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questionnaires. At best it can be tentatively suggested that the people who responded to the
survey demonstrated an interest in either an Irish dimension, the history curriculum as a whole
or at least had some sympathy with educational research.
Several issues identified in the Pilot Study led to modifications of the questionnaire in
subsequent case studies. Firstly, the context section in case studies 2-5 distinguished between
church and state schools. Secondly, the headings in some attitudinal questions were modified
to make them clearer. Thirdly, a British dimension was included after the pilot study. Initially,
this had been excluded because it was felt that it would have different meanings to different
people. On reflection it was felt that it would be useful to compare this with Irish and
multicultural dimensions. Appendix II shows the questionnaire schedule sent to Heads of
History in secondary schools. The schedule sent to History Co-ordinators in primary schools
was modified to relate to the anticipated impact of the organisation in primary schools on
responses. The questions sent to History Co-ordinators were also streamlined following initial
difficulties in getting responses. Finally, questions related to the resources, such as QCA
schemes and textbooks were made more specific in Case Studies 2-5.
Interviews
The major organisational consideration with respect to interviews was deciding who to
interview, how to group them and how far the same approach was appropriate for different
groups (refer to Table 2). It was relatively easy to identify ‘movers and shakers’ as most of
them were involved in key curriculum developments or they were linked to teachers in the
case studies. All teachers were volunteers on the assumption that they would have more to
contribute than a random sample, for example. In the case of the Pilot Study all seven people