View - eTheses Repository - University of Birmingham

• Contributes towards the teaching of citizenship, mutual understanding, ethnic
and cultural diversity and British history by helping to extend the curriculum
beyond the Anglo-centric focus of most published resources.
• Promotes current developments in the curriculum including the primary and
secondary National Strategies and the needs of the child.
• Enhances potential by developing thinking skills, links with English, including
historical fiction, and a range of creative approaches from drama to dance.
This suggests that despite its independence the organisation seeks to work within the
initiatives set by government as a means of integrating an Irish dimension into the school
curriculum. Ireland in Schools supports both primary and secondary schools by producing
curriculum materials such as booklets, CD ROMS and, more recently, through its website.
The chairperson, an academic historian and former Director of Irish Studies at Liverpool
University, is the driving force behind the organisation’s work. Given their role they could be
easily identified and permission was given to name them that dealt with ethical issues
highlighted within the BERA (2004) guidelines. However, this is an issue which appears in
several chapters, and in order to provide at least partial privacy to interviewees and also to
focus on their perceptions rather than their identities it has been decided to avoid naming
interviewees. Although the work produced by the interviewees is available on the Ireland in
Schools website it will not be cited directly within this research. The only exceptions will be
two interviewees who independently made reference to their work in the public domain
through their publications.
This chapter will investigate the Ireland in Schools project’s work by examining the
perceptions of its chairperson together with mini case studies of clusters of teachers and
curriculum advisers who have supported its work. It is appropriate to state that the researcher
has known the chairperson since 1998 and developed materials for Ireland in Schools. This