In the Republic of Ireland, the Department of Children and Youth Affairs recommends implementing play-based learning in early education curricula. This research study set out to explore the following research question: What are pre-school teachers' beliefs, understandings and uses of play-based approaches to develop language and literacy skills in…

Citizen Development (CD) is a method of delivering low-code no-code (LCNC) development that empowers subject matter experts to design, develop, and deploy applications into production as though they were full-on, experienced coders. This paper explores teachers' perceptions around the potential for, and enactment of LCNC in our education system.…

This paper offers guidance on employing open and creative methods for co- designing critical data and artificial intelligence (AI) literacy spaces and learning activities, rooted in the principles of Data Justice. Through innovative approaches, we aim to enhance participation in learning, research and policymaking, fostering a comprehensive…

Over 60 years of technology development, transformation of educational policy and curriculum innovation in Ireland have resulted in the introduction of the Computer Science (CS) subject in Post-Primary (PP) Education. CS has always been conceived digitally and the Digital Learning Experiences (DLE) enacted through its curriculum are strongly…

As burgeoning twenty-first century technologies have enabled new ways of reading, writing and communicating, conceptions of literacy have changed -- and English curricula internationally have been modified to include "new literacy skills." Second-level English teachers, however, report needing more guidance in incorporating the teaching…

In recent decades, higher education institutions around the world have come to depend on complex digital infrastructures. In addition to registration, financial, and other operations platforms, digital classroom tools with built-in learning analytics capacities underpin many course delivery options. Taken together, these intersecting digital…

This discussion paper focuses on the purpose of, and vision for, Irish primary science education prior to the redevelopment and publication of the primary science curriculum in 2024. Scientific literacy is broadly accepted as the goal of science education. Despite this, curricular analysis focusing on scientific literacy in Europe is scarce. There…

Religious Education in Ireland over the past two decades has achieved a new status in the publicly funded schools at the secondary (high school) level. This has happened largely because it has become examinable and is now a subject like any other. In this process however, it has tended to become too much like other subjects sharing their…

Irish science education is aiming to develop post-primary students' knowledge of and about science through the introduction of 'nature of science' (NOS) in the new junior cycle science specification. This study aimed to investigate pre-service science teachers' views about a particular aspect of NOS, namely the aims and values of science. Aims and…

Via diverse content including programmes, songs and child-led social media channels, children are constantly exposed to commercially funded messages encouraging purchase behaviour. While there is no definitive agreement that advertising to children is detrimental to their wellbeing (Rowthorn, 2019), there is an enduring concern over the unintended…

Teachers are increasingly integrating ICT into formal education (McKnight et al. "Journal of Research on Technology in Education," 48(3), 194-211, 2016), helping to incorporate technologies in learning and teaching. However, an important expectation relating to ICT integration is that Initial Teacher Educators model their own practice as…

Opportunities to deploy digital technologies to research agendas and active learning in tertiary education are becoming more widespread. Despite this, many research techniques are still taught using traditional "pen-and-paper" methodologies. In this article, we report on a strategy for integrating mobile technology into our large (275+)…

How do we teach and learn with our students about data literacy, at the same time as Biesta (2015) calls for an emphasis on 'subjectification' i.e. 'the coming into presence of unique individual beings'? (Good Education in an Age of Measurement: Ethics, Politics, Democracy. Routledge) Our response to these challenges and the datafication of higher…

This article elucidates a participatory design process in which a prototype iBook was embedded within the context of secondary science classrooms through multiple interventions. The fundamental design intention of the iBook is to increase students' ocean literacy in a curriculum that lacks marine science. Two e-learning ecologies were identified…

This article examines the development of a bespoke primary source literacy module for the study of childhood in Ireland. The BA (Children's Studies) at National University of Ireland Galway is a unique interdisciplinary degree that equips students with a theoretical and practical understanding of the lives of children and childhood today. The…