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As higher education (HE) comes under increasing pressure from policy-makers, nationally and internationally, to contribute more directly to economic development, tensions between more traditional missions of universities and their more recent entrepreneurial makeovers create major dilemmas for academic staff regarding their roles and responsibilities. Using the lens of professional responsibility and accountability, the paper takes Initial Teacher Education as an instrumental case study to illustrate how these tensions, in terms of policy documents, and perceptions of teacher educators unfold. Analysis strongly suggest that when external prescription is increased, and reforms under-resourced, pressures for accountable conformist compliance render the exercise of professional responsibility extremely difficult if not impossible, compromised rather than finding "legitimate compromise." The paper argues that HE has significant lessons to learn from this case while signalling that current challenges within teacher education are already becoming a gauntlet that the entire HE community needs to consider seriously.

Consistent with the impact of globalisation and international social movements in general, the rather conservative and stable educational system in Ireland has been buffeted severely over the past two decades by a major acceleration in the pace of change and the extent of policy churn. Now that the Celtic Tiger has died, it is a time for reflection: what has been the impact of unprecedented spending on the continuing professional development of teachers on the quality of teaching and learning? Through a multi-focal lens of curriculum reform and professional development from policy and practice perspectives, this paper provides a critical meta-analysis of available research in the setting. It is anticipated that key messages regarding overload, time for learning, the necessity to conceptualise a more coherent and comprehensive policy for building pedagogical and leadership capacity rather than delivering "inservice" are legacies and lessons that will resonate readily with emerging findings on professional renewal and systemic reform in other contexts. (Contains 4 tables and 12 notes.)

While "paradigm wars" have raged internationally during the past decade in particular, the research community, qua community in the Irish context has been largely silent on these important issues. This paper provides a synthesis of key aspects of these international discourses against a brief historical backdrop of the field of educational research. Thereafter, this theoretical lens is used to interrogate the more than 200 papers published in "Irish Educational Studies" (IES) over a period of 10 years: 1996-2006. This analysis seeks to establish the relative health and quality of educational research in the Irish context, and in the third section of the paper, this analysis is the basis for discussion of lessons that may be learned from insights and understandings gained. The paper concludes that a more systematic and comprehensive review of educational research funding in the Irish context would be particularly apposite and timely, while also advocating the necessity for a comprehensive educational research policy and the creation of a national educational research council. In the absence of such endeavours, research is likely to remain fragmented, small scale and easily dismissed by policy-makers, thus enabling advocacy rather than evidence and research generated elsewhere to overly-influence educational reform, while failing to enhance and extend a comprehensive "native" research literature, a vibrant research culture, while funding and systematically supporting and developing the next generation of educational researchers. In the absence of policy and funding, quality and capacity will continue to falter in a more complex, sophisticated interdependent world. (Contains 2 figures, 3 tables and 2 notes.)

The evidence presented in this article regarding policy reforms in the Irish context may suggest that, until now at least, professionalism prevails over performativity when viewed from the perspectives of primary principals. Nevertheless, the article argues that the prevalence of professionalism may indeed be short lived and principals themselves may be complicit in hastening a more performative-driven culture within school communities as they compete for a share of systemic power and in the process increase professional distance between themselves and their teaching colleagues while promulgating a rhetoric of collegiality and shared leadership.

Against a general backdrop of an international discourse on educational reform that has focused on accountability, this article provides a detailed and critical analysis of the evolution of accountability policy and practice in Irish primary and post-primary education during the past 20 years. The analysis indicates clearly that national policy agendas have been influenced and shaped in significant ways by key international organisations, despite such influences being "refracted" in different ways due to traditions of schooling in the country, and the current distribution of power among the major stakeholders. The article argues that the very recent publication of inspectors' reports for the very fist time marks a seismic shift in the Irish education system, and provides further evidence of an increase in the performativity and accountability demanded of teachers. Consequently, the article concludes, the system is at a very important crossroads where there needs to be a national debate on the kind of education system we desire for our children. The accountability path chosen will have enormous consequences for the quality of teaching and learning and the quality of our democracy. The stakes have never been higher. (Contains 3 notes.)

The primary aim of this article is to identify and interrogate the lay theories of contemporary student teachers and to indicate and illustrate the manner in which these "theories" manifest both continuity and change when contrasted with teaching archetypes and previously articulated lay theories of student teachers in the setting. It is in five parts. First, a theoretical lens of teaching archetypes and lay theories is provided. Second, a succinct account of the changing educational and policy context is provided. Third, data generation and analysis are described. Fourth, emergent cultural themes are critically analysed. Fifth, some tentative implications are drawn for initial teacher education and further research. (Contains 2 notes.)

Examines significant influences that shape the identities of primary-school principals in Ireland to gain insight into the process of identity construction and its relationship to the educational change process. Includes theoretical perspectives, policy context, methodological considerations, and ethos and identity. Concludes that principal preparation should cultivate risk-taking and imagination. (Contains 46 references.) (PKP)

The article focuses on the necessity of education reform in Ireland. The establishment of priorities, coupled with persistent attention over time, are indispensable to bring about such improvements. It is important to recognise also that far too many piecemeal initiatives in the past have contributed significantly to the current lack of coherence, the fragmentation, and the duplication of effort that wastes scarce resources.

Consistent with the impact of globalisation and international social movements in general, the rather conservative and stable educational system in Ireland has been buffeted severely over the past two decades by a major acceleration in the pace of change and the extent of policy churn. Now that the Celtic Tiger has died, it is a time for reflection: what has been the impact of unprecedented spending on the continuing professional development of teachers on the quality of teaching and learning? Through a multi-focal lens of curriculum reform and professional development from policy and practice perspectives, this paper provides a critical meta-analysis of available research in the setting. It is anticipated that key messages regarding overload, time for learning, the necessity to conceptualise a more coherent and comprehensive policy for building pedagogical and leadership capacity rather than delivering ‘inservice’ are legacies and lessons that will resonate readily with emerging findings on professional renewal and systemic reform in other contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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Through the substantive theme of ethos, and the theoretical lens of identity construction, this paper provides a fine-grained analysis of the identities of primary principals in Ireland as they are buffeted between the conserving forces of tradition and a rhetoric of reform that relentlessly colonizes their work. Ethos, understood as a metaphor for change, indicates that transforming the past by developing principals' capacities for risk and imagination as they reshape their identities and reconstruct schools in tune with 21st century needs is a challenge to principals in general as they navigate between past, present and future. The authors conclude that risk and imagination are habits of mind that require urgent cultivation as important elements of principals' professional learning, for the future of schooling depends on it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses various reports published within the issue, including one by Walsh on the reforms in the education sector of Ireland from 1900 to 1922 and another by McGarr on the use of information and communication technologies in the secondary sector.

The article introduces a series of articles on education in Ireland.

The evidence presented in this article regarding policy reforms in the Irish context may suggest that, until now at least, professionalism prevails over performativity when viewed from the perspectives of primary principals. Nevertheless, the article argues that the prevalence of professionalism may indeed be short lived and principals themselves may be complicit in hastening a more performative-driven culture within school communities as they compete for a share of systemic power and in the process increase professional distance between themselves and their teaching colleagues while promulgating a rhetoric of collegiality and shared leadership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]