A significant milestone in Irish education history was achieved by the launching of the primary curriculum framework on 9 March 2023. Curriculum policy has been influenced by the prevailing globalising tendencies that have been dominant over the past three decades (Priestley & Biesta, 2013; Sinnema & Aitken, 2013), and this reform effort in Ireland further reflects a broader trend of nations adapting and refining their curricula in response to global influences and challenges.
Ireland’s primary curriculum framework echoes international trends in its emphasis on 21st-century key competencies, curriculum integration, and an increased focus on teacher and pupil agency.
Curriculum integration facilitates interdisciplinary connections between subjects, moving away from content- and subject-based knowledge acquisition. This approach fosters interdisciplinary problem-solving, which necessitates greater autonomy for schools and teachers. The new framework offers a number of opportunities for integrated learning experiences through integrating key competencies across subjects or organising learning under a thematic unit that combines a number of subjects from a curriculum area.
Similar interdisciplinary elements are observable elsewhere internationally: for example in the Finnish Basic Education level, where multidisciplinary learning modules integrate various subjects to promote real-world experiential connections; and in British Columbia’s Curriculum (Canada), where teachers are encouraged to develop thematic units/modules that go beyond established learning boundaries. For such modes of curriculum making to work on a school level, however, increased collaboration among teachers and departments becomes vital, which itself necessitates greater autonomy for schools and teachers.
