Abstract
School and teacher accountability have had a somewhat fluctuating existence in Irish education. For example, in the nineteenth century, and up to the formation of the Irish Free State in 1922, various frameworks for teacher and school accountability, such as incidental inspections and the Payment by Results system, were regular and at times an unnerving feature of school life. The rating of primary teachers by inspectors and the public availability of post-primary schools examination results were also significant means of making teachers accountable to school and state. At primary level, the frequency of inspections also related to the perceived quality of the school and teacher, as determined by the inspectorate; what might be referred to as incidental or proportionate inspections in the modern era.
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Notes
- 1.
Royal Commission of Inquiry into Primary Education (Ireland), Teachers in National Schools, Vol. 1, Part IV [C-1], 1870.
- 2.
See: Department of Education, Report of the Department of Education for the school years 1925-26-27 and the Financial and Administrative Year 1926–1927, Dublin: Stationery Office, 1928.
- 3.
See: Department of Education, Circular 12/76, Inspection of Schools, Dublin: Stationary Office, 1976.
- 4.
Ibid.
- 5.
Cited in J. Coolahan, Ireland’s School Inspectorate 1831–2008 (Dublin, 2009), 207.
- 6.
Department of Education and Skills, Chief Inspector’s Report: 2010–2012, Dublin: Inspectorate of the Department of Education and Skills, 2013, 102.
- 7.
Ibid, 22.
- 8.
G.F. Madaus, J.P. Ryan, T. Kellaghan, and P.W. Airasian. ‘Payment by results: An analysis of a nineteenth century performance-contracting programme’, The Irish Journal of Education/Iris Eireannach an Oideachais (1987): 80.
- 9.
J. Coolahan, Irish education: Its history and structure (Dublin, 1981), 9.
- 10.
A. McManus, The Irish hedge school and its books, 1695–1831 (Dublin, 2002), 16.
- 11.
E. O’Heidean, National School Inspection in Ireland: The Beginnings (Dublin, 1967), 12.
- 12.
J. Coolahan, Irish education, 3.
- 13.
H. Hislop, ‘Inspecting a Doomed Non-Denominational School System: The Inspectorate of the Kildare Place Society in Ireland, 1811–1831’, Paedagogica Historica, 35, no.1 (1999), 178.
- 14.
E. O’Heidean, National School Inspection in Ireland, 31.
- 15.
Commissioners of National Education, 3rd Report of the Commissioners of National Education in Ireland for the Year 1836, Appendix, Section II (E). Inspection of Schools. 1836, in: Report of the Commissioners of National Education in Ireland from the Year 1834 to 1845, Inclusive, Vol. 1, ed. (Dublin: G and J Grierson, 1851), 109.
- 16.
Department of Education and Skills, A Guide to Incidental Inspection in Second-Level Schools and Centres for Education, Dublin: Inspectorate of the Department of Education and Skills, 2012, 2.
- 17.
Commissioners of National Education, 21st report of the Commissioners of National Education in Ireland for the year 1854, Appendix, Section IV (D): Instructions for District and Sub Inspectors. Dublin: Alex Thom and Sons, 1855, 435.
- 18.
Cited in E. O’Heidean, National School Inspection in Ireland, 100.
- 19.
D. H. Akenson, The Irish education experiment: The National System of Education in Ireland in the nineteenth century (London, 1970), 146.
- 20.
Commissioners of National Education, 9th Report of the Commissioners of National Education in Ireland for the Year 1843, Appendix, Section IV. Inspection of Schools. 1843, in: Report of the Commissioners of National Education in Ireland from the Year 1834 to 1845, Inclusive, Vol. 1, ed. (Dublin, 1851), 203.
- 21.
Ibid., 204.
- 22.
See E. O’Heidean, National School Inspection in Ireland, 85.
- 23.
Commissioners of National Education, 3rd Report of the Commissioners of National Education in Ireland for the year 1836, 1836 in: Report of the Commissioners of National Education in Ireland from the Year 1834–1845, Inclusive, Vol. 1, ed. (Dublin, 1851), 52.
- 24.
Royal Commission of Inquiry, 381.
- 25.
Letter of the Right Hon. E.G. Stanley, Chief Secretary to His Grace the Duke of Leinster, London, 1831 in: Report of the Commissioners of National Education in Ireland from the Year 1834–1845, Inclusive, Vol. 1, ed. (Dublin, 1851).
- 26.
Ibid., 5.
- 27.
S. O’Buachalla, ‘The Inspectorial Role in Twentieth Century Irish Education’, European Journal of Education, 21, no.4 (1986), 359.
- 28.
Ibid.
- 29.
Ibid.
- 30.
D. Akenson, The Irish education experiment, 146.
- 31.
Commissioners of National Education, 21st report of the Commissioners of National Education in Ireland for the year 1854, 437.
- 32.
Commissioners of National Education, 34th report of the Commissioners of National Education in Ireland for the year 1867, Appendix, Section VII (D): Extracts from District Inspectors’ Annual Report for the Year, Observations as to the Proficiency of Pupils, (Dublin, 1868), 236.
- 33.
Royal Commission of Inquiry into Primary Education, Vol. I, Part IV-Teachers, Chapter I, ‘Teachers in National Schools’, 1870, 383.
- 34.
Ibid., 378.
- 35.
Ibid.
- 36.
Ibid.
- 37.
J. Coolahan, Irish education, 28.
- 38.
G. F. Madaus, Michael S. Russell and Jennifer Higgins, The paradoxes of high stakes testing: How they affect students, their parents, teachers, principals, schools, and society (Charlotte, NC, 2009), 121.
- 39.
G. F. Madaus et al., ‘Payment by results’, 81.
- 40.
Newcastle Commission of 1858 cited in Madaus et al., ‘Payment by results’, 81.
- 41.
Palles Commission, 1889, cited in P. Hogan, ‘The Fortress of the Good and the Liberation of Tradition: A Review of Irish Education in the Late Twentieth Century’, Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review (1986): 270.
- 42.
J. Coolahan, Irish education, 29.
- 43.
Vice-Regal Committee of Inquiry into Primary Education, Appendix to the First Report of the Committee: Minutes of Evidence 13th March—25th June, 1913, With Appendices. [Cd.7229], (Dublin, 1914), 250.
- 44.
J. Coolahan, Ireland’s School Inspectorate, 115.
- 45.
Department of Education, Report of the Department of Education: 1930–1931, (Dublin, 1932), 17.
- 46.
A committee was initially established to make recommendations for new modes of school inspection and assessment in Ireland. The committee was tasked with various duties such as a review of primary certificate programs and inspection practices in European Countries. The outcomes of the committee were published as: Report of the Committee on Inspection of Primary Schools, 1927.
- 47.
Department of Education, Report of the Department of Education for the school years 1925-26-27, 1928.
- 48.
Ibid.,10.
- 49.
Ibid.
- 50.
P. G. Frehan, Education and Celtic Myth: National Self-image and Schoolbooks in 20th Century Ireland, (Amsterdam, 2012), 165.
- 51.
J. Coolahan, Ireland’s School Inspectorate, 132.
- 52.
Department of Education, Report of the Department of Education for the school years 1925-26-27, 11.
- 53.
Ibid.
- 54.
Ibid.
- 55.
Department of Education, Report of the Department of Education for the school years 1925-26-27, 12.
- 56.
Department of Education, Report of the Department of Education for the school years 1925-26-2007, 1982, 11.
- 57.
Ibid.,14.
- 58.
Ibid., 12.
- 59.
Department of Education, Report of the Department of Education: 1936–1937, (Dublin, 1938), 131.
- 60.
Ibid.
- 61.
Department of Education, Report of the Department of Education: 1930–1931, (Dublin, 1932), 16.
- 62.
Ibid.
- 63.
Ibid.
- 64.
Department of Education, Report of the Department of Education: 1930–1931, 16.
- 65.
Department of Education, Report of the Department of Education: 1946–1947, 1948, 87.
- 66.
T. J. O’Connell, 100 years of progress—The story of the Irish national teachers’ organisation 1868–1968 (Dublin, 1968), 416.
- 67.
English translation, cited in G. F. Madaus & V. Greaney, ‘The Irish Experience in Competency Testing: Implications for American Education’, American Journal of Education 93, no. 2 (February 1985), 271.
- 68.
T.J. O’Connell, 100 years of progress, 426.
- 69.
Department of Education and Skills, Literacy and numeracy for learning and life. The national strategy to improve literacy and numeracy among children and young people 2011–2020, (Dublin, 2011), 84.
- 70.
Department of Education, Report of the Department of Education: 1948–1949, (Dublin, 1950), 9.
- 71.
Department of Education, Circular 16/59, School Inspection, (Dublin, 1959).
- 72.
Department of Education, Circular 16/59.
- 73.
Patrick P. O’Connor, ‘The policy, process and impact of whole school inspection at primary level in the Republic of Ireland from the perspective of some inspectors and teachers.’ (EdD diss., The Open University, 2001), 18.
- 74.
J. Coolahan, Ireland’s School Inspectorate, 185.
- 75.
Department of Education, Circular 12/76.
- 76.
Irish National Teachers Organisation, A Proposal for Growth (1980)—The Administration of National Schools. Report of a Special Committee (Dublin, 1980), 23.
- 77.
National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, Supporting Assessment in Schools. Standardised Testing in Compulsory Schooling—April 2005 (Dublin, 2005), 15.
- 78.
Government of Ireland, Education Act of 1998, Section 53 (a): Refusal of access to certain information. Dublin: Stationery Office. 1998.
- 79.
J. Coolahan, Ireland’s School Inspectorate, 136.
- 80.
Department of Education, Report of the Department of Education: 1928–1929. Dublin: Stationary Office. 1930, 16.
- 81.
Letter of the Right Hon. E.G. Stanley, Chief Secretary, 4.
- 82.
T. J. O’Connell, 100 years of progress, 420.
- 83.
P. P. O’Connor, ‘The policy, process and impact of whole school inspection’, 20.
- 84.
J. V. Gallagher, ‘Economic value of school inspection’, The Journal of Education 73, no. 14 (1824) (April 6, 1911), 372.
- 85.
Commissioners of National Education, 1st Report of the Commissioners of National Education in Ireland for the year 1836, 1836 in: Report of the Commissioners of National Education in Ireland from the Year 1834–1845, Inclusive, Vol. 1, ed. (Dublin, 1851), 14.
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Brown, M., McNamara, G., O’Hara, J. (2016). Teacher Accountability in Education: The Irish Experiment. In: Walsh, B. (eds) Essays in the History of Irish Education. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-51482-0_14
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