The Politics of Irish Primary Education: Reform in an Era of Secularisation

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This book provides a comprehensive study of educational policy reform as growing calls for further reducing the role of the Catholic Church in Irish primary schools gains traction in a rapidly evolving Irish society. Drawing upon lessons from the same-sex marriage and abortion reform campaigns, this study provides several policy case studies that demonstrate how the interplay of civil society activists and organisations, the media, public opinion, and political parties and elites determines how policy reforms live or die. The book contains a rich and novel set of data, including interviews with leaders and elites from the major actors and institutions, numbers and trends from previously unreleased data from the Church and Department of Education, evidence from the authors’ originally designed and implemented parliamentary surveys, an original analysis of media coverage of educational issues and actors involved in the main educational reform debates, and detailed case studies of divestment, admissions, and curriculum policy reforms. Scholars, policy gurus, activists, politicians and teachers, students, and parents each have something to learn from this compelling study.