Towards a Better Future

Towards a Better Future: A Review of the Irish School System
a quality assurance provision that is equal to Cosán’s own vision. In this connection, it is necessary to
point out that what Cosán identifies as ‘standards’ (Section 8) are more properly described as aspirations,
or aims-in-view, viz. a commitment to ‘quality teaching and learning’ and to ‘continued professional
growth’ (p. 32). Standards, if they are to do the work expected of them, need to embody criteria for
assessment of the levels of capability achieved, not merely the identification of desirable professional
qualities. The Teaching Council itself already acknowledges this in another area of its work: namely, the
standards specified in its Codes of Professional Conduct. These provide the necessary criteria for the
operation of the Council’s fitness to practise responsibilities.
(g) Availing of relevant research insights
It is now widely accepted that the promotion of good professional practice in education is a researchinformed
activity, no less than it is in other, widely different practices – e.g. engineering, medicine,
librarianship, accountancy, and nursing. Where the practice of education is concerned, case studies
and action research studies have in recent decades added very substantially to what has been
traditionally provided by empirical research. Cosán cites many research sources from other countries
(mostly the UK and the USA). Strangely, however,it cites no Irish research. Its only references to Irish
sources are to the Teaching Council’s own policy documents. There is a considerable body of Irish
research in recent years – including action research studies, case studies and R & D initiatives – that
are relevant to the building of a framework for professional development (e.g. Hyland, 2000; Hogan
et al, 2008; Conway et.al, 2009; Sullivan et al, 2016). Such studies not only illustrate how something
that might work well in another jurisdiction might work less well, or well but differently, within an
Irish schooling context; they can also highlight some difficulties and some possibilities that are
peculiar to the Irish context. It is to be hoped that the Teaching Council will pay more systematic
attention to relevant Irish research and to good research from European jurisdictions with broadly
comparable populations and GDP per capita – e.g. Scotland, Denmark, and Finland. This could yield
richer fruits than might otherwise be harvested in the three-year development period during which
the national framework for professional learning for teachers takes shape.
(h) Leadership and Professional Development
Throughout these chapters, there has been a recurring emphasis on educational leadership, highlighting
the distinctions between it and other important concerns such as educational management, educational
administration and educational governance. Perhaps it is worth stressing once more that the key goal
of educational leadership is that of promoting, monitoring and sustaining high quality educational
experiences in classrooms and other formal learning environments. The leadership of capacity
development initiatives for teachers needs continually to keep this goal to the fore.
The Teaching Council is now the main statutory agency with responsibility for regulation of the
teaching profession, including the professional learning of teachers, from its initial phase right through
to advanced professional development. Previously, such statutory responsibilities lay in a less specific
way with the DES. The opening paragraphs of this chapter mention the CPD initiatives taken under
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