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How Is Curriculum Becoming in Lower Secondary Education in Ireland?

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How Is Curriculum Becoming in Lower Secondary Education in Ireland? Curriculum Becoming in the Assemblage of Lower Secondary Education in Ireland Audrey Mary Doyle Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Education Maynooth University 2019 Curriculum Becoming in the Assemblage of Lower Secondary Education in Ireland Audrey Mary Doyle M.A. Thesis accepted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Education to the Department of Education Maynooth University August 2019 Head of Department: Professor Sharon Todd Supervisors: Dr Majella Dempsey & Professor Sharon Todd ABSTRACT The Junior Cycle Framework acts as a catalyst for major curriculum reform in lower secondary education in Ireland. This thesis is concerned with mapping the becoming of this new curriculum. It proffers the emerging changes through a focus on the following areas of interest: a. The assemblage of lower secondary education in Ireland. b. The purpose of education as desired by the assemblage. c. The ideology, framework and pedagogy of the Junior Cycle curriculum This study uses the concept of emergence from Complexity Theory which offers the ideas of how an educational system as an open, adaptive system, self-organises and changes. It blends these ideas with concepts from the work of Deleuze and Guattari in “A Thousand Plateaus” (2003), to offer the conceptual toolbox to help map the complexity of lower secondary education in Ireland. To gather a holistic and multi-perspectival understanding of the reform, the research engaged in: a. Twenty-one semi-structured interviews with policy stakeholders. b. Ten semi-structured interviews with four principals and six teachers. c. Six focus group interviews with 10 students in each of the 3 selected schools. The analytic process used was rhizo-analysis. The findings demonstrate that curriculum in lower secondary education is becoming as a multiplicity and rhizome. This is mapped through the following lines of flight: a. The assemblage is self-organising by arranging and fitting together a more ecological structure. b. The assemblage desires liberation and is becoming as a multiplicity, expanding, the ideas of knowledge, the human subject and values in a process of strong emergence and becoming. The teaching and learning encounter is the process through/within which the human being finds their home within the world ii c. Curriculum is viewed as a rhizome, incorporating an ideology, framework and pedagogy. The two roles that encourage becoming are those of curriculum creator and curriculum maker. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Title Page: ........................................................................................................................................ ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................................... ii List of Figures ................................................................................................................................. x List of Tables .................................................................................................................................xii List of Accompanying Materials .................................................................................................. xiii Table of Acronyms ....................................................................................................................... xiv Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................................... xv (Be)coming Thoughts… .............................................................................................................. - 1 - THE LANDSCAPE OF LOWER SECONDARY............................................................................. - 2 - THE THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ....................................................................................... - 5 - METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................................ - 7 - STRUCTURE OF THE THESIS .............................................................................................. - 8 - The Theoretical Framework ...................................................................... - 13 - (BE)COMING THOUGHTS ................................................................................. - 13 - UNDERSTANDING COMPLEXITY THEORY .............................................................. - 16 - 1.2.1 Defining Complexity Theory ......................................................... - 16 - 1.2.2 Rules for Complexity Theory......................................................... - 18 - 1.2.3 Complex, Adaptive Systems (CAS) ................................................ - 19 - 1.2.4 Self-organisation ........................................................................... - 23 - 1.2.5 Emergence .................................................................................... - 24 - iv 1.3 COMBINING COMPLEXITY THEORY WITH DELEUZE AND GUATTARI .................................... - 27 - 1.3.1 The Rhizome .................................................................................... - 28 - 1.3.2 The Assemblage ............................................................................. - 34 - 1.3.3 Becoming ........................................................................................ - 37 - 1.4 (BE)GOING THOUGHTS ........................................................................................... - 45 - Methodology ............................................................................................ - 48 - (BE)COMING THOUGHTS…. .............................................................................. - 48 - BACKGROUND AND INFLUENCING PARAMETERS .................................................... - 50 - THE RESEARCH QUESTION ................................................................................ - 51 - THE RESEARCH SUBJECT: THE ASSEMBLAGE: ........................................................ - 54 - DEVELOPMENT OF THE METHODOLOGY AND RESEARCH METHODS APPLIED ............... - 56 - 2.5.1 The Design of a Post Qualitative̴ Assemblage study ................... - 56 - 2.5.2 Considerations and Processes for Data Collection ...................... - 60 - CONSIDERATIONS AND PROCESSES FOR ANALYSIS .................................................. - 71 - 2.6.1 The Rhizomatic Analytic Process .................................................. - 73 - VALIDITY AND RIGOUR ..................................................................................... - 80 - 2.7.1 The Authenticity of Method and Interpretation .......................... - 80 - ETHICAL CONCERNS ........................................................................................ - 82 - (BE)GOING THOUGHTS….. ............................................................................... - 83 - The Assemblage ....................................................................................... - 85 - (BE)COMING THOUGHTS…….. .......................................................................... - 85 - THE CONTEXT, HISTORY, STRUCTURE AND CULTURE OF THE ASSEMBLAGE ................. - 86 - v 3.2.1 Context and History ...................................................................... - 86 - 3.2.2 Structure and Culture ................................................................... - 90 - THE JUNIOR CYCLE CURRICULUM AND THE PHASES OF REFORM ................................ - 97 - 3.3.1 Phase One ..................................................................................... - 98 - 3.3.2 Phase Two ................................................................................... - 102 - 3.3.3 Phase Three ................................................................................ - 110 - THE LIMINAL SPACE OF THE ASSEMBLAGE ......................................................... - 117 - (BE)GOING THOUGHTS.................................................................................. - 124 - Education as Becoming ........................................................................... - 126 - (BE)COMING THOUGHTS ............................................................................... - 126 - THE CONCEPT OF EDUCATION AS A MULTIPLICITY................................................ - 128 - EDUCATION AS BECOMING AND EMERGENCE ..................................................... - 134 - THE SPACE OF BECOMING AND EMERGENCE ...................................................... - 147 - 4.4.1 Space ........................................................................................... - 148 - 4.4.2 Time ............................................................................................ - 149 - 4.4.3 Matter and Energy ...................................................................... - 152 - (BE)GOING THOUGHTS.................................................................................. - 156 - Education as Becoming in the Assemblage of Lower Secondary in Ireland .... - 158 - (BE)COMING THOUGHTS ............................................................................... - 158 - THE MOLAR SEGMENT CALLED THE LEAVING CERTIFICATE .................................... - 159 - THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION AT LOWER SECONDARY IN IRELAND........................... - 167 - vi MOLECULAR CRACKS - AN EMERGING PURPOSE ................................................. - 171 - 5.4.1 The Learning Experience ............................................................ - 172 - 5.4.2 Smooth Spaces - the
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