You say potato ... implications of a prescribed curriculum on three Irish physical education teachers

Abstract

This paper revisits data collected within a case study about three Irish Physical Education teachers who work in a child-centred way (Moles, 2003). These teachers' practices are analysed with reference to what and how they taught within structures provided by Bernstein (2000). At the time of the analysis, with no official syllabuses, these teachers had relative freedom to select what they taught. Since then the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) has provided syllabuses for Junior Cycle, Senior Cycle and Leaving Certificate Physical Education (2000). The Junior Cycle Syllabus is currently (2005) being piloted in Irish post-primary schools. My original study examined the teaching of physical education in Ireland within a socio-cultural framework and acknowledged rapid changes in Irish society consistent with successfully embracing global capitalism. Concerns about the effects of globalisation, outlined by Maguire (2004), resonate within my analysis of the Irish education system. This current paper progresses my original concerns by looking at the roles of these teachers through a philosophical lens of care theory, described by Noddings (2002). Implications for the caring practices demonstrated by these three teachers are considered by analysing changes implied within the introduction of prescribed syllabuses.