Analysis: Preparing teachers to teach sensitive subject matter is vital for the success of the updated Junior Cycle and Senior Cycle SPHE programmes
Last week saw the announcement by the Minister for Education of the updated Social, Personal and Health Education SPHE Senior Cycle curriculum as mandatory, with its roll-out in schools continuing through to 2027. This follows from the launch of the revised Junior Cycle SPHE curriculum specifications by schools in September 2023. SPHE teachers play an integral role in the successful implementation of these revised curricula across all years of young people’s post-primary schooling.
Ireland is recognised internationally for the quality of our teachers and the teaching profession. This is not to be taken for granted. That SPHE is now mandatory at both Junior Cycle and Senior Cycle offers exciting opportunities for the teaching of SPHE, while also posing challenges for the personal and professional development of teachers of the subject.
Calls have been made by educational stakeholders including teacher unions, and teachers themselves, regarding the need for teachers to be professionally prepared to teach SPHE. ASTI secretary general Kieran Christie said teachers need to 'feel they are comfortable and competent' to teach areas identified as sensitive, often relating, though not exclusively, to topics in the relationships and sexuality strands of the SPHE curricula.
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From RTÉ Radio 1's Morning Ireland, Eoghan Cleary, Assistant Principal and Coordinator of SPHE at Temple Carrig School in Greystones, Co Wicklow discusses the new and revised Leaving Certificate subjects and Senior Cycle programmes.
Young people too are also echoing these calls. A recent Comhairle na N'Og National Executive proposal on the Future of Relationships and Sexuality Education RSE in Ireland highlighted the need for significant additional investment in teacher professional learning to ensure all teachers are adequately trained and supported to deliver the updated SPHE curricula.
While specialist teacher professional development in the topics covered in SPHE has up to now been identified as weak (both nationally and internationally), research shows how vital such professional learning is to teachers’ competence, confidence and comfortability in teaching the subject. Enhancing teachers’ levels of confidence and competence through teacher professional learning and development can result in a wider range of content topics being taught, including those perceived as ‘sensitive’, along with a more critical evaluation of and increased teacher comfortability when teaching such topics.
For more than three decades, I have worked as a teacher educator and researcher of children and young people’s development and wellbeing and, more recently, in the professional learning and development of teachers of RSE and SPHE. Created and delivered together with a team of experienced teacher educators within the DCU Institute of Education, and with the support of the Department of Education, the Graduate Diploma in SPHE/RSE commenced in January 2023. This programme offers the first professional qualification of its kind in Ireland for post-primary teachers of SPHE.
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From RTÉ Radio 1's Morning Ireland, Minister for Education Norma Foley on the draft new curriculum for SPHE and RSE
We have seen first-hand the benefits of specialist teacher professional learning and development in SPHE for post-primary teachers. The programme ensures the development of specialist SPHE subject knowledge, and skills-set needed to ensure SPHE teachers are both competent and confident to teach about any sensitive, complex issues that may arise when teaching the subject.
Teachers’ own personal development and how this relates to their teaching of SPHE in contemporary classrooms is also central to their professional development. Whole school approaches which see preparation as important for all teachers irrespective of their subject focus and critical exploration of and reflection on the subject, grounded in social justice, equity, diversity and inclusion, are underpinning principles.
The first teachers to graduate from the programme earlier this year have described it as a transformative learning experience for them, changing the way they teach the often-sensitive issues that may arise in their teaching of SPHE. Enhancing confidence in facilitating respectful and honest discussions around the diversity of views presented in the classroom leads to better outcomes for everyone.
Schools' partnerships with their students' parents, guardians and families are key to the success of the SPHE programme
Going forward, a systemic approach to teacher professional learning and development is required, through strengthening of connections from Initial Teacher Education through to in-service continuing professional development provided by Oide (the integrated teacher support service) and other non-governmental organisations working in areas salient to SPHE.
As the numbers of qualified SPHE teachers grow, recognition of SPHE as an approved subject by the Teaching Council is paramount. This would bring parity with teachers of other subjects taught at post-primary level and mean teachers who teach SPHE in schools would need to meet a minimum standard of qualification.
Schools’ partnerships with their students’ parents, guardians and families are key to the success of the SPHE programme. Parents and guardians are enshrined in our Constitution as the primary educators and research shows that they want their children to be prepared for the world that faces them.
Enhancement and upskilling of teachers’ knowledge, personal and professional development and skills in the teaching of SPHE has the transformative potential to effect lasting positive change for teachers themselves, their schools, young people and their families. Teacher professional learning and development in SPHE can contribute to positive change for young people, as is their right to receive the highest quality education in SPHE. The right of teachers to be professionally prepared for this work is also vital. Teachers, students and their parents and guardians have the right to no less.
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The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
