1.7.5 Promoting professional standards in teaching

1.7.5 Promoting professional standards in teaching

The Teaching Council’s Cosán framework for recognising and promoting teachers’ ongoing professional learning was published

The first national framework for teachers’ learning, Cosán, was approved and published in March 2016. Cosán forms part of an overall framework of standards for all stages of teachers’ learning, including ITE and induction (Droichead). These standards have been designed to reassure both the profession and the wider public that teachers’ learning is of high quality and is able to adapt and respond to learners’ evolving needs.

Cosán acknowledges, encourages and promotes teachers’ learning, and fosters public recognition of their commitment to learning. In April 2016, the Teaching Council commenced a development process for Cosán and this is currently ongoing. This phase is allowing for different approaches to be explored, trialled and adapted in different contexts. When embedded, Cosán will be an even more important feature of the professional rubric for teachers.

Public hearings into teachers’ fitness-to-teach commenced

The work of the Teaching Council reached a significant milestone in July 2016, when the then Minister for Education and Skills commenced the Fitness-to-Teach provisions of the Teaching Council Acts 2001- 2015. The first ever public hearing into a teacher’s Fitness-to-Teach was heard over two days in November 2017. Up to the end of 2020, 185 complaints were made to the Teaching Council. Forty-one of these complaints were under investigation by the Council at the end of 2020. By the end of 2020, five Fitness-to-Teach hearings had taken place and seven Fitness-to-Teach inquiries were awaiting hearing.