Primary School Teachers’ Understanding of Themselves as Professionals Doctor of Education Dublin City University Supervisor: Dr. James O’Higgins Norman School of Education Studies Bernadette O’Donovan B.Ed., M.Ed. 2013 1 Declaration I hereby certify that this material, which I now submit for assessment on the programme of study leading to the award of Doctorate in Education is entirely my own work, that I have exercised reasonable care to ensure that the work is original, and does not to the best of my knowledge breach any law of copyright, and has not been taken from the work of others save and to the extent that such work has been cited and acknowledged within the text of my work. Signed: (Bernadette O’Donovan) ID Number: 56111762 Date: 2 Acknowledgements I would like to thank all who have helped in the completion of this thesis: the teachers who participated in the study by agreeing to be interviewed; my colleagues in Scoil Assaim for their continued interest in the topic; my fellow students in DCU for their support and some good laughs; my supervisor, Dr. James O’Higgins Norman, for his endless patience, his scholarly advice, and his constant encouragement; I could not have done this without his guidance. And finally, my family: Tony, Derval, Killian, Tiernan and Ailíse who have been wonderful – as ever! Dedication This thesis is dedicated to my parents: to my late father, who would have been very proud, and to my mother, who is! 3 Table of Contents Abstract ..................................................................................................................................... 8 Chapter 1: Introduction .................................................................................................... 9 1.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 9 1.2 Background to the Study................................................................................................... 9 1.3 The Research Question ..................................................................................................... 9 1.4 Structure of the Thesis .................................................................................................... 10 Chapter 2: Historical Background ............................................................................... 11 2.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 11 2.2 Historical Background & Development of the Teaching Profession in Ireland ............... 13 2.3 Easing of the Penal Laws ................................................................................................. 15 2.4 The Maynooth College Act .............................................................................................. 16 2.5 Reports of the Commissioners of Irish Education (1791-1813) ...................................... 17 2.6 The Kildare Place Society ................................................................................................ 18 2.7 The Stanley Letter (1831) ................................................................................................ 20 2.8 The Model Schools .......................................................................................................... 20 2.9 The Lancastrian Monitorial System................................................................................. 21 2.10 The Powis Commission ................................................................................................... 22 2.11 Payment of Teachers ...................................................................................................... 23 2.12 Changes in Ireland post 1922 .......................................................................................... 24 2.13 Changes in Teacher Education ........................................................................................ 26 2.14 Introduction of the Bachelor of Education Programme ................................................. 28 2.15 1991 OECD Report .......................................................................................................... 29 2.16 The 1992 Green Paper: Education for a Changing World ............................................... 30 2.17 The 1995 White paper: Charting Our Education Future ................................................. 31 2.18 Education Act (1998) ....................................................................................................... 32 2.19 The Primary Curriculum .................................................................................................. 32 2.20 The Revised Curriculum (1999) ....................................................................................... 34 2.21 Assessing Teacher Competence ...................................................................................... 35 4 2.22 Assessment of Newly Qualified Teachers ....................................................................... 35 2.23 Whole School Evaluation ................................................................................................ 37 2.24 The Irish National Teachers’ Organisation ...................................................................... 38 2.25 The Teaching Council ...................................................................................................... 40 2.26 Summary ......................................................................................................................... 41 Chapter 3: Literature Review ........................................................................................ 43 3.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 43 3.2 Concepts of professionalism ........................................................................................... 43 Figure 1: Attributes of professions as identified in the literature (M. Sexton, 2007) ..... 46 3.2.1 Knowledge Attributes: ............................................................................................. 47 3.2.2 The Autonomy Attribute: ........................................................................................ 51 3.2.3 Service Attributes: ................................................................................................... 53 3.3 The Hay McBer (2000) Report ........................................................................................ 55 3.4 Outside the Classroom .................................................................................................... 57 3.5 Ideological Perspectives .................................................................................................. 58 3.6 Teachers’ Identity ........................................................................................................... 59 Figure 2: Factors involved in the construction of professional identity (Tucker 2004, p.88) . 60 3.7 Professionality and Professionalisation .......................................................................... 61 Figure 3: Contrasting conceptions of teaching (Codd, 1997) ................................................ 62 3.8 Summary ......................................................................................................................... 63 Chapter 4: Methodology ................................................................................................. 65 4.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 65 4.2 Research Methodology ................................................................................................... 65 Figure 4: The Simple Relationship between Epistemology, Methodology, and Method ...... 67 Figure 5: Contrasting Issues in Positivism and Constructivism .............................................. 69 4.3 Research Design .............................................................................................................. 72 4.4 Interviewing as a Research Method ............................................................................... 73 Figure 6: Qualitative Interviews: The Two Dimensions ......................................................... 77 4.5 Ethical and Political Considerations ................................................................................ 78 Figure 7: Research likely to cause greater risk of harm to participants ................................. 79 4.6 Reliability and Validity ..................................................................................................... 81 4.7 Focus Group .................................................................................................................... 83 5 Figure 8: Types of Group Interviews and Dimensions ............................................................ 84 4.8 Sample ............................................................................................................................. 85 4.9 Selection of Participants ................................................................................................. 86 4.10 Conducting the Interviews .............................................................................................. 87 4.11 Summary ......................................................................................................................... 91 Chapter