Curriculum Reform in Lower Secondary Education in Ireland and the Literacies












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            Curriculum Reform in Lower Secondary Education in Ireland and the Literacies


            Dr Majella Dempsey (Maynooth University, Ireland)



            Ireland embarked on an ambitious reform of lower secondary education in 2010 that places e
            the literacy and numeracy and other key skills. The push for reform in Ireland can be trac

            Lisbon in 2000. Lisbon is significant in education for a number of reasons—not least that 
            education with social policy, labour market and overall economic policy. It also saw the i

            of Open Method Coordination, which has led to policy borrowing and peer learning, but also
            convergence and an obsession, some would say, with global data such as that from PISA and 
            discussions tend to be about how change is managed, rather than its meaning; about who con

            decides, rather than what is decided; and about the relationship between curriculum and ec
            rather than the common good. The domination of the rational technical paradigm has support
            of fragmentation resulting in the neglect of macro-curriculum issues. Curriculum reform in

            present in a liminal state. In this lecture the lower secondary system of education in Ire
            as an assemblage –as an open, adaptive system and the sum of the whole is greater than the
            parts. The study builds on interviews with teachers and focus groups of their students. Th

            are analysed in relation to teachers’ role in a process of arranging, organising and fitti
            a process of knowledge making as part of a bigger whole. It shows how this knowledge makin
            oriented environment can promote or inhibit curriculum making.

            Dr Majella Dempsey, Lecturer in education and course leader in Maynooth University. Lectur
            development, Research methods, Teaching, Learning and Assessment. At the heart of all rese
            the role of pedagogy in teaching, learning, and curriculum.