During the last decade, several OECD countries have been supporting citizen engagement in policy making to better respond to increasingly volatile environments and complex problems. Ireland has a strong tradition and culture of partnership models and stakeholder engagement in education policy making. However, a desire to explore new opportunities for school community engagement and how they could support existing national consultation processes contributed to the exploration of alternative forms of stakeholder engagement in education. This has prompted the Teaching Council in collaboration with a range of Government Departments and national stakeholders, to request assistance from the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Structural Reform Support (DG REFORM) for the project “Support to improve local community engagement in Ireland’s education policy development”. Drawing from international examples, existing stakeholder engagement practices in Ireland, the contributions of a wide range of education stakeholders and a pilot exercise, this report proposes a model and roadmap for exploring the potential of school community engagement to further support policy making across the Irish education system.
