Froebel College of Education in Blackrock, Co Dublin held a special ‘Diversity Night’ on 6 December to celebrate its award from the Irish Traveller Movement (ITM) for piloting its Yellow Flag Programme at third level.
Froebel College of Education in Blackrock, Co Dublin held a special ‘Diversity Night’ on 6 December to celebrate its award from the Irish Traveller Movement (ITM) for piloting its Yellow Flag Programme at third level.
The Yellow Flag Programme, launched in 2008 by the ITM, promotes interculturalism and diversity in education through eight practical steps that include the staff, the students, the management, the parents and communities outside schools.
It begins with anti-racism training and working with communities, and concludes with the formulation of an action plan for school diversity, or the creation of a ‘diversity code’.
“We already have 13 schools which were awarded the Yellow Flag, and 15 others are working towards one,” said programme co-ordinator Paula Madden.
Froebel College’s interest into the programme started in 2011. “We have a new diverse population in Ireland, and our job is to teach everyone,” said lecturer Therese Hegarty, who had the idea of getting the college involved.
“It also came at a moment when students asked to learn something about diversity, which was not the case before.”
The college spent two years working to implement all the steps of the programme. “A diversity committee was created in January 2011, and the diversity code was completed a few months ago,” said Hegarty. “It took some time because we exchanged a lot with the students who worked in groups.”
Before graduating in May this year, Fiona Joyce was the first equality officer of the student union and ran the diversity Committee. “Our work was very much to carry out the plans for the Yellow Flag with the purpose of making each step happen,” she told Metro Éireann. “It was very collaborative… we were really involved, and that is what, for me, we needed for it to be real.”
Joyce was lucky enough to find work as a primary school teacher recently. “And I work with very diverse children,” she said. “I would like to bring the Yellow Flag [Programme to my school].”
Guests at the Froebel College Diversity Night enjoyed a tasting of pan-European specialities cooked by the college’s Erasmus students, while children from St George’s National School in Balbriggan – one of three other schools to receive the Yellow Flag award in November – sang two songs to round off the evening.
“But it was not only a celebration,” said Hegarty. “Every time we have the opportunity, we bring the question of diversity into discussions.”
