New Publication: Teachers’ Professional Journeys during the first decade longitudinal study: Teacher education stakeholder perspectives on initial teacher education, the continuum of teacher education and teacher supply

Research Impact

This TPJ report draws on a unique data set that informs and deepens our understanding of initial teacher education and how stakeholders, from divergent vantage points, interpret the origins, developments, and emerging impact of a period of dynamic change in teacher education in Ireland across the primary, post-primary, and FET sectors. The distinctiveness of the FET sector shaped our approach, leading to the inclusion of a dedicated focus group with FET stakeholders. This decision proved valuable and will inform TPJ’s future engagement with FET teachers/practitioners in their first decade post-ITE. The report concludes by highlighting the main themes emerging from the focus group interviews: the impact of policy developments over the last fifteen years and the quality of initial teacher education, the greater focus on the role of school placement, the continuum. of teacher professional development, teacher supply, and the lack of diversity in the teaching profession. The prevailing professionalisation discourse on teaching and teacher education is an important context for this report and the entire TPJ study. First, it points to the significance of the wider political and policy environment for teaching and teacher education. Second, as we outlined earlier in this report, how a system responds to the four issues of regulation, standards, curriculum of teacher education and accountability provides a landscape within which stakeholder perspectives need to be located and from where they can be better understood. Third, the prevailing professionalisation discourse is likely to impact the views of teachers in their first decade. That is, TPJ Reports will be published annually in 2026, 2027, 2028 and 2029 based on the findings of surveys of the three cohorts along with individual teacher case studies. These annual reports will provide insights on how the wider discourse influences the professional journeys of early career teachers.

Reference

Conway, P. F., Leavy, A., Smyth, E., Calderón, A., Fitzgerald, J., Hourigan, M., Lynch, R., Ní Chróinín, D., O’Meara, N., & Guralp, G. (2025). Teachers’ Professional Journeys during the first decade longitudinal study: Teacher education stakeholder perspectives on initial teacher education, the continuum of teacher education and teacher supply: Report No.3, Limerick: University of Limerick. ISBN 978-1-911620-91-4. https://doi.org/10.34961/19140 

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