You Can't Be What You Can't See: How the Irish Education System Is Supporting Irish Travellers to Participate in ITE Programmes

Introduction

Primary teaching in Ireland is perceived as a high status profession characterised by strict entry requirements, reconfigured programmes of initial teacher education and new programmes of continuing professional development (Teaching Council, 2009). This chapter will explore the Irish initial teacher education policy landscape and how it is responding to the changing demographic of Irish society. The concepts of marginalisation, opportunity and equity are central to this chapter as the authors investigate a recent initiative in the Irish education system which aims to support Irish Travellers, a recognised ethnic minority grouping in Ireland since 2017, to become primary school teachers. The most recent Irish Census (CSO, 2017) showed that there are 30,987 Travellers in Ireland, an increase of 5% since 2011. Almost 60% of Travellers are aged under 25, compared with just 33.4% of the general population (CSO, 2017). Educational attainment is lower for Travellers than the general population with 13% of Traveller females staying in education to post-primary or higher compared to 69% of the general population (CSO, 2017). However, it should be noted that the number of Travellers with a higher education qualification has almost doubled since 2011, although the numbers remain low at just 167 Irish Travellers in higher education (CSO, 2017).

The chapter is structured in two main sections. Section 1 looks at primary teacher education in Ireland through the lenses of society, policy and practice. This section concludes with a description of the policy initiatives in place to support the diversification of the teaching profession in Ireland. Section 2 presents a case study of one such initiative, the TOBAR programme, which aims to increase Traveller participation in programmes of initial teacher education. The objectives of this chapter are to describe the backdrop to initial teacher education in Ireland; to consider issues of marginalisation and equity in initial teacher education; to give voice to the lived experiences of Traveller students currently studying to be primary school teachers in Ireland; to identify commonalities in the higher education experience of Irish Travellers; and to demonstrate how the TOBAR programme supports Irish Travellers who wish to become primary school teachers.

Background

This section begins with a snapshot of the social and policy contexts of teaching and teacher education in Ireland. This is followed by an overview of what the practice of teaching looks like in Ireland today. The section concludes with a commentary on recent initiatives in place to diversify the Irish teaching profession. Irish society, Irish educational policy and the practice of teaching in Ireland are explored using the lenses of equity, marginalisation and opportunity in particular. Specific reference will be made throughout each section to the Traveller community in Ireland. This allows this first section of this chapter to provide an illustrative context for the second section, which focuses on the TOBAR programme.