EDUC20070 Travellers, Ethnicity & Rights

Academic Year 2021/2022

*** Not available in the academic year indicated above ***

Irish Travellers are a small indigenous ethnic minority. Despite their long history of nomadism and their unique cultural traditions, there has been limited recognition of their uniqueness in political and social terms. They have been identified in numerous studies as the ethnic group that experiences the most intense discrimination in Ireland. Using a critical theoretical and transformative lens, the aim of this course is: a) to analyse the uniqueness of Travellers’ ethnicity and culture; b) to examine the injustices and discriminations that they experience across different social institutions, and c) to explore how their rights could be enhanced and protected in areas such as education, housing, health care, employment and the legal system. The course will also examine why nomadic people, including Roma and Travellers, are subjected to prolonged intense racism across Europe in the context of contemporary theoretical debates on racism and nomadism. The course has been designed in collaboration with a number of Traveller organisations (including Roma people). The focus is not only on analysing injustices but on researching transformatively how best to address injustices experienced by nomadic peoples.

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Curricular information is subject to change

Learning Outcomes:

On completion of the module the students should have developed;
1. A theoretically-informed advanced understanding of Travellers as an ethnic minority
2. A deep scholarly understanding of Nomadism and its social justice implications in advanced capitalist societies
3. An in-depth knowledge of the complex discriminations and injustices experienced by Travellers in Ireland in particular, but also in Europe
4. An advanced scholarly framework as to how to work transformatively to overcome the injustices experienced by Travellers and Roma across major social and political institutions
5. The skills to write a research-based paper that is both analytically and transformatively sophisticated.

Indicative Module Content:

Unpacking Prejudice - A Brief Overview of Irish Travellers
An Understanding of Racism/Oppression - Ideology of Racism Explained
Impact of Oppression -The current situation of Travellers in Ireland
Traveller History - Othering Travellers: Traveller History/Representations and what we know/don't know about Traveller language
History of Nomadism at a macro level - Nomadism outlawed in modern society and its effects on Nomadic people
Traveller Ethnicity - Theorising Ethnicity and the Traveller Ethnicity Debate
Media Representations of Irish Travellers - The Demonisation of Travellers through the media
Travellers in Education -Post-primary Teachers Perceptions and Conceptions of Travellers in an Intercultural Education Context
Gender Issues - Exploring the intersectionality of gender and Traveller ethnicity
Seeing without the cultural deficit lens - recognising and managing dissonance

Student Effort Hours: 
Student Effort Type Hours
Lectures

24
Autonomous Student Learning

101
Total

125
Approaches to Teaching and Learning:
Online Delivery 
Requirements, Exclusions and Recommendations

Not applicable to this module.


Module Requisites and Incompatibles
Not applicable to this module.
 
Assessment Strategy  
Description Timing Open Book Exam Component Scale Must Pass Component % of Final Grade
Assignment: Class-based Assignment (30%);
Final Research Essay (70%)		 Throughout the Trimester n/a Graded No

100

Carry forward of passed components
No
 
Remediation Type Remediation Timing
In-Module Resit Prior to relevant Programme Exam Board
Please see Student Jargon Buster for more information about remediation types and timing. 
Feedback Strategy/Strategies

• Feedback individually to students, post-assessment

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