This article focuses on an underexplored aspect of the Catholic convent school experience, namely the kinds of socialisation and regulation of emotion maintained within the convent community. Drawing on the emerging history of emotions and the concept of emotional communities first posited by Barbara H. Rosenwein, it considers how historians might…

The impact of State policy to combat educational disadvantage with two iterations of DEIS supports has had a positive influence the patterns of achievement among all social groups with some notable improvements across a range of indicators for students in DEIS schools. Notwithstanding these improvements, research and evaluations continue to…

Research on homework, particularly using qualitative approaches, is neglected in sociological literature. This qualitative study uses a Bourdieusian interpretive lens to explore parental homework practices in a middle-class, urban setting in Ireland. In-depth semi-structured interviews were held with six parents and six teachers of pupils aged…

This paper presents findings about teachers' and parents' perceptions of homework in a middle-class, primary school setting in Ireland, from a qualitative study that aimed to provide an insight into the neglected area of homework from the perspectives of two of the main stakeholders in the process. In-depth semi-structured interviews were…

The centrality of emotions in the personal and professional practice of school leaders is by now well established in scholarship. Much of the investigation that has been carried out over the years provides a strong basis and rationale for the data presented in this paper. This study sought to explore the extent to which the socio-economic context…

This paper draws on a three-year critical ethnography which interrogated intersections of social class, school and identity in an urban Irish community. The focus here is on the psycho-spatial disidentifications, inscriptions and class fractioning enacted throughout the school and community of Portown by a cohort of succeeding students from this…

This paper is a response to David Limond's exposition, "[An] historical culture ... rapidly, universally, and thoroughly restored"? British influence on Irish education since 1922, which appeared in "Comparative Education", Vol. 46, No. 4, November 2010, pp. 449-462. Limond's overall thesis is that "a post-colonial…

Young people in Irish schools are required to choose whether to sit secondary exam subjects at higher or ordinary level. This paper draws on a mixed methods longitudinal study of students in 12 case-study schools to trace the factors influencing take-up of higher level subjects within lower secondary education. School organisation and process are…

There is now a well developed literature on the impact of high stakes testing on teaching approaches and student outcomes. However, the student perspective has been neglected in much research. This article draws on a mixed method longitudinal study of secondary students in the Republic of Ireland to explore the impact of two sets of high stakes…

This paper explores the social class-differentiated behaviours of access and traditional-entry students, based on a three-year constructivist grounded theory study with 45 undergraduates at an Irish university. The participant groups behaved significantly differently within the socio-relational realm, engaging in various forms of distancing…

The prestige accorded to standard language varieties, particularly within the field of education, together with language management role of schools with respect to the variety and the extent to which linguistic differences construct discontinuous relationships between the school and specific social groups provide the rationale for this paper. This…

The recent decision by the Department of Education and Science in the Republic of Ireland to introduce the mandatory testing of children in Irish primary schools provides the broad context for this paper. This decision has particular implications for schools designated as disadvantaged. The main focus of this study is on identifying the strategies…

A number of countries, including Ireland, have experienced a recent growth in the prevalence of "shadow education", that is, paid private tuition outside the schooling system. Previous international studies have indicated that such tuition can enhance academic performance and facilitate access to tertiary education. However, such studies…

This article examines the network of women's colleges which emerged in Ireland in the latter half of the nineteenth century in response to women's exclusion from the realm of the university and their desire to participate in higher education. These colleges, run largely along denominational lines, were situated in the major cities with the…

While economic capital is not synonymous with cultural, social or symbolic capital in either its constitutional or organizational form, it nevertheless remains the more flexible and convertible form of capital. The convertibility of economic capital has particular resonance within "Celtic Tiger" Ireland. The states reluctance to fully…