Optimism despite disappointment: Irish traveller parents’ reports of their own school experiences and their views on education

ABSTRACT

This paper presents findings from a qualitative study of Irish Traveller parents’ experiences of their own schooling, and their views on education. An indigenous minority ethnic group, Irish Travellers, historically and contemporaneously, have experienced disadvantage and exclusion in many domains, including education, health, housing, and employment. Traveller parents' own educational experiences may affect their expectations for their children's education. Drawing on interpretivism and critical theory, we sought in this study, the only major study undertaken about Traveller preschools in Ireland, to give voice to Irish Travellers, whose views on education are rarely heard. Focus group (n = 6) and individual (n = 6) interviews were held with 36 Traveller women and men. Three main themes emerged: the importance of Traveller identity and culture, Travellers’ pride therein, and their awareness of others’ low valuation of it; the hurt and disappointment Travellers feel when they recall the negativity of their own schooling experiences of unchallenging pedagogy, curricular alienation, racist name-calling, and cultural misrecognition; and the positive value that they place on education for their children. Despite being deeply disappointed by their own negative schooling experiences, and by aspects of their children's schooling, they reported considerable optimism regarding the possibilities offered by education for their own children.

KEYWORDS:

• Traveller parents
• education
• exclusion
• Ireland
• qualitative research
• Roma Gypsy traveller RGT

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Anne Boyle was awarded both a PhD and MEd from Dublin City University for her work on Travellers and Traveller education. Anne taught in a Traveller preschool for over twenty years, providing early years education to three to five year old Traveller children and providing support for Traveller parents. This stimulated her interest in questions of social justice for members of the Traveller community.

Marie Flynn is Lecturer in Sociology at the Institute of Education, Dublin City University where, since 2002, she has contributed to the BA in Human Development programme, undergraduate and postgraduate Teacher Education programmes (BEd, MEd, MTeach, EdD), and MA and PhD programmes. Marie is a former primary school teacher. Her research interests include Intelligence, Equality and Schooling; Parents and Education; and School Placement.

Joan Hanafin (www.joanhanafin.com) is Adjunct Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Limerick, Visiting Research Fellow at the School of Education (Inclusion in Education and Society Research Group), Trinity College Dublin, and was Senior Lecturer in Education at University College Cork. Joan has had close connections with the Traveller community since childhood.

Notes

1 A policy analysis of Irish state documents about Travellers and Traveller education is detailed in Boyle, Flynn, and Hanafin (2018a).

2 FÁS was a government body that operated training and employment schemes for people who were unemployed or in receipt of social assistance.