Let us in, hear our voices; an exploration of barriers to access and participation in Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programmes for the Traveller population using an engaged participatory research approach so that the Traveller community are partners in the research

Authors:  Emma Ferris, Dr. Lillian Byrne, Dr. Susan Flynn and Dr. Seamus Dillon 

Organisations:  SETU 

Many researchers are considering departing from mainstream methodologies to centre the marginalised voice at the heart of research (Rabinowitz, et al., 2024). Evidence on the methods followed by non-Traveller researchers for conducting research that involves the Traveller community is sparse in Ireland, but we can learn from international practices. Over the last decade, Australia have made many changes in how they carry out indigenous research. Australian reports highlight the importance of Indigenous communities initiating and controlling research all research that involves them, but where Indigenous researchers are unavailable, or the community is unable to initiate research, researchers can still be carried out by building strong partnerships with the community and the researcher.
The researcher for this project will partner with a gatekeeper organisation, and a group of 4-5 cultural advisors to carry out this research. The project consists of four stages
Stage 1 - recruitment of a gatekeeper organisation and cultural advisors
Stage 2 - recruitment of participants
Stage 3 - data collection and data analysis, 
Stage 4 - interpretation of findings and compilation of recommendations. 
The gatekeeper organisation and cultural advisors will play a significant role in all four stages of this research. 
The aim of this research project is to place the Traveller voice at the centre of the research and to learn from their knowledge and lived experience. This is a PhD project, and it is 2 years into the project. The engaged research portion of the project has been designed and is awaiting ethical approval.