We decided to develop a book of children’s stories that reflected the diversity of Irish classrooms, and so we met with groups of women from ethnic minority groups, collected the stories they told us and had them illustrated by a gifted teenage artist. The result was Stories from Eiriu’s Island, which was published by the CDU in Mary Immaculate College.

Looking back on Eiriu’s Island one of the things that is striking is that the stories in it came from Irish mythology, France, the Traveller community, the Philippines and Nigeria: none of the stories in it were collected from Eastern European ethnic minority groups. The reason is obvious: the stories were collected before the accession of Eastern European countries into the EU.  In the few years since accession, the landscape of diversity in Irish schools has changed dramatically, meaning that even our reasonably recent attempt to provide up-to-date resources has quickly been overtaken by events.

This raises questions about the dominance of unchanging textbooks in the Irish education system, but also about how teachers and schools can work to keep resources up to date. One of the points that we made in Eiriu’s Island was how enjoyable and easy it was to collect stories from parents. Perhaps such school-parent links will provide one of the ways of ensuring our schools reflect our changing society.

She began her famous diary on her birthday in 1942.  Her first entry read, “I hope I will be able to confide everything to you, as I have never been able to confide in anyone, and I hope that you will be a great source of comfort and support”.  She kept it for the next two years, as her family were forced into hiding from the Nazi occupation.

She confided in her diary over the next two years, telling it about her troubled relationship with her mother, her budding romance with her friend Peter, the constant fear of their hiding place being discovered and the hope they felt that the Allies would win the war and rescue them.  She wrote about her dream of making her mark on the world as a writer: “I know I can write”, reads her entry of 5th April, 1944. ” A few of my stories are good, my descriptions of the Secret Annexe are humorous, much of my diary is vivid and alive, but… it remains to be seen whether I really have talent”.  The book she wrote is evidence of her talent.

Her book has been read by millions, who have made an emotional connection with a teenage girl who was killed by racism.  Through it, millions have understood the dangers of prejudice and the violence that can accompany it.  It has changed lives, and probably saved lives.

So how will you remember this remarkable writer on her eightieth birthday, June 12th?

The website of the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam contains a number of educational resources on Anne Frank, on World War II and on discrimination: http://www.annefrank.org/content.asp?pid=1&lid=2

It shows again that racism enters into public life from many sources: political, economic, cultural and interpersonal.  Since racist messages come from so many different sources in our society, we cannot expect schools to simply ‘teach racism out of existence’.  We all know that schools are often asked to deal with every social issue that arises as if that gives the state the right to opt out of all other responsibility for the problem in question.  Unfortunately, such a strategy will never succeed.

At the same time, schools are not powerless.

Part of the ‘anti-immigrant’ propaganda being put forward at the moment rests upon the manipulation of figures for PPS numbers being issued each year.  The use of such statistics and figures is intended to give veneer of objectivity to such positions.  Although such statistics can easily be questioned and analysed and the prejudice that underpins them can be exposed, this often does not happen in media commentary.  It is left to the listener or reader to decode the statistics and identify the ideology that they conceal.

The capacities to read, decode, and understand the ideological position that is hidden behind statistics is a key part of intercultural competence.  This means we need to link student’s mathematical studies to the politics of real life, and to enable them to see that things that are often presented as matters of ‘fact’ can be used to justify dangerous prejudices.  The same goes, of course, for ‘statements of fact’ that are not presented in the form of numbers, but students of post-primary English generally do get the opportunity to learn the skills of critical reading of the media.  Can the same be said for students of Mathematics?

Do we make ‘equals’ a central concept in our school mathematics?

The report goes on to highlight the role which teachers can play in:

• modelling a sense of inclusion and care in classrooms
• structuring learning opportunities to maximise inclusion and cohesion
• teaching students the skills of interacting positively with each other.

These findings are not new and they echo earlier research findings , but they are gaining increasing relevance in Ireland both as a result of our growing awareness of diversity in schools and as a result of the changes to the Irish Leaving Certificate envisaged by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA). The NCCA’s framework of ‘key skills’ identifies skills that are to be learned by Leaving Certificate students across all of the subjects being revised or introduced as part of the developments of senior cycle education. Among the skill sets included is ‘working with others’.

Whether or not our teachers are ready, across all subjects, to teach young people the skills of working effectively with other people is an open question.  Indeed, it is worth asking whether we, as educators, are even sure as to what those skills are.

PS: In addition to ‘working with others’ the key skill areas are ‘being personally effective’, ‘communicating’, ‘critical and creative thinking’ and ‘information processing’.

• The Quality Teaching for Diverse Students in Schooling” report is on http://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/series/2515/5959
• A short introduction to the NCCA’s work on developing senior cycle can be found on http://www.ncca.ie/uploadedfiles/SCbooklet.pdf  

This diversity is not spread evenly across Irish schools.  While about a quarter of schools have more than 10 per cent of their population drawn from such minority ethnic groups, as many as 20 per cent have no children from such ethnic minority backgrounds in their school at all.

This data re-emphasises the extent to which the large number of small, independently-operated schools facilitates a segregation within Irish education.  As far back as the 1950s other countries put in place policies to challenge segregated education.  Ireland has never had such policies.  And, while a de facto segregated system has long operated in Ireland at a cost to working class children and those from the Traveller community, it seems that other ethnic minorities are now being added to that list.

In the early 1960s a group of civil rights activists took buses from Washington bound for New Orleans as part of a campaign against racial segregation.  They were known as the Freedom Riders.  Maybe now, fifty years later, it is time for Ireland to at last step on the bus.

These figures hardly come as a shock; they are consistent with patterns that have been observed over a period of years. What should be shocking is the fact that we have done so little to deal with this issue, despite the fact that we know so much about how schools and teachers contribute to absenteeism.

In 2007 the NEWB published an Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) research report into absenteeism. It identified that:

• ability-based streaming or banding appears to contribute to absenteeism among those in lower streams
• attendance is higher in contexts with more positive teacher-pupil interaction (such as students being told their work is good, students being asked questions and being praised for answers)
• attendance is lower in contexts with more negative teacher-pupil interactions
• students who feel that teachers don’t care about them and that they can’t talk to their teacher if there is a problem are more likely to have high rates of absenteeism

The report’s authors conclude: “There are many broader socio-economic factors shaping attendance in school, which to a large extent are outside the influence of the educational system… However, there are also many things that can be done at the school level to help tackle the problem of poor attendance… [A] more positive school climate, especially in terms of creating a happy, supportive, interesting learning environment and promoting positive interaction with teachers is likely to have positive benefits in terms of student attendance and retention”

Will this week’s shocking figures spark a change in the way in which we do business in Irish education or will they illustrate, once more, that while one day lost is a tragedy, 50,000 days lost are a statistic?

The ESRI report for the NEWB can be found on http://www.newb.ie/downloads/pdf/ESRI_NEWB_Report.pdf

The conference was told that 97 countries had participated in the global process for monitoring of progress in the Decade. Ireland was one of the very few European countries that had not participated. Many countries (Ireland included) do not yet have a National Strategy on ESD despite the fact that European countries had agreed to develop a strategy by 2007. At the same time, in many countries, progress has been made, and the fact that 50 Government Ministers from around the globe (none from Ireland) had travelled to the conference suggests a commitment to the goals of the Decade is shared by many at the highest levels of government. “The glass is half full”, the conference was repeatedly told; the world has made progress during the Decade and can still achieve more. But the clock is ticking: 2,000 days and counting.

The European Regional Strategy for the Decade (agreed by European Ministers in 2005) can be found on: http://www.unece.org/env/esd/welcome.htm
The draft first report of the Deacde Monitoring and Evaluation Team can be found on: http://www.esd-world-conference-2009.org/fileadmin/download/background/DESD_key_findings_and_way_forward_23March09__4.pdf

UNESCO is the lead UN organisation for the Decade. Their Decade website can be accessed on: http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/ev.php-URL_ID=27234&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html