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‘Can I write to you about Ireland?’: John Vaizey, the Ford Foundation and Irish educational policy change, 1959–1962 [document study]

2011; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 31; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/03323315.2011.601889

1747-4965

Peter Murray,

Religious Education and Schools

Abstract During the 1960s a paradigm shift occurred within Irish education thanks to the penetration of the Republic's system by the OECD-sponsored economics of education. The 1965 publication of Investment in Education was the key event in this change. The document reproduced and contextualised here demonstrates how this penetration process had begun as early as the late 1950s. It was pressed forward not only by international organisations like OECD and its OEEC predecessor but also by powerful private US agencies like the Ford Foundation. As leader of the team that produced Investment in Education, Patrick Lynch is the figure primarily associated with the rise of the economics of education in Ireland. Here the key mobilising role played by Lynch's English friend and collaborator, John Vaizey, through a combination of elite network contacts within the world of international policy analysis and personal knowledge of the Irish scene, is highlighted. Keywords: economics of educationpolicy networksparadigm shiftOrganisation for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC)Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)Ford Foundation Notes 1. National Archives of Ireland (NAI) Department of Taoiseach S16,705 A, TKW[hitaker] note on luncheon meeting with FF officers, New York, 7 October 1959; copy of J. Conway, Consul General, New York to C. Cremin, Secretary, Department of External Affairs, 13 October 1959. 2. Ford Foundation Archives (FFA) Reel No. 620, Grant No. PA 60-285, Section 4, memo, S. Gordon to J. McDaniel, 18 December 1959. 3. FFA Reel No. 620, Grant No. PA 60-285, Section 4, correspondence, J. Vaizey, Oxford to S. Gordon, Ford Foundation, 1 November 1959. 4. FFA Reel No. 620, Grant No. PA 60-285, Section 4, correspondence, J. Pognan, Office for Scientific and Technical Personnel, Organisation for European Economic Cooperation to S. Stone, Ford Foundation, 3 March 1960; J. Vaizey, ‘Ireland’, 3 March 1960. 5. FFA Reel No. 620, Grant No. PA 60-285, Section 4, memo, International Affairs ‘Economic Research Institute, Dublin’, 8 April 1960, docket excerpt International Affairs to Executive Committee ‘Economic Research Institute, (Dublin) Development Research and Training’, 5 September 1960. 6. FFA Reel No. 620, Grant No. PA 60-285, Section 4, letter, S. Stone, Ford Foundation to J. Vaizey, University of London Institute of Education, 28 September 1960. 7. FFA Log File L62-554, P. Cannon, Federation of Irish Secondary Schools to S. Stone, Ford Foundation, 20 June 1962; P. Cannon to M. Cullen, Ford Foundation, 3 July 1962. 8. NAI Department of Finance 2001/3/775, copy of M. Cullen, Ford Foundation to R.C. Geary, Director, Economic Research Institute, 13 June 1962, T.K. Whitaker to M. Cullen, 4 July 1962. 9. NAI Department of Finance 2001/3/546, Note of Meeting, 31 October 1961. 10. See NAI Department of Finance 2001/3/546 and NAI Department of Finance 2001/3/775 for inter-departmental correspondence. 11. NAI Department of Finance 2001/3/775, Note of Meeting (with Vaizey), 17 April 1962; Conference in Department of Education, 17 April 1962, OECD Project: Pilot Study on Long-Term Needs for Educational Resources in Advanced Countries. 12. See NAI Department of Taoiseach 97/9/1680 for draft and final versions of ‘Speech by Mr. Sean F. Lemass, Taoiseach, following address by Mr. John Vaizey on “Economics of Education”, St. Patrick's Training College, Drumcondra; Thursday, the 13th February, 1964’. 13. NAI Department of Finance 2001/3/775, T. O'Raifeartaigh, Secretary, Department of Education to T.K. Whitaker, Secretary, Department of Finance, 4 May 1962.