The Skills for Jobs White Paper and funding and accountability consultation set out the Government's plans to introduce a greater focus on the outcomes of learning, including a new Skills Measure that looks at the employment and other outcomes that learners achieve. Will this give colleges and providers greater freedom to deliver for learners, or…

In 2017, the participants of a higher education professional development (PD) working group (meitheal) met face-to-face and remotely to examine the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (NFTL) Framework for Professional Development. Through collaboration and mentorship, members of the meitheal successfully…

The process of curriculum making and educational policy development is contentious, and, as such, is emblematic of societal values as a whole, and, more significantly, the power relations and economic trends within that. Recent education developments in the Republic of Ireland pertaining to primary level have seen a marked shift away from a broad…

The debate relating to the place and value of the arts in Irish Education is one that has dominated educational policy, provision, and practice down through the history of Irish educational policy from the late nineteenth century to the present day. Indeed, interest in this topic has been re-ignited with the recent publication of two educational…

In 2008 Ireland found itself in the forefront of the Eurozone crisis. The impact on education has been profound. In this article it is suggested that Ireland's education problems long pre-date the economic crisis and current "reforms" are about long-term neoliberal restructuring, not short-term solutions to immediate economic problems.…

The Irish language is recognised in Bunreacht na hÉireann [The Constitution of Ireland] as the national and first official language, and provisions to support the language are to found in c.120 specific enactments in Irish legislation. In 2007, the Irish language was designated as an official working language of the European Union. In 2003, the…

Over the last decade, teacher education in Ireland has experienced radical reconceptualization and restructuring at both initial teacher education [ITE] and induction levels, with reform of continuous professional development now in the planning phase. The establishment of the Teaching Council (2006) as a statutory, regulatory body, with a role in…

This paper reflects on the challenges of facilitating creativity in teaching and learning. The authors contend that if enabled, creativity has the potential to deliver substantive change to higher education but that its potential often remains unexploited. Our study suggests that creative practice is alive and well amongst teachers in higher…

This article will examine the potential for language change from the bottom-up given the new domains in which minority languages are present as a result of the process of language mobility. Drawing on a theoretical notion of sociolinguistic scales, this article aims to discuss how the position of the Irish language has been reconfigured. From this…

As a language, Irish is unique to Ireland and is, therefore, of crucial importance to the identity of the Irish people, to Irish culture and to world heritage. The Irish language however has had a turbulent and traumatic history and has endured a complex and varied relationship with the Irish people. Since the foundation of the Irish Free State,…

The article looks at two important documents in the context of education policy in Ireland: the Higher Education Authority's "Strategic Plan 2008-2010" and the Government's report, "Building Ireland's Smart Economy." It demonstrates how the entrepreneurial student is fabricated out of particular truths told about the present…

This article considers the impact of the New Public Management culture on Irish education and calls for a debate in relation to the prevailing bureaucratic model of accountability. The influence of the Lisbon Agenda (2000) on education planning is identified and the 2005/7 Education Strategy Statement is analysed using the relevant OECD framework.…

The contemporary university operates within a global context characterized by ever-increasing uncertainty and complexity. Strategic planning must, therefore, be cognizant of future trends and how those trends will affect the university by creating both threats and opportunities. Our hypothesis is that an approach we refer to as "strategic…

The teaching and learning of Irish in primary school is both an important educational issue and central to the national language revitalization effort. The findings of Irish-language programme evaluations, therefore, are invariably scrutinized very closely by different sectors. This paper examines how the later stages of a major evaluation took…

In this paper, the issues involved in aligning national and meta-frameworks are explored and analysed. The exploration is timely, given that two qualifications meta-frameworks are currently being developed and implemented in Europe: the question is now how relationships should be established between these new reference tools and national…