Practice in irish infant classrooms in the context of the irish primary school curriculum (1999): Insights from a study of curriculum implementation

This paper begins with a brief outline of the philosophical and methodological basis and the corresponding early education classroom practice envisaged and advocated by the current child-centred Irish Primary School Curriculum (1999). In the context of an overall ‘fidelity-type’ study, which sought to examine the degree to which the aforementioned curriculum guidelines were actually informing infant classroom practice, it goes on to present and discuss the results of a Target Child Observation Study of pupil activity across a variety of 15 Irish senior infant classrooms (‘senior infants’ is the second year of formal schooling in Ireland, with the average age of the pupils between five and six years old). A composite picture of general Irish infant classroom practice thus emerges. The paper concludes with a discussion on the core factors identified as militating against the implementation of a more child-centred, activity-based curriculum in the Irish early years classroom.