Mr. Barry Slattery:

Oddly enough, even as early as yesterday, we received an update from a colleague who had returned from a meeting in Brussels. Our colleagues in the curriculum agency in Belgium have found themselves subject to a legal challenge in their constitutional courts. The basis of it is that there is over-prescription of learning outcomes and it negates the Belgian educators’ rights to curriculum freedom. At the same meeting, colleagues from the Netherlands expressed the dilemma that they were in, which is a reverse issue - albeit not necessarily a legal one - where they are coming under increasing pressure to address the learning outcomes that are regarded as too broad. There are different perspectives. It is fair to say that different people understand curriculum in different ways. Some see it as an official text that will be faithfully implemented and received in schools and prefer a very highly prescriptive curriculum, whereas others see it is as something that is more dynamic and prefer a more, let us say, permissive curriculum that has less emphasis on specifying every single piece of content and more attention on the development of skills, for example. I will not come down on the side of either perspective but the irony is that both perspectives are premised on the same assumption, namely, the national curriculum, be it a permissive or prescriptive curriculum, will be implemented in schools exactly as intended. However, the reality is that teachers are not passive conduits who deliver somebody else’s curriculum. They will be translating and mediating the curriculum within their own context to meet the needs and interests of their students. Both perspectives underplay the complexities of this reality of the social practice of curriculum and the curriculum-making that happens in schools.

I will get to the answer now with two points.

The strength of the network-based school approach to the redevelopment of the senior cycle is that it will give us the opportunity to work with teachers in a way that will allow us to look at the exact nature and form of the curriculum, the resources, the supports, the professional development and the professional time that is required for teachers to work with the curriculum in the best possible way to deliver the best possible outcomes for their students. Absolutely, we intend to conduct additional research and consult with teachers on those issues even before we engage with schools. I wish it was as simple as conducting research that says this is exactly the way it should be and that it would solve all problems. We have seen this issue in other jurisdictions. That issue came up only as recently as yesterday, but I have been hearing about the same issues in other jurisdictions for more than ten years.