IMPACT and Educational Disadvantage

On January 29th, the Educational Disadvantage Centre, Director, Dr Paul Downes was a guest speaker at the IMPACT seminar on ‘Equality and Disadvantage in Education’ in the Helix Gallery, Dublin City University.  Dr. Downes gave a presentation entitled ‘Future Directions in Moving Beyond Educational Disadvantage’, with Fergus Finlay, Barnardos, Dermot Stokes, Youthreach; Jillian Van Turnhout, Childrens’ Rights Alliance and other guest speakers.

In Dr Downes presentation, he observed that unions have been a driving force historically in developing initiatives on overcoming disadvantage.  He argued that there needs to be a renewed commitment on behalf of unions in the current economic climate to lobby for a holistic strategy to move beyond educational disadvantage.  Based on a range of research reports from the Educational Disadvantage Centre, missing elements of such a strategy which he argued for prioritisation include: development of community based psychology services working also onsite in schools for prevention and early intervention; increased focus on literacy teaching skills for primary level and conflict resolution skills at secondary level for teacher inservice and preservice; a national out of schools service strategy and expansion of schools being open after hours as a community resource.  Dr. Downes highlighted a need for reallocation of resources for a mental health strategy for contexts of educational disadvantage.

 

 

 

 

Last Updated: Tuesday February 03 2009