Latest Module Specifications
Current Academic Year 2025 - 2026
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Description This module will enable learners to critically analyse the influence of key global trends on professional learning policies in Ireland (at both national and local levels) and on reconfigurations of professional practice across the continuum. Conceptualisations of professional learning will be examined. The evolution of professional learning policies in Ireland will be analysed through policy archaeology. Learners will engage with a range of comparative approaches to policy analysis (nationally and internationally) using a variety of analytical frameworks. Some key crossings and contestations around professional learning theories, analytical lenses and professional learning policies and practices will be explored. There will be opportunities for learners to apply analytical frameworks to the interrogation of their own problems of practice within their contexts. These opportunities will include a critical spotlight on how policy structures influence professional learning policy and practice; these structures will consist of an analysis of the role of regulatory bodies and the use of international policy experts in framing professional learning policy development. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Learning Outcomes 1. Identify and explore some overarching global influences in professional learning and critically reflect on their implications for the implementation of national policies 2. Critique and analyse the national professional learning policy context in the context of its historical evolution 3. Appraise the changing orientation of key structures in professional learning policymaking in Ireland, e.g., the Teaching Council, the role of experts, and assess their impact and influence on professional learning and the learner’s own professional setting 4. Interrogate emergent directions in professional learning policy agendas nationally and internationally and critically analyse the ways in which these agendas are being driven. 5. Demonstrate engagement with a range of approaches to policy analysis and explore their application to professional learning/teacher education settings and the learner’s own context and problem of practice 6. Plot future trajectories in a selected area of professional learning/teacher education using a critical policy analysis framework | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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All module information is indicative and subject to change. For further information,students are advised to refer to the University's Marks and Standards and Programme Specific Regulations at: http://www.dcu.ie/registry/examinations/index.shtml |
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Indicative Content and Learning Activities
Global movements Global trends and national trends in professional learning that influence educators and education across the continuum: neoliberalism, globalisation, and policy ‘partnerships’ will be included. ‘Knowledge’ and Professional Learning Dilemmas and contestations around professional learning set against some of the dominant conceptualisations of ‘knowledge’ and varying ontological stances. Policy Analysis Frameworks Policy analytical frameworks and models – exploring their suitability for different policy contexts, development of new hybridized models, and their potentialities and limitations. Policy-Borrowing Policy-borrowing from the international landscape in professional learning and manifestations in the policy literature and professional learning practices in Ireland. Conceptualisations of Professional Learning Conceptualisations of professional learning that foreground policies with a particular focus on a critical exploration of those that foreground the learner’s own particular policy context. Policy Sociology The evolution of professional learning policies is explored through policy sociology, such as historiography with application to the learner’s own professional setting and problem of practice Policy Sites Structural approaches to policy analysis include a critical exploration of regulatory bodies' policy roles and the use of international experts in teacher education policy and practice. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Indicative Reading List Books: None Articles: None | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Other Resources
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