Merike Darmody

Economic and Social Research Institute | ESRI · Social Research

There is a growing body of research on participation in shadow education (SE), reflecting the global growth of this sector. However, less is known about the topic from an intersectional perspective. Drawing on TIMSS 2019 and PISA 2012 data for European countries, this paper explores the way in which social background, gender and migration backgroun...

This article uses two longitudinal cohort studies (Growing Up in Ireland and the National Educational Panel Study) to examine how shadow education relates to academic performance in Ireland and Germany. Patterns of take-up of, and outcomes from, shadow education are found to reflect the particular country context—aimed at maintaining performance to...

Ireland’s cultural identity has transformed significantly in the past few decades as a result of large-scale inward migration. Consequently, the creation of culturally responsive school environments has become a major concern in policy discourses in recent years. Despite the prevalence of such discourses, research on the cultural responsiveness of...

Worldwide, HEIs strive to provide the best possible training for their PGRs, the next generation of researchers. PGRs engagement is crucial for a successful completion of their training, however, research on the experiences of PGRs is limited. Moreover, the number of international PGRs has increased steadily over the last decade, which poses the qu...

Õppeedukus on üks peamistest näitajatest, mille põhjal ennustada edasist töist edu. Samas on varasemad uuringud näidanud, et paljudes riikides on rändetaustaga lastel keeruline saavutada emakeeles haridust omandavate eakaaslastega samaväärseid õpitulemusi. Hoolimata hariduspürgimustest võib rändetaustaga vanematel olla keeruline oma sotsiaalset ja...

Educational achievement is one of the key indicators of labour market success, yet previous research shows that in many countries, children from immigrant backgrounds struggle to match their native peers in terms of achievement. Despite high educational aspirations, migrant parents may struggle to "convert" their social and cultural capital to supp...

The internationalisation of the population of Ireland in recent decades has created a more culturally diverse society. Hence teachers need to have the necessary skills to teach in ethno-culturally diverse classrooms. In addition, teachers need to have required tools and knowledge to teach in increasingly multicultural classrooms. This article looks...

Existing research paints a mixed picture of how international students fare academically following a transition to a host higher education institution. Most studies that have examined differences between domestic and international students’ engagement treated international students as a homogenous group. Less evidence is available on the experience...

COVID-19 has resulted in a global public health crisis. Measures adopted by governments across the world to reduce transmission have resulted in the closure of educational institutions and workplaces and reduced social interaction. The aim of the article is to reflect on the consequences of the COVID-19 global pandemic for the lives of young people...

Internationalization of higher education has increased the diversity of the student body at higher education institutions. There is evidence that the experiences of international students vary according to their region of origin, but trends on a larger scale remain underexamined. Drawing on Eurostudent VI data from the Republic of Ireland, this art...

The "Monitoring Report on Integration 2020" is the latest in a series of reports on how non-Irish nationals fare compared to Irish nationals, in terms of key life domains: employment, education, social inclusion, and active citizenship. The data is pre-pandemic, but the companion report 'COVID-19 AND NON-IRISH NATIONALS IN IRELAND' assesses the ear...

Socio-emotional development is increasingly recognised as playing a central role in children’s academic achievement. However, little is known about the socio-emotional development of language-minority children on entry to school and how these children fare in comparison to their language-majority peers. To address this gap, longitudinal data on the...

International research has highlighted the crucial role of schools in the integration of children. Schools reflect and transmit dominant cultural norms both explicitly through the curriculum and implicitly. In this context immigrant students are found to often occupy an ambiguous position within the Irish educational system, whether as ‘outsiders’...

This article examines the post-school pathways of Russian-speaking students in Ireland after completing secondary education; the importance of personal and institutional factors in shaping their transition process, and the role of parents and schools in achieving the post-school goals. The article draws on the qualitative exploratory study of 14 Ru...

1. REFUGEE CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE IN IRELAND: POLICIES AND PRACTICES INTRODUCTION The social change experienced by Ireland is remarkable in comparison with other Western countries in that it transformed from a country of emigration and declining population in the 1980s due to weak economy and high rates of unemployment to a prosperous country e...

Childhood studies place emphasis on children’s agency, their ability to understand their own world and act upon it. Children actively participate in meaningful social interactions in both formal and informal settings. Considering recent large-scale migration in Ireland, it is vital to understand how children interact in an increasingly diverse worl...

Much of the existing research on educational outcomes among immigrant-origin children has been conducted in “old” immigrant-receiving countries. This chapter focuses instead on how immigrant-origin children and youth fare in a country, the Republic of Ireland, where large-scale immigration is a more recent phenomenon. What makes this case of partic...

This article explores the ethos of multi-denominational primary schools in the context of increasing cultural and religious diversity in the Republic of Ireland. In particular, it investigates how the official ethos is played out in day-to-day school interactions. The mixed-methods study draws on data collected from 11 community national schools fo...

This article seeks to provide an insight into the role of school principals dealing with newly multicultural and multi-faith student populations by drawing on a mixed-methods study on state-funded multi-denominational community national schools in Ireland. The study explores the extent to which school principals address the increasing social and cu...

Ireland’s demographic profile has changed significantly in the past 20 years, being now characterised by increasing cultural, ethnic and religious diversity. However, primary schooling in Ireland has remained highly denominational, mostly Roman Catholic, in nature, with a small number of minority faith schools and multi-denominational schools. This...

Over the last decades, migration across Europe has continued to increase. Consequently, offering educational support for migrant students in the schools of host countries has been an extensively debated issue across Europe and further afield, especially in countries with a history of immigration. However, less is known about how education systems i...

In recent years, the children of immigrants have become an integral part of the Irish national tapestry. This article sheds light on their social engagement outside the formal education system by exploring sports and cultural participation among the children of immigrants. Participating in sport, fitness and cultural pursuits provides children and...

This paper explores student mobility among Irish higher education students. It specifically focuses on the profile of ‘stayers’, that is, students who have no plans to study abroad, thus addressing an underexplored topic in existing literature on student mobility. The article aims to identify factors that impact on students’ decisions not to pursue...

Growing ethnic and religious diversity1 in Europe poses both opportunities and challenges to Europe- an policy-makers and societies as a whole. It is expected that this diversity will continue to increase. At the same time, recent studies show that intolerance and social exclusion are increasing, with some mi- grant groups feeling alienated. This i...

Growing ethnic and religious diversity1 in Europe poses both opportunities and challenges to Europe- an policy-makers and societies as a whole. It is expected that this diversity will continue to increase. At the same time, recent studies show that intolerance and social exclusion are increasing, with some mi- grant groups feeling alienated. This i...

The Irish government has invested significantly in the provision of high-speed broadband to all second-level schools in the country, as part of Ireland's digital strategy. In many cases this initiative represents a significant upgrade from a slow and often unreliable broadband connection that has inhibited the use of ICT within education. However,...

Download book from: https://www.esri.ie/publications/cherishing-all-the-children-equally-children-in-ireland-100-years-on-from-the-easter-rising/

The internationalisation of higher education – a facet of broader processes of globalisation – has resulted in increased study-related travel, and the development of policies to attract international students. Nevertheless, in the context of a strong drive to recruit international students, little is known about how they are faring during their stu...

This report provides an in-depth examination of a new approach to teacher induction in primary and secondary schools in Ireland. Introduced in 2013, Droichead is a structured mentoring programme delivered by experienced teaching staff for newly qualified teachers, combining professional support with performance assessment. Undertaken for the Teachi...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the factors associated with occupational stress and job satisfaction among Irish primary school principals. A principal’s job has become increasingly demanding and complex in recent decades. However, there is little current research into their levels of stress and job satisfaction, particularly base...

Large scale and rapid immigration to Ireland has significantly changed the face of the country. Recent Census figures show that, despite the economic recession, migration to Ireland is continuing, albeit at a slower pace. In addition, contrary to popular belief, many migrants have decided to make Ireland their home and have applied for citizenship....

This book examines the treatment of cultural and religious diversity - indigenous and immigrant - on both sides of the Irish border in order to analyse the current state of tolerance, and the kinds of policies that may support integration while respecting diversity. While it is sometimes argued that in contemporary societies we need to go ‘beyond t...

Abstract: Educational achievement is a key indicator of labour market success and other post-school outcomes. This success is unequally distributed across different groups of children, including those from immigrant backgrounds. The impact of parents’ and their children’s cultural capital on student grades and educational ambitions has been identif...

The School Completion Programme (SCP) aims to have a significant positive impact on levels of student retention in primary and secondary schools in Ireland. This report draws on a survey of SCP coordinators and chairpersons, in-depth case-studies of local clusters and interviews with key stakeholders to review the programme in terms of the students...

Migration to Ireland is continuing, albeit at a much slower pace, and migrant children continue to have a strong presence in Irish schools. How well these students integrate into the Irish education system depends, at least partially, on the support measures the schools have put in place for them. This article draws on the results of a large-scale...

Growing secularisation of the population and the arrival of new culturally and religiously diverse migrants are posing new challenges to schools in the Republic of Ireland (Ireland). These challenges are particularly acute in Irish primary schools, the majority of which are under Catholic patronage. Recent changes have necessitated an extensive con...

Internationally there is now a growing body of research on student school engagement. Much of this research highlights the association of school engagement with a range of social, behavioural and academic outcomes. Less attention is paid to factors predicting disaffection among young children across various dimensions using nationally representativ...

With the student body across Europe becoming more diverse, the issue of religious education in schools has come to receive greater attention. In the context of the specific historical and institutional context of the Irish primary educational system, this paper addresses aspects of the religious and moral formation of primary school children. The m...

The chapter analyses children’s perspectives of parental transnational job migration in Estonia focusing specifically on family borders and wholeness. Based on an original study carried out in 2010 among 239 sixth grade students, the findings demonstrate that children associate a labour-migrant parent with negative emotions; a feeling of separation...

A growing number of studies are focussing on how different kinds of borders impact the everyday lives of people. Existing studies deal with borders between home and school, work and family, geographical, cultural, linguistic, religious and sociological borders, to name but a few. There is now also a substantial body of research on migration within...

A growing number of international studies document the importance of regular school attendance. There is a consensus among authors that absenteeism has negative implications for academic achievement as well as the social development of the child and may put them at a disadvantage in terms of their position in the education and labour market. Most o...

This study presents a comprehensive picture of educational governance and financing across the three different sectors of second-level schools in Ireland, namely, voluntary secondary schools, vocational schools, and community/comprehensive schools.

Religion and schooling has become a controversial issue across Europe. But we know little about how these tensions are experienced by children and their families. This groundbreaking book draws on an innovative, comparative study to examine how religious and/or secular beliefs are formed at school and in the family in five countries with very diffe...

This report presents the results of an exploratory study on education for children in care in Ireland. The overarching aim of this study is to identify how the Irish education system can best support attendance, participation and attainment in education by children in care.

Chapter 1 has pointed to the neglect of children’s agency when it comes to analysing the issue of religious identity. In this chapter, we draw on case studies conducted in five Irish primary schools in 2010–2011 to contribute to the understanding of children’s perspectives on their own religious formation. Ireland is an interesting case study in th...

Recent rapid immigration of a diverse group of migrant children into an almost exclusively White Irish school population makes Ireland an interesting case study for migrant education. This article explores key points in the careers of migrant secondary school students in Ireland from an equality perspective. The article draws on data gathered as a...

This article explores secondary school transitions from a comparative perspective. It focuses on a stage at which a major institutional transition takes place in two different educational systems. Over the years a number of international studies have explored different learning environments and their impact on student educational outcomes. Much of...

Acquisition and enhancement of social capital is a continuous process of negotiation and interaction between self and social context. While the concept of social capital has been dealt with extensively in international research, relatively few studies have explored social capital among young people, particularly in the school context. This paper co...

A growing number of international studies document the importance of well-designed school facilities for children's educational outcomes. However, less attention has been given to the perspectives of teachers and pupils on school design and how the school or classroom can shape the nature of teaching and learning. This article addresses this gap by...

Since the exceptional economic growth of the last decade, Ireland has been transformed from a country of emigration to one of immigration, with a marked increase in the numbers of immigrant school-age children and young people. This chapter draws on data collected for a pioneering mixed methods study on school provision for immigrant students in Ir...

Attendance and Students' School Experiences, commissioned by the National Educational Welfare Board (NEWB), examines the characteristics of poor attenders in second-level education; the relationship between school organisation and climate and attendance patterns; and the impact of attendance behaviour while at school on later educational and labour...

Due to globalisation, recent decades have seen a rapid change in the demographic and cultural composition of countries across Europe. The number of migrant children in the receiving countries has also increased. In this framework, the right to education of migrant children and equality of access to schools has become an important policy issue. This...

As is evident from the contributions throughout this book, Ireland’s social fabric has changed significantly in recent decades. While there has always been some degree of ethnic diversity in Ireland, since 2004 Irish immigration reform legislation opened the doors to many more ethnic minority families whose cultures, mother tongues and beliefs were...

During recent decades, many European societies have become increasingly culturally diverse. Local neighbourhoods now include people from different ethnic, linguistic and religious backgrounds. The extent to which different communities integrate has implications for social cohesion in the receiving countries. In addition, schools across Europe face...

Before the economic boom of the 1990s, Ireland was known as a nation of emigrants. The past fifteen years, however, have seen the transformation of Ireland from a country of net emigration to one of net immigration, on a scale and at a pace unprecedented in comparative context. As a result, Irish society has become more diverse in terms of national...

In the last decade, Ireland has experienced a rapid increase in immigration on a scale previously unknown in the country's history. Over this time, Ireland has been transformed to an increasingly heterogeneous country in terms of nationality, language, ethnicity and religious affiliation. These changes have also impacted on the composition of Irish...

While the numbers of part-time students has increased in higher education in Ireland, little is known about these students or about how they balance their study and other commitments. Drawing on a larger study on Irish students’ experiences in higher education, this article attempts to address this gap in research and reports on Irish part-time und...

A good deal of research has focused on part‐time employment among full‐time students in higher education. However, little attention has been paid to the way in which these patterns may reflect societally specific processes rather than universal trends. This paper examines ways in which the higher education system itself can influence variation in s...

There is a growing recognition of the importance of `field of study' in social research. However, few of the existing studies explore the extent to which different fields of study facilitate or constrain opportunities to engage in employment and students' perceptions of their work load in higher education. This article aims to explore the workload...

Public opinion of the Irish educational system is broadly positive. The vast majority of the adult population report high levels of confidence in the educational system and the public are generally satisfied with the performance of schools and teachers (Fahey Hayes and Sinnott, 2005; Kellaghan et al, 2004). In fact, the strength of the educational...

This is a study of the transition to upper secondary education, an area largely ignored by international educational research. In particular, the study focuses on the transition from compulsory basic education to an academic general upper secondary education in Estonia. This study involves a national survey of school principals as well as case stud...

Several international studies refer to school transitions 1 as a time when pupils are particularly vulnerable and may easily become disengaged and at-risk of early school leaving. Early school leaving is generally seen to jeopardise young people's future as their possible career opportunities and life chances are largely determined by their educati...

Gearing Up for the Exam? explores the experiences of third year students, who are facing their first state examination, the Junior Certificate exam, and highlights what schools can do to enhance student learning and their engagement with school. This study completes the first phase of a major research project being undertaken by the ESRI on behalf...

This article examines the processes influencing the choice of non-traditional subjects by girls in lower secondary education in the Republic of Ireland. In particular, we focus on the traditionally ?male? technological subjects, namely, Materials Technology (Wood), Metalwork and Technical Graphics. Analyses are based on detailed case-studies of twe...

An increasing amount of research now relates to full-time higher education students who work part-time during their study. However, little is known about this issue in the Irish context, despite the fact that the latter provides an interesting case-study due to its unprecedented economic growth in recent years and subsequent changes in the labour m...

This paper explores the way in which truancy levels are structured by individual social class and the social mix of the school within the Republic of Ireland. Drawing on a national survey of young people, truancy levels are found to be higher among working-class and Traveller students. Truancy is more prevalent in predominantly working-class school...

During the nineties, Europe became a major recipient of FDIs but Italian regions have been largely excluded from this process. Was it due to their characteristics, or were Italian regions “doomed” by a negative country effect? In this paper we address this issue by estimating the determinants of multinational firms’ location choices in 52 EU region...