From Legacy to Futures: Two Decades of Lesson Study in Ireland and the Evolution of Teacher Professional Learning

Description

Background/context: Over the past fifty years, teacher professional learning in Ireland has shifted from predominantly top-down, transmissive models to a more expansive vision of teacher agency, collaboration, and career-long learning. Yet despite the aspirations articulated in key policy developments, including the Policy on the Continuum of Teacher Education and Cosán: Framework for Teachers’ Learning, teachers have continued to experience significant isolation, limited collaborative practice, and constrained opportunities for meaningful professional inquiry. As ESAI celebrates fifty years of Irish educational research, this paper traces the evolving landscape of teacher professional learning and positions Lesson Study (LS) as a powerful bridge between past challenges and future possibilities.
Research aim: The aim of this study is to examine what we have learned from almost two decades of engaging in, facilitating, and researching LS with Irish teachers, and to consider how this accumulated knowledge can inform the future of professional learning communities and school-based inquiry in Ireland. Specifically, the research explores (1) how LS has been taken up within Irish schools, (2) what teachers report gaining from participation, and (3) what systemic supports are needed for LS to flourish as a future-focused model of teacher learning.
Methods/data sources: Our longitudinal programme of research draws on multiple data sources across phases and projects, including teacher reflections, fieldnotes from LS cycles, post-cycle interviews, and documentation generated during collaborative planning and analysis of research lessons. This qualitative dataset spans over two decades and includes work with prospective and practising teachers across diverse school settings.
Key Findings: Findings indicate that LS disrupts the long-standing legacy of isolated professional practice by cultivating collaborative learning cultures, deepening teachers’ focus on student thinking, and building capacity for teacher leadership. Teachers describe LS as transformative for their pedagogical reasoning, their confidence in experimenting with curriculum, and their sense of collective responsibility. However, findings also reveal persistent structural barriers particularly time, workload, and the absence of experienced LS facilitators, that restrict wider uptake.
Potential contribution: This research contributes to current conversations about the future of Irish education by illustrating how LS can help realise long-standing policy aspirations for collaborative, inquiry-driven professional learning. It argues that Lesson Study offers not only a historically grounded model with demonstrated impact, but also a future-facing approach capable of shaping vibrant learning communities in schools for decades to come.

Period	28 May 2026
Event title	Educational Studies Association of Ireland : From Legacy to Futures: Celebrating ESAI's first meeting of Scholars and 50 Years of Irish Educational Research
Event type	Conference
Location	GalwayShow on map
Degree of Recognition	National