Merike Darmody

Full‐time students? Term‐time employment among higher education students in Ireland

A good deal of research has focused on part‐time employment among full‐time students in higher education. However, little attention has been paid to the way in which these patterns may reflect societally specific processes rather than universal trends. This paper examines ways in which the higher education system itself can influence variation in student employment, using the Republic of Ireland as a case study. The Irish case is interesting because of the presence of rapid economic growth side by side with marked increases in educational participation rates. This paper reports on a national survey of 3900 higher education students. It indicates the way in which employment levels vary according to course requirements and funding arrangements as well as socio‐demographic factors. In addition, the paper places student involvement in part‐time work in the context of their overall workload and its impact on levels of life satisfaction, an area largely neglected in international research. It is argued in this paper that inadequate policy attention to the changing profile of higher education students and appropriate financial support structures for students risks reinforcing inequalities among students.

Immigration and school composition in Ireland

In the last decade, Ireland has experienced a rapid increase in immigration on a scale previously unknown in the countrys history. Over this time, Ireland has been transformed to an increasingly heterogeneous country in terms of nationality, language, ethnicity and religious affiliation. These changes have also impacted on the composition of Irish schools. The article draws on data collected for a large-scale study of primary and second level school provision for immigrant students. The findings indicate the absence of the degree of school segregation found in many European countries, mainly due to the geographical dispersal of the immigrant population and the wide variety of national groups represented. However, the interaction between geographical location, parental choice of schools and school admissions criteria means that immigrant students are overrepresented in larger schools, schools located in urban areas and those with a socio-economically disadvantaged intake.

Acting Up or Opting Out? Truancy in Irish Secondary Schools

This paper explores the way in which truancy levels are structured by individual social class and the social mix of the school within the Republic of Ireland, where limited research is available on the relationship between truancy and student outcomes. Drawing on a national survey of young people, truancy levels were found to be higher among working‐class and Traveller students. In addition, truancy is more prevalent in predominantly working‐class schools, perhaps because young people see them as less supportive and more disorderly environments. The empirical analyses are situated within the context of the concepts of individual and institutional habitus as well as resistance theory. Our findings suggest the institutional habitus of the school is a strong factor in influencing truancy levels among young people. While truancy operates as a form of student resistance to the school system, it serves to reproduce social class inequalities since it is associated with more negative educational and labour market outcomes in the longer term.

Cumulative disadvantage? Educational careers of migrant students in Irish secondary schools

Recent rapid immigration of a diverse group of migrant children into an almost exclusively White Irish school population makes Ireland an interesting case study for migrant education. This article explores key points in the careers of migrant secondary school students in Ireland from an equality perspective. The article draws on data gathered as a part of a large-scale study specifically designed to investigate provision for migrant children in Irish schools. The results of the study show that migrant students in Ireland face a number of educational barriers in terms of access to schools, placement in classes, year groups and types of secondary school programme. This disadvantage is likely to impact on their future life-chances in terms of progress to further education and their place in the labour market, as well as their general social positioning in the Irish society.

Persistent absenteeism among Irish primary school pupils

A growing number of international studies document the importance of regular school attendance. There is a consensus among authors that absenteeism has negative implications for academic achievement as well as the social development of the child and may put them at a disadvantage in terms of their position in the education and labour market. Most of the existing studies have focused on school absenteeism among adolescents with studies on poor school attendance among young children relatively rare. This paper addresses this gap in research by exploring factors that are related to school absenteeism in Irish primary schools. Drawing on a nationally representative study of nine-year-olds, it demonstrates the complexity of the issue. The findings indicate that a combination of institutional and individual factors shape patterns of poor school attendance in Irish primary schools. While the data relate to the Irish situation, the paper raises a number of issues of interest to an international audience.

Changing Times, Changing Schools? Quality of Life for Students

Public opinion of the Irish educational system is broadly positive. The vast majority of the adult population report high levels of confidence in the educational system and the public are generally satisfied with the performance of schools and teachers (Fahey Hayes and Sinnott, 2005; Kellaghan et al., 2004). In fact, the strength of the educational system has been identified as a key factor in recent economic growth (Fitz Gerald, 2000). Public discussion has focused more on academic outcomes, especially examination grades, than on young people’s broader development. Perhaps paradoxically, given the level of public confidence in the system, the pursuit of academic grades would appear to be a driving force behind the increasing number of young people attending ‘grind’ schools and other fee-paying schools. The proportion of students going on to higher education has increasingly been used in newspaper reports as an indicator of a school’s ‘success’. But what impact do schools have on the actual quality of life of young people in contemporary Ireland? This question is all the more important given the significant transformation in the lives of Irish young people brought about by broader social and economic changes over the past 15 years. Economic growth since the 1990s has led to rising living standards within families and has meant a reshaping of the boundaries between work and school for young people. Teenagers have been given more autonomy within the family and increasing freedom in their social lives. Over fourfifths of young people are now staying on in school until Leaving Certificate level. To what extent has the school system responded to these changes? The 1970s and 1980s had seen the transformation of secondlevel education from one serving an elite group of students to a system of mass education.

An Introduction to Computerised Analysis of Qualitative Data.

Over the last two decades there has been an increase in the use of qualitative research, particularly in the human sciences. Such a move has resulted in an increasing number of researchers across disciplines using various types of qualitative software specially designed for managing text and facilitating analysis of qualitative data. However, we feel that limited information is available on the nature and practical use of these programmes in the Irish context. This has led to various misconceptions regarding the use of such programmes. In addition, international literature has highlighted the importance of making the qualitative research process more transparent in terms of describing in detail the analytical procedures applied in qualitative research. This article seeks to open up the debate surrounding qualitative data analysis and provoke discussion about the use of qualitative software packages in educational research. Based on a mixed-methods educational research project involving a substantive qualitative component, this article explores the joy and despair associated with using Qualitative Solutions Research (QSR) Non-numerical Unstructured Data: Indexing, Searching and Theorizing Version 6 (‘N6 software’), and aims to dispel some of the myths that exist around using such software.

Religious diversity in primary schools: reflections from the Republic of Ireland

Growing secularisation of the population and the arrival of new culturally and religiously diverse migrants are posing new challenges to schools in the Republic of Ireland (Ireland). These challenges are particularly acute in Irish primary schools, the majority of which are under Catholic patronage. Recent changes have necessitated an extensive consultation process about how to accommodate religious diversity and have resulted in some important policy changes. This article contributes to an ongoing debate about state-run denominational schools and the place of Religious Education in these. While set in the Irish context, the article is also relevant for educators and academics in other jurisdictions as it describes recent policy developments and steps taken in addressing cultural and religious diversity in schools.

New School, New System: The Experiences of Immigrant Students in Irish Schools

Since the exceptional economic growth of the last decade, Ireland has been transformed from a country of emigration to one of immigration, with a marked increase in the numbers of immigrant school-age children and young people. This chapter draws on data collected for a pioneering mixed methods study on school provision for immigrant students in Ireland, comprising both primary and secondary school sectors. It uses cultural transmission theory as a framework for examining the nature of interaction between immigrant students and Irish students and teachers. Immigrant students are found to occupy an ambiguous position: On the one hand, they are ‘outsiders’ with little familiarity of the nature of the Irish school system, while on the other hand, the highly educated profile of immigrant families means that they often possess the kinds of cultural capital valued by the school system.

Barriers to School Involvement

As is evident from the contributions throughout this book, Ireland’s social fabric has changed significantly in recent decades. While there has always been some degree of ethnic diversity in Ireland, since 2004 Irish immigration reform legislation opened the doors to many more ethnic minority families whose cultures, mother tongues and beliefs were vastly different from the majority culture. The immigrant and ethnic minority population arriving in Ireland has been diverse, with large groups arriving from the UK, Africa, Eastern Europe and elsewhere, resulting in over hundred different languages being spoken in the country. The economic situation of the new arrivals has also been the subject of a number of studies – while previous research has shown that many immigrants have high levels of education, there is now considerable evidence of immigrants not working in jobs commensurate with their skills in Ireland. It is also important to note here that there are no well-established ethnic communities or ethnic ‘enclaves’ in Ireland, hence the majority of the new arrivals have needed to adjust to the new society, largely without the help of established social networks.