My name is Teresa Haller, I am a PhD student at the Graduate School of Social Science at
Bamberg University in Germany, and I worked for 5 years as research staff member at Lebniz
Institute for Educational Trajectories to conduct the German National Educational Panel
Study (NEPS). My research focuses on reasons and effects of ethnic and social educational
inequalities. After I have recently submitted my thesis, focussing on the educational context in
Germany, I wanted to explore the same topic in other countries. I felt very lucky to receive
funding for a Transnational Visit Access (TAV) in Ireland as part of the COORDINATE
project.
I was pleased when I found out that the Irish Childrens School Lives (CSL) study would make
it possible for me to investigate my research topic for the Irish Context. I had the honour of
spending two weeks at the school of education which is part of the Geary Institute for Public
Policy, University College Dublin, in January 2024. During this time I had a lovely academic
host in Olga Ioannidou, with whom I met frequently and learnt a lot about the CSL-study and
university life in Ireland. I also learnt a lot about Irish education and society in general. We
managed to draw up a concrete plan of research and publication of a paper for which we will
continue to work remotely together after my TAV-visit ended. Working with two national
studies (Irish CSL-study, Geman NEPS-study) we investigate effects of socioeconomic
(cultural and economic capital) and ethnic (e.g. country of origin, language use at home)
characteristics of families on early educational achievements of primary school children in a
comparative way.
As there are many exciting things to experience in Dublin and its sorrounding area I enjoyed discovering the city in my free time. I explored the city by walking through the streets, visited museums (I recommend the EPIC museum about the history of Irish emigration), learned about Irish history and walked on a sunny day along the coast in Dun Laoghaire and, of course, loved to visit Irish pubs.
I am deeply grateful for the opportunity that COORDINATE provided. The support has allowed me to develop a research collaboration with researchers at UCD through the TAV programme. Thanks to Olga and all the members of the CSL-study for the support during and after my visit.