Primary teachers’ experiences in preparing to teach Irish: Views on promoting the language and language proficiency

Abstract

The present study explores the process of becoming a primary level teacher of Irish, the official yet a minority language in Ireland. Since all primary level teachers must teach Irish, becoming a primary teacher in Ireland is bound up in complex ways with the process of becoming a teacher of a minority language and with personal attitudes to, and views on, the language itself. The current study analyses similarities and differences in views relating to teachers’ role in promoting the language, as well as issues in proficiency in the language, at the beginning and end of initial teacher education. Also examined is the extent to which above-average self-reported proficiency in Irish influences the experience of teaching Irish. Data is derived from responses to closed and supplementary open-ended questionnaire items administered to two different groups of pre-service teachers: at the beginning (n=75) and the end of initial teacher education (n=91), and is supplemented with data from interviews conducted with a subgroup of Group 2 (n=30). Data from this mixed methods study show that changes occur in the way teachers conceive of their future roles as teachers of Irish, and reveal the need for more support in aspects of their role such as nurturing positive attitudes to Irish amongst children and a desire for shared responsibility in promoting the language more generally.