Politics, Power, PISA: a genealogy of mathematics education policy at second level in Ireland at the beginning of the 21st century

This thesis traces a genealogy of the discourse of mathematics education reform in Ireland at the beginning of the twenty first century at a time when the hegemonic political discourse is that of neoliberalism. It draws on the work of Michel Foucault to identify the network of power relations involved in the development of a single case of curriculum reform – in this case Project Maths. It identifies the construction of an apparatus within the fields of politics, economics and education, the elements of which include institutions like the OECD and the Government, the bureaucracy, expert groups and special interest groups, the media, the school, the State, state assessment and international assessment. Five major themes in educational reform emerge from the analysis: the arrival of neoliberal governance in Ireland; the triumph of human capital theory as the hegemonic educational philosophy here; the dominant role of OECD/PISA and its values in the mathematics education discourse in Ireland; the fetishisation of western scientific knowledge and knowledge as commodity; and the formation of a new kind of subjectivity, namely the subjectivity of the young person as a form of human-capital-to-be. In particular, it provides a critical analysis of the influence of OECD/PISA on the development of mathematics education policy here – especially on Project Maths curriculum, assessment and pedagogy. It unpacks the arguments in favour of curriculum change and lays bare their ideological foundations. This discourse contextualises educational change as occurring within a rapidly changing economic environment where the concept of the State’s economic aspirations and developments in science, technology and communications are reshaping both the focus of business and the demands being put on education. Within this discourse, education is to be repurposed and its consequences measured against the paradigm of the Knowledge Economy – usually characterised as the inevitable or necessary future of a carefully defined present.

Theory, the uncanny and the sacred

This paper examines the related but different concepts of the uncanny and the sacred. Drawing on two cases – one fictional and one real – and using Žižek’s Symbolic-Real-Imaginary as an organising frame, the paper analyses how the uncanny and the sacred are connected. It then proceeds to examine the role of theorising in sacralising the uncanny and profaning the sacred. Finally, it briefly discusses how theory might be re-enchanted.

Performing Irishness: translations of Irish drama for the Galician stage (1921-2011)

This PhD thesis provides a detailed analysis of the role and significance of Irish drama in the Galician cultural context, from the early twentieth century onwards, through scrutiny of key works translated, adapted and mediated for the Galician stage. Drawing primarily on the theoretical framework of Descriptive Translation Studies, informed by Polysystems theory (Toury), Post-colonial Translation, research on processes of cultural translation (Bassnett, Lefevere, Venuti, Aaltonen), as well as careful comparative attention to the specificities of literary, theatrical and cultural context, I examine the factors governing the incorporation, reshaping and reception of twentieth century Irish plays in Galicia in order to produce a cultural history of the representation of Ireland on the Galician stage. Focusing on the five key periods I have identified in the translation/reception of Irish drama in Galicia, as represented in specific versions of plays by Yeats, Synge, O’Casey and McDonagh, my thesis examines in detail the particular linguistic, sociopolitical, theatrical and cultural dimensions of each rewriting and/or restaging in order to uncover the ways in which Irish identity is perceived, constructed and performed in a Galician context. Moving beyond the literary, historical and philological focus of existing studies of the reception of Irish literature and foreign dramatic texts in the Galician system, my own approach draws on Theatre and Performance Studies to attend also to the performative dimension of these processes of cultural adaptation and reception, giving full account of the different agents involved in theatre translation as a rich and complex process of multivalent cultural mediation.