Karen McGivern, Senior Lecturer in Business Studies, and Dr Matthew Martin, Senior Lecturer in English, have been awarded a SCoTENS Seed Funding Research Grant along with their two colleagues from Dublin City University, Dr Peter Tiernan and Dr Joe Usher, Lecturers in the DCU School of STEM Education, Innovation & Global Studies.
The grant-winning project is entitled “INVITE: Inclusion of Newcomers -- Video Diaries in Initial Teacher Education” and explores the understanding of pre-service teachers around ideas of belonging in schools as they relate to newcomer pupils and communities.
Project Leader, Dr Peter Tiernan, noted:
In Ireland’s schools on both sides of the border, we have reached a new stage in our experiences of welcoming newcomer pupils from all parts of the world. We have achieved a great deal in helping pupils to feel welcome and to achieve academically, but we now face a new level of challenge in making sure these newcomer pupils, their families and their wider communities feel a sense of belonging in our schools – a feeling which can go far to promote academic success and general well-being. This project aims to help the teachers of tomorrow understand the complex paths which schools and educators can pursue to achieve that.
The project runs for one year and will be centred around a conference to be held at St Mary’s, welcoming speakers from a range of schools and newcomer communities.
