Ashley, Moses and Roxanna introduce themselves and speak about representation, exclusion and their lived experiences of growing up in Ireland as children and young people with second-generation migrant and ethnic minority backgrounds.

ABOUT BRAVE
Brave is a 4-part series of digital storytelling videos, featuring Ashley, Moses and Roxanna, as they explore the themes of identity, belonging, racism and creating a better future. It is part of a 3-year research project aiming to amplify the voices of young people with second-generation and ethnic minority backgrounds, to enhance understanding of migrant experiences in teacher education programmes.

We designed Brave specifically to support teachers and student teachers to listen to and hear the authentic experiences of three young people growing up and going to school in Ireland and, to reflect on and consider the implications of these stories for their own teaching, classrooms and schools.

In Ireland, teachers and school leaders come from predominantly majority, white ethnic, Catholic backgrounds (Adebayo and Heinz, 2023; Darmody and Smyth, 2016) and a number of initiatives are underway to diversify the teaching population. In the meantime, it is hoped that the stories of Ashley, Moses and Roxanna, contribute to a better and deeper understanding amongst teachers and student teachers of identity, belonging, discrimination and racism, for children and young
people in classrooms today.

HOW TO VIEW AND USE
Brave can be viewed in full as a 30-minute documentary. However, for use in teacher education programmes we suggest choosing a selection with a focus on watching one at a time, followed by reflection and discussion.

The 4 parts include:
Part 1: Representation (10.37 mins)
Part 2: Identity (9.35 mins)
Part 3: Racism (6.00)
Part 4: Creating a Better Future (8.42 mins)

The videos are supported by guidelines for use available here. These include some top tips, planning points and reflection and discussion-based activities. We encourage you to consult these before using the videos with a group.