For centuries, the Catholic Church around the world insisted it had a right to provide and organize its own schools. It decreed also that while nation states could lay down standards for secular curricula, pedagogy, and accommodation, Catholic parents should send their children to Catholic schools and be able to do so without suffering undue financial disadvantage. Thus, from the Pope down, the Church expressed deep opposition to increasing state intervention in schooling, especially during the nineteenth century. By the end of the 1920s however, it was satisfied with the school system in only a small number of countries. Ireland was one of those. There, the majority of primary and secondary schools were Catholic schools. The State left their management in the hands of clerics while simultaneously accepting financial responsibility for maintenance and teachers' salaries. During the period 1922-1967, the Church, unhindered by the State, promoted within the schools' practices aimed at 'the salvation of souls' and at the reproduction of a loyal middle class and clerics. The State supported that arrangement with the Church also acting on its behalf in aiming to produce a literate and numerate citizenry, in pursuing nation building, and in ensuring the preparation of an adequate number of secondary school graduates to address the needs of the public service and the professions. All of that took place at a financial cost much lower than the provision of a totally State-funded system of schooling would have entailed. Piety and Privilege seeks to understand the dynamic between Church and State through the lens of the twentieth century Irish education system.
Tom O'Donoghue, Professor of Education, The University of Western Australia, Judith Harford, Professor of Education, University College Dublin
Tom O'Donoghue is Professor of Education in the Graduate School of Education, The University of Western Australia and an elected fellow of The Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia and the Royal Historical Society. He specialises in the history of teachers and the process of education in faith-based schools. Another strand in his work is concerned with examining the historical antecedents of various contemporary educational issues. He is a former President of the Australian and New Zealand History of Education Society. He has held academic positions in Australia, Ireland, and Papua New Guinea.
Judith Harford is Professor of Education, Deputy Head in the School of Education, and Vice Principal for Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion in the College of Social Sciences and Law at University College Dublin (UCD). She is also an elected fellow of the Royal Historical Society and of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Her research is in the areas of history of women's education, gender and educational leadership, and teacher education policy. She was a Fulbright Scholar in the Social Sciences in 2018-2019. She was also the Ireland Canada University Foundation Flaherty Visiting Professor, 2017-2018.
