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more credited it with some importance. Within this last group there were slightly more
respondents from Roman Catholic than Local Authority schools.
How did respondents’ perceptions of an Irish dimension compare with their attitude towards
other historical dimensions? Both Case Studies 4 and 5 suggest that primary respondents gave
lower ratings for all dimensions than was the case with secondary respondents. This can even
be seen in the responses given to English history and British history. Appendix IX indicates
that in Case Study 4 only seven out of 13 respondents rated English history and British history
as important for their teaching. Ten respondents considered English history as important at
Key Stage 2 but only four gave this rating at Key Stage 1. Scottish and Welsh dimensions
were given similar ratings to an Irish dimension. Most respondents did not regard them as
important, although Scottish history had a more positive mode than Irish history for Key
Stage 2.
Table 8: A Comparison between the perceptions of an Irish dimension in Roman Catholic
and Local Education Authority school respondents in Case Study 5
Perceptions
Frequency of Mode ratings
Mode ratings N/A Low Some Imp Total
IRISH HISTORY DIMENSION
Perception of an Irish History dimension in their own teaching
RC responses 3 14 3 2 22
LEA responses 0 24 2 0 26
All responses 3 38 5 2 48
Perception of an Irish dimension at Key Stage 2