perceived short-comings in ITE. The policy documentLiteracy and Numeracy for
Learning and for Life(DES 2011 ) identified the need to‘improve the quality and
relevance of initial teacher education’(p. 32). Furthermore it stated,
It is possible, for example, to obtain a BEd qualification (for primary teaching) in some
colleges without completing intensive modules in the teaching of literacy and numeracy.
The low mathematical ability among a number of students entering undergraduate initial
teacher education courses at primary level and the more general weaknesses in many
students’conceptual understanding in mathematics are also causes of concern. (DES 2011 ,
p. 32)Embedded within the policy statement on the enhancement of literacy and
numeracy, the DES subsumed responsibility for initial teacher education and the
decades of benign neglect which the DES had displayed towards ITE were at an
end. The DES announced its decision to extend the duration of concurrent ITE for
primary level education to four years and postgraduate ITE programmes for primary
and post-primary to be extended to two years. In addition, the structure of con-
current programmes for primary teachers was to be radically revised; the policy
where 40% of the programme was committed to studies in arts/humanities was at an
end. Within the new four-year programme, which was to be implemented the
following academic year (2012),‘electives’could comprise a maximum of 20% of
the programme. Where included, electives were to be more closely related to
education and relevant to the curriculum (DES 2011 , p. 34). The DES policy
became the springboard for the publication of the Criteria Guidelines for
Programme Providers(Teaching Council2011b) which defined the content of
teacher education programmes, outlined mandatory elements of all ITE pro-
grammes and identified some 65 learning outcomes to be achieved. The Council
specified that foundation studies, professional studies and school placement should
be at the heart of the programmes; within foundation studies it stipulated that all
ITE programmes should include the study of curriculum studies, the history and
policy of education, philosophy of education, psychology of education and soci-
ology of education. Reaffirming the centrality of these subject areas to prepare the
beginning teachers to ‘critically engage with curriculum aims, design, policy,
reform, pedagogy and assessment’and to“enhance students”understanding of the
Irish education system,’(Teaching Council2011b, p. 13), the Teaching Council
firmly rooted teacher preparation within the university/academy and advocated that
teacher educators be research active and student teachers research literate. Despite
the move to closely define, manage and control centrally the content and structure
of ITE, and contrary to developments in Britain where the locus of teacher edu-
cation has been transferred to schools, the Teaching Council safeguarded education
as a discipline within programmes and emphasised the important contribution of the
university in the professional formation of teachers.
11 Initial Teacher Education in Ireland—A Case Study 173