UCC postgraduate course to support linguistic and cultural inclusion in Irish schools

20 Feb 2024

• Education professionals will develop skills required to support English as an Additional Language students.
• Multilingual learners can face significant challenges in their learning, with some students struggling to effectively communicate their basic needs.
• According to census 2022, there are almost 54,000 students whose mother tongue is not English or Irish in Irish primary schools.

Across Ireland primary and post primary school teams are experiencing an increase in the number of children whose first language is neither English nor Irish. A new postgraduate course at University College Cork (Cork) has been designed to equip education professionals with the skills needed to meet the diverse learning and language needs of these children.

The Postgraduate Diploma in English as an Additional Language (EAL) aims to support the professional development of education professionals to ensure EAL students can access all aspects of curriculum and school life. It is open to primary and post-primary teachers and leaders, student support staff, Special Needs Assistants (SNAs), and other education professionals who wish to upskill in areas of linguistic and cultural inclusion.

Ensuring schools are welcoming to all students

Education professionals across Ireland are currently facing the challenge of welcoming new students into their classrooms, ensuring that the curriculum remains relevant and engaging, working with students who have suffered trauma, identifying students who have additional needs who do not yet speak English, and fostering an inclusive atmosphere.

Dr Craig Neville, Lecturer in Education at UCC, said: “This course has been developed in response to a critical need to ensure primary and post primary schools are linguistically and culturally equitable, diverse, and welcoming to all students.”

“Education professionals need to be empowered with the necessary skills to meet the language and communication needs of students, who come from diverse backgrounds, including those who may have recently arrived in Ireland with literacy skills in other languages. This course equips participants with expertise that will have an immediate impact in inclusive, plurilingual school environments,” Dr Neville said.

A positive domino effect in Irish schools

A current student on the postgraduate diploma said: “I feel like I have gained so much from it already. When the inspector spoke to my principal after her visit she said that he and the other class teacher should be doing what I am doing in their classrooms. Since then it has been like a domino effect. Some of this is now trickling through to the mainstream classrooms in the school so now all the pupils and the school as a whole are benefiting as well. The senior room teacher told me how happy the kids seem to be using their own languages in class.”

The flexible course will be delivered online and in person on a number of Saturdays from September 2024 to June 2025. It is designed to give students a greater understanding of the processes involved in learning a new language and how this affects the learning needs of children in language and literacy.

Modules will be delivered in a blended format and will explore key areas included language planning and policy, cultural and linguistic identities and practice-based theories of second language acquisition.

Applicants are now open for September 2024 commencement. Learn more on the course page.