156 pages
244 x 170mm
ISBN-13: 978 1 85856 377 0
June 2007

Foreword by Arthur Ivatts, OBE, former HMI for Traveller Education

Educationists reflect on their professional and personal identities and the strategies they use to maximise the learning outcomes of Traveller children. Qualitative interviews with 26 heads of service and teachers in nineteen English Traveller Education Support Services (TESS) illumine this account. The Services ranged from metropolitan London and the rural southwest to the industrial midlands and the regional northwest; the participants ranged from people who had worked in Traveller education for decades to those new to the field.

The chapters deal with vital elements in the work of TESSs: Traveller education heads of service and teachers; Traveller sites; government and local education authorities; schools; and sites of innovative educational practice. The implications for teachers' practice and professional development are telling.

Teaching Traveller Children is for Travellers, TESSs, teachers, policy makers and researchers. It makes a significant and original contribution to both Traveller education scholarship and research into teachers' work.

Patrick Alan Danaher is Associate Professor at the University of Southern Queensland, Australia. Phyllida Coombes is an Independent Scholar in Bundaberg, Australia. Cathy Kiddle is a teacher, writer and researcher, who formerly led the Devon Consortium TESS.

All the authors are all experienced practitioners.