Tales out of School: the Hidden Curriculum in National Schools in the North of Ireland.

Summary

Although integrated schooling has an increasingly high profile in the religiously divided society of Northern Ireland, an attempt was made during the 19th and early 20th centuries to provide secular education through the Irish National Schools system. In a survey of a small sample of former schools (n=8) from two case study areas in the north of Ireland, urban schools were found to be considerably larger, allowing for more differentiation in age sets and gender.  In addition, the urban schools examined had strong connections to different churches, and the degree of external ornamentation suggests that they were acting as the highly visible focus of competing ideologies.  In contrast, the rural schools appeared to arise from a vernacular building tradition, and organised their classes within one room. Oral history recollections and school registers indicated that children usually attended the nearest rural school regardless of any perceived religious associations.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Archaeology of Reform / Archaeology as Reform   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2013

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 120