Community outreach hubs in north Dublin have enabled 47 students from Darndale, Coolock, Kilbarrack and Finglas to gain entry to the primary school teaching programme at DCU from a baseline of close to zero.
A new report from the DCU Educational Disadvantage Centre on the progress of students and graduates of primary school teaching from working class backgrounds recommends that the outreach hubs be expanded.
The Higher Education Authority (HEA) funded a local community outreach hub in Darndale seven years ago, in conjunction with DCU Educational Disadvantage Centre and Northside Area Partnership.
The hubs have since been expanded to other areas of north Dublin and coordinate with local DEIS secondary schools in the areas to support secondary school students.
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Second year DCU primary school teaching student Alex Grogan attended a DEIS Gaelscoil in Ballymun and said that she “never had a bad teacher”.
“I always had a positive experience in primary and secondary and all through and the teachers were always good,” she said.
Knowing she wanted to be a teacher, Ms Grogan started attending the Finglas hub when she was in fifth year in secondary school.
She knew the CAO points for primary school teaching were high and was worried about her maths ability.
“They supported me in many different aspects,” Ms Grogan said of the hub and the Dublin Northwest Partnership.
The hub was in her local GAA club and was free to attend.
Although she had a very positive experience of her teachers, she said that she never met a teacher from a working class background until she went to university.
Ms Grogan is the first member of her family to attend university.
She went back to her primary school on placement last year where she taught junior infants and loved the experience.
“They were the sweetest little kids who had so much wit about them,” she said.
“You have to be a certain type of person to understand some of these kids and you have to have the same wit that they do or else you’re not going to really understand what’s going on.”
Ms Grogan added: “But being back in the classroom and to be back in my old school, it was just so special.”
In academic year 2023/24, a total of 426 students attended 572 sessions at the Darndale-Coolock, Kilbarrack and Finglas hubs.
In the academic year 2022/23, a total of 276 students were supported while attending 472 sessions.
Professor Paul Downes, Director of the Educational Disadvantage Centre in DCU, said: “The success of DCU’s local community outreach hubs in promoting access to primary teaching in local working class areas is evident from the 47 students gaining entry to primary teaching in DCU Institute of Education since 2017.
“The hubs have generated strong interest and motivation to become a teacher.
“This challenges the stereotype prior to their establishment that working class students from Dublin did not want to become teachers, there clearly is a strong demand from such students to enter the teaching profession.”
The report recommends increased funding from the HEA across north Dublin and nationally to build on and expand such local community outreach spaces as hubs to further promote access to the teaching profession for working class communities.
