Books on school leadership are usually written from a theoretical viewpoint. The insights that emerge, whilst very valuable, are based on an imaginary school, devoid of distinctive human agency, and located in a context-free setting. However, in the real world leadership is not enacted in a vacuum. This study is set in a school where the author…

This Education Policy Perspective serves as Part B in a two-part series of policy papers on "Promoting Quality and Excellence in Higher Education and VET". This paper (Part B) examines a wide range of quality-focused policies, other than quality assurance, used by governments to promote pedagogical innovation and enhancement in higher…

There are substantial and ongoing concerns in the international secondary and tertiary education sectors about the number of students choosing advanced or higher-level mathematics at upper secondary level. Declining enrolments in the last two years of secondary school in higher-level mathematics is seen as a major concern for the future of STEM…

In Ireland as elsewhere, the value of putting evidence and scientific advice at the centre of public policy-making, has rarely been more evident. The prominence of the science-policy interface has renewed interest in the prospects for evidence based policy (EBP) in education. Notwithstanding the political rhetoric around EBP in education, little…

In the Republic of Ireland, primary school teaching is a very attractive profession with pay being above the OECD average (Heinz and Keane 2018; Hennessey and Lynch 2017). This paper investigates how the Department of Education Inspectorate and the Teaching Council of Ireland position primary school teacher professionalism. The paper presents the…

Widely held traditional policy perspectives within physical education, and the linear and top-down assumptions about policy processes associated with them, arguably limit the perceivable scope of policy engagement possibilities, particularly for front-line policy actors. To illuminate this assertion, we utilised the revelatory incident technique.…

The evidence underscores the need to shift attention from school attainment to actual learning. While the average global return to an additional year of schooling is about 10 percent, a one standard deviation increase in test scores raises earnings by 15 percent. Studies show that including direct measures of skills reduces the estimated return to…

In recent years, countries including the UK and USA have seen advancements in the use of Randomised Controlled Trials in education, progress that has not been mirrored in Ireland. Ireland does not have a strong tradition of using experimental or quasi-experimental evaluation designs for monitoring and evaluation of education policy despite…

To make sense of the changes provoked by the COVID-19 pandemic and its immediate aftermath, this paper critically examines digital education policy responses in the context of the 'new realities' faced by schooling. Based on seven case studies contributed by authors from Australia, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Canada, Sri Lanka, two key questions…

In recent decades, large-scale assessments in Ireland have revealed consistent trends, phases of change, and some surprises. This brief explores how data from large-scale assessments informed Ireland's "National Literacy and Numeracy Strategy 2011-2020," particularly regarding priorities, target-setting, and monitoring. It also examines…

The forces of neoliberalism have profoundly reconfigured the landscape of educational policy and discourse, shifting focus from democratic values-based conceptions to exigencies for effective learning. The onset of the global recession of 2008, coupled with the ongoing effects of the global pandemic have resulted in the centring of crises…

Through the lens of successive Department of Education and Science (DES) Statements of Strategy (1997-2021) the author considers the evolution of Irish education policy making from the perspectives of New Public Management (NPM) and the public value paradigm. In the context of changing international and national environments, the Strategic…

This paper analyses adolescent active transport (AT) to education in Ireland. In Ireland, there is broad consensus that commuting by walking and cycling can be advantageous to health, learning, and reducing traffic congestion and transport emissions. Thus Irish decision-makers, building on academic literature that claims that AT follows population…

The literature on initial teacher education highlights a crisis facing teacher educators, one which threatens our own epistemic legitimacy and relevance in educational discourses, as market-economy mandates and political surveillance intensify and dominate what it means to be and do teacher education. Given this macro-level concern, we, as teacher…

Assessment is often described as the tail that wags the curriculum dog. Curriculum has featured more prominently than assessment in Irish scholarship. Drawing on relevant policy documents and interviews with senior National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) and State Examinations Commission (SEC) officers, and relevant documentation,…