The Transition Year programme in Ireland. Embracing and resisting a curriculum innovation

Abstract

The Transition Year (TY) programme is an optional, one-year, stand-alone, full-time programme offered in 75% of second-level schools in the Republic of Ireland. Aimed at those in the 15–16 age group, TY has a strong focus on personal and social development and on education for active citizenship. The implementation of TY in schools is seen as a case study in curriculum innovation. Evidence from the programme's history and development, from studies of attitudes to TY in six schools and among policy shapers, suggests ambiguous views among stakeholders towards the programme. Enthusiasm for aspects of the innovation is accompanied by resistance to its more challenging features. Schools’ responses to the programme are examined from a range of perspectives.

Keywords:

• Transition Year
• Ireland
• curriculum development
• curriculum innovation

Notes

1. The relevant section states that: ‘The goals and objectives of the programme can best be achieved by placing particular emphasis on: negotiated learning; personal responsibility in learning; activity-based learning; integration of appropriate areas of learning; team teaching approaches; group work – discussion, debate, interview, role play; project work and research; visiting speakers and seminars; study visits and field trips; work experience, work simulation, community service. Educational activities undertaken should enable students to have a valid and worthwhile learning experience with emphasis given to developing study skills and self-directed learning’ (Ireland, Department of Education 1993, 8).

2. E-mail communication for Statistics Section, Department of Education and Skills, 26July 2010.

3. When first introduced in 1994, the additional annual grant to schools was IR£50 per TY student. Despite inflation and a booming economy, this remained unchanged for 13 years. When the currency changed to Euros in 2001, the annual grant remained at €63.49. In September 2007 this was increased by the Department of Education and Science to €100 per student. In the budget of October 2008, this and similar grants related to other school programmes were withdrawn and a new system of supporting schools was introduced.

4. Two studies (Miller and Kelly 1999; Smyth et al. 2004) have demonstrated a direct correlation between doing TY and higher grade achievement in the LC examination. Admission to university and other third-level educational institutions in Ireland is by means of a points scale based on results in six LC subjects. With a maximum possible score of 600, an average points difference of 26 between those who take TY and those who do not is very significant. While improving LC grades was never an explicit goal of TY, this research has, in effect, been very reassuring for those who fear that TY's emphasis on social and personal development might contribute to a decline in academic standards. However, this in turn raises questions as to the extent to which schools offer a ‘pure TY’ or ‘a three-year LC’.

5. Vocational Education Committees administer about one-third of the second-level schools in Ireland. The majority of second-level schools are classified as ‘voluntary secondary schools’. There are also Community and Comprehensive Schools at second level. A brief description of the Irish education system, including a schematic diagram, is available online at: http://www.education.ie/servlet/blobservlet/dept_education_system.pdf

6. In a study of attitudes to TY in six schools where the programme was ‘well regarded’, two of the schools were classified as ‘disadvantaged’. Extensive evidence from both schools suggested that TY had very enriching effects on student development, motivation, achievement and on school climate (Jeffers 2007).

7. When mainstreaming TY in 1994, the Department of Education made it a condition of participation that schools engage with ‘programmes of staff development/in-service education’ (Ireland Department of Education 1993, 13). These programmes were facilitated by regionally based support teams of teachers which developed into a team of 14 seconded teachers between 1995 and 1998. The TY support service was then downsized to a team of six, further reduced in 2000 and then integrated with other programme and subject support services into the Second Level Support Service (SLSS) that operated between 2001 and 2010. The SLSS is due to be subsumed intothe Professional Development Service for Teachers (PDST) in late 2010 (see http://www.slss.ie).

8. Article 12 obliges signatory states to: ‘assure to the child who is capable of forming his or her own views the right to express those views freely in all matters affecting the child, the views of the child being given due weight in accordance with the age and maturity of the child’ ( http://untreaty.un.org/English/TreatyEvent2001/pdf/03e.pdf).

9. Obviously that debate about the purpose and structure of schooling is fuelled by more than TY; see, for example, NCCA 2002, 2003a, 2004, 2005.