This discussion paper focuses on the purpose of, and vision for, Irish primary science education prior to the redevelopment and publication of the primary science curriculum in 2024. Scientific literacy is broadly accepted as the goal of science education. Despite this, curricular analysis focusing on scientific literacy in Europe is scarce. There…

Quality assurance in modern higher education is both an accountability-oriented ideology and a technological method. It has also evolved into a increasingly rationalist and professionalized power mechanism. Its advocacy of compliance, technological mythology, and imbalance between power and responsibility are inherent disadvantages of higher…

Since its inception in 1999, the distributed leadership framework of Spillane, Halverson, and Diamond [2004. "Towards a Theory of Leadership Practice: A Distributed Perspective." "Journal of Curriculum Studies" 36 (1): 3-34. doi:10.1080/0022027032000106726] has supported research into leadership and change in schools. Whilst…

A critical reading of the Donaldson Report on teacher education in Scotland reveals what might be termed a "panacea approach" to addressing perceived current problems in relation to the quality of teacher education. In particular, the essence of the Donaldson Report is that teachers need to embrace "twenty-first century…

In this article the author's review of the literature uncovers six potentially negative effects of technology in the classroom. These include: 1) Limiting pedagogy in teaching for cultural competence; 2) Reinforcing the Digital Divide; 3) Constraining the potential for holistic, humanistic education; 4) Privileging one style of communication while…

Teacher talks about difficulty of dealing with often contradictory changes in instructional methods, especially in teaching reading. (PKP)

Today, most learning is functional or informational learning, which is oriented towards socialization and vocational goals that take no account of sustainability. This has been reinforced in Western educational systems by the introduction of a managerial view of education which has paralleled recent economic restructuring. This modernist…