Conference Agenda

This study explores the experiences of Preschool Educators and Primary Teachers across Ireland in supporting Ukrainian children through educational transitions. This research aims to understand both successes and challenges in fostering inclusion with particular attention to the themes of transitions, identity and belonging.

The influx of Ukrainian families into Irish early childhood and primary settings has created unique opportunities and complexities for educators tasked with promoting equitable learning environments. Research indicates that a positive transition experience strongly predicts future social emotional and educational outcomes (O kane,2016). Understanding these dynamics is essential for educators and policymakers seeking to promote successful educational experiences for Ukrainian children.

Transitions whether from home to preschool or preschool to primary school are critical periods that shape children's sense of security and continuity (Sloan et al, 2022; O Kane, 2016). While this can be exciting it also poses challenges for children and families as they adapt to new contexts where continuity, family and community life play a critical role in supporting adjustment (Smyth, 2018). For children from Ukraine, the role of the Preschool Educator and Primary Teacher are crucial in identifying challenges and promoting equity in space, encounters with other children, adults and familiarity within the curriculum activities.

The study received ethical approval from the ATU Research Ethics Committee and employs semi-structured interviews with Preschool Educators and Primary Teachers to capture rich, context specific, insights in supporting transitions for Ukrainian children and families. The flexible interview format enables guided discussion while allowing participants to raise unanticipated concerns, aligning with qualitative research principles of depth and co-construction of knowledge. Interview data undergoes thematic analysis using NVivo software, facilitating systematic coding and interpretation with efficient analysis. Data collection adheres to GDPR and ATU Data Protection policy ensuring minimal personal data and robust ethical compliance.

Findings indicate that while many educators successfully implement culturally responsive practices, challenges persist in addressing trauma, language barriers and systemic constraints. The study accentuates the importance of collaborative approaches where educators work together to create environments that value difference, while promoting cohesion. By examining these dynamics the research contributes to a deeper understanding of how Irish educational settings can support Ukrainian children in navigating transitions, affirming identity and achieving a sense of belonging within diverse learning communities.

My PhD research explores the educational experiences of Yemeni asylum seekers in Ireland through the lenses of narrative inquiry and autoethnography. I am currently engaged in in-depth conversations with four participants who in the Irish asylum system. As I progress through this phase of data collection, new themes continue to emerge. While my initial focus was on the experiences of adult asylum seekers, it has become increasingly clear that children are profoundly affected by the asylum process, particularly in relation to their access to education. This paper shifts the focus toward these children, examining how Ireland’s asylum system shapes and, at times, obstructs their educational journeys. Drawing on narrative extracts from my ongoing fieldwork, specifically from conversations with parents, I explore the social, economic, and systemic barriers that refugee children face. These include challenges such as poor living conditions, limited access to educational resources, language barriers, and a lack of integration into the school system. These themes were identified and developed using Braun and Clarke’s (2006) thematic analysis. The data for this study was collected through a variety of qualitative methods, including informal conversations, semi-structured interviews, and ethnographic field notes, all conducted with four Yemeni refugees and asylum seekers. These methods allowed for a nuanced and layered understanding of the everyday experiences of these asylum seekers. Ultimately, this paper highlights how the asylum process in Ireland not only affects children's immediate access to education but also contributes to long-term educational disadvantage. By empowering these parents and making their voice heard, this work attempts to contribute to existing works on refugee studies and calls for an inclusive and culturally responsive education that meets the needs of children in the asylum system.

As ESAI celebrates 50 years of educational research, this paper considers how emerging integrated STEAM pedagogies can support schools in moving from legacy to futures in climate education. This paper provides an overview of the Erasmus+ PROTECT project (Pupil-led Response to the Effects of Climate Change on Their Local Communities, 2025–2028), which is concerned with using integrated STEAM pedagogies to explore climate action and pupil-led initiatives at primary level. The project builds on the outcomes of the earlier STEAMing project (STEAM: International Guidance to Best Practice, 2019–2022), which focused on STEAM pedagogy.

PROTECT is a three-year Erasmus+ funded programme involving partners from Croatia, Ireland, Serbia, Portugal, and Norway. Building on the principles outlined in the new STEM Education Specification and the approaches developed during the STEAMing project, PROTECT investigates the application of integrated STEAM pedagogies in climate education from a local perspective. This research examines how these pedagogies can be applied to climate challenges, placing the child’s voice at the centre of the learning process.

The study explores how three Irish primary schools engage with integrated STEAM-based pedagogies to deliver climate education, emphasizing the centrality of the child’s voice in school and community discourse. This paper reports findings from an initial baseline survey conducted with participating teachers in each school, examining perceptions of STEAM education, climate action, and the role of the child’s voice, prior to project implementation.

The PROTECT project is timely from an Irish perspective as it aligns closely with the principles of the new primary STEM Education Specification (NCCA, 2025). Early integration of STEM through climate education develops foundational scientific understanding and environmental responsibility, essential for addressing future societal and sustainability challenges. The project recognises the role and place of child voice in climate education and advancing community-based Climate Action Partnerships. PROTECT provides a framework for the use of integrated STEAM pedagogies in sustainability education at the primary level and illuminates how schools can honour longstanding educational values while imagining futures where learners are central to climate action and community resilience.

Teacher education hold critical potential to prepare educators not only to understand climate injustices, but to imagine and enact more just and sustainable futures. While the literature on social justice pedagogy in teacher education is reasonably well developed, the literature on climate justice pedagogy – that is how climate and ecological breakdown intersect with social injustices - is still in its infancy. This conceptual article seeks to expand climate justice’s theoretical and pedagogical literature with a view to supporting teacher educators to reorient their pedagogical approaches to promote climate justice. The focus of such a reorientation is to support teachers to navigate the practical, emotional and ideological challenges inherent in just-oriented work and to inspire and support student teachers to engage with and respond to climate change, and to do this in ways that promote climate justice. The need for educators to have the tools and frameworks necessary to foster transformative learning experiences was identified by Trott and colleagues (2023) in their systematic review of the justice dimension of climate change education. To this end, I propose a new climate justice pedagogy for teacher education. Framed by an overarching praxis-oriented approach and drawing on decolonial theory, it has three pillars: critical systemic analysis, emotional attunement, and relational accountability. This framework offers educators a theoretical and pedagogical tool for embedding climate justice in their pedagogical work with student teachers.

References

Trott, C. D., Lam, S., Roncker, J., Gray, E. S., Courtney, R. H., & Even, T. L. (2023). Justice in climate change education: a systematic review. Environmental Education Research, 29(11), 1535–1572. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2023.2181265

ABSTRACT

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has been at the forefront for global development agenda, emphasizing the importance of having informed, responsible and engaged citizens. This study includes a scoping review of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and Environmental Education (EE) with a view to their implication in the attainment of SDG 4 (Quality Education), SDG 13 (Climate Action) and SDG 15 (Life on Land) in Nigeria. Guided by the PRISMA framework, the review was a synthesis of empirical and theoretical research published from the period 2020 to 2025 pertaining to curriculum integration, institutional support, and pedagogical innovation, such as through experiential learning and technology enabled learning. Findings show SDG-based curriculums have a significant effect on young people's environmental awareness, pro-environmental behaviors and sustainability competencies. Institutional and Policy Support Institutional and policy support including preparedness of teachers, resource provision and provided support of structured sustainability programs are critical enabling factors for the implementation of EE and ESD in the community. Experiential learning as biosphere reserves, service-learning and digital tools were found to control the theory/ practice gap leading to greater engagement and improved practical abilities. In the case of Nigeria, challenges like poor infrastructure, poor teacher education, and uneven distribution of resources prevent these outcomes from being fully realised. The research highlights the importance of holistic contextually adapted strategies with a mix of curriculum reform, institutional commitment and new pedagogy to educate sustainability-conscious graduates who can contribute towards local and global sustainability goals.

The rapid expansion of genomics and personalised medicine highlights an urgent need for educational settings that prepare young people to critically engage with complex, evolving scientific fields. Building on concerns about equity, trust and participation in science, the Let’s Chat Medicine (LCM) project, created by Systems Biology Ireland at University College Dublin and funded by the Research Ireland Discover Programme, proposes a youth-centred model of public engagement and involvement (PEI) around personalised medicine.

This study examines: (a) the extent to which LCM enhances post-primary students’ understanding of personalised medicine, confidence in communicating it, and engagement with STEM pathways; and (b) how participation supports Early Career Researchers (ECRs) to develop skills in plain-language communication, youth facilitation and interdisciplinary collaboration.

LCM engages 80 post-primary students (aged 15–18) and 20 ECRs across two boundary-crossing learning settings: a university laboratory (UCD) and a non-formal environment (Barretstown). Over five days, students explore scientific concepts, participate in arts-based workshops and co-produce public-facing communication materials. An independent mixed-methods evaluation, led by the UCD School of Education, uses retrospective pre/post surveys (n=100) and semi-structured focus groups with students and ECRs (n=16). Analysis combines descriptive and inferential statistics with reflexive thematic analysis.

Preliminary findings indicate significant self-reported gains in students’ understanding of personalised medicine, confidence in explaining it to others and sense of science as relevant to their own lives. Focus-group data suggest that co-production and creative methodologies support the development of science capital, particularly for students who previously felt “outside” science. ECRs report increased confidence in youth-focused communication and a reframing of public engagement as reciprocal rather than purely informational.

The study positions LCM as an innovative model for reimagining “future schools” as networks of sites, formal and informal, that foreground youth voice, creativity and collaboration with researchers. It offers a transferable, policy-relevant approach to building science capital and more equitable, dialogic engagement with genomics and personalised medicine.

Archer, L., Dawson, E., DeWitt, J., Seakins, A., & Wong, B. (2015). “Science capital”: A conceptual, methodological, and empirical argument for extending Bourdieusian notions of capital in youth’s science engagement and education. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 52(7), 922–948.

Dawson, E. (2019). Equity, Exclusion and Everyday Science Learning: The Experiences of Minoritised Groups. London: Routledge.

Stilgoe, J., Lock, S. J., & Wilsdon, J. (2014). Why should we promote public engagement with science? Public Understanding of Science, 23(1), 4–15.