: intra-religious cohesion;…

Without the study of culture, second language acquisition is not complete (Kramsch, 1993). Teaching about culture raises the learners' awareness of the target culture and compares it with the home culture, providing an intercultural competence (Ibid). Due to the growing number of immigrants in Ireland (CSO Ireland, 2017), there is also an…

Fostering skills development is one of the tenets of education. For a long time, the traditional binary teacher-student interaction was used as the sole approach to teaching and learning but it is now overwhelmingly regarded as insufficient. The present paper reports on an initiative based on the principles of peer learning. The discussion groups…

In a context of steadily increasing global migration, ethnic and linguistic diversity in Irish schools is becoming both more prevalent and more visible. In Ireland, schools have been availing of Department of Education and Science (DES) funding since 1999 in order to provide English-language support for bilingual students. The support provided in…

This paper considers the work of philosopher Maxine Greene as it pertains to the democratic project in education, with a particular focus on the Irish educational context. The author considers the extent to which specific aspects of the educational concerns raised by Greene, with respect to the realisation of the democratic project in the context…

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,"…