Centre for Educational Evaluation
Publications
Trusting Schools and Teachers: Developing Educational Professionalism Through Self-Evaluation by Gerry McNamara and Joe O'Hara
This book emerged from a series of studies undertaken with teachers at various stages of their careers exploring the impact of a range of evaluation systems on their personal and professional development. The book begins with a comparative analysis of the rise of school and teacher evaluation, charting the trend's conceptual and political influences, and highlights how the concept of self-evaluation has come, for a variety of reasons, to play a surprisingly large role in the emerging approaches to school and teacher evaluation. This is illustrated by a detailed analysis of the emerging system of whole-school evaluation in Ireland. Research indicates that while self-evaluation looms large in the system's theoretical framework, in fact, there is strong evidence that neither schools nor teachers have the expertise required to systematically self-evaluate. This book identifies methodologies designed to empower schools and teachers to become genuinely self-evaluating through the development of research skills in the context of online communities of practice.
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Contexts and Constraints - An Analysis of the Evolution of Evaluation in Ireland with Particular Reference to the School Sector by Gerry McNamara, Joe O'Hara, Conor Sullivan and Richard Boyle
This article is a case study of the emergence of an evaluation culture in the public sector and particularly in education in Ireland. It suggests that the emergence of this culture was strongly infl uenced by external bodies, particularly the EU and, to a lesser but signifi cant degree, the OECD. It is further suggested that the continuation of systematic evaluation is still dependent on external forces, since a commitment to evaluation as a tool of governance has not taken hold among key policy-makers in Ireland. However it is suggested that, notwithstanding its arguably insecure foundations, evaluation practice has moved beyond the confi nes of externally funded EU programmes, which saw its first introduction into Ireland. In recent years a broad quality assurance agenda within the public service and to an extent beyond has emerged. The article concludes making the point that an evaluation culture in a particular country is hugely contextualized and infl uenced by the constraints of existing ideologies and relationships between different interest groups. Thus, in Ireland, in line with the corporatist and partnership-driven approaches to economic policy and industrial relations which have been dominant in recent decades, the form of evaluation which has emerged is consensual, collaborative and negotiated.
Straight Talk - Researching Gay & Lesbian Issues in the School Curriculum by James Norman, Miriam Galvin and Gerry McNamara
A New Book for Teachers, Parents & Students of Education. For the first time, this book shines a light onto the reality of gay and lesbian issues in the school curriculum and the difficulties experienced by student, parents, teachers and school administrators in relation to homophobic bullying.
Vision in the Curriculum: Evaluating a Pilot Project on Film Studies in Irish Schools by Gerry McNamara
Innovations come and go in education. It is a notorious testing ground for theories, fashions and fads regarded as vital at a particular time but discarded in due course. This book evaluates the FÍS project in terms of key measures of potential futue impact.
The importance of the concept of self-evaluation in the changing landscape of education policy by Gerry McNamara and Joe O'Hara
Recent decades have witnessed a remarkable rise in the regulation of public services and servants, education being a case in point. External evaluation and inspection has been an important element of this trend. Increasingly, however as the limitations of external surveillance systems have become clear the concept of internal or self-evaluation has grown in importance. This paper explores the concept of selfevaluation in education and gives an account of some of the possibilities and problems associated with it. In particular it is argued that enabling individual schools and teachers to self-evaluate effectively is a complex task that will require help and support from the community of professional evaluators.
