School development planning : a pathway to school improvement

Abstract

The concept of school development planning is currently a significant policy issue in primary education. The White Paper Charting Our Education Future envisages that school development plans will form an important basis for the preparation of annual reports, will facilitate the implementation of the revised primary curriculum and will become a central focus for the conduct of whole school evaluation. Moreover, since the 1998 Education Act, all primary schools in the Irish Republic are legally obliged to establish a school plan. In view of the significance of development planning as an emerging policy issue in Irish Education, the aim of this thesis was to examine what is involved in translating the rhetoric of development planning into practice, the impact o f development planning, and the factors facilitating the operationalisation o f the planning process in schools.