This critical analysis locates Irish curriculum policy and practice in their broader
socio-cultural and policy contexts. Such an analysis is particularly necessary at a time when
Irish schools are experiencing unprecedented waves of curriculum reform in a context where
substantive curriculum debates rarely occur. The book explores the implications of these
contextual factors for 'official' understandings of and attitudes towards curriculum with
particular reference to the experiences of the curriculum development agencies recent
curriculum reforms and the nature of Irish curriculum contestation and discourse. Education and
curriculum policy-making are considered from the perspectives of economic growth social
inclusion policy fragmentation and the prevailing representational model of partnership. The
study identifies the tensions that inevitably arise in attempting to achieve both quality and
equality in education and offers some alternatives to the prevailing contractual model of
accountability. The author draws on his own long experience of curriculum development and
evaluation and on interviews with key players in Irish curriculum decision-making.
