Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

12 Pre-assembling Our Young: Points of Movement in Post-Austerity Ireland

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Neo-Liberalism and Austerity

Abstract

The chapter offers something of a post-critical reading of youth transition through and beyond secondary school towards some form of work in the context of the Republic of Ireland (Ireland). The chapter takes material-semiotic tools, media reportage and extant research to consider what I refer to as the ‘pre-assemblage’ of young people moving through, and beyond, second-level school in what appears as some kind of post-austerity context. In doing this, the chapter brings into focus actors, both distant and local, human and nonhuman, who in various ways shape and form, by subtle and not-so-subtle means, and contribute, or impede, the movement of young people beyond a primary engagement with formal education and the consequences of this for young people’s health and well-being, broadly defined.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Skill New Zealand was a Crown Agency working at the interface of education and employment. Its former responsibilities are now managed by the Tertiary Education Commission.

  2. 2.

    This is not to suggest that a job, any job, is inherently good. That issue is canvassed elsewhere in this collection.

  3. 3.

    During its early years, there was some roll-back on the form of involvement of the university sector.

  4. 4.

    Since 2009, there have been concerted attempts by Ministers of Education to undertake radical reform of the Junior Certificate, moving it away from a ‘high-stakes’ summative examination. At the time of writing, this has not been achieved MURRAY, N. 2015. Junior Cert Reform at Risk After Poll. Irish Examiner, 25 September 2015.

  5. 5.

    The research was funded by the Standing Conference on Teacher Education North and South (SCoTENS).

References

  • Allen, K. 2012. The model pupil who failed the test: Social policy in the Irish crisis. Critical Social Policy 32: 422–439.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anonymous. 2015a. Briefing: How colleges inflated points to make courses more attractive. Sunday Business Post, August 16.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2015b. Leaving Certificate results: Students being left behind in the face for CAO points. Irish Examiner, August 13

    Google Scholar 

  • AU, W.W. 2007. High-stakes testing and curricular control. Educational Researcher 37: 258–267.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2008. Devising inequality: a Bernsteinian analysis of high-stakes testing and social reproduction in education. British Journal of Sociology of Education 29: 639–651.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2009. High-stakes testing and discursive control: The triple bind for non-standard student identities. Multicultural Perspectives 11: 65–71.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Banks, J., and E. Smyth. 2015. ‘Your whole life depends on it’: Academic stress and high-stakes testing in Ireland. Journal of Youth Studies 18: 598–616.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bauman, Z. 2012. On education. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beck, U. 1992. Risk society. Towards a new modernity. Theory, culture & society. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1999. Individualization. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beesley, A. 2015. Irish economic growth hits 7% as recovery outstrips targets. The Irish Times, December 10.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bell, D.N.F., and D. Blanchflower. 2010. Youth unemployment: Deja vu? Bonn, Germany: Institute for the Study of Labor.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carney, G.M., T. Scharf, V. Timonen, and C. Conlon. 2014. ‘Blessed are the young, for they shall inherit the national debt’: Solidarity between generations in the Irish crisis. Critical Social Policy 34: 312–332.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Central Statistics Office. 2012. Profile 3 At work. Dublin: Stationery Office.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clerkin, A. 2013. Growth of the ‘Transition Year’ programme nationally and in schools serving disadvantaged students, 1992–2011. Irish Educational Studies 32: 197–215.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Commission, E. 2014. EU measures to tackle youth unemployment. Belgium: European Commission.

    Google Scholar 

  • Donnelly, K. 2015a. CAO: Points race speeding up as students chasing top jobs. Irish Independent, August 17.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2015b. Getting to the point of the new CAO scale. A quiet revolution has been going on in relation to the Leaving Certificate. Irish Independent, September 9.

    Google Scholar 

  • Drudy, S., ed. 2009. Education in Ireland. Challenge and change. Dublin: Gill & Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Edwards, R. 2011. Translating the prescribed into the enacted curriculum in college and school. Educational Philosophy and Theory 43: 38–54.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eurofound. 2013. Young people and temporary employment in Europe. Brussels: European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions.

    Google Scholar 

  • European Commission. 2012. Commission staff working document accompanying the proposal for a Council recommendation on establishing a Youth Guarantee. Brussels: European Commission.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fenwick, T., and R. Edwards. 2010. Actor-network theory in education. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grodsky, E., J. Warren, and E. Felts. 2008. Testing and social stratification in American education. Annual Review of Sociology 34: 385–404.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hannan, D., and S. Shortall. 1991. The quality of their education. School leavers’ views of educational objectives and outcomes. Dublin: Economic and Social Research Institute.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jeffers, G. 2011. The Transition Year programme in Ireland. Embracing and resisting a curriculum innovation. The Curriculum Journal 22: 61–76.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kamp, A., and D. Black. 2014. 3 Ply: Exploring the potential of transformative workplace learning for and by teachers. Armagh, NI: SCoTENS.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ladson-Billings, G. 2006. From the achievement gap to the education debt: Understanding achievement in U.S. schools. Educational Researcher 35: 3–12.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Latour, B. 1993. We have never been modern. Harvard: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2007. Reassembling the social. An introduction to Actor-Network-Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Law, J. 2009. Actor network theory and material semiotics. In The new Blackwell companion to social theory, ed. B.S. Turner. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lee, H., G. Lee, and R. Openshaw. 2013. Radical assessment and qualification reform in New Zealand: The rocky road to National Certificate of Education Achievement. World Studies in Education 14: 25–45.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lennox, B. 2001. Where did NCEA come from? [Online]. Wellington: New Zealand Qualifications Authority. [online]. Available from: http://www.nzqa.govt.nz/qualifications-standards/qualifications/ncea/understanding-ncea/history-of-ncea/where-did-ncea-come-from/. Accessed 3 Mar 2016.

  • Levitas, R. 2012. The just’s umbrella: Austerity and the Big Society in Coalition policy and beyond. Critical Social Policy 32: 320–342.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lewis, M. 2011. When Irish Eyes Are Crying. Vanity Fair. United States: Conde Naste.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mcauliffe, N. 2015. Fee schools dominate high-points courses. Table-topping Coláiste Eoin in Stillorgan bucks trend as one of just three non-fee-paying schools in top 10 with high progression rates. The Irish Times, December 3.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mccoy, S., D. Byrne, P. O’connell, E. Kelly, and C. Doherty. 2010. Hidden disadvantage? A study of the low participation in higher education by the non manual group. Dublin: Higher Education Authority.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mooney, B. 2015. Will the points go up or down for the CAO course you want? We list the courses that are likely to rise and those that are likely to fall. The Irish Times, August 14.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nichols, S.L., G. Glass, and D. Berliner. 2005. High-stakes testing and student achievement. Arizona: Arizona State University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Philips, D. 2003. Lessons from New Zealand’s national qualifications framework. Journal of Education & Work 16: 289–304.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pierre, J. 2000. Debating governance, authority, steering, and democracy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scully, B. 2015. Our rigid education system is an unfair points game largely unchanged since 70s. Irish Independent, May 6.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smyth, E., and J. Banks. 2012. High stakes testing and student perspectives on teaching and learning in the Republic of Ireland. Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability 24: 283–306.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smyth, E., and S. Mccoy. 2009. Investing in education: Combating educational disadvantage. Dublin: Economic and Social Research Institute.

    Google Scholar 

  • Standing, G. 2011. The Precariat: The new dangerous class. London: Bloomsbury Academic.

    Google Scholar 

  • Strathdee, R. 2003. The qualifications framework in New Zealand: Reproducing existing inequalities or disrupting the positional conflict for credentials. Journal of Education & Work 16: 147–164.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Traynor, I. 2013. EU pledges E6bn to tackle youth unemployment. The Guardian, June 28.

    Google Scholar 

  • Triplett, C.F., and M.A. Barksdale. 2005. Third through sixth graders’ perceptions of high-stakes testing. Journal of Literacy Research 37: 237–260.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • UNICEF Office of Research. 2014. Children of the Recession: The impact of the economic crisis on child well-being in rich countries. Florence: UNICEF Office of Research.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Walshe, J. 2009. Cullen wants transition ‘doss year’ scrapped. Irish Independent, June 4.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2015. Obsession with college entry points and university rankings will only intensify. Irish Independent, April 30.

    Google Scholar 

  • Walther, A. 2006. Regimes of youth transitions. Choice, flexibility and security in young people’s experiences across different European contexts. Young 14: 119–139.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Young, M. 2003. National qualifications frameworks as a global phenomenon: a comparative perspective. Journal of Education & Work 16: 223–237.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2005. National qualifications frameworks: Their feasibility for effective implementation in developing countries. In Focus Programme on Skills, Knowledge and Employability. Geneva: International Labour Office.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand

    Annelies Kamp

Authors
  1. Annelies Kamp
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Education, RMIT University, Bundoora, Victoria, Australia

    Peter Kelly

  2. Leeds Beckett University, Leeds, United Kingdom

    Jo Pike

Copyright information

© 2017 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Kamp, A. (2017). 12 Pre-assembling Our Young: Points of Movement in Post-Austerity Ireland. In: Kelly, P., Pike, J. (eds) Neo-Liberalism and Austerity. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58266-9_13

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation