Building upon the conceptualisation of alternative education in Ireland

ABSTRACT

Young people who are either at risk of disengaging or disengaged from mainstream education in Ireland are often supported by what is termed ‘out-of-school’ or the ‘alternative education’ sector. A recent review of out-of-school education provision (Department of Education. 2022. Review of Out-of-School Educational Provision. Dublin: DE, Social Inclusion Unit.) was the first attempt to recognise this hidden educational sector. This paper aims to build upon and expand the typology describing out-of-school alternative education provision developed by Department of Education (Department of Education. 2022. Review of Out-of-School Educational Provision. Dublin: DE, Social Inclusion Unit.) to further explore the meaning of alternative education in Ireland. Based on findings from the first-of-its-kind evaluation of Rethink Ireland’s Education Fund, we propose a tentative typology of alternative education based on three clusters of Awardee projects. Three critical criteria, positionality toward the mainstream schools, learners’ age, and focus of projects’ work, were used to distinguish between the clusters, identified as (a) life-long learning/social inclusion programmes, (b) curriculum reform/diverse pathways to adulthood programmes, and (c) alternative centres of education/based outside the mainstream schools. We show how alternative education providers offer a much broader range of programmes, operating both inside and outside of the mainstream schools, use innovative approaches to teaching and learning, support the overall well-being of students and tackle structural inequality within education in Ireland.

KEYWORDS:

• Educational inequality
• diversity
• Ireland
• alternative education
• typology
• innovative approaches to education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The impact of the intersection of race and class requires making white visible as an intersecting category of privilege.

2 National Framework of Qualifications (NFQ) is a 10-level entity developed to measure learning achievements. The framework provides a description of qualifications and sets out pathways from one NFQ level to the next (for more see: https://www.qqi.ie/Articles/Pages/National-Framework-of-Qualifications-(NFQ).aspx).

3 This Report will be referred to as The Review, for the rest of the paper

4 YEP schools were introduced in line of the state’s response to schooling of young people at risk of coming into conflict with authority and of becoming disengaged from mainstream schooling (Department of Education 2022, 24). They have provided a community-based, non-residential education which is alternative to the mainstream schools in their structure and pedagogy. They provide personalised education and flexibility in teaching and programmes, and they are hugely focused on students’ personal development.

5 We chose these countries as they are socially, culturally and politically close to Ireland.

6 Rethink Ireland was established by the government in 2015 to fill a gap in funding innovation for the non-profit sector. Its mission is to provide growth capital and supports to the best social innovations in Ireland, enabling them to scale and maximise their impact.

7 Rethink Ireland counts education as one of its five strategic areas for investment. Following in the footsteps of the Education Fund, Rethink Ireland opened two further Education Funds, namely the Youth Funds (2018) and the Children and Youth Fund (2019).

8 The Education Fund’s definition of educational disadvantage is something that arises from living in a disadvantaged area, socioeconomic disadvantage, experiencing mental health or other health issues, or disability.

9 The researchers obtained the research ethics approval from the University of Galway’s Research Ethics Committee.

10 The process involved matching projects across five core elements, namely vision, aims and objectives, project activities, participants’ ages and positionality in relation to the mainstream education system.

11 The project does not gather the exact data about the completion of the programme and this an estimated number.

12 Most young people enrolled to the two programmes were dealing with a multitude of challenges and diagnoses. Many had mental health issues, general health issues, behavioural issues, learning disabilities, and complex family situations.

13 When public spending on education is calculated as a percentage of Modified Gross National Income (GNI*), it accounts for 6.1% of GNI* in 2015 (CSO 2017).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Rethink Ireland over three years of the evaluation of Rethink Ireland’s Education Fund.

Notes on contributors

Tanja Kovačič

Dr Tanja Kovačič is a post-doctoral researcher at UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre, School of Political Science and Sociology at University of Galway. Her area of research has developed around the sociology of youth, sociological and political resilience, educational inequality, and biographical and narrative research approaches.

Cormac Forkan

Dr Cormac Forkan is a lecturer in the School of Political Science and Sociology, and Senior Researcher in the UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre at University of Galway. His research interests include youth work and adolescent development, youth social support, and use of real-time data collection methods with young people.