Shared Island Research: Education and Skills

Research Partner - Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI)

Publication Date - April 2025

As part of the 'Research on a Shared Island' conference in April 2025, the Taoiseach launched an overarching report synthesising key findings from the first phase of the joint ESRI-Department of the Taoiseach Shared Island research programme. The report brings out interlinkages between 15 previous research publications, and highlights and reflects on implications for policy learning for the island in the future. It also reflects on cross-border cooperation within the framework of the Good Friday Agreement, and concludes that there are advantages to substantially upscaling North-South cooperation in existing strategic areas, as well as extending the remit of cooperation to include new strategic areas such as skills provision, foreign direct investment, labour market access and energy security.

Read 'Sharing the island: economic and social challenges and opportunities: evidence from an ESRI research programme'.

Research Partner - Standing Conference on Teacher Education North and South (SCoTENS)

Publication Date - November 2024

This project was commissioned under the Shared Island - SCoTENS research partnership, and examined Initial Teacher Education (ITE) students' understandings of inclusion, education about difference, and familiarity with methodologies and approaches for teaching controversial issues. The project explores the skills, knowledge, resources and interventions that enable primary and post-primary ITE students and Equality-based, Multi-denominational and Integrated [EMI] teachers to teach about difference and controversial issues especially in, but not limited to, EMI schools on the island of Ireland, and investigates how ITE students might benefit from the sharing of best practice and resources from classroom teachers in EMIs and their Representative/Support/Management/Patron (RSMP) bodies.

Read 'EDUCATE: Educating about difference uniting classrooms and teacher education'.

Research Partner - Standing Conference on Teacher Education North and South (SCoTENS)

Publication Date - October 2024

The CRiTERiA project was commissioned under the Shared Island - SCoTENS research partnership, and sought to address the increasing cultural diversity within classrooms across Ireland and Northern Ireland, by examining the supports and programmes available to Initial Teacher Education (ITE) students to prepare them to teach effectively in multicultural and multilingual classrooms. The project highlights a number of essential areas for improvement in ITE programmes North and South, and also provided a basis for further work to co-design a module on culturally responsive teaching to support student teachers across the island.

Read 'CRiTERiA: Cultural responsivity in teacher education: research in action'.

Research Partner - Standing Conference on Teacher Education North and South (SCoTENS)

Publication Date - October 2023

This project was commissioned under the Shared Island - SCoTENS research partnership. The project's aims were to develop and share a teaching approach to social justice across two Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE) programmes from Ireland and Northern Ireland, and to encourage teacher educators and preservice teachers (PSTs) to learn with and from each other, within and across their respective jurisdictions. The key findings include a focus on the similarity of experiences between jurisdictions, and the project makes six key recommendations for teacher educators and PSTs across the island.

Read 'SRASI: Shared responsibility across a shared island - teaching social justice in in initial teacher education'.

Research Partner - Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI)

Publication Date - January 2023

This report compares early childhood education and care (ECEC) in Ireland and Northern Ireland, drawing on survey and administrative data, as well as in-depth interviews with key stakeholders. The research finds that mothers of young children in Ireland work longer hours and are more reliant on formal childcare, whereas in Northern Ireland, mothers are more likely to work part-time and are more reliant on friends and family for care. Both systems face similar policy challenges around affordability for parents and the employment conditions of early years staff.

Read 'Early childhood education and care in Ireland and Northern Ireland' and watch the launch webinar.

Research Partner - Standing Conference on Teacher Education North and South (SCoTENS)

Publication Date - October 2022

This project was commissioned under the Shared Island - SCoTENS research partnership, and examined how teacher educators can prepare and support student teachers to negotiate and engage with the challenges of educational underachievement while on their school placement. The project makes a number of key recommendations, and produced four main outputs for use by teacher educators, student teachers, teachers and policy makers in Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Read 'SHARED: Student hopes: achievement, research, equity and diversity'.

Research Partner - Standing Conference on Teacher Education North and South (SCoTENS)

Publication Date - October 2022

The BUDDIES project was commissioned under the Shared Island - SCoTENS research partnership, and built on discussions of the role of Home-School Community Liaison (HSCL) at the Shared Island Dialogue on education, by examining the work of HSCLs/Parent Officers (POs) in Ireland and Northern Ireland respectively. The findings highlight disparities between the political landscape of both contexts in terms of monies invested, parameters of the role and the support structures available, but also point to certain similarities in the "lived" reality of the HSCL/PO in both jurisdictions, whether in preschool, primary or post-primary, in terms of the skillset required, the types of activities undertaken and the core focus of the role.

Read 'BUDDIES: Building bridges, diminishing educational disadvantage'.

Research Partner - Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI)

Publication Date - April 2022

This research draws on international and national survey data, administrative data, as well as interviews and stakeholder consultation, to compare education and training systems in Ireland and Northern Ireland. It is the first study to systematically compare systems and outcomes in the two jurisdictions from primary to third level, and explores a range of issues including educational attainment, educational inequalities, skill development and labour market outcomes. The report finds that both education systems face similar challenges, including countering educational disadvantage, supporting students with special educational needs, and approaches to promoting skills development, which could be furthered through North-South cooperation.

Read 'A North-South comparison of education and training systems: lessons for policy' and watch the launch webinar.

Research Partner - National Economic and Social Council (NESC)

Publication Date - April 2022

The NESC, at the request of the Department of the Taoiseach, undertook a programme of research in 2021 to produce a comprehensive report on Shared Island issues, to inform the development of the Shared Island Initiative as a whole of Government priority. The report makes three overarching conclusions:

• First, there is very significant support, in practice, for an all-island approach to key economic, social, environmental, and wellbeing challenges.
• Second, climate change and biodiversity loss provide a clear and urgent platform for ambitious all-island action and collaboration.
• Third, the factors which are shaping current and future collaboration are a shared agenda, resources, political certainty and support, legislative and regulatory coherence, and collaborative projects.

The report also makes specific recommendations across five key areas in relation to the economy and investment, social policy, climate and biodiversity, wellbeing measurement and data co-ordination.

Read 'Shared Island Shared Opportunity: NESC Comprehensive Report' and watch the report launch event.

Research Partner - Irish Research Council (IRC)

Year of Award - 2022

This research project was commissioned under the Shared Island strand of the New Foundations Scheme, administered by the IRC (now Research Ireland). It sought to establish the first all- island educational neuroscience research network, in order to explore collaborative research questions, share ideas, form new collaborations, and disseminate findings on the current management of inattention in the classroom.

Read more about this research project on the Research Ireland Awards Database.

Research Partner - Irish Research Council (IRC)

Year of Award - 2022

This research project was commissioned under the Shared Island strand of the New Foundations Scheme, administered by the IRC (now Research Ireland). It examined regional approaches to higher educational policy and provision across the North-West of the island of Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and explored the potential for, and impact of, place-based collaborative approaches to education provision.

Read more about this research project on the Research Ireland Awards Database.

Research Partner - Irish Research Council

Year of Award - 2021

This research project was commissioned under the Shared Island strand of the New Foundations Scheme, administered by the IRC (now Research Ireland). The research aimed to provide a better understanding of entrepreneurship education at secondary-school level in the North-West City Region (Derry, Tyrone and Donegal), and to examine whether similarities or differences exist across the two education systems.

Read more about this research project on the Research Ireland Awards Database.