SCOTENS_Criteria-Shared_Island

The Cultural Responsivity in Teacher Education Research in Action (CRiTERiA) project was funded by the Government of Ireland’s Shared Island SCoTENS scheme, with a total award of €24,942.02 (Appendix 1). The project commenced in March 2022 and involved a collaborative effort among four partner institutions (Dublin City University, Queen’s University Belfast, Stranmillis University College, and the University of Galway) whose purpose was to address the increasing cultural diversity within classrooms across Ireland and Northern Ireland by exploring the preparedness of Initial Teacher Education (ITE) students to effectively teach in these multicultural environments. Building on previous research by Herzog-Punzenberger et al. (2023), Brown et al. (2019), Hughes et al. (2020), and Heinz and Keane (2018), among others, the CRiTERiA project responded to the growing call for culturally responsive teaching (CRT) in light of changing classroom demographics and a changing cultural landscape on the island of Ireland. The OECD’s 2018 TALIS report revealed that more than 50% of teachers felt unprepared for multicultural classrooms, highlighting the need for enhanced teacher education and professional development to address the challenges posed by culturally diverse student populations (OECD, 2019).

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