University of Limerick

UNIVERSITY OF LIMERICK INNOVATION AND RESISTANCE IN IRISH SCHOOLING: THE CASE OF TRANSITION YEAR Name: Gerry Jeffers Supervisor: Dr. Jim Gleeson Submitted in fulfilment of the requirement for the award of Doctor of Philosophy May 2008 Abstract INNOVATION AND RESISTANCE IN IRISH SCHOOLING : THE CASE OF TRANSITION YEAR Gerry Jeffers The mainstreaming of the optional Transition Year (TY) programme in 1994 was a significant innovation in Irish second-level schooling. TY offers schools and teachers extensive freedom to devise imaginative curricula with a particular emphasis on personal and social development and education for citizenship. In this study, an historical perspective identifies ambiguous attitudes to TY since its origins in 1974. The relevant literature on key concepts associated with schools as organisations, educational innovation and resistance, young people’s learning, school leadership and teacher development is reviewed. A central focus of the study involves exploring the attitudes to TY of students, parents, teachers and school leaders using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. A consistent pattern through the emerging data is that students are more mature as a result of the TY experience. Young people’s confidence grows, student-teacher relationships are enhanced and opportunities to explore adult and working life are seen as distinct benefits. Individual schools tend to domesticate TY according to their particular histories, traditions, values and contexts. Domestication involves highlighting features of the TY guidelines that fit with schools’ existing identities and neglecting others. The quality of school leadership, particularly by principals and TY co-ordinators, is identified as critically important for effective implementation of the programme. Parents’ attitudes to TY tend to be positive, though they consistently express a desire for more information about the programme. TY’s relationship with other second-level programmes is seen as problematic and significant tensions are identified. The second part of the research involved seeking the perceptions of and attitudes to TY of senior personnel in nine key agencies involved in the making, shaping and implementing of education policy were sought. Discussion resulting from both sets of data examines paradoxical positions where some features of TY are embraced and others resisted. Policy weaknesses are seen as contributing to ambiguous attitudes. Enthusiasm for the innovation is tempered by covert resistance that isolates TY in a type of parallel universe and ensures the hegemony of existing arrangements in schools, notably, the established Leaving Certificate programme and the associated ‘points system’. Current practices which ensure that some young people benefit from six years of second-level schooling and other receive five is seen as unjust and deserving of policy-makers’ urgent attention. Policy implications of the findings, particularly for teachers’ professional development, are discussed. Declaration I, Gerry Jeffers, declare that this thesis is my own work. As indicated throughout the thesis, Attitudes to Transition Year, a report to the Department of Education and Science, based on some data used in this research, was published in 2007. A summary of that report was published by the Education Department, NUI Maynooth. _______________________________ Gerry Jeffers, 30 May 2008 Acknowledgements I wish to thank all those who contributed to the work involved in completing this thesis. Thanks are due to the students, teachers, parents, Transition Year co-ordinators and principals in the schools involved in this study. I appreciate their willingness to take part and to engage with the process. Similarly, the nine interviewees from the various agencies were generous with their time and expertise and I thank them for taking part. Richard Burke, former Minister for Education, and Chris Connolly, former Senior Inspector in the Department of Education and Science, kindly shared their unique perspectives on important phases in the historical development of Transition Year. My colleagues in the Education Department, NUI Maynooth provided encouragement and useful practical advice. My former colleagues on the various Support Services for Transition Year and in Firhouse Community College, Dublin also provided invaluable support at various stages of the work. Particular thanks are due to Dr. Jim Gleeson for his support, advice and friendship during the adventure of the past few years. As a supervisor, his blend of incisive critique, intellectual challenge and warm encouragement was much appreciated. Finally, special thanks are due to my family, especially my wife Winifred, who, in sickness and in health, continued to support and have faith in me. Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity or it becomes ‘the practice of freedom,’ the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world. Richard Shaull Foreword to Pedagogy of the Oppressed, by Paolo Friere, Penguin Books, 1996, p.16 Table of Contents Abstract i Declaration ii Acknowledgements iii Table of Contents v List of Table xiii List of abbreviations used in the text xv Introduction 1 Chapter 1 The Development of Transition Year 5 Stages of Development 5 Stage 1 7 TY introduced, 1974 7 Rules and Programmes for Secondary Schools, 1976 13 TY reviewed 14 Stage 2 18 Impetus for the second wave of development 18 EC Transition Programmes - Irish Pilot projects 19 The work of the Interim Curriculum and Examinations Board 21 Transition Year Option - Guidelines for Schools, 1986 23 TY reviewed 27 Stage 3 31 v Impetus for the third wave of development 31 Transition Year Programme, Guidelines for Schools, 1993 34 Mainstreaming TY 35 The TY roadshow, 1993 36 In-service education 36 Comparing the 1993 guidelines with those from 1986 38 Schools’ response 40 Parents’ attitudes 40 Supporting schools in designing TY programmes 40 White Paper, 1995 45 Inspection and evaluation 46 Media coverage 48 Continuing support 49 Writing the programme 51 TY reviewed 52 Research on TY 53 NCCA proposals 58 Whole-school evaluation 59 Attitudes to Transition Year 60 TY conference 60 Conclusion 60 Chapter 2 Transition Year in the schooling context – a literature review 63 Schools 64 Schools are different 64 The purpose of schools 66 Schools: Functional to Personal 70 Schools in the context of changing societies 71 Cultures within schools 76 The robustness of schools and resistance to change 77 School curricula and innovation 82 Curriculum Reform and the Irish context 84 vi Summary 88 Young People 88 Young People’s Voices 88 Students’ attitudes to learning 91 Student motivation 92 Peer relationships and adolescent learning 94 Young people in classroom contexts 96 Relevance, imagination and challenge 98 Young voices at the millennium 99 The formative influence of Carl Rogers 100 John Dewey's perspectives on learning 101 Friere and the banking metaphor 102 Kolb and experiential learning 103 Gardner and the theory of multiple intelligences 104 Learning to learn 105 Opening Minds 107 Summary 108 School Leadership 109 Teachers 112 Teaching 112 Teachers and innovation 113 Teachers’ resistance to innovation 115 The complexity of teachers’ work 117 Teaching as emotional work 118 Teachers’ professional development 120 Moral purpose 123 Teacher agency 125 Summary 126 Conclusion 126 Chapter 3 Methodology 128 Context to the first stage 128 Rationale 131 vii Research question 133 Case Study 133 The piloting stage 136 Selecting the six schools 137 Expanding the research question 139 Ethical considerations 140 Data gathering and analysis 141 Additional perspectives 145 Presenting the data from the first stage of the research 145 Second stage of the research 146 Ethical issues in the second phase 149 Other reservations 151 A third emerging issue 152 Conclusion 153 Chapter 4 School Profiles 154 Ash School 154 Introduction and development of TY in Ash School 154 Description of TY Programme at Ash School 154 Timetable 158 Benefits 162 Students’ view 164 Teachers’ views 167 Parents’ views 172 Specific issues 173 Funding 174 Beech School 176 Introduction and development of TY in Beech School 176 Description of TY Programme at Beech School 178 Timetable 178 Choosing to do TY 182 Benefits 183 viii Students’ views 184 Teachers’ views 186 Parents’ views 191 Specific issues 193 Funding 195 Chestnut School 197 Introduction and development of TY in Chestnut School 197 Description of TY Programme at Chestnut School 199 Timetable 201 Benefits 205 Students’ views 205 Teachers’ views 209 Parents’ views 214 Specific issues 215 Funding 217 Sycamore School 218 Introduction and development of TY in Sycamore School 218 Description of TY Programme at Sycamore School 221 Timetable 222 Benefits 226 Students’ viewa 227 Teachers’ views 230 Parents’ views 235 Specific issues 236 Funding 239 Summary 240 Conclusion 242 Chapter 5 Attitudes to Transition Year 245 Dominant attitudes to TY 246 Attitudes of Third Year Students 246 Attitudes of TY students to the programme 247 Attitudes of students in LC classes 248 Parents’ points of view 249 ix Teachers’ perspectives 250 Perceptions of outcomes for students 253 Maturity 253 Career Exploration 253 Improved relationships between students and teachers 254 Beliefs about intellectual development 254 Beliefs

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