Experiences of education among minority ethnic groups in Northern Ireland

The project team will be investigating the educational experiences of minority ethnic groups in Northern Ireland.

Since Northern Ireland’s transition from conflict there has been significant growth in inward migration and ethnic diversity. For instance, the number of newcomer pupils, children without the language skills to participate fully in the school curriculum, increased twelvefold between 2001 and 2019. Evidence suggests that schools in Northern Ireland have had variable levels of success in adapting to this change in demography.

Research on the experiences of pupils and families from minority ethnic, migrant and newcomer backgrounds has been limited. Modern work has focused on the welfare and wellbeing of children, or on teachers’ perspectives on newcomer education. However, the last in-depth examination of the educational experiences of minority ethnic groups in Northern Ireland was completed in 2002, and no longer represents the current demography and policy landscape.

The project team will address this research gap through a qualitative exploration of the education experiences of pupils and families from minority ethnic backgrounds. It will address four main topic areas: school admissions, day-to-day school life, parental engagement and the curriculum.

The initial phase of work will firstly involve a review of literature covering minority ethnic educational experiences in Northern Ireland, Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland. Secondly, the project team will collate data from the Department of Education in Northern Ireland to identify the circumstances and trajectories of minority ethnic students. Thirdly, a policy review will be conducted to understand the support and expectations of schools and statutory agencies.

Interviews with pupils and parents will form the backbone of the research, focusing on upper primary and lower post-primary years (ages 9-13), to provide a useful cross section of educational phases and school transition. The project team will identify six areas with varying levels of diversity and liaise with teachers and use school-level data to create a representative sample. The interviews will be semi-structured and qualitative in nature and involve map-drawing and collage as elicitation tools. All interview data will be subject to thematic analysis and developed into an analytic framework for further refinement.

Stakeholder engagement will occur throughout the project, and a distinct phase of work will involve interviews with educators and policy makers. These will supplement and contextualise data from pupils and parents, to provide their perspective on barriers facing minority ethnic pupils and the effectiveness of current policy and practice. At the conclusion of the project, a full and summary report of the findings will be written for a wide audience supplemented by a range of academic outputs. In addition, a workshop will be held to present initial research, findings and recommendations to stakeholders with an interest in educational policy and provision. This information will inform a greater understanding of the experiences of minority ethnic groups in Northern Ireland and future policy to better support their educational journeys and reduce inequality.