Byrne, Delma
(2014)
Bottom of the class? The leaving certificate applied
programme and track placement in the Republic
of Ireland.
Irish Educational Studies, 33 (4).
pp. 367-381.
ISSN 0332-3315
Abstract
Across many countries, young people are differentiated into academic and vocational
tracks, a pattern that is closely related to their social class background. The Irish
secondary system has been largely undifferentiated, but the introduction of a pre-
vocational programme, the Leaving Certificate Applied (LCA), has brought an
element of tracking into upper secondary education. This article explores whether
allocation into the LCA track reflects processes similar to those highlighted in
international research. It goes further than these studies by explicitly recognising the
role of school organisation in influencing student
’
s learning careers and educational
decisions. The purpose of this paper is to estimate the determinants of track placement
in the Republic of Ireland. Using in-depth qualitative case study interviews with
students from Irish post-primary schools, this paper examines the factors influencing
students
’
decisions to enter the LCA programme. This paper explores the extent to
which individual agency and school-level factors influence track choice by focusing
on the learning careers of individual students within specific school contexts.
| Item Type: |
Article
|
| Keywords: |
tracking; student choice; inequality; educational trajectories; |
| Academic Unit: |
Faculty of Social Sciences > Education |
| Item ID: |
8561 |
| Identification Number: |
https://doi.org/10.1080/03323315.2014.960148 |
| Depositing User: |
Delma Byrne
|
| Date Deposited: |
02 Aug 2017 12:41 |
| Journal or Publication Title: |
Irish Educational Studies |
| Publisher: |
Taylor & Francis |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| URI: |
|
| Use Licence: |
This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available
here |
Repository Staff Only(login required)
 |
Item control page |
Downloads per month over past year
Origin of downloads
Altmetric
Altmetric