Pedagogy or politics?: cyclical trends in literacy and numeracy in Ireland and beyond

Abstract

In 1999, the primary curriculum was published in Ireland, with emphases on ‘breadth and balance’, recognition of the role of language and the arts and commitment to each child's potential and holistic development. In 2011, the Irish government published a strategy aimed to improve standards of literacy and numeracy among children and young people in Ireland, ‘Literacy and Numeracy for Learning and Life: The National Strategy to Improve Literacy and Numeracy among Children and Young People 2011–2020’. The approaches to address concerns over literacy and numeracy in Irish schools, taken by the Strategy, require deconstruction, and in this paper, we argue that the focus on literacy and numeracy to the exclusion of other educational objectives in Ireland at present threatens the holistic ethos of the curriculum. We challenge those involved in education in Ireland to ensure that pedagogical rather than political concerns motivate our strategies and policies.

Keywords:

• PISA
• primary curriculum
• literacy
• numeracy
• standardised testing
• politics

Notes on contributors

Annie Ó Breacháin lectures in the areas of Drama Education and Teaching and Learning at Marino Institute of Education in Dublin, Ireland. Her current research interests include integrated experiences in primary education; drama as another way of knowing, developing practice-based modules and assessment in initial teacher education and children's perceptions of ‘good’ teaching.

Leah O'Toole lectures in Psychology at Marino Institute of Education in Dublin, Ireland. Her current research interests include parental involvement in children's education, integration and theory-to-practice in the context of the foundation disciplines in Initial Teacher Education, and bio-ecological perspectives on educational transition.

Notes

1. DEIS: Delivering Equality of Opportunity in School – Irish initiative to combat educational disadvantage.

2. This figure refers to children with language difficulties. According to Coldwell et al. (2011), agreement with suitability of the test was highest (84%) for pupils with strong phonics skills, but less than half of respondents agreed that the Check accurately assessed the decoding ability of pupils with EAL (46%), with speech difficulties (35%), with SEN (33%) and with language difficulties (28%).

3. Art and design, citizenship, computing, design and technologies, foreign languages, geography, history, music, P.E.