This article presents a computational approach to examining immigrant incorporation through shifts in the social "mainstream." Analyzing a historical corpus of American etiquette books, texts from 1922-2017 describing social norms, we identify mainstream shifts related to long-standing groups which once were and may currently still be…

Previous studies suggest that family members of people with intellectual disabilities prefer them to move to supervised living arrangements such as group homes. In Ireland, personalised arrangements are emerging, but families have had little exposure to this option. In this qualitative study, we explored the perspectives of family members…

This paper revisits and reanalyses data from a study carried out in the further education and training sector in the Republic of Ireland to investigate (1) how adults access and participate in numeracy courses and (2) how adult numeracy provision might support active citizenship. We analysed 45 interviews with adult education providers, adult…

This is the first empirical study to explore the ways different types of primary school in the Republic of Ireland integrate children from diverse religious backgrounds. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with principals and teachers, the article focuses on the role of ethos and leadership in the integration processes in one denominational…

This research sought to investigate the experiences of students from low socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds who chose to attend socioeconomically integrated secondary schools in Ireland. Socioeconomic integration is the practice whereby students from varying socioeconomic backgrounds are integrated into heterogeneous school settings in order…

Despite efforts in Ireland to increase the number of part-time students in Higher Education, there was limited growth over twenty years 1997-2017. Part-time featured in widening participation strategies; however, this mode of learning has orientated towards employability. Retention of part-time students remains a problem for Higher Education. This…

This report projects Northern Ireland's skills base through to 2030 and compares this to a number of Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. The report shows that on current trends Northern Ireland will continue to lag many other countries on a number of measures of learning and skills in 2030. These shortfalls can…

This paper describes a research project investigating language and intercultural support for adult Syrian refugees in Ireland under the Irish Refugee Protection Programme (IRPP). Learning the language of the host community has been identified as a crucial factor in resettlement satisfaction for adult refugees, with particular difficulties reported…

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…

Student-faculty interactions are a component of social integration, a key concept in Tinto's theory of student persistence which has received empirical support. However, the influence of social integration for commuting students has been questioned. Furthermore, student-faculty interactions in the classroom are under-researched and arguably…

This article explores the ethos of multi-denominational primary schools in the context of increasing cultural and religious diversity in the Republic of Ireland. In particular, it investigates how the official ethos is played out in day-to-day school interactions. The mixed-methods study draws on data collected from 11 community national schools…

This article reports on a survey (n=573) of international students who were attending one of a group of five higher education institutes (HEIs) in the south of Ireland. This study sought to identify what knowledge these students had about their host country before coming to Ireland. In this study, we also attempted to identify what aspects of…

This publication focuses on some of the unique characteristics and challenges concerning the provision of education in prison, including: the emergence of an informal curriculum; language tuition in prison; access to higher education; the availability of library facilities; digital literacy; civic engagement and social (re)integration; and prison…