Ireland has undergone many social transformations in the last decade. One of the most profound social transformations without any doubt is migration. In the last two years issues pertaining to the enrolment of migrants in the Irish education system started hitting the headlines and this is likely to continue to be the case. The Irish government has invested resources in supporting the language needs of the newly arrived migrant children. While this language support is important, there is clearly a need to ensure that the children of migrants have the opportunity to achieve good educational outcomes. This will help in ensuring their integration in other spheres of the Irish society going forward as reflected in the Common Basic Principles on Integration adopted by the European Council in 2004.

It is in this context that the Immigrant Council of Ireland decided to undertake the Pathways to Parental Leadership project in order to promote and foster active involvement of migrant parents in school management. This 3-year project is funded by the European Programme for Integration and Migration, led by the Immigrant Council of Ireland

As part of the advisory working group for the Pathways to Parental Leadership project, a one day transnational seminar was held in the School of Education, Roebuck Castle UCD on February 11^th 2009. Consisting of academics, practitioners, NGO’s and policy makers from across Europe, the seminar provided an important opportunity to share experiences of migration, integration and education in a number of jurisdictions, each with their own history and experience of immigration. The seminar was opened by Sr Stanislaus Kennedy, and the Minister for Integration, Mr Conor Lenihan, and consisted of a full programme outlining current trends and practices in relation to schooling and integration in Europe. A key note address was provided by Dr Dympna Devine, School of Education, UCD outlining patterns and trends in Irish education while preliminary findings from phase 1 of the project in Ireland provided the backdrop for discussion of European trends and policies.    

For further details on this project, click here

For conference programme, click here