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CHAPTER 3
THE IRISH DIMENSION WITHIN THE HISTORY CURRICULUM:
TEACHER PERCEPTIONS THROUGH QUESTIONNAIRES
Exploring an Irish dimension in the curriculum raises a number of research questions that can
be explored through using questionnaires. For example, what are teachers’ perceptions of the
importance of an Irish dimension within the history curriculum? How does this compare with
other dimensions? Is there any correlation between an Irish dimension and a multicultural
dimension? Is an Irish dimension more significant in Roman Catholic schools where there
may be direct links with the Irish community? Is there evidence of particular involvement in
Irish history related projects? This chapter will explore these questions through five
questionnaire case studies.
The context of each case study will be considered before examining the findings. This will
indicate the professional role of the teachers who completed the questionnaire. Thereafter they
will be referred to as ‘respondents’ to provide greater clarity in the subsequent analysis. The
first part of the chapter will compare responses from three secondary school case studies. The
findings from the secondary case studies will then be compared with case studies of teachers
working in primary schools. Towards the end of the chapter a series of tentative ‘fuzzy
generalisations’ will be made on the basis of the findings. Finally, data from the
questionnaires will be used to establish criteria for selecting interviewees for the next stage of
the research.