The impact of curriculum change is felt by everyone in our education system. Supporting the work of stakeholders during times of curriculum change is an important feature of NCCA's work. This work involves collaboration and engagement throughout the process of reviewing, developing, enacting and sustaining curriculum change.
To support the redevelopment of the Primary School Curriculum, NCCA have convened a number of events and activities that support stakeholder engagement including Curriculum Seminars, the Leading Out Seminar Series, and the establishment of an Advisory Panel.
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To support the redevelopment of the Primary School Curriculum an Advisory Panel has been established. Members of the panel have been carefully chosen considering their expertise, current and previous research interests, their experience or participation in curriculum change processes, their knowledge and/or experience of education systems, and their familiarity with the Irish context.
The four panellists include:
To date the panel have been collaborating with NCCA and stakeholders to explore topics such as 'agency and flexibility', 'policy alignment and coherence', 'pedagogy and assessment' and 'cultivating conditions to support change'. The work of the panel will continue in 2021 with publications related to this work to follow.
The Leading Out Seminar Series has been designed to support stakeholder organisations to identify and to begin to cultivate the necessary conditions to support the introduction and enactment of the redeveloped Primary School Curriculum. There have been four seminars to date focusing on 'the conducive conditions for curriculum change', 'agency and flexibility', 'policy alignment and coherence' and 'system wide leadership'.
You can find a short report and related material on the proceedings of each seminar below.
Seminar 1: Report and Presentation.
Seminar 2: Report and Presentation.
Seminar 3: Report, Presentation and Podcast.
Seminar 4: Report, Presentation and Podcast.
You can also find a list of the stakeholder organisations who have engaged in the series to date here.
The NCCA held five curriculum seminars between March 2018 and January 2019. Attendance was by invitation to the education partners and wider stakeholders while many of the attending teachers, school leaders and early years practitioners were members of the Schools Forum. The seminars gave participants opportunities to consider the key points emerging from the research papers, and to discuss and tease out these points from different perspectives. Each seminar included keynote presentations focusing on important aspects of a primary curriculum. This report identifies seven themes which emerged across the five curriculum seminars. The five seminars were as follows.
Seminar 1 - Curriculum Purpose
The first seminar, ‘Curriculum Purpose’ took place on March 21st 2018 and over one hundred attendees including teachers, principals and other stakeholders in education deliberated about the purpose of a primary curriculum and explored its values and principles.
Dr. Jones Irwin
Dr. Thomas Walsh
Panel discussion: Reflecting on the learningSeminar 2 - Powerful Synergies
The second, ‘Powerful Synergies’ took place on May 17th 2018 when over one hundred stakeholders deliberated on powerful pedagogies, expressions of integration and the role of competencies and knowledge in a redeveloped curriculum.
Professor Dominic Wyse
Professor Louis Volante
Dr Karen Bacon
Professor Carol McGuinnessSeminar 3 - New Horizons
The third seminar, ‘New Horizons’ took place on October 3rd 2018. It considered how a redeveloped primary curriculum could provide continuity and progression for children’s learning between the two preschool years and the initial years of primary school.
Dr. Alejandra Cortazar
Dr. Harold Hislop
Bernie McNallySeminar 4 - Enhancing Learning
The fourth seminar 'Enhancing Learning Journeys' took place on November 29th 2018. The first part of the seminar focused on how children learn and the implications for classroom practice. The second part of the seminar considered parents' perspectives on a redeveloped primary curriculum. Findings were presented from the NCCA's focus group meetings with parents around the country (October 2018).
Professor Emer Ring, Dr Lisha O'Sullivan, Marie Ryan and Patrick Burke
Parents' panel discussionSeminar 5 - Charting the Journey Forward
The fifth and final seminar ‘Charting the Journey Forward’ took place on January 31st 2019 with over 120 stakeholders coming for further deliberation and reflection on what a redeveloped primary curriculum might look like. The first part of the seminar explored the content of a redeveloped primary curriculum. while the second part of the seminar focused on assessment. Attendees explored how a redeveloped curriculum might take account of new thinking in relation to assessment in the primary school.
Professor Michael O'Leary and Dr Zita Lysaght
Sharon O’Donnell
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