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The last question provided respondents with the opportunity to add any observations or
comments. No respondents in the first case study made any comment. One respondent in the
second case study who taught Ireland as part of their GCSE School History Project course felt
that the coursework was too difficult for most schools to undertake it. The third cases
provided three responses to this question. Two respondents indicated that they were interested
in developing an Irish dimension in their curriculum; of these one indicated that they were
Irish and the other had studied Irish history at university. The third respondent taught in an
international school and wrote that they were committed to developing diversity within their
curriculum.
Stage 2: Primary school responses
Case Studies 4 and 5 provided responses from primary school teachers. Both case studies
proved to be problematic. The difficulties associated with getting responses have been
considered in the Methodology Chapter. Case Study 4 took place at the Historical Association
Conference in May 2004. Only 13 out of 58 (22%) questionnaires were returned and they
cannot provide anything approaching a representative sample of the people attending the
conference. However, they still provide an insight into the perceptions of a few teachers
working in very different contexts. Given the small size of this case study its responses have
not been converted to percentages but Appendix IX shows three categories of responses and
the mode for each question. Only three respondents indicated that they had responsibility for
co-ordinating history, while four indicated that they were class teachers, two co-ordinated
English, one co-ordinated Physical Education and Geography, one was a Key Stage 2 leader
and one was an Advanced Skills History Teacher. Nine respondents taught in Local Authority
schools, one in a Church of England school and three in private schools. The age ranges