Supporting the Educational Progress of Children in Care: The Role and Experiences of Special Education Resource Teachers

With Dr. Rosie Savage, Assistant Professor in the School of Inclusive and Special Education, Dublin City University

Hosted by Irene Browne, Foster Carer, retired Primary School Principal and Chair of IFCA

Monday 2^nd November, 10.30am to 12noon

Online via Zoom

For Foster Carers and practitioners throughout the country

To Book You Place: email Katherine on learning@ifca.ie

Overview:

International evidence has established the poorer educational outcomes experienced by children in care compared to their peers.  Teachers have the potential to play a powerful role in the educational progress of this group by providing high quality learning opportunities and a source of high expectations, advocacy and support.  Special education teachers have a particularly important role to play given the high rates of special educational needs and disability experienced by children in care.

In this session, Dr. Rosie Savage will present the findings of her research into primary special education teachers’ views and experiences of supporting the educational progress of children in care in Ireland.  She will focus on a number of themes including the high incidence of emotional difficulties experienced by children in care coupled with a range of system-level challenges including poor inter-agency collaboration and communication, inadequate access to key services and lack of teacher-parent liaison which impact teachers’ efforts to support the educational progress of children in care and shape teachers’ experiences of working with children in care.

Her presentation will be followed by a panel discussion and opportunity for questions and answers.

About Dr. Rosie Savage

Rosie is an Assistant Professor in the School of Inclusive and Special Education. She has worked for over 30 years in education in both Ireland and the UK.  She draws on significant educational experience obtained across a wide range of secondary and primary schools in the UK as a mainstream and special class teacher, Head of Department and member of the senior leadership team.  She has taught in highly diverse and inclusive mainstream classrooms, specialist provisions (autism and Nurture Groups) and in a specialist residential school for young people with social, emotional and mental health difficulties.

Rosie is a member of the Research Centre for Inclusive Pegagogy and the Educational Disadvantage Centre, DCU.  She is an active member of the Holistic Educational Needs of Children in Care Working Group and represents the school at DCU’s Civic Engagement Forum.  Rosie is the Programme Chair of the Masters in Education in Special Educational Needs (M.Ed.EN), having previously been Programme Chair of the Professional Diploma in Special and Inclusive Education (2015-2018), a large, online Certificate and Diploma programme co-delivered with an external partner. Rosie completed doctoral research at Queen’s University, Belfast, exploring primary special education teachers’ perspectives regarding the educational progress of children in care.