Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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52. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if his Department plans to include specific training on the Traveller and Roma community as a compulsory component of teacher education and continuous professional development for primary and post-primary teachers as recommended by advocacy groups (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35029/16]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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Both initial teacher education and continuing professional development for teachers contain elements that are relevant to the Traveller and Roma communities.

Initial teacher education (ITE) programme providers aim to prepare their student teachers to meet the diverse needs of all their pupils.

The compulsory components of ITE are outlined in the Teaching Council’s “Initial Teacher Education: Criteria and Guidelines for Programme Providers (2011)”. One such component is Inclusive Education (Special Education, Multiculturalism, Disadvantage, etc.) and the “Criteria and Guidelines” also set out learning outcome that are relevant. For example, graduates of ITE programmes are expected to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

- Children’s rights, including their right to a voice in various matters that relate to their lives

- the factors that promote and hinder effective learning, the impact of pupils’ backgrounds and identities on learning and the need to provide for the holistic development of the learner, particularly through differentiated approaches.

A graduate is further enabled to:

- apply knowledge of the individual potential of pupils, dispositions towards learning, varying backgrounds, identities, experiences and learning styles to planning for teaching, learning and assessment;

- apply his/her knowledge of pupils’ holistic development to his/her teaching and promote social responsibility;

- foster good relationships with and among pupils based on mutual respect and trust and meaningful interactions;

- communicate effectively with pupils, parents, colleagues, the school principal, school management, co-professionals and the wider community by using appropriate skills, styles and systems to suit the given situation and setting.

Graduates must also practise within the statutory framework for education, including child protection guidelines, and will know and uphold the core values and professional commitments which are set out in the Teaching Council’s “Code of Professional Conduct” (2016). This specifically references a number of ethical values, such as respect, trust, care and integrity that underpin standards of teaching, knowledge, skill, competence and conduct, all of which are important in addressing the complex nature of inclusion.

Teachers are life-long learners who are continually adapting over the course of their careers to enable them to support their students’ learning. To support life-long learning Cosán, the framework for teachers’ learning, was launched in March 2016 by the Teaching Council. One of the key learning areas identified by Cosán is inclusion. In this regard, teachers are encouraged to engage in learning aimed at “improving their capacity to address and respond to the diversity of students’ needs; enable participation in learning, cultures and communities; and, remove barriers within and to education through the accommodation and provision of appropriate structures and arrangements to enable each student to achieve the maximum benefit from his/her attendance at school.”. 

The Deputy will be aware also that my Department provides continuing professional development (CPD) for teachers through a range of short courses, summer courses and post graduate programmes. The Professional Development Service for Teachers (PDST) is the largest provider of in-service CPD to teachers in primary and post primary schools. Its main aim is to ensure high quality, consistent and cohesive CPD support in response to national priority areas and emerging local needs.  The PDST Health and Wellbeing team promote the inclusive methodologies inherent in the SPHE curriculum which emphasise the importance of celebrating diverse cultures and accepting difference.