The Implementation of an Ethical Education Curriculum in Secondary Schools in Ireland

Reviewer’s comments

Authors’ responses

First off, I am so happy that a pilot ethics curriculum is happening somewhere, because I think this is a worthy pursuit and I think it is important to have an ethics curriculum. 

We appreciate this positive response to this pilot curriculum, thank you for this feedback.

The focus is on how the ethics curriculum impacted the whole school ecosystem, and not on the effectiveness of the curriculum with students. I think having both would have benefitted the study, though I realize that wasn't the point of the study. 

Yes, we agree. Thank you for raising this. Data collection from teachers and principals is the first phase of this pilot. We will be gathering the perspectives of students also to seek an insight into their experiences of it.

We have amended the paper to inform the reader that the perspectives of school staff is phase one of this project and students’ perspectives will also be sought. You comments here have added to this paper to explore the voices of students at a different evaluative phase.

Define ethics/character education up front (earlier in the paper?) and/or split them up and separately define them as they aren't the same thing. Also, what about ethics curricula from other countries?

Thank you for this suggestion. Ethics education, in the context of this curriculum, is now defined earlier in the paper as suggested. More detail on the overall aims and objectives of this curriculum is provided in the “educational context” section.

The ethics curricula in other countries vary considerably. The authors believe that if we referenced other curricula that it would be on a piecemeal basis only and, unfortunately, we are not in a position due to time limit and word count to address this in more detail here. There would be merit in interrogating ethical curricula internationally as a separate paper.  

Not sure why there is a random bullet point on page 7

Apologies, this was an editing error.

Coding example a bit confusing. Perhaps the table is not formatted properly?

We have edited this and hope that it transfers correctly to the reviewer layout used by Education Sciences.

Examples of the specific curriculum that was used?

The authors have provided a direct link the Educate Together website where they can access the pilot Ethics Education curriculum.

Sometimes use "many teachers" or some teachers - how many specifically? There weren't that many interviewed so it's a bit misleading.

Thank you for this comment. The paper has now been edited to specify the exact number of teachers who commented on key findings that are shared in this paper.

whilst--> while?

While is now used consistently throughout the paper.

Research that suggests this for all disciplines--teacher abilities count more than other characteristics? "In addition, many believed that a teacher’s personal characteristics also had an impact on how well ethical concepts were applied across all subjects."

This has been edited to clarify this. Specifically, the authors have...

 How did the researcher account for the teachers/principals trying to make their schools look good for the research study?

To address this, we have amended the methodology section that outlines more detail on the processes of how consent was obtained. It also outlines that all participants completed a process of informed consent where the integrity of the research required them to be open and honest about their experiences of the curriculum.

What specific things should be changed about the curriculum based on the research?

Thank you for this feedback.

We have included suggested changes to the delivery of EE at ITE and CPD that emerged from our analysis. Recommendations now include more input on EE in teachers’ professional learning  ITE and CPD levels; revision to define the contents of the EE more clearly, particularly to support teachers new to this curriculum; recommendations to inform assessment of this curriculum, specifically to seek the perspectives of learners to acknowledge their voice and; providing greater links with other wider senior cycle  curricula to prepare learners to have an ethical approach in the workplace and in wider society.

Not sure what conclusions you can fully draw from the study - would like more about the limitations of the approach.

As advised, we have included a section that outlines the limitations to this paper.

We have also added information to the section on recommendations for future research and in the conclusion section to enhance the paper.

We hope that we have addressed your queries satisfactory. Thank you for your time in reviewing our work. Your feedback has improved our paper.