The island of Ireland has experienced exponential inward migration and changes to its demographic composition in the last 20 years. In the Republic of Ireland (ROI) the 2022 Census revealed that 751, 507 people spoke a language other than English or Irish at home (Central Statistics Office, 2023), an increase of 23% on the previous census, while Department of Education Northern Ireland (NI) statistics (DENI, 2021) indicate that there are almost 18,000 minority pupils attending schools in NI, an increase of approximately 500% since 2006-7. One implication of this change is a need for schools to develop more culturally responsive pedagogic approaches to connect pupils’ home lives and prior knowledge with new academic experiences (Subero, Vujasinovic, & Esteban-Guitart, 2017). This research focuses specifically on improving home-school partnership for minority families, as parental involvement has been demonstrated to yield improved outcomes for children (Epstein, 2018). The term ‘partnership’ seeks to recognise that families are children’s first educators and have an equal investment in aiding and assisting their children’s learning (Fox & Olsen, 2014; Graham, Truscott, O’Byrne, Considine, Hampshire, Creagh, & Western, 2021). It also implies that teachers ought to assist families in their support of children’s learning outside school. Unfortunately, when the backgrounds of teachers differ significantly from those of the pupils they teach, teachers may possess stereotypical and limited understandings of the home-school practices of their families (Lowenhaupt, 2012; Shalloo, 2015; Matthiesen, 2017; Antony-Newman, 2019). Teachers report little focus on minority communities in either initial teacher education programmes or continued professional development (Bracken, Hagan, O’Toole, Quinne, & Ryan, 2012; Wallace, McAreavey, & Atkin, 2013). Many also indicate feeling ill equipped to teach in modern intercultural classrooms (Murtagh & Francis, 2012).
