Discrimination, exclusion, and deep-rooted structural inequalities affecting Traveller children are embedded within Ireland’s education system, according to research conducted by University College Cork and a Cork-based Traveller education group, reports RTE.
Drawing on detailed interviews with Traveller teenagers, mothers, and mentors, the study, *Traveller Transitions: Racialised Inequalities in Education*, identifies several issues, including that the move from primary to post-primary school is particularly challenging for Traveller children, and that students encounter institutional racism in both obvious and subtle ways, reports RTE.
National data shows that just 27% of young Travellers complete post-primary education, compared with 97% of the general population, while fewer than 1% progress to third-level education.
The report highlights early post-primary school as a particularly sensitive and formative stage, reports RTE.
“This report makes clear that the barriers facing Traveller students are part of deeper structural inequalities that require urgent attention,” Chairperson of the Cork Traveller Education Unit Anne Burke said, reports RTE.
Twenty-nine participants were involved in the qualitative research.
The findings point to institutional racism experienced by Traveller students through what is described as the “explicit segregation” of students, through interactions that undermine Traveller culture, and through practices amounting to what the report terms the targeted disciplining of Traveller bodies, reports RTE.
Traveller teenagers and their parents said they were separated from settled students during the school day.
The study concludes that this separation plays a significant role in their decisions to consider leaving school, reports RTE.
One teenage girl told researchers: “I get taken out for like basically every class. So… I don’t really know what’s going on in class because I’m mainly taken out…The boredom and all that. I don’t like it. It makes me just want to leave,” reports RTE.
The report states: “Further action on this is crucial because we know that segregating practices can be devastating for children and that they can have a hugely negative impact on their wellbeing and inter-peer relationships,” reports RTE.
Although they feel separated from settled students during lessons, Traveller students also reported being discouraged from socialising freely with each other during breaks.
“Like from the start, I was told I was mixing with the wrong group and then they won’t allow us to sit together and they try and move us apart from each other,” one 14-year-old told researchers, reports RTE.
Criticising this approach, the study says it stems from “an idea of what some schools think integration ought to look like”.
It adds that peer relationships among Traveller children are a “critical protective factor” and describes the practice as harmful to their emotional wellbeing and sense of belonging, reports RTE.
“This report provides insight into how Traveller young people are navigating the everyday realities of post-primary school life,” lead researcher Professor Nicola Ingram, Head of UCC School of Education, said, reports RTE.
“For too many, school is experienced as a hostile place of hurt and pain, marked by negative interactions and exclusionary practices.
“Our research finds that ethnic segregation and restrictions on social connection can deepen feelings of isolation, loneliness and disengagement from education,” reports RTE.
Key findings show that anti-Traveller racism is not always overt but can occur through everyday micro-aggressions.
Examples highlighted include Traveller children being praised for being “clean,” which the report says reflects lingering negative assumptions among the settled community that Travellers are “unclean”, reports RTE.
Young Travellers also reported being more heavily monitored in school because of their identity.
“Like with me when I go into school, I hang around with my cousins and my family. So then, by doing that then, you’re just classed as trouble… even when you’re not doing anything, like, could be just chatting, like, you’re just classed as trouble by your demeanour, just by chatting and by knowing who you are,” one young Traveller said, reports RTE.
The study finds that while relationships between Traveller students and school staff are essential for promoting an anti-racist education environment, most participants reported negative experiences with teachers.
The report sets out recommendations for policymakers, schools, and the broader education system, reports RTE.
These include working in partnership with Traveller organisations to embed anti-racist governance in schools, improving supports for students transitioning to post-primary education, monitoring to prevent ethnic segregation, and mandatory staff training on Traveller experiences and anti-Traveller racism, reports RTE.
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