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Full-Text Articles in Education

Inclusion And Belonging In Irish Higher Education For Black And Minority Ethnic Students, Fionnuala Darby Nov 2022

Inclusion And Belonging In Irish Higher Education For Black And Minority Ethnic Students, Fionnuala Darby

Articles

Using Critical Race Theory (CRT) as an analytical prism, this study interrogates the sense of belonging and inclusion experienced by Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) students on one higher education campus in Ireland. The most important story told within the study is as simple as it is complicated. The simple part is that the BME students felt that the campus was inclusive and that they experienced a sense of belonging. The complicated part is that the findings are premised in a normative assumption of whiteness as evidenced by numerous and incremental moments of exclusion in the daily experience of microaggressions, …


Why Parents Chose To Send Their Children To Irish-Medium Immersion Preschools: Learning From Parental Choice Strategies In Celtic Countries, Maire Mhic Mhathuna, Fiona Nic Fhionnlaoich May 2021

Why Parents Chose To Send Their Children To Irish-Medium Immersion Preschools: Learning From Parental Choice Strategies In Celtic Countries, Maire Mhic Mhathuna, Fiona Nic Fhionnlaoich

Articles

This study investigated the reasons Irish parents chose to send their children to Irish-medium preschools settings over other forms of early childhood education. The international literature on parental decision making regarding childcare and relevant studies on immersion education in Celtic countries were reviewed. A parental questionnaire, informed by this literature, was distributed through selected immersion settings in Ireland. Social and cognitive development were the main reasons parents cited in regard to early childhood education and an interest in the Irish language and bilingualism along with the good reputation of the immersion preschool were the reasons they chose immersion preschooling. Comparisons …


Parents' Experiences Of A Language-Focused Home Visiting Scheme In Ireland, Aisling Ni Dhiorbhain Dr, Maire Mhic Mhathuna, Padraig Ó Duibhir Dr Jan 2021

Parents' Experiences Of A Language-Focused Home Visiting Scheme In Ireland, Aisling Ni Dhiorbhain Dr, Maire Mhic Mhathuna, Padraig Ó Duibhir Dr

Articles

This article reports parents’ experiences of the Tús Maith (Good Start) home visiting scheme in South-West Ireland. The goal of Tús Maith is to support parents who wish to speak Irish to their children at home in the Kerry Gaeltacht, an Irish-speaking heartland area. Home visitors spend an hour a week, over a period of six weeks, interacting with children and parents with varying levels of competency in Irish. Home visitors who are native speakers of Irish, offer individualised guidance on how to promote the use of Irish as a home language, while encouraging families to engage in activities …


Interactions For Language Learning In And Around Virtual World, Ciara R. Wigham, Luisa Panichi, Susanna Nocchi, Randall Sandler Jan 2018

Interactions For Language Learning In And Around Virtual World, Ciara R. Wigham, Luisa Panichi, Susanna Nocchi, Randall Sandler

Articles

“… the new forms of interaction made possible by virtual worlds remain, to a significant degree, unexplored.” (Peterson, 2011: 78) “… immersion and interaction are necessary conditions of worldhood. Without them, virtual worlds would not be worlds at all.” (Zabel, 2014: 417) Since the mid-1990s, the pedagogical opportunities offered by three-dimensional (3D) virtual worlds (VWs) have generated a considerable amount of interest and dialogue among educators and educational researchers across a variety of disciplines. The potential of VWs for language learning and teaching did not go unnoticed by the CALL community: language educators and researchers began to explore and to …


Reflections On A Language Planning Project In Context, Maire Mhic Mhathuna, Cathy Kelleher Sep 2017

Reflections On A Language Planning Project In Context, Maire Mhic Mhathuna, Cathy Kelleher

Articles

The aim of this paper is to reflect in broad terms on issues which arose in the context of an early years language planning project in Irish-medium preschools (naíonraí) in the Irish-speaking (Gaeltacht) areas of the west of Ireland. Borradh Language Planning Project was commissioned in 2009 to provide guidance and planning templates for early years educators to develop the Irish language competency of children in their early years groups. Due to the changing language ecology of the Gaeltacht areas, many families now raise their children through both Irish and English and children enter the early years services with differing …


The Effects Of High Literacy Demands In Mathematics On International Students, Fiona Faulkner, Clare O'Hara, Mark Prendergast Jan 2016

The Effects Of High Literacy Demands In Mathematics On International Students, Fiona Faulkner, Clare O'Hara, Mark Prendergast

Articles

Project Maths is an ambitious reform of Irish post-primary education. It involves changes to what students learn in mathematics, how they learn it and how they will be assessed. There is a much greater emphasis placed on student understanding of mathematical concepts, with increased use of contexts and applications that will enable students to relate mathematics to their everyday experiences. The assessment reflects the different emphasis on problem solving and applications in the teaching and learning of mathematics and there is a much greater emphasis on reading and understanding the problems. Hence there is a greater emphasis on student’s English …


Supporting Children's Participation In Second Language Stories In An Irish Language Preschool, Maire Mhic Mhathuna Oct 2008

Supporting Children's Participation In Second Language Stories In An Irish Language Preschool, Maire Mhic Mhathuna

Articles

This paper considers how children learning a second language were supported as active participants during storytelling sessions in an Irish-language immersion preschool in Dublin. Audio-recordings and observations were made of the story sessions once a fortnight over a period of six months. The resulting transcripts were analysed from an interactionist perspective, recognising both the cognitive and social aspects of the process. The staff were also interviewed and a questionnaire was completed by the parents. The analysis showed that the practitioners provided support for the children through dynamic repeated readings of target books, scaffolded interactions, sufficient experience of storybook reading and …


Intercultural Books In Practice, Maire Mhic Mhathuna, Una Hill Jan 2008

Intercultural Books In Practice, Maire Mhic Mhathuna, Una Hill

Articles

This paper examines the practical use of intercultural and multicultural books in Early Years settings in the Irish context. Questionnaires were sent to seventy early years’ settings in the Dublin region, focusing on the criteria they used for selecting such books. These responses indicated that staff viewed inclusion, the story, age appropriateness, illustrations and the language of the books as being important. The practitioners’ responses are compared with the views of authors on diversity issues and similarities and differences identified. Overall there was a greater emphasis on children in the practitioners’ survey while the authors focused on issues. A list …


Shared And Mutual Knowledge In Language Learning, Marty Meinardi Jan 2007

Shared And Mutual Knowledge In Language Learning, Marty Meinardi

Articles

This article discusses the matter of shared knowledge from the perspective of the different deictic centres of understanding. Difficulties, which may result from a possible lack of a shared knowledge between NSs and NNSs due to differences in language experiences and personal backgrounds, are identified.


Don't Go There: When To Abandon Lesson Plans And Venture, Humbly, Into Ground Zero, Sue Norton May 2006

Don't Go There: When To Abandon Lesson Plans And Venture, Humbly, Into Ground Zero, Sue Norton

Articles

This paper discusses pedagogical styles that are appropriate in the classroom.