Looking Backwards, Looking Forwards

A pluralist, outward-looking approach to Catholic education in Ireland now characterizes some of the latest changes at the level of governance and curriculum. Regarding piety, the first of the two main themes addressed throughout this book, change is also evident. In particular, the manner in which it is promoted and practised in the Catholic secondary schools now is more benignant, personal, ecumenical, and inclusive of those of other faiths than it was in the past. Regarding the second theme considered throughout, namely, the role of the Church historically in favouring at secondary school level those privileged in Irish society socially and economically, the situation is that while expansion of education provision has raised national standards of education, it has not led to the kind of reduction in relative social class inequalities that many believed it could or would. Thus, while so much has changed in relation to second-level schooling in the country from the end of the period 1922–1967 and the move away from the theocratic State, the Church in Ireland still continues to be enmeshed in social reproduction through the position it continues to hold within the nation’s secondary school sector.