The intention to leave education early among Irish Junior Certificate Students: Variation by school

Early school-leaving imposes costs on the individual and society, and is linked to factors including gender, family income and parental education, community deprivation, and academic history. In Ireland, the role of the school in shaping patterns of early school-leaving is unclear. Employing the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) from social psychology, variation by school among Junior Certificate students in the intention to leave early was assessed, along with characteristics of the individual school and its students. Twenty Irish second-level schools were selected by systematic random sampling. All students in Junior Certificate year were asked to participate, of whom 68.84% (1131) did. Participants completed a questionnaire on intention to drop out of school, three components of the TPB in relation to school completion, demographic details, and academic results. There was evidence of a within-school culture or group representation of the value of education shaping the students’ intentions around school completion.     

The story of representation (or not) in contributing to the development of a school subject curriculum

This paper prompts us to consider ‘representation’ with respect to a committee structure ‘managing’ the development of the Irish senior cycle physical education framework. The paper is timely due to the national interest in the senior cycle subject development in Ireland and complements work undertaken on the development of policy in senior physical education internationally. Bernstein's [(1990). Class, Code and Control: Volume 4. The Structuring of Pedagogic Discourse. London: Routledge] construction of ‘pedagogic discourse’ and Pitkin's [(1967). The Concept of Representation. University of California Press] notion of ‘representation’ provide a framework for exploring the process by which Senior Cycle Physical Education (SCPE) was ‘managed’ by the Physical Education Course Committee. Interviews were conducted with nine stakeholders who were members of the Committee and the constant comparative method was used to analyse the interview data. The results revolved around representation of individual views in favour of representative roles, interacting within the remit of the Committee structure and activity outside of the formal meetings. A number of conclusions arise in examining the extent to which ‘representation’ provides a framework for exploring the process by which curriculum development within Irish SCPE was ‘managed’ by the appointed Committee. Such a study provides significant points for discussion for those charged with drawing together groups to advise on curriculum development.     

A rising tide meets a perfect storm: new accountabilities in teaching and teacher education in Ireland

This paper examines the emergence of new accountabilities in teaching and teacher education in Ireland in the 15 years period 1997–2012. Framing accountability in terms of the three main approaches to it globally in education systems, that is, compliance with regulations, adherence to professional norms and attainment of results/outcomes, we identify significant changes, particularly, in compliance- and results-driven accountability. A ‘rising tide’ of accountability, due to the interrelated influences of the European higher education space, education legislation and professional self-regulation policies (i.e. Teaching Council), is evident since the late 1990s. This was punctuated by a ‘perfect storm’ in 2010 comprising ‘bad news’ from PISA 2009, the economic bailout and strategic leadership at a system level. The cumulative impact of the ‘rising tide’ and ‘perfect storm’ is evident in how they reframed both ‘to whom’ and ‘for what’ accountability in teacher education relates. Significantly, the new accountabilities in teaching and teacher education reflect a move towards the dominant global education reform movement (Sahlberg 2007) with its emphasis on standardisation, narrow focus on literacy and numeracy and higher stakes accountability.     

An international perspective on civic participation in Irish post-primary schools: results from ICCS

Ireland was one of the 38 countries/education systems that participated in the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) in 2009. This is the first international comparative study in this area in which Ireland has participated since 1971. The study measured the civic knowledge of 14-year-olds and their attitudes towards, and beliefs about, various civic and citizenship issues. The current paper focuses on indicators of students' and (to a lesser extent) parents' participation in school life. Although active participation in school is emphasised in, for example, the Education Act of 1998, little empirical work in Ireland has defined or examined actual levels of participation in post-primary schools, or students' views of their opportunities to participate, and ICCS provides information on these issues in an international comparative context. Findings indicate that despite a relatively strong civic knowledge base among students in Ireland, levels of participation compare less favourably with other countries. Results are discussed in the wider context of the Irish education system.     

Irish medical student culture and the performance of masculinity,c.1880–1930

In recent years, there have been valuable studies of medical education that have highlighted the importance of shared educational activities and the changing image of the student. Less attention has been paid to how masculine ideals were passed on to students and how educational and extra-curricular spheres became sites for the maintenance of hegemonic masculinity. Taking Irish medical schools as a case study and drawing on the student press, doctors’ memoirs and novels, this article will illustrate how rites of passage in medical education and social activities such as pranks and rugby became imbued with masculine tropes. In this way, the transformation of student to practitioner was often symbolised as the transformation of boy to man. The cultivation of the image of the medical student as a predominantly male individual became an important force in segregating men and women students and helped to preserve Irish medicine as a largely masculine sphere.     

Curriculum as policy: some implications of contemporary policy studies for the analysis of curriculum policy,with particular reference to post-primary curriculum policy in the Republic of Ireland

An overview of contemporary curriculum discourse shows a worrying drift to the technical; in current curriculum debates, technique is winning out over substance, procedures over principles. This article shows how this theoretical vacuum is ascribed by many in the field to the dominance of the Tyler rationale in curriculum planning. However, the symptoms of means-end rationality are not confined to curriculum - they are found across the breadth of educational studies and have reached epidemic proportions, suggests the article, in the discourse of educational reform. A number of serious implications for the lack of analysis of curriculum policy are identified and particular reference is made to the Republic of Ireland where, it is suggested, the size of the education system should facilitate greater debate. Instead, the discussions focus on the management rather than the meaning of change. In searching for sources for new curriculum theory,the author suggests that the field of policy studies offers considerable potential, in particular the work of Stephen Ball on mapping the policy cycle. The possibilities for a theory of curriculum as policies are explored. A model of a curriculum policy cycle is proposed and subjected to some analysis.     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed:
Ian Copeland, The Making of the Backward Pupil in England, 1870–1914
Harry Daniels and Philip Garner (eds), Inclusive Education: World Year Book of Education 1999
David Corson, Changing Education for Diversity
A. Mackinnon, I. Elgqvist-Saltzman and A. Prentice (eds), Education into the 21st Century: Dangerous Terrain for Women?
Peter Sutherland (ed), Adult Learning – a Reader
Nigel Blake, Paul Smeyers, Richard Smith and Paul Standish, Thinking Again: Education After Postmodernism
David Carr (ed), Education, Knowledge and Truth
Frank Coffield (ed), Why's the Beer Always Stronger up North? Studies of Lifelong Learning in Europe
Colin Richards, Neil Simco and Sam Twiselton (eds), Primary Teacher Education, High Status? High Standards?
Megan Crawford, Richard Edwards and Lesley Kydd (eds), Taking Issue: Debates in Guidance and Counselling in Learning
M. Woodhead, D. Faulkner and K. Littleton, Making Sense of Social Development
Jack Demaine (ed), Education Policy and Contemporary Politics
Sandra Acker, The Realities of Teachers' Work: Never a Dull Moment
John Holford, Peter Jarvis and Colin Griffin, (eds), International Perspectives on Lifelong Learning     

The development of case studies as a method within a longitudinal study of special educational needs provision in the Republic of Ireland

When developing case studies within a longitudinal study of special educational needs provision within the Republic of Ireland, the authors were conscious of the critiques of the use of this approach within educational research. The difficulties associated with generalisation, challenges of ensuring trustworthiness and the possibilities of researcher bias have been identified as limiting factors in the presentation of case study data. In order to confront these limitations, the researchers developed a framework for case study development that aimed to provide a secure database and trustworthy interpretation in order to make assertions in relation to special educational needs provision. This paper describes this process and suggests that the need to develop safeguards in order to present case studies that have high degree of credibility is essential when using this approach. Furthermore, the transparency of research methods, a significant omission in many reports of research, is necessary in order to demonstrate the trustworthiness of data.     

Spoon-feeding to tongue-biting and beyond: factors that contributed to changes in Irish primary school teachers’ mathematics practice

Research that aimed to examine teachers’ experiences whilst implementing a reform approach to mathematics teaching in an Irish primary school forms the basis of this paper. In particular, factors that contributed to changing mathematics practice in this case study school are outlined. The school engaged in professional development (PD) that focused on using an instructional framework [Hiebert, J., T. P. Carpenter, E. Fennema, K. C. Fuson, D. Wearne, H. Murray, A. Olivier, and P. Human. 1997. Making Sense: Teaching and Learning Mathematics with Understanding. Portsmouth: Heinemann] in the school-identified strand units of length and weight. Four classes were tracked throughout the study and each class acted as a sub-case within the larger study. Data collected through lesson observations, teacher interviews, pupil work samples, and pupil focus group interviews were used to compare teachers’ experiences and to identify what supported and enabled them to change their practice, in addition to highlighting challenges that may have prevented such change. Findings were that shifts in practice were evident to different degrees in the four classes during the study. In relation to enabling factors, findings suggest that tailored PD, and the use and refinement of an instructional framework contributed to enabling teachers in changing their mathematics teaching. In particular, teachers reported that the 4Ts instructional framework was a very useful tool in supporting them to change mathematics teaching.     

Re-focusing the Teaching of Poetry at Key Stage Two in Northern Ireland: Some Literary-critical and Pedagogical Explorations

This paper argues that there is scope for considerable change and improvement in the way in which Poetry is taught at Key Stage Two in Northern Ireland. In making this case for significant improvement, the paper has three interconnected parts. In the first part, a range of critical ideas highlight the richness of poetry as a literary genre. Secondly, a number of pedagogical ideas are presented, which emphasise the enjoyment of poetry as an end in itself. In the third part, there is firstly a comparative evaluation of the statutory requirements for teaching Key Stage Two poetry in Northern Ireland and England. Secondly, the results of a questionnaire, which was distributed to a reasonably representative selection of Literacy Coordinators in primary schools across Northern Ireland, are evaluated. The results suggest that there is Indeed considerable scope for improvement in the teaching of poetry at Key Stage Two in Northern Ireland.