This paper presents the views of working-class parents on home-school links. Group interviews with parents of pupils in a primary school in the disadvantaged areas scheme in the Republic of Ireland suggest that parental involvement in school is limited to the giving and receiving of information, restricted consultation, and engagement in some supplemental responsibilities. Although parents were interested, informed and concerned regarding their children's education, they felt excluded from participation in decision-making about school management and organisation, about matters that affected them personally and financially, and about their children's progress. We suggest that heterogeneity in working-class voice merits further research; that the gendered nature of parent-school links needs further refinement to take account of being a primary carer; and that hearing working-class parents' voices can increase understanding of how parent groupings occupy spaces that are relatively peripheral or proximal to the school site and to their children's experiences of schooling.

This paper presents findings from an action research project that investigated the application of Multiple Intelligences (MI) theory in classrooms and schools. It shows how MI theory was used in the project as a basis for suggestions to generate classroom practices; how participating teachers evaluated the project; and how teachers responded to the professional experience. Teachers reported successful student outcomes including more interest and motivation, better recall and deeper understanding, higher attainment, improved self-esteem, and more fun and enjoyable classroom experiences. For teachers themselves, the project was a challenge. They needed more planning time, more persistence, more collegiality, and more management support. All involved in the project found the experiment worthwhile, exciting, and a stimulus for radical change in their pedagogic practice and thinking. Teachers renamed and extended existing practices to include MI approaches and this led to a methods-shift and, ultimately, to indications of a mind-shift. It was apparent in the Irish MI Project that the premising of curriculum content and delivery, state certificate assessment, school organisational practices, and attitudes on a narrow, untenable and unfair construct of intelligence can result in educational exclusion and disadvantage for many students. Thus, it is suggested that the agency of intelligence in educational failure merits attention.

This paper presents findings from a qualitative study of Irish Traveller parents’ experiences of their own schooling, and their views on education. An indigenous minority ethnic group, Irish Travellers, historically and contemporaneously, have experienced disadvantage and exclusion in many domains, including education, health, housing, and employment. Traveller parents' own educational experiences may affect their expectations for their children's education. Drawing on interpretivism and critical theory, we sought in this study, the only major study undertaken about Traveller preschools in Ireland, to give voice to Irish Travellers, whose views on education are rarely heard. Focus group (n = 6) and individual (n = 6) interviews were held with 36 Traveller women and men. Three main themes emerged: the importance of Traveller identity and culture, Travellers’ pride therein, and their awareness of others’ low valuation of it; the hurt and disappointment Travellers feel when they recall the negativity of their own schooling experiences of unchallenging pedagogy, curricular alienation, racist name-calling, and cultural misrecognition; and the positive value that they place on education for their children. Despite being deeply disappointed by their own negative schooling experiences, and by aspects of their children's schooling, they reported considerable optimism regarding the possibilities offered by education for their own children.

Smoking prevalence in Ireland is falling in all age groups, but the prevalence of roll-your-own (RYO) tobacco use is rising among young people. This qualitative study aims to explore and understand the factors associated with young people’s use of RYO products. Semi-structured individual and focus group interviews were conducted with young people aged 16–22 years. Participants were recruited from a higher education institution and youth organisations working with early school leavers across Dublin. In total, there were 62 participants in the study, consisting of 22 individual interviews and eight focus group interviews with 40 participants. Categoric and thematic data analysis was used to generate the findings. We identified two broad themes, incentivising and disincentivising factors. The lower cost of RYO products compared to pre-manufactured cigarettes was the most important incentive for users. However, other product characteristics, such as the artisanal factors associated with RYO products were also found. Social and environmental influences were apparent, in which certain groups and environments facilitated and normalised RYO practices. Amenities and facilities often provided smokers with normalised spaces which could be dedicated to the enactment of rolling practices and to the creation and maintenance of social bonds with other users. Disincentives included negative features related to the product itself, adverse health effects, and the effects of tobacco denormalisation. While the lower cost of RYO products is very important for young smokers, other product characteristics and influences also incentivise and disincentivise use. A more comprehensive understanding of the multi-dimensional appeal of these products will assist policymakers to target strategies to reduce the attractiveness to young smokers of these products.

Research on homework, particularly using qualitative approaches, is neglected in sociological literature. This qualitative study uses a Bourdieusian interpretive lens to explore parental homework practices in a middle-class, urban setting in Ireland. In-depth semi-structured interviews were held with six parents and six teachers of pupils aged 10–11 years. We found that parents’ homework practices involved providing practical, educational, and emotional supports for their children. Homework offers a valuable analytic site wherein particularities of habitus, field, and capitals are revealed. Middle-class parents possess the requisite capitals to succeed in meeting schools’ expectations; they align their practices closely with those of the school, successfully replicating the field of the school; and they activate economic, cultural, and social capital on behalf of their children, such that the presence and use of many capitals are normalised in the familial quotidien, thereby privileging their children, and making visible micro-processes of social reproduction.