1. Exploring and Expressing the Characteristic Spirit in Publicly-managed (ETB) schools Dr Joanne O'Flaherty and Dr Orla McCormack (on behalf of the research team) Wednesday 1st February 2017

3. Research Team University of Limerick External Advisors
Dr Joanne O’Flaherty
Dr Orla McCormack
Dr Mags Liddy
Dr Jennifer Liston
Dr Emmanuel O’Grady
Dr Barney O’Reilly Prof Jim Gleeson

4. The project partners Education and Training Boards Ireland
Cork Education and Training Board
Dublin & Dún Laoghaire Education and Training Board
Galway & Roscommon Education and Training Board
Kerry Education and Training Board
Limerick & Clare Education and Training Board
Louth & Meath Education and Training Board

5. Structure of presentation
Background and Rationale
Methodology
Phase 1
Phase 2
Recommendations

6. Background and Rationale

7. Rationale – Policy vacuum?
‘A board shall perform the functions conferred on it and on a school by this Act and in carrying out its functions the board shall—
(b) uphold, and be accountable to the patron for so upholding, the characteristic spirit of the school as determined by the cultural, educational, moral, religious, social, linguistic and spiritual values and traditions which inform and are characteristic of the objectives and conduct of the school
(Education Act, 1998, Section 15.2.b.).

8. Methodology

9. Research Questions
What are the cultural, moral, religious, spiritual, values and traditions of Publicly-managed ETB schools?
What issues do ETB publicly-managed schools experience in expressing their cultural, moral, religious, spiritual, values and traditions?
What are appropriate normative philosophical, political and social principles to guide the articulation of ETB Characteristic spirit?
What are the appropriate educational, curricular & pedagogical principles to guide the articulation of a characteristic spirit for publicly-managed ETB schools?

10. Phase 1 (n=18 schools)
Goal: Engage in exploratory conversation regarding the Characteristic spirit of the school
Survey to school Boards of Management and interviews with ETB CEOs/EOs
Survey to JC cohort (n=696)
Focus Group with JC cohort
Survey to all staff (n=126)
School Documentation (e.g. Mission Statement; Enrolment Policy etc.)

11. Overview of Research Findings

12. Core Values Underpinning Characteristic Spirit
Democratic Participation
Respect
Moral Education
Catholic /Christian values / Religion
Equality

13. Equality
When asked to respond to the statement ‘In this school all students are treated equally’, 78.6% of teachers agreed.
Likewise, when asked to respond to ‘In this school all students are treated equally’, 64.6% of students agreed with the statement.

14. Equality
The school has a ‘Egalitarian ethos which creates an atmosphere of openness for students, staff and parents where they can express their views’ (Parents Representative BOM, School 7)
Evidence/Examples: mixed ability teaching, admissions policy, positive behaviour approach & codes of behaviour

15. Democratic Participation
When asked to respond to the statement ‘Teachers in this school encourage us to be actively involved in lessons’, 87.1% of students agreed.
79.7% of students agreed with the statement ‘I am given the opportunity to be responsible during the school day’
55.4% of students agreed with the statement ‘I play a role in devising school and classroom rules’.
When asked to respond to ‘Important school decisions are made on staff consensus’ 69.2% of teachers agreed with the statement.

16. Democratic Participation
‘I mean the student voice is paramount in the school….. we listen to them and when they say we need to do something we sit down. We discuss it. We do what we can to implement it. Its an open door policy at the best of times’ (Deputy Principal, School 8)
Evidence/examples: Student Councils, parental voice, community engagement, PLC/Adult learning, admission policies, open door policy, Teaching Practice support programme

17. Respect
When asked to respond to the statement ‘In this school teachers and students treat each other respectfully’, 63% of students agreed.
91.2% of teachers agreed with the statement ‘In this school, all students’ talents and abilities are valued’.

18. Respect
‘Mutual respect is promoted and encouraged’ (Teacher Representative, BOM, School 12)
‘They treat you respectfully. There's no favouritism, they don't treat others ahead of you’ (FG, School 6)
Examples/Evidence: the schools admission policies, extra-curricular activities, disciplinary policies, approaches to teaching and learning, through approaches to decision making, student and parent councils, anti-bullying policies, relationships, modelling respectful practice in leadership.

19. Moral education
75.3% of students agreed that they ‘learn more than subject content at this school’.
86% of students agreed that ‘In this school I am encouraged to consider what is right and wrong in terms of my actions and behaviours’
78.2% of students agreed that ‘In this school, I am encouraged to think about what is right and wrong and the reasoning why I am making certain decisions’.

20. Moral Education
‘We learn about education. We learn about our subjects and Irish and stuff. But the teachers they put lots of effort into teaching us about life and what’s right and what’s wrong. Stuff like that’ (Focus Group, School 16)
Evidence/Examples: Extra-curricular activities, student awards for contribution to school community, participation in community initiatives

21. Religion
Schools appear to have a wide range of attitudes to and arrangements for religion and religious education.
Individual interviewees from different schools portrayed considerable differences:
‘A strong Catholic strain running through what we do’ (Key Personnel, School 12)
‘We have no RE on the curriculum’ (Key Personnel, School 4)

22. Catholic/Christian values/Religion
‘I suppose it is a Catholic Church we go to, yeah, so it would have a Catholic, penitential service. The students that are not of the Catholic faith, some of them would go to the mass at the beginning of the school year. We don't force them to go. They can go and sit in. Those that don't want to go to service don't go. We also of course have a Leaving Cert mass at the end of the school year, to finish up the school year. That's held within the school building where the priest comes and says a mass’ (Principal, School 6)
Evidence/Examples: Mass, Graduation mass, Novenas, opt-out systems, religious symbols, Catholic priest offers weekly one-to-one ‘listening and talking’ sessions

23. Issues: Understanding CS
Ambiguity surrounding the concept itself
The majority of teacher respondents reported a good to average understanding of CS, however, 17% reported a poor level and 9% reported no understanding.
‘Other school types, for example, have a very obvious philosophy of education. The voluntary secondary schools with the religious inclinations have a very obvious kind of thread through everything. To me, the ETBs don’t have that’ (Principal, School 12)

24. Issues: Conflation with Religion
CS ‘was never defined... it was defined by what it wasn’t. For example, it wasn’t a Catholic school traditionally, so it wasn’t something. It was never actually looked at to say what it was’ (ETB Staff 2)
‘It’s very clear to me that people either don’t understand it or else haven’t really thought about it. It gets confused with religion a lot. It gets confused with morality a lot’ (ETB Staff 6)

25. Issues
Ghettoization
Public Perception
The inclusive nature of the school, resulting in a very diverse student population, results in the ghettoization of ethnic minority group, small communities and socioeconomic groups within particular schools (Key Personnel, School 11)
The continued perception of the school as a technical school has resulted in parents sending their more academic members of their family to a secondary school where there is traditionally more emphasis on academics (Key Personnel, School 10).

26. Phase 2 Team of Teachers (minimum 2, maximum 4)
Design and implement individual ‘school response’
Whole school approach
Classroom/subject based approach
Process

27. Examples
Whole staff meeting to explore the shared understanding of the school’s characteristic spirit
Team of teachers meeting to reflect on and review current articulation and expression of characteristic spirit
A review of school policy documents, ensuring a clear articulation of characteristic spirit
Units of learning in SPHE, CSPE, RE

28. Research Conclusions (See Executive Summary)
A strong sense of shared values
Reflecting an awareness of demographic and cultural change in Ireland
Reflecting a generalised commitment to civic values enshrined in education and equality legislation.

29. There is some uncertainty about the concept of characteristic spirit and its applicability to ETB schools.
A lack of guidelines and supports available is evident and this research suggests areas of work to address this.
Religious Education: A review is necessary of the guidelines, policies and the supports for ETB schools around the provision of religious education.

30. Recommendations

31. Policy making for Characteristic Spirit in ETB schools (See Executive Summary)
A clear and succinct guidance framework for characteristic spirit (ETBI & ETBs)
Each ETB should develop a regional guidance framework.
Each ETB school Board of Management: prepare or update a statement of school characteristic spirit as part of their internal school review and WSE documentation.
Documentation at different levels needs to be supportive of individual school context and acknowledge the role of shared purpose with parents and the local community.

32. Inclusive and Democratic Processes (See Executive Summary)
Documentation and the process of development should exemplify the values of inclusiveness and democracy.
In order to ensure democratic process … consideration of the structures/strategies which exist at school level is required.

33. Inclusive and Democratic Processes
Sector wide policy should support individual schools articulation of characteristic spirit
The limited impact of externally mandated reforms (Goodson, 2001)
Importance of acknowledging between school differences (Gleeson, 2002)
Importance of bottom up consultation - reflecting the voice of all stakeholders (Habermas, 1996; Halpin, 1999)

34. Promotion of ETB Characteristic Spirit (See Executive Summary)
ETB patronage and the distinctive characteristic spirit of the ETB sector needs promotion both within and beyond the ETB community.
Dissemination of information, the provision of induction and continuing professional development.

35. Thank you Dr Joanne O'Flaherty Dr Orla McCormack
School of Education, University of Limerick, Ireland
Web:

36. Group Discussion
What could schools do practically to define, document and communicate their characteristic spirit to staff, students, parents and the wider community?
How might defining and promoting a school’s characteristic spirit contribute towards
improving learners’ outcomes and,
enhancing the professional satisfaction of staff