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The interviewee taught Ireland as the Modern World Study within the GCSE School History
Project course. However, its selection was primarily for pragmatic reasons - it was regarded
as easier to teach than other options. The interviewee particularly noted the fact that they
would not know how to begin teaching about the Arab-Israeli conflict with the Muslim pupils
in the school. They felt that the availability of resources, especially websites, was an
important reason for teaching the course. They noted that if something significant happened in
Ireland at the time they were teaching the course, this proved helpful for their teaching.
However, they did not refer to the background of the pupils as a reason for undertaking this
particular course. In retrospect it is difficult to determine whether this was because they had
already mentioned it with respect to Key Stage 3 or if different considerations operated at Key
Stage 4. When asked about additional factors supporting or inhibiting the development of an
Irish dimension, the interviewee cited time and quality of resources at Key Stage 3 were
constraints. They felt that pupils at Key Stage 3 were neither particularly interested nor hostile
to it. This may be an issue given that the presence of Irish community presence in the school
was a reason for including it. The interviewee noted that some parents felt that their pupils
had become very interested in the course when they studied it at Key Stage 4 and it
encouraged them to watch the news. Nevertheless, for many pupils they felt that the response
was less enthusiastic:
They find it difficult. The concepts and the religion, and they are politically literate
and they find it unbelievably difficult, but I think when we evaluate it at the end, it’s
not the thing they like the least.
This related to wider issues related to both Citizenship and History with respect to teaching
Political Literacy. Overall, an Irish dimension related to broad multicultural considerations at
Key Stage 3, although the significance of this must not be overemphasised. At Key Stage 4
the only thing that can be said for certain was that it was regarded as an easier option than