The Impact of Crisis on the Discourse of School Reform

• In Event: Educational Research in a Time of Transformation: Perspectives From Post-Celtic Tiger Ireland

Abstract

Arguably, no other public institution has been subject to both the consequences of the economic crisis and the expectations for redemption, than the Irish post-primary school. Add a recent 'Pisa shock', and a previously inert system becomes destabilised. Competing discourses emerge, along with multiple narratives of change, and a re-alignment of key actors in the system. Using a policy studies frame, and focusing on lower-secondary education in particular, this paper attempts to map the changing landscape from within.

Author

• Anne Looney, National Council for Curriculum and Assessment