Dr. Teresa O'Doherty:

I will make two points. We have students coming through who want their ethnicity to be identified and who want to be recognised as Travellers, but we also have some students who do not. It is very hard on those students. Even those students who have come through the Tobar project might not necessarily want that said to their peers. They have to work through their own willingness to identify as a Traveller. That is always a challenge for students and a very personal issue for them and their identity. It would be wonderful if we had students, like Mr. McDonagh, who were willing to encourage others by telling them they can do this, but some students in the system do not want to be identified as Travellers for a variety of reasons, including fear. That is a very hard situation to be in. I would also like to mention that in initial teacher education programs, particularly in our institution, we certainly do much intercultural work to ensure students are exposed to as much information about Traveller culture and education as possible. As was mentioned earlier, however, that process needs to go further and be part of professional development throughout teachers' careers.