This document summarizes research on parental involvement in Traveller preschools in Ireland. It finds that Traveller parents value education but have faced discrimination and poor outcomes in mainstream schools. Traveller preschools are experienced as welcoming spaces that reflect Traveller culture. Parents feel accepted by teachers and are actively involved by visiting schools, working with teachers, and continuing learning at home. Despite barriers like lack of time and confidence, parents advocate strongly for their children's education and want equal opportunities and outcomes for them. The research highlights the importance of identity, culture, and recognition for the Traveller community.

1. TRAVELLER
PRESCHOOLS IN
IRELAND:
PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT IN A
TARGETED SETTING
ERNAPE CONFERENCE 2015
1
Anne Boyle, Marie Flynn, Joan Hanafin

2. Traveller community 2
 Indigenous ethnic minority in Ireland
 Less than 1% of population
 Traditionally nomadic
 Economic and educational disadvantage

3. Traveller education
 Low participation, poor outcomes, Traveller pupils
subject to name-calling and bullying, low teacher
expectations (Bhopal 2004, 2011, Hamilton et al. 2007,
Myers et al. 2010, D’Arcy 2014)
 55% of Travellers finished education by age 15,
compared to 11% of non-Travellers
 1% of Travellers with third level qualifications
compared to 30% of non-Travellers
3

4. Prejudice and discrimination
 Anti-Traveller attitudes a “classic case of severe
anti-minority prejudice”. MacGréil (1977, 1996,
2011)
 Traveller community severely under-represented
in positions of power or influence
4

5. Traveller preschools
 Established 1970s
 Education for 3-5 year olds
 Funded by Department of Education until 2011
 Over 50 established
 Each staffed by a teacher and childcare worker
5

6. 3 - Parental
Involvement
in Traveller
Preschools
Three research strands 6

7. 3 - Parental
Involvement
in Traveller
Preschools
2 - Traveller parents’
experiences of and views on
education
7
Three research strands

8. 3 - Parental
Involvement
in Traveller
Preschools
2 - Traveller parents’
experiences of and views on
education
1 - Historical and
policy context for Traveller
education
8
Three research strands

9. Theoretical background
Grounded in equality and social justice:
 Equality objectives (Lynch)
 Prejudice (MacGréil)
 Recognition/Redistribution (Taylor, Fraser)
Rationale for parental involvement:
 Democratic right (Arnstein)
 Improve outcomes (Epstein, Jeynes)
 But “raced, classed and gendered” (Vincent and Martin)
9

10.  Commission on Itinerancy (1963)
 Travelling People Review Body (1983)
 Task Force on the Travelling Community (1995)
 Traveller Education Strategy (2006)
10Evolution of policy

11.  Commission on Itinerancy (1963)
 Travelling People Review Body (1983)
 Task Force on the Travelling Community (1995)
 Traveller Education Strategy (2006)
11Evolution of policy
▶ From deficit to recognition of difference
▶ From absorption to inclusion

12. Identity and culture
 McDonagh (1994) “Nomadism in Irish Travellers
Identity”
12
“My culture is everything about me, how I
think, how I act, how I make decisions, and
everything else that is important to me.”

13. Identity and culture
13
Eva
“You’re born a Traveller;
you don’t just become a
Traveller.”

14. Identity and culture
14
“I’m proud of who I am
and would never change
that for anything in the
world.”
Sally

15. Identity and culture
 Extended family for support:
15
Sara
“It’s the family, like, ... the support when
you’re sick or sore ... They come to you
and they comfort you and at least you
know that you can turn back to them.”

16. Centrality of culture
 Pride and concern re Cant:
16
“My personal view on Cant, right, I
think if it’s not written down and
documented we’re going to lose it.
As Travelling people, we’re going to
lose our language.”
Bernie

17. Experience of school
Sally
17
“When we’d go into the school at nine in
the morning the first thing I’d be sitting on
my chair at my table, well all day
through, I could have colours and a
piece of paper... I felt out. I felt I wasn’t
wanted.”

18. Experience of school
Lisa
18
“There’s a lot of books I’d love reading …
The thing is, I can’t help my kids now with
homework or nothing.”.”

19. Experience of school
19
“I went to school until I was twelve or thirteen
… I was the only Traveller child sitting at
school and I was isolated and I had no friends
in it, so, and then the teacher hadn’t much time
for me, so I ended up leaving.”
John

20. Experience of school
20
“My parents wanted me to go to school but
because of the discrimination that there was in
secondary school, I left after six months of
secondary school ... I just couldn’t stick it. I was
really good at school. I was never in trouble ...
They used to call me knacker, ‘you’re a dirty gypsy’,
‘go wash yourself’.”
Cáit

21. Their children’s education
21
“If they’re facing it in school, if
they are called ‘knackers’, the
first word that’s said is the same
word that was said when we
were in school.”
Maura

22. Their children’s education
22
“Travellers … want their children to go further [in
education], but yet when they get there, there’s a
big barrier … the boys and girls are getting sick of
school because of the way they are being treated
and then they have no interest in school and then
they leave it.”
Emma

23. Their children’s education
23
“I think basically what happens is ... low expectation
for Traveller children. I’m not saying all teachers is
the same, but there is some schools with lower
expectations … They are thinking, ‘they are not
going to go long here anyway so there’s no point in
educating them.’”
John

24. Seeking equality of education
24
“I think education is the key to power. I believe that if one
generation of Travellers get off the ground in terms of
education we'll never look back after that. We’ll get our
Travellers into positions where they'll be guards,
solicitors, whatever and that’s when the real change is
going to happen for Travellers, and it’s through
education.”
Bernie

25. Seeking equality of education
25
“I would like [my children] to go to college. I
would like them to be professionals ... I would
like them to be barristers and solicitors and
doctors and nurses.”
Síle

26. Seeking equality of education
26
“I hope they get an adequate education, that they come
out educated at the end after their term at school. That
they don’t come out with a lesser degree of education
than the settled kids. So I’ll be looking for some kind of
equality of education.”
John

27. Preschools - welcoming
27
“There’s a welcome there for you … the minute you walk
in, shake hands, a big smile on the face, ‘would you like
a cup of tea or coffee?’ It means a lot … [the primary
school] is not as [welcoming] as the preschool … When
I come in here I get the world of respect from the
teacher. She knows I’m a Traveller. She knows my
culture.”
Sally

28. Preschools - welcoming
28
“I find that I can talk to [preschool teacher]
easier than what you can do to the other
teachers ... You’d get a straight answer [in
the preschool] there’s a different vibe in it.”
Orla

29. Preschools - welcoming
Tríona
29
“We have an open door and they’ll
come in and have a cup of tea,
which they often do, especially if
they want to talk.”

30. Preschools - welcoming
Michelle
30
“We hold open mornings for the child and the
parents, so we let them come in and spend as
long as they need to spend ... Those are the
places that we found that the Traveller parents
have asked us the most questions because they
are more comfortable in the one-to-one small
scale.”

31. Preschools - welcoming
31
“If he wasn’t feeling well in the morning I’d go in and
see.”
Lisa

32. Preschools - welcoming
32
“If I had a complaint, I’d go down there, to be honest
... and have a chat with [the teacher].”
Lucy

33. Preschools - welcoming
33
“We’d visit too to see how they are getting on, what
progress they are making.”
Grace

34. Preschools - welcoming
34
“Yeah, … I’d love now coming in and they’d be going
on a tour – going with him, and that.”
Maeve

35. Preschools - welcoming
35
“I would always call up, always to
wish them happy Christmas and
happy Easter.”
Nuala

36. Preschools - welcoming
36
“We inform parents and guardians
of our monthly activities and theme
songs and rhymes and ask
parents to encourage the child in
all activities.”
Jill

37. Preschools - welcoming
Nuala
37
“I would say to the parents to
talk about colours ... point out
colours in the house, talk about
what colour he’s wearing and all
that.”

38. Preschools - learning
38
“He was telling me about walruses, and walruses had tusks,
you know. So he’s doing really well. He can count. He
compares colours. What they look like and everything. He
learns a lot ... He learns a lot about respecting other people,
about sharing. I know that they are just simple little things,
but sometimes they are good things to learn.”
Cáit

39. Preschools - learning
Shane
39
“They learn how to share and be civil with
each other.”

40. Preschools - learning
Maeve
40
“I always ask [my son], ‘what did you do
today’ and he does be singing a song …
He sings all them when he comes home.”

41. Parents committee - Cnocard
41
Síle
“We had the parents’ meeting away back a couple of
weeks ago and it did come out of it that Cant should be
used more in the Traveller preschool so we will put our
heads together hopefully and we will make charts with
the different meanings of [Cant] words and, you know,
put them up for the children.”

42. Preschools - culture
42
“I think the biggest
importance they learn at
Traveller preschools is
they are with other
Traveller children. They
are learning the culture.”
John

43. Preschools - culture
43
“Because it’s a Traveller preschool I
think Traveller culture is really
important ... They have themes of
horses, caravans ... I think it’s very
important that Travellers have that
space for ... Traveller culture.”
Síle

44. Preschools - culture
44
“He learns a lot about horses at
preschool too... [The teacher]
knew that Bill was big into
horses. She started doing a lot
with them about horses.”
Cáit

45. Barriers to involvement
Tara
45
“I find my time taken up … I only have
four but between washing and cleaning
…. I nearly always have appointments
with doctors and that. The time just
goes.”

46. Barriers to involvement
Hannah
46
“I’d never put myself forward in a million
years … I’d be no good in it … They’d be
coming up with this thing and that thing.
You mightn’t have an answer.”

47. Barriers to involvement
Sara
47
“You’d want a good education for that … If
the words were broken down and we
understood them in our own way, I would
prefer if there were some parents with kids
in this school would go on it.”

48. Conclusion
 Questions of identity and culture, prejudice and recognition,
ran through all aspects of this study
 Experiences of school not good – name-calling, low teacher
expectations, poor outcomes – echoing other studies (e.g.
Bhopal 2004, 2011, Hamilton et al. 2007, Myers et al. 2010,
D’Arcy 2014)
 Despite this parents placed high value on education
 Wanted same education for their children as settled peers –
secondary, third level, professional education
48

49. Conclusion (cont.)
 Traveller preschools experienced as protected enclaves
 Parents felt welcome and accepted
 Traveller culture reflected
 Parents valued preschool
 Involved – visited, worked with teacher, valued materials that
were brought home, praised the children and worked at home
with them to support their learning
 Traveller parents were advocates for their children
49

50. Thank you
50