Overview

This book provides a comprehensive study of educational policy reform as growing calls for further reducing the role of the Catholic Church in Irish primary schools gains traction in a rapidly evolving Irish society. Drawing upon lessons from the same-sex marriage and abortion reform campaigns, this study provides several policy case studies that demonstrate how the interplay of civil society activists and organisations, the media, public opinion, and political parties and elites determines how policy reforms live or die. The book contains a rich and novel set of data, including interviews with leaders and elites from the major actors and institutions, numbers and trends from previously unreleased data from the Church and Department of Education, evidence from the authors’ originally designed and implemented parliamentary surveys, an original analysis of media coverage of educational issues and actors involved in the main educational reform debates, and detailed case studies of divestment, admissions, and curriculum policy reforms. Scholars, policy gurus, activists, politicians and teachers, students, and parents each have something to learn from this compelling study.

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9781800797093

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Reviews

«McGraw and Tiernan have produced a powerful scholarly interrogation of the changing face of Irish Primary Education. History conferred dominance of the sector on a powerful Catholic Church. The future will be different for a weakened Church that faces new actors, new voices, new aspirations, in fact an emerging new secular, liberal Ireland. This study calmly and convincingly explores this transitioning landscape, asking “What Next?”. It is an invitation to one of the most crucial and profound debates in the story of modern Ireland and a welcome exemplary, fresh contribution to that debate.» (Mary McAleese, former President of Ireland Current Professor of Children, Law & Religion at the University of Glasgow and Chancellor of Trinity College, Dublin)

McGraw and Tiernan have produced a powerful scholarly interrogation of the changing face of Irish Primary Education. History conferred dominance of the sector on a powerful Catholic Church. The future will be different for a weakened Church that faces new actors, new voices, new aspirations, in fact an emerging new secular, liberal Ireland. This study calmly and convincingly explores this transitioning landscape, asking What Next? . It is an invitation to one of the most crucial and profound debates in the story of modern Ireland and a welcome exemplary, fresh contribution to that debate. (Mary McAleese, former President of Ireland Current Professor of Children, Law & Religion at the University of Glasgow and Chancellor of Trinity College, Dublin)

Author Information

Sean Mcgraw is a Comparative Political Scientist specialising in Irish politics. He earned his BA and MDiv from the University of Notre Dame, MSc from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and PhD in Comparative Politics from Harvard University. He currently teaches Political Science at Boston College and is active as a mentor and philanthropic leader in the educational and mental health sectors. He has published How Parties Win: Shaping the Irish Political Arena (University of Michigan Press, 2015) and co-edited with Eoin O'Malley One Party Dominance: Fianna Fáil and Irish Politics 1926-2016 (Routledge, 2017). His articles have been published in the European Journal of Political Research, Parliamentary Affairs, Government and Opposition, Irish Political Studies, Research in Comparative and International Education, and Eire-Ireland: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Irish Studies. Jonathan Tiernan is the Education Delegate for the Irish Jesuits and their network of 5 secondary schools and 3 primary schools. He is a former primary school teacher having earned his BA from St. Patrick’s College/ Dublin City University and his MEd from the University of Notre Dame. His writing has appeared in The Irish Times, TheJournal.ie, Irish Catholic, Educatio Catholica Journal, and Research in Comparative and International Education.

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