Episode Nine: Dr. Rory Mc Daid and Dr. Garret Campbell, Marino Institute of Education, “Interrogating the Role of Migrant Teachers and Irish Education”

My guests in this episode are Dr. Rory McDaid and Dr. Garret Campbell from Marino Institute of Education. Dr. Campbell is the project manager for the Migrant Teacher project https://twitter.com/MTPteacher in Marino Institute of Education and he is also the chief executive of Global Schoolroom. Dr. McDaid is the Migrant Teacher project coordinator and he is a senior lecturer in Sociology of Education in Marino Institute of Education where he is also Head of Policy and Practice. In this episode we discuss The Migrant Teacher project. The Migrant Teacher project supports immigrant internationally educated teachers to enter the teaching workforce in Ireland. The Migrant Teacher Project was established by Marino Institute of Education and is co-funded by the Department of Justice and Equality and the Department of Education and Skills. The project provides information, advice and training to migrant teachers who have qualified outside of Ireland, to help them to continue their profession in publicly funded schools in Ireland. The Project also provides a Bridging Programme to further enhance migrant teachers' professional development and opportunities for securing employment. The project has developed a network of schools who are interested in working as mentor teachers with migrant teachers all of whom are qualified teachers who have spent considerable time in the classroom with some of them are coming from leadership positions and many of them with huge levels of experience within the education system. Garret discusses the research they are currently undertaking to understand the experiences of migrant teachers and their efforts to provide potential solutions to some of the problems for migrant teachers or present potential changes for migrant teachers within the system. He identifies three main challenges which he believes the migrant teacher faces in the system. The first challenge is securing teacher registration status in Ireland. He comments on how these teachers are amply qualified and have significant experience working in their own context but that it can be very stressful and very challenging for migrant teachers to secure registration here. The second challenge he identifies is recruitment and how the Migrant Teacher project advise migrant teachers to get involved with an Irish school in either an observation capacity in a volunteer capacity, because they will straightaway begin making connections with school principals, or deputy principals and other teachers, and they will be able to get a reference from an Irish context, rather than a reference from another jurisdiction. The third challenge identified is progression through and within the education system. Garret acknowledges that while Irish society has changed very dramatically in terms of demography, demographics and ethnicity what we see within the teaching profession remains largely homogenous and that while we know that diversity and inclusion benefits us all that this is not being fully translated into the teaching profession. We discuss how migration takes place in all kinds of ways for all kinds of different reasons as well. They discuss how a lot of people on the Migrant Teacher Project have chosen to come to live in Ireland and how in Ireland there is a very strong history of Irish teachers migrating for three, four or five years to work elsewhere, and then return to Ireland, meaning it is not a unidirectional flow of teachers into Ireland only. Rory mentions how in Ireland that there is a strict primary-post-primary division while in other jurisdictions there is a blended approach where there is a middle school where teachers can teach across from primary to post-primary or language teachers who will teach language from early primary to upper post primary but that when migrant teachers come to Ireland from other jurisdictions that it is challenging for them ‘to fit’ to the Irish model. They recount how some of the migrant teachers who have been very successful in their own countries can't even get into an entry level position in Ireland and that this impacts on their identity as a teacher. Both Rory and Garret refer to how after migrant teachers move to Ireland, they often feel like they are no longer a teacher or are ‘teachers in transition’ which is very challenging and damaging to their professional identity. Yet another thought provoking episode that will be of interest to teachers, student teachers, parents, school management, management bodies, policy makers, communities and educators in general. Tune in to hear more!