How do you create a space where a child feels like they belong? How do inclusive environments foster opportunities for a child to thrive?
These questions were top of mind at the first-ever International Leadership for Inclusion in the Early Years (LINC) Conference held at Mary Immaculate College in Limerick, Ireland. Center for Thriving Children executive director Eric Dearing gave the keynote address at the conference and pointed to how inclusion and belonging are intertwined with creating opportunities to thrive.
“The International LINC Conference was a powerful opportunity to renew, strengthen, and widen our efforts to ensure all children get repeated opportunities to thrive, at home, in early education and care, and in their communities,” Dearing said. “While challenges to children thriving appear around nearly every corner of society, the conference demonstrated how we can help children, families, and educators meet these challenges through inclusion and by reinforcing the many strengths that all children possess.”
Dearing and colleagues recently published a study on how impactful opportunities early in life can be for children.
“The number of opportunities children have almost entirely explains why those born into low income families graduate at lower rates and have lower levels of income in their mid 20s,” Dearing said. “The strongest predictor of educational attainment that we have in our models is opportunities. It’s not how much money your parents have. It’s not how highly educated your parents are.
“Even more eye-opening is that each opportunity mattered more for the poorest kids. So going from six to seven opportunities for a high income child does not matter nearly as much as going from one to two opportunities for a low income child.”
Dearing and his research found a receptive audience in Ireland. The country supports many whole-child approaches to education, building on a child’s strengths while providing supports for out-of-school needs. At the school, community, and government levels, people in Ireland are working to deliver integrated student support to their students.
That’s why the Irish Department of Education and Youth established the National Centre for City Connects Ireland last year. It’s why schools in the North-East Inner City area of Dublin embraced City Connects over the past four years, bringing a whole child approach to student support into their schools and communities.
It’s also why Mary Immaculate College, which is a leading University-level College of Education in Ireland, thought it important that their students should hear from Dearing about the impact of access to opportunities early in life.
“It was these students’ third week at university,” Dearing said. “They filled an auditorium with 250 first-year teaching students, most of whom will be pursuing careers as primary school teachers. They all had their notebooks out, listening intently. And they were there because the the Dean of Education, Early Childhood and Teacher Education, Prof. Emer Ring wanted them to hear about this work. They want to build this thinking into their foundations, saying ‘this is how we do education’ from their students’ first weeks in university.”
That attitude was echoed by the President of Mary Immaculate College, Prof. Dermot Nestor in his welcome address to the LINC conference.
“This was something far greater than an academic gathering; it was a call to action,” Nestor said. “In a context where 225,000 Irish children currently live below the poverty line, the wide-ranging work shows that inclusive practice is fundamental to quality early childhood education. At MIC, we believe the early years are not just ‘preparation for life’ they are life, happening right now.”
The National Centre for City Connects Ireland is based out of Mary Immaculate College. It serves as the hub to bring the City Connects practice to schools nationwide, with fidelity and rigor in how the system is implemented.
This fall, City Connects is extending into post-primary schools in Dublin.
City Connects executive director Mary Walsh is encouraged by this growth. “Many people in the government, in schools, and in the community have been convinced this strategy works for Irish students,” Walsh said. “We’ve demonstrated that City Connects is useful and provided additional support the schools and students don’t currently have. It’s providing a way to intentionally narrow opportunity gaps so all children can thrive.”
