Irish language reading homework: Developing my practice through collaboration with parents/guardians and pupils.

This thesis examines the difficulties and challenges that pupils and parents/guardians face in relation to Irish reading homework and the lack of resources available to teachers to assist them in this area. It aims to explore the experiences of pupils and parents/guardians of Irish reading at home as well as my own approach to assigning Irish reading homework. As this is a self-study action research project, I, as a researcher, was prompted to examine my core values and my role in the challenges in this area. This was with a view to possibly creating change in school practice and policy and improving the experience of Irish reading homework for all. The research stems from my interest in the difficulties parents/guardians experienced with Irish reading homework during the first lockdown of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020, and the study aims to explore this area solely from their perspectives. Recordings of Irish readers were provided in naíonáin mhóra (senior infants) and rang a haon (first class), to assist with Irish reading during school closures. I then decided to focus primarily on the recordings as a valuable learning tool for the development of pupils’ Irish reading skills. A mixed methods approach of qualitative and quantitative data collection was chosen for this study using a variety of data collection tools. Participants included pupils and parents/guardians from rang a haon (first class) in an Irish medium primary school. Key findings from the study are (i) difficulties with pronunciation in Irish reading, (ii) the value of the recordings as an additional learning tool, and (iii) positive engagement with the recordings. It is important to note that the home setting itself impacts significantly on pupils’ development of Irish reading skills and analysis of the findings in this study provides an insight into the demands placed on parents/guardians and how resources such as recordings has a direct impact on their experience of Irish reading.

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

masters

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

National University of Ireland Maynooth

Year dc:date.issued

2021

Author dc:creator

• Ní Dhúshláine, Clíona

Language dc:language

en