The role of school leadership in the implementation of the Transition Year Programme in Ireland

Personal development in secondary education: the Irish Transition Year

“…of Education, 1993), somewhat tangential to the main rationale for the programme-that is, supporting students' personal development-it is clear that research findings of superior Leaving Certificate performance among participants do go some way to allaying concerns that participation in the year out from examination-based education might have a negative impact on students' achievement. However, this awareness can contribute to a rather conservative approach to designing the content of the programme, with the distinction between the Transition Year and the two years of the Leaving Certificate proper becoming somewhat blurred in some schools (Jeffers, 2010). This pragmatic approach by school staff can be seen as reflecting the systemic dominance of the instrumentalist pressures associated with high-stakes testing in Ireland-although it is recognised that such pressure on educators is not unique to the Irish context (see, for example, Amrein-Beardsley, Berliner and Rideau (2010) for further discussion of such pressures).…”

“…The second major source of information comes from the work of Jeffers (2007Jeffers ( , 2010Jeffers ( , 2011, who reports observations from six case study schools with "distinctive good practice in their TY programmes" (2007, p. 31). The findings-of students', teachers', and parents' attitudes to the programme and schools' organisation and implementation of the programmeare based on detailed interviews with school principals and Transition Year co-ordinators, focus groups with students and parents, and questionnaire data returned from more than 100 teachers across the six selected schools.…”

“…(Previous research has sometimes tended to refer to "maturity", following interviews with stakeholders, with limited reference to specific facets of that maturity.) However, the role that this personal development may play in subsequent Leaving Certificate achievement remains unclear (Jeffers, 2010;Millar & Kelly, 1999). The part-time work experience that forms a key component of the year may be important to perceptions of maturity by helping students to acquire an understanding of the world of work and to learn work-and occupation-related skills with relevance beyond school.…”

“…However, progress has been made in documenting and examining Transition Year in recent years (Clerkin, 2012;Jeffers, 2007Jeffers, , 2010Jeffers, , 2011Smyth, Byrne & Hannan, 2004). Although transition programmes and youth development programmes of various design are in operation in other jurisdictions, the Irish Transition Year is unusual in that a full school year is set aside for the programme as opposed to, for example, two classes a month (e.g., Pitre, 2011, in the United States) or delivery outside school (e.g., FYD, 2012, in New Zealand).…”

“…1-2). Within these guidelines, schools are allowed considerable freedom to design their own Transition Year programme (ASTI, 1993;Humphreys, 1998) and, in practice, the structure and content of the year is often heavily dependent on individual teachers and leaders who drive the programme within their school (Jeffers, 2010). TY components can include such in-school modules as first aid, electronics, road safety, deportment and personal grooming, setting up business mini-companies, dance, foreign languages, and tasters for Leaving Certificate subjects or post-secondary courses (e.g., philosophy, media studies), as well as overnight or weekend trips, school exchanges, outside speakers brought in to address students, and a spell of unpaid work experience in a real workplace.…”