Irish teachers, starting on a journey of data use for school self-evaluation

O’Brien, Shivaun; McNamara, Gerry; O’Hara, Joe; Brown, Martin

doi:10.1016/j.stueduc.2018.11.001

Cited by 30 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…This is perhaps due to societal and cultural traditions in both countries, where students and parents are traditionally isolated from school decision-making processes. O’Brien et al (2019) point out that required participation rates of students and parents in the SSE process are not clearly defined while they are set out in detail with respect to administrators and teachers. Thus, it can reasonably be argued that meaningful distributed evaluation and planning strategies that have a real impact on student achievement have yet to come to full fruition in any of the countries studied.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, the varying Degrees of Non-Participation as described by Hart (1992) may not always be a deliberate and intended strategy to exclude parents and students from evaluation and planning processes. Internal evaluation, or school self-evaluation (SSE) as it is known in many countries, can have implementation challenges (Brown et al, 2017; O’Brien et al, 2019), particularly where the role of parents and students is concerned (Brown, 2013; Verger and Curran, 2014;). The existing body of literature about school evaluation has mainly focussed on capacity-building for school leaders and teachers (Brown et al, 2017; McNamara and O’Hara, 2012; Vanhoof et al, 2009).…”

Section: School Evaluation and Student/parent Voicementioning

confidence: 99%

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Exploring parent and student engagement in school self-evaluation in four European countries

Brown¹,

McNamara

Çınkır

et al. 2020

European Educational Research Journal

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The purpose of this paper, which is part of a three-year EU Erasmus+-funded study titled ‘Distributed Evaluation and Planning in Schools’ (DEAPS), is to provide an analysis of policies, structures, processes, supports and barriers that exist to enable or inhibit the involvement of students and parents in school evaluation in four European countries (Belgium, Ireland, Portugal and Turkey). Document analysis was used for this study and some 348 peer-reviewed articles, and 28 national and transnational policy documents were included in the analysis. Based on this review it would be reasonable to suggest that the student/parent voice agenda around evaluation in schools remains, by and large, aspirational. It is extolled in policy but in practice is mainly tokenistic with very little evidence of impact on the work of schools. In light of this, it is argued that government and school-level policies and strategies need to be reconsidered to enhance students’ and parents’ engagement in school evaluation. As a first step, significant further empirical research on the limitations on and conditions necessary for stakeholder voice in education is required.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: School Evaluation and Student/parent Voicementioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring parent and student engagement in school self-evaluation in four European countries

Brown¹,

McNamara

Çınkır

et al. 2020

European Educational Research Journal

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The limited recent research to date on the application of school evaluation policy would suggest that students and parents are, in fact, being consulted during SSEs considerably more so than would have been the case in the past and that school leaders and teachers have not raised significant concerns about this development. In a study of self-evaluation in post-primary schools, O’Brien et al (2019) found that the data most frequently gathered were surveys of teachers’ attitudes and practice, surveys of students’ and parents’ attitudes, entrance examination results, and results of state examinations. In relation to students and parents, comments from one school captured the generally positive response of heads and teachers: So we got the different perspectives of the different people including the staff, the students and the parents and it really gave us a complete picture so we could see then very clearly where we wanted to go.…”

Section: The Policy and Implementation Of Stakeholder Voice In Sse Inmentioning

confidence: 99%

Parent and student voice in evaluation and planning in schools

et al. 2019

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Current approaches to the regulation of schools in most jurisdictions tend to combine elements of external inspection with systems of internal self-evaluation. An increasingly important aspect of the theory and practice of both, but particularly the latter, revolves around the role of other actors, primarily parents and students, in the process. Using literature review and documentary analysis as the research method, this article explores the research literature from many countries around the concerns of schools and teachers about giving a more powerful voice to parents and pupils. Then, focusing on Ireland, this article tries to clarify three things, official policy concerning stakeholder voice in school self-evaluation and decision making, the efforts by schools to implement this policy and the response to date of school leaders and teachers to this rather changed environment. Using Hart’s ladder of genuine, as opposed to token, participation, it is argued that policy mandating parental and student involvement has evolved significantly, that schools have responded positively and that there is little evidence, as yet, of teacher concern or resistance. This response is explained by the low stakes and improvement-focused education environment; the controlled, structured and simplified nature of the self-evaluation process; and the limited extent of parental and student participation in decision making.

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“…As I have said elsewhere, the rhetoric of autonomy is very much that -rhetoric, as autonomy for the school equates to a lack of autonomy for the teacher (Skerritt, 2018a). While the English education system is often considered to be one of the most high-stakes in the world, the Irish education system is not as severe (Mac Ruairc, 2019) and continues to operate as part of a low-stakes accountability environment (O'Brien, McNamara, O'Hara, & Brown, 2019). However, if school autonomy is advanced, this can be expected to change and to start resembling what is happening in other countries.…”

Section: School Autonomy and Accountabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

‘I think Irish schools need to keep doing what they’re doing’: Irish teachers’ views on school autonomy after working in English academies

Skerritt

2019

Improving Schools

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Despite a lack of conclusive evidence connecting autonomous schools and academic success, school autonomy is regularly championed as being a way of not only improving schools but as a way of improving the quality of education in socially and economically deprived areas. This research builds on a recent paper published in Irish Educational Studies that argues that school autonomy should not be advanced in Ireland by exploring how teachers feel about features of autonomous schools. Irish teachers who have previously worked in academy schools in England, and who now teach in disadvantaged schools in Ireland, were interviewed about their experiences and how they would feel about features of autonomous schools being implemented in Ireland. The experiences the participants had in England indicate how school autonomy can be experienced in different ways – morally proper ways that engage with the broad purposes of schooling such as focusing on students and their learning, and morally improper ways that prioritise looking good on external measures at the expense of students and their learning. Overall, the participants were opposed to schools in Ireland becoming more like English academies but felt that having greater local flexibility over the curriculum in schools and offering a wider range of subjects would be beneficial, provided that it was embraced and enacted in a morally proper manner.

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Irish teachers, starting on a journey of data use for school self-evaluation

Cited by 30 publications

References 52 publications

Exploring parent and student engagement in school self-evaluation in four European countries

Exploring parent and student engagement in school self-evaluation in four European countries

Parent and student voice in evaluation and planning in schools

‘I think Irish schools need to keep doing what they’re doing’: Irish teachers’ views on school autonomy after working in English academies

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