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The 2011Forum on Patronage and Pluralism in the Primary Sectorpresented Ireland with an opportunity to rethink the issue of patronage in Irish primary schools, as well as to consider how ‘religious education’ might be approached in such schools in the future. This paper suggests that, for the first time since 1831, Ireland had an opportunity to provide ‘state schooling’ for all children, regardless of their religious beliefs or lack thereof. The paper proposes educatingallchildren in the state in non-denominational secular settings, leaving faith formation to the private domain of parents and communities. Although the concept of ‘secularism’ has negative connotations for those who belong to a religious community, this paper suggests that it provides a framework for inclusive and egalitarian education, offering children and young people the opportunity to learn alongside their peers, irrespective of religious backgrounds. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In 1965, following a review of second-level education in Ireland, the report Investment in Education was published. While a concern with educational inequality and disadvantage pre-dates this report, it clearly identified the significant socio-economic disparities in educational participation at the time and emphasised an urgent need for remedial action. However, while the discussions emanating from this seminal report are concerned with issues around educational disadvantage, less attention has been given to the processes at play in underlying such inequality. Moreover, it can be argued that overarching debates on educational investment over the last 50 years (as reflected in the papers in this special issue) have focused predominantly on post-primary and higher education, to the detriment of early education. Given the recent proliferation of research stemming from the USA around the significant human capital and societal gains of early years investment – which is especially pronounced for disadvantaged children – this paper argues that it is vitally important that early education is viewed as an important window of opportunity for increased public spending and treated on par with later educational investments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Beginning with a historical review of Irish education policy since the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922, this paper focuses on the issue of investment in education through the lens of theInvestment in Educationreport. Following this historical review, the author explores how the legacy of the past continues to define the ways in which education is structured and delivered in Irish schools. The key achievement of the 1965 report was its success in altering the Irish state's perception of expenditure on education. While this was previously viewed as an expense and an obligation, the report highlighted its longer-term economic value as an investment in the future. While acknowledging the transformative impact of the 1965 report in terms of subsequent trends in the scale of public investment in education, this paper argues that the report's advice in relation to the nature of investment and to the optimal configuration of resources has been largely ignored and neglected in the intervening years. This paper revisits what theInvestment in Educationauthors describe as ‘the question of the existing organisation of facilities’ in an attempt to understand contemporary challenges in Irish education. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper is based on the recollections of its author of the work of the Investment in Education team from its inauguration in summer 1962 until the completion of its work in early 1965. The author was a research assistant to the team throughout the period of the study and was directly involved in the collection and analysis of the data on which the findings of the report were based. The paper describes the conditions under which the team operated. It adverts to some of the contentious issues which arose out of the data analysis. It explores the evolving roles of the Steering Committee, of senior civil servants in the Department of Education and of the chairman and of individual members of the team during the two-and-a-half-year period. It discusses some of the external influences which impacted on members of the team and explores how the changing economic and cultural life of Ireland in the early 1960s affected their thinking. It touches on the setting up of the Development Branch in the Department of Education in 1966 and its premature disbandment by the Minister Richard Burke in 1973. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The status of school placement in the Republic of Ireland has recently been elevated in importance within a reconceptualisation of initial teacher education (ITE). This paper shares the findings from one case study of a school–university partnership enacted in this regard. The partnership involved a researcher-in-residence at the school championing the concept of a structured authentic democratic partnership. The findings show the impact of a champion at the school site in developing professional conversations among a multiplicity of policy actors. An unexpected finding was the depth of higher order peer cooperation achieved in this first iteration of a structured setting by student teachers. However cultural and contextual challenges abound in seeking to build the trust required to enact authentic partnerships in this regard. The findings have significance for the Teaching Council as they build capacity for new and innovative models of the practicum in ITE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thirty years after the publication ofInvestment in Education, Patrick Clancy wrote that the report represented ‘“the” foundation document of education’ in the era since the introduction of economic planning in the late 1950s. This paper considers the importance of the report in disseminating theories of human capital formation (as well as other less recognised influences) among Irish political and educational elites.Investmentcontributed to a seminal shift in educational policy linked to a widely held conviction among politicians, officials and international advisers that education was vital to national economic salvation. This paradigm shift was informed not only by changing domestic priorities driven by a legacy of economic failure but also by wider international trends inseparable from the Cold War, especially the importance accorded to education and technological development as key battlegrounds in the global struggle between the capitalist West and the Soviet Union. Defining ideas ofInvestment– notably increased financing of education as an essential factor in economic development and the necessity for a far-reaching expansion of participation at post-primary and higher levels, not least to meet a perceived shortfall in the supply of well-qualified workers – became central to Irish educational policy over the two generations that followed publication of the report, as illustrated by quantitative trends examined here. Due to the extraordinary persistence of these features over this period, it is worthwhile examining their emergence as lasting forces in an ‘effective history’ of education that is much more than historiographical interpretation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]