When wellbeing goes to school: exploring the enactment of wellbeing in Junior Cycle in Ireland

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dc.contributor.authorMcCormack, Orla
dc.contributor.authorMcGarr, Oliver
dc.contributor.authorHennessy, Jennifer
dc.contributor.authorNeary, Aoife
dc.contributor.funderNational Council for Curriculum and Assessment
dc.date.accessioned2026-09-03T10:56:01Z
dc.date.available2026-09-03T10:56:01Z
dc.date.issued2026-07-29
dc.description.abstractMany education systems have placed a focus on student wellbeing, as issues relating to physical, mental, emotional and social wellbeing of young people become increasingly evident. Wellbeing was introduced as a dedicated area of learning into lower second level schooling in Ireland (Junior Cycle, ages 12–15 years) through the introduction of 400 hours of timetabled engagement within the Framework for Junior Cycle. Drawing on student surveys (n = 3612) and focus groups (n = 432) as well as teacher (n = 136), principal (n = 32) and parent (n = 60) interviews from a larger national four-year NCCA-funded longitudinal study, this paper explores how participants experienced the enactment of Wellbeing in Irish schools. The study found that the enactment of Wellbeing was influenced by four inter-related issues: (i) Wellbeing was not always perceived and experienced as something that was valued within Junior Cycle; (ii) Wellbeing was understood and experienced in a narrow way; (iii) Wellbeing was deemed to cause additional stress for students and (iv) Assessment continued to remain the dominant concern for students and staff. The paper considers the implications of the findings for the positioning and enactment of wellbeing within assessment-driven education systems.en
dc.description.sponsorshipNational Council for Curriculum and Assessment
dc.description.versionPublished Version
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.authororcidMcCormack, Orla
dc.identifier.authororcidMcGarr, Oliver
dc.identifier.authororcidHennessy, Jennifer
dc.identifier.authororcidNeary, Aoife§0000-0003-1196-6487
dc.identifier.citationMcCormack, O, McGarr, O, Hennessy, J & Neary, A 2026, 'When wellbeing goes to school: exploring the enactment of wellbeing in Junior Cycle in Ireland', Journal of Curriculum Studies, pp. 1-22. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220272.2026.2710695
dc.identifier.doi10.1080/00220272.2026.2710695
dc.identifier.endpage22
dc.identifier.issn0022-0272
dc.identifier.journaltitleJournal of Curriculum Studies
dc.identifier.otherORCID: /0000-0003-1196-6487/work/225735034
dc.identifier.startpage1
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10468/19170
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherTaylor and Francis Ltd.
dc.relation.urihttps://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105046368052
dc.rights© 2026, the Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any med-ium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.
dc.rights.accessrightsopen access
dc.rights.licensenameAttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
dc.statusPeer reviewed
dc.subjectAssessment
dc.subjectCurriculum
dc.subjectEnactment
dc.subjectJunior Cycle
dc.subjectWellbeing
dc.subject[Education]
dc.titleWhen wellbeing goes to school: exploring the enactment of wellbeing in Junior Cycle in Irelanden
dc.typeArticle (peer-reviewed)
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