Examinable physical education (i.e. physical education as a certificate subject in a high-stakes environment) has distinctive forms of practical and theoretical knowledge, and the concept of 'integration' has been identified as a means to bridge such forms of knowledge. This paper explores how teachers interpret, translate, and enact curriculum…

The launch of a Computer Science curriculum specification in upper secondary schools in Ireland in 2018 was a landmark and a historic development in Irish education. Addressing the historical policy decisions adopted towards establishing the specification, this paper presents an analysis of developments from the 1970s as revealed in key policies…

Schools have long been identified as important sites in terms of instilling values within the next generation. In order to develop our understanding of values, this paper sets out to explore how values are understood in Irish educational legislation, policies and curriculum. Irish Legislation, policies and curricula were searched systematically.…

This article will explore the impact of various language education policies and their measures on Irish Sign Language (ISL) in Irish deaf education. The focus will be on how previous and current policy decisions regarding language education have affected the use and recognition of ISL as a legitimate language in the education system. The article…

Teacher educators act as a conduit to student teachers of policy and this has an impact on practice. Changes in policy affect how subjects are viewed in terms of their importance. This research seeks to explore the apparent increase in emphasis on wellbeing development in policy which influences the work of arts teacher educators, alongside a…

For decades, transnational knowledge circulation in relation to schooling in Ireland has been a neglected area of study among historians. This paper provides new insights through a transnational lens on primary, secondary, and vocational curriculum developments in the first decade following the advent of national independence in the country in…

Through the lens of contrasting curriculum cultures, the author considers the evolution of Irish curriculum policy and reform. Whereas our curriculum thinking and practice are grounded in an Anglo-Saxon/American culture, Didaktik curriculum culture and Stenhouse's Process model provide valuable alternative perspectives. Our prevailing…

This case study focuses on the journey and progress to date within the Irish education system to redevelop the national primary school curriculum. While the redevelopment process focuses on all aspects of curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment, a particular focus is placed on elements relating to whole-child development. Central to this is an…

Internationally, second level curriculum policy for STEM education is concentrating its efforts on promoting curriculum-making pedagogies, with enquiry-based teaching and learning at the forefront of this change. Policy aspirations have not translated well into practice, evidenced by science practical lessons consistently being delivered as…

The global coronavirus pandemic provides a disruption of seismic proportions and, in the short term at least, appears to further the reform agenda set by neoliberal/elite policymakers to reduce education to the exchange-value of a commodity. In an earlier article in the Journal of Critical Education Policy Studies, I conducted a critical scrutiny…

A philosophical shift in policy now situates the development of technological capability as the focus of Irish technology education. Internationally, the effectiveness of curricular reform in the discipline has previously been called to question, as the legacy of the preceding vocational craft subjects has been seen to throttle the evolution of…

The aim of this article is to offer an approach that can be used to develop Decolonial Critical Awareness (CDA) and Decolonial Critical Reflection (CDR) in student language teachers at post-Primary level as part of their Initial Teacher Education (ITE). The article contextualises the rationale for such provision in ITE programmes in the wider…

This article is a reflective, research-informed, commentary on educational disadvantage from two lecturers in Education who have spent large proportions of their professional lives working in 'DEIS' school settings before transitioning into teacher education. This reflection intends to problematise the concept of educational disadvantage and will…

A long tradition of both State and religious interest and support characterised provision for education on the island of Ireland from the 1700s. Following the partition of Ireland in the 1920s, the newly created political entities of the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland forged separate and distinct education policy trajectories that largely…

By the time political independence was achieved in the 1920s in Ireland, its national education system over the previous century had been underpinned by imperial ideology and values. In the early 1920s, curriculum planning was influenced by the post-revolutionary and post-war context and, unsurprisingly, placed an emphasis on building nationhood…