Uncertain times require prompt reflexes to survive and this study is a collaborative reflex to better understand uncertainty and navigate through it. The Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic hit hard and interrupted many dimensions of our lives, particularly education. As a response to interruption of education due to the Covid-19 pandemic, this study is a collaborative reaction that narrates the overall view, reflections from the K-12 and higher educational landscape, lessons learned and suggestions from a total of 31 countries across the world with a representation of 62,7% of the whole world population. In addition to the value of each case by country, the synthesis of this research suggests that the current practices can be defined as emergency remote education and this practice is different from planned practices such as distance education, online learning or other derivations. Above all, this study points out how social injustice, inequity and the digital divide have been exacerbated during the pandemic and need unique and targeted measures if they are to be addressed. While there are support communities and mechanisms, parents are overburdened between regular daily/professional duties and emerging educational roles, and all parties are experiencing trauma, psychological pressure and anxiety to various degrees, which necessitates a pedagogy of care, affection and empathy. In terms of educational processes, the interruption of education signifies the importance of openness in education and highlights issues that should be taken into consideration such as using alternative assessment and evaluation methods as well as concerns about surveillance, ethics, and data privacy resulting from nearly exclusive dependency on online solutions.

https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1290039.pdf

A global outlook to the interruption of education due to COVID-19 pandemic: Navigating in a time of uncertainty and crisis

Civil servants have a bad reputation of being lazy. However, citizens' personal experiences with civil servants appear to be significantly better. We develop a model of an economy in which workers differ in laziness and in public service motivation, and characterise optimal incentive contracts for public sector workers under different informational assumptions. When civil servants' effort is unverifiable, lazy workers find working in the public sector highly attractive and may crowd out workers with a public service motivation. When effort is verifiable, the government optimally attracts motivated workers as well as the economy's laziest workers by offering separating contracts, which are both distorted. Even though contract distortions reduce aggregate welfare, a majority of society may be better off as public goods come at a lower cost.

/pdf/incentives-and-workers-motivation-in-the-public-sector-1acef0lira.pdf

Incentives and Workers' Motivation in the Public Sector

Recent rapid economic growth in Ireland has been accompanied by a strong surge in the number of women in employment, and this has led to a significant increase in the proportion of dual-earner families. These changes have brought the issue of reconciliation between work and care commitments to the fore. Flexible working arrangements in firms have been identified as one important means of balancing work and other commitments. In this article we investigate the relationship between four flexible working arrangements; flexitime, part-time hours, working from home and job sharing, and two key employee outcomes; work pressure and work–life conflict, using data from the first national survey of employees in Ireland in 2003. Our results show that while part-time work and flexitime tend to reduce work pressure and work–life conflict, working from home is associated with greater levels of both work pressure and work–life conflict. We conclude that it is important to distinguish between flexible working arrangements to discover their potential for reducing work pressure and work–life conflict.

/pdf/the-impact-of-flexible-working-arrangements-on-work-life-4mofalg7mk.pdf

The Impact of Flexible Working Arrangements on Work–life Conflict and Work Pressure in Ireland

An Examination of What Metaphor Construction Reveals about the Evolution of Preservice Teachers' Beliefs about Teaching and Learning.

In many countries, strategies to further develop services and institutions for the education and care of young children are linked to a discourse on professionalism. Ambitious policy goals, it is argued, can only be achieved by a skilled and qualified workforce whose practice is guided by a professional body of knowledge. This article argues that the prevailing conceptualisation of the early childhood professional is constructed out of a particular, hierarchical mode of producing and applying expert knowledge that is not necessarily appropriate to professional practice in the field of early childhood education. However, it is highly effective and contributes to forming a professional habitus that contradicts the relational core of early childhood practice. Drawing on the conceptual framework of hermeneutics, the article explores an alternative paradigm of a relational, systemic professionalism that embraces openness and uncertainty, and encourages co‐construction of professional knowledges and pr...

/pdf/dealing-with-uncertainty-challenges-and-possibilities-for-5fumdziz2u.pdf

Dealing with uncertainty: challenges and possibilities for the early childhood profession

This action plan focuses on addressing the educational needs of children and young people from disadvantaged communities, from pre-school through second-level education (3 to18 years). Its frame of reference is based on the definition of “educational disadvantage” in the
Education Act (1998) as:
“...the impediments to education arising from social or economic disadvantage which prevent students from deriving appropriate benefit from education in schools.”
The action plan is, therefore, one element of a continuum of interventions to address disadvantage, which include second-chance education and training and access measures for adults to support increased participation by under-represented groups in further and higher education. A further element of this continuum is the ongoing development of provision for pupils with special educational needs in light of the enactment of the Education for Persons with Special Needs Act (2004) and the establishment of the National Council for Special Education.

Delivering Equality Of Opportunity In Schools - An Action Plan for Educational Inclusion

Education makes a fundamentally important contribution to the quality and well-being of our society. This White Paper addresses itself to the policy framework that can best embrace the diverse and multiple requirements for educational action in the future. The need for and importance of such a framework are widely accepted. In setting out a framework, it is important to provide a philosophical rationale which, far from being merely a theoretical or ceremonial exercise, systematically informs policy formulation and educational practice.

Charting Our Education Future White Paper On Education (Launch Copy 1995)

Ireland is one of the smallest countries in Europe and occupies the most westerly, peripheral position. Geographically, the entire island is comprised of 32 counties, 26 of which make up the Republic of Ireland, (commonly referred to as the South), and 6 of which go to make up Northern Ireland (usually called the North), which forms part of the United Kingdom. This report is concerned with the Republic of Ireland only, which will be referred to as Ireland in the remainder of this report for ease of reading.

OECD Thematic Review of Early Childhood Education and Care Policy in Ireland

The purpose of this White Paper is to set out Government policy on all issues relating to early childhood education. An essential starting point is to define what we mean by early childhood education. The Department of Education and Science‟s mission is to support the development of a high quality education system which will enable individuals to develop to their full potential as persons and to participate fully as citizens in Ireland‟s social and economic development. For many years, it was considered that education began when children went to school and ended when students left the formal education system at the end of first, second or third level.
There is growing recognition of the importance of lifelong learning and the idea that children learn from the earliest moment and continue to learn throughout their lives. Education is concerned with all the phases of life, including the very early childhood phase.

Skills

Papers

Delivering Equality Of Opportunity In Schools - An Action Plan for Educational Inclusion

Charting Our Education Future White Paper On Education (Launch Copy 1995)

OECD Thematic Review of Early Childhood Education and Care Policy in Ireland

Ready to Learn White Paper on Early Childhood Education

A Framework for Junior Cycle