CENTREPOINT Newsletter of the Presentation Centre for Policy and - - PDF document

New Centre to promote Social Inclusion and Learning Innovation

CENTREPOINT

Newsletter of the Presentation Centre for Policy and Systemic Change

37- 39 Terenure Road West, Dublin 6W. Tel: 01 492 7097 Fax: 01 492 6423 Web: www.presentation.ie Email: presirl@iol.ie

No 1 Summer 2003

Five new pilot initiatives, that aim to promote new approaches to learning, are being established by the Presentation Centre. Working in partnership with four community based organisations and one school, the Centre hopes that these pilots will target unmet needs and contribute to influencing policy on education. The pilots are being established under aim 1 of the Presentation Strategic Plan 2002 - 2006: Towards a New and Radical Agenda. The plan aims to promote a new vision, a new understanding and a new practice of education in the adult and community or informal education sector as well as within the formal school sector. In seeking to contribute to this vision, aim 1 of the strategic plan calls for the setting up of a small number of pilot trailblazing initiatives. Promote and pilot alternative approaches to education through developing new educational experiences to benefit all young people and adults, but particularly those who are educationally disadvantaged. The pilots are the result of a Call for Proposals made last year to Presentation Sisters, especially to those involved in community education and community development work, and individuals and groups who wished to bring forward ideas on promoting a new educational paradigm. Twenty-eight proposals were received from around the country. Those chosen as pilots were deemed to meet most closely the selection criteria. Later last year, a separate Call for Proposals was made to Presentation primary and secondary schools, with nine proposals received and one being selected for development.

The Presentation Centre is situated in St. Joseph’s Terenure

Welcome

Welcome to the first edition of Centrepoint, the newsletter of the Presentation Centre for Policy and Systemic Change. The Centre was set up by the three Presentation Provincial Leadership Teams to develop a strategic plan for Presentation involvement in ministry in contemporary Ireland. Following extensive consultations the plan, Towards a New and Radical Agenda, was launched in January 2002 and is now in its implementation phase. The strategic plan commits us to:

• Promote education for social

transformation;

• Develop innovative responses to unmet

needs in society;

• Influence public policy and promote

systemic change;

• Promote human rights and take action on

international development issues. It is important that the membership of the Congregation, our colleagues, associates and co- workers in community work, in our schools and in the many other ministries, are kept informed of progress on the implementation of the strategic

• plan. So we are pleased to present this first edition
• f our new newsletter. We hope it will serve not
• nly to keep people informed, but also open up

debate and discussion on the issues that have been identified as central to our work: social inclusion, community empowerment, new educational experiences, human rights, care for the earth and a spirituality of justice. An area of concern to all of us, whatever our work, is the difficulty of reaching out to those who are most oppressed. This edition of the newsletter focuses on the importance of outreach - working to increase the participation of those who would not normally avail of educational opportunities. This edition also carries a tribute to the late Sr Teresa McCormack, who chaired the Presentation Centre management committee from its inception. She was the key driving force in the establishment

• f the Centre and was instrumental in drafting

the strategic plan. For her wisdom and vision, we are indebted. She reminded us that: The future of humanity lies in the hands of those who are strong enough to give future generations reasons for living and hoping.

• Gaudium et Spes no 31.

Sr Pius McHugh, Chairperson

Five New Pilot Learning Initiatives

By David Rose

Barriers to Participation in Education and Training Programmes

CONTEXTUAL: labour market conditions, policies on educational disadvantage, social and peer influence. INSTITUTIONAL: the image, ethos, administration and practices of the service providers, childcare provision, allowances. INFORMATIONAL: information about courses and how it is provided, and impact of course

• n income and social welfare entitlements.

SITUATIONAL: time, family commitments, costs of participation. DISPOSITIONAL: personal disposition, age, gender, initial education levels, attitudes, motivation.

Source: WRC Social and Economic Consultants, 1999, A Study of the Factors Influencing the participation of Older Unemployed Adults in Education and Training Programmes.

Learning Innovation

Pilot initiatives are being established in the following areas:

• Ballingarry, Co Tipperary. Learning for Fun through

Fun Learning is being developed in partnership with the Ballingarry Millennium Family Resource Centre. This initiative will focus on how learning can be fun by working with families to provide intergenerational learning opportunities in a community based setting. Liz Cummins is the newly appointed co-ordinator and she will work closely with Sr Patricia Wall and Clare Cashman, the family centre manager.

• Mayfield Residential Park, Clondalkin, Dublin.

Mayfield Action Response for Social Transformation is being co-ordinated jointly by Sr Kathleen Barratt and Liam Kilbride, the Presentation education development

• fficer for the SouthEast. Mayfield is a small community

being accommodated by the local authority in a caravan

• park. The pilot will use a “Multiple Intelligences”

approach, to tackle educational disadvantage among children, young people and adults.

• Churchfield, Gurranabraher, Cork City. This initiative

is being developed with the Before 5 Childcare and Family Centre. Sr Renee Breslin is the co-ordinator. The pilot aims to deepen appreciation of education for children and parents through providing opportunities in story-telling, local history, the arts and ecology. The initiative will link with the Presentation Ecology Centre and Organic Farm in Ballygriffin, Mallow.

• Drogheda Youth Development Centre.

At time of going to press, this pilot was being finalised. It aims to work with young people to encourage analysis and critique of social situations to bring about social action for change. The focus will be on the political dimension

• f education with participants challenged to identify a

pressing local need and with support to act through lobbying and advocacy to bring about change.

• North Presentation Secondary School, Farranree,
• Cork. This pilot aims to develop flexible systems for

lifelong learning that are driven by the needs of interested adults and older teenagers. It will increase the participation of older teenagers who are likely to drop

• ut of school and encourage re-entry of young adults to

learning through provision of part-time modular options in Junior and Leaving Certificate courses. The pilot will also develop the concept of a “learning neighbourhood” through a network of learning services providing routes back to education. It is hoped that these pilots will provide models of best practice that, with support, can influence policy on education and so lead to change in the social and educational arenas. Initially, the main beneficiaries of the pilots would be individuals and communities in the local area, but ultimately, the whole system could benefit. These pilots have received funding for programme costs and in some instances for the employment of a co-ordinator. They are receiving support in the form of assistance with the design of the initiative; research back-up, on-going monitoring and review to learn lessons for best practice. We hope to profile these pilots in coming issues of this newsletter.

Page 2

Social Inclusion

Reaching Out to Widen Participation

By David Rose research component will examine the reasons for non-participation as well as looking at the reasons why participants stay on a programme. What exactly is meant by outreach? There is no one agreed definition. At its most basic level, it means reaching out

• r taking services to groups and

individuals who would not normally avail of such services. In the case of this particular initiative, the services are adult and community learning and family support. Outreach can include awareness raising and information giving, making connections, increasing access and overcoming barriers to

• participation. Outreach is usually

locally based, and centred

• n the needs of the target
• group. It involves lifelong

learning and in the longer term can contribute to

• vercoming exclusion and

promoting community empowerment. In the WRC survey of service providers, the institutional (e.g. pay and allowances, inappropriate courses and poor teaching styles) and dispositional (e.g. lack of self-esteem, fear of failure and literacy) barriers were most frequently cited as the reasons for non-participation. However, there is probably need to include a further set of barriers or at “It is very difficult to get the people who really need the opportunities we provide to come along. Those who most need the service tend not to come.” These were some of the comments heard from community and family centres again and again during the consultation process to develop the Presentation Strategic Plan. The community development organisations with which we were in contact, pointed to the fact that often those most in need

• f programmes were those least likely

to access them. Research shows that those with some qualifications are more likely to participate in further education and training, than are those with no

• qualifications. Those with little or no

qualifications, whose need is greatest, tend to miss out on educational

• pportunities.

Such comments prompted us to look at the research on how to involve people in community education and at ideas

• n reaching out to the “hard to reach”.

A report by WRC Social and Economic Consultants (1999) on the Vocational Training Opportunities Scheme identifies sets

• f

barriers to

• participation. It provides a useful

framework for understanding some of the key components of outreach work. (See box on page 2) Outreach was identified as a key area to be included in the Strategic Plan. We believe there exists a real need to develop practice and policy in this area. The first strand of the Outreach Strategy was set up in partnership with the Southill Community Resource Centre, Limerick in 2001 (see adjoining article). A second strand is being set up in partnership with the Presentation Family Centre,

• Listowel. Funding for two
• utreach workers, as well as

monitoring and research is being provided through the Presentation Centre for Policy and Systemic Change. The Outreach Strategy aims to target those who do not participate in the services being offered by the centres. A least a significant subset within the contextual barriers: these could be termed structural inequalities. Account needs to be taken of the in-built inequality within the education system as a whole. For example, in recent years, research by the CORI Education Commission points to the structural biases in funding within the education system that contribute to disadvantage. For example, the cost to the state of educating a 3rd level graduate is more than twice that of educating an early school leaver (CORI). The education system itself has indirectly contributed to the perpetuation of inequality from

• ne generation to the next. An adult

with no educational qualifications is nearly nine times more likely to be poor than someone with a third level

• qualification. Qualifications matter in a

highly credentialised society. They have become the passport to success in terms of job prospects and career advancement. Investment in outreach strategies to combat disadvantage is needed. At the AONTAS Conference last year, Paul Belanger, President of the International Council for Adult Education stated: “without funding earmarked for targeted strategies, like

• utreach

policies and special support, we will not correct the ongoing reproduction of inequalities.” David Rose is director of the Presentation Centre

Without funding earmarked for targeted strategies, like

• utreach policies

and special support, we will not correct the

• ngoing

reproduction of inequalities.

Young Men’s Group, Southill Page 3

Southill is a residential community situated in the Southside

• f Limerick City with a population of approx. 5,000. It is one
• f the 5 socially and economically disadvantaged areas in

Limerick City. According to a 1995 community census, 38%

• f the people that participated had finished their formal

education at primary level and 60% went on to Secondary

• school. Only 26% of those who went to secondary sat their

Leaving Cert. (16% of the total interviewed), 46% left at intermediate level and 28% left without sitting any exams. Overall, 54% interviewed had left school without any formal

• qualification. 3% of the total interviewed went on to third

level education or vocational courses.

Social Inclusion

Southill Pilot Outreach Strategy

By Ruth Bourke

The aim of the Adult Education Outreach Pilot Programme is to facilitate participation in lifelong learning of adults from the community, particularly those who are hard to reach or who have been excluded from access to education and training due to a combination of barriers, both personal and structural. With funding from the Presentation Centre, an outreach co-

• rdinator was appointed in March 2002 by the Southill

Community Services Board, Limerick. A three-year strategic outreach plan has been developed. It is hoped that an effective outreach strategy will emerge that can be adapted to similar settings around the country. The underlying ethos quite simply is that lifelong learning is the key to empowering members of the community to develop a greater worth ethic, both for themselves and the Southill Community. The First Steps Since March 2002, a number of steps have been taken to engage people from the local community and to develop strong links with local networks and community groups.

• Firstly, contact was made with the home school liaison co-
• rdinators in the local schools to find out what courses they
• ffered to parents and find out about their

experiences of engaging local people. They were all very supportive and very interested in working together in any way possible.

• Local groups that work on the ground in the

community were also visited, some of which also provide community education e.g. Southill Family Resource Centre, Southill Community Development Project, the Estate Management Offices, and Barnardos. Consultation and Coffee The next step was to consult with local adults about their learning needs and interests. An extensive leaflet drop and local advertising were carried out in April inviting people to coffee mornings that would be held in different centres around mornings in different centres around Southill, e.g. in the Estate Management Offices and the After-Schools Club. The aim of the leaflets and coffee mornings was two-fold, to consult with the local community about their needs and also to raise awareness of the programme. While the response at the time was very poor, there was sufficient feedback generated, from which applications were made to the VEC in June for community education classes. An awareness and feedback session was also held with a Women’s Group in Barnardos. Great interest was expressed in Computers, Childcare, Decoupage, Sewing and D.I.Y. / Woodwork. Another coffee morning was held in Southill House to register for classes to which everybody that the co-ordinator had come in contact with was personally

• invited. The event was also extensively

advertised locally. There was a great turnout, largely due to word of mouth. There were about 70 individual responses to the coffee morning, the majority of whom attended to sign up for classes. Courses The Programme was allocated the following for community education: basic and advanced knitting, introduction to computers, computers and English, childcare, decoupage and home improvement (woodwork and interior design). The Southill Integrated Development Programme also decided to fund a 10-week sewing class and 10 week fly-tying class. In April 2002, the PAUL Partnership applied for CAIT-Community Application

• f

Information Technology on behalf of their 5 communities and the application was

• successful. Internet access will be provided

in Southill House in the near future and free internet access will be available to the local community. Computer classes are also being provided free of charge to a target group of homemakers.

… through this network of groups local people will be identified to take part in a local case study to identify barriers to participating in learning

Women’s Art Group, Southill Page 4

Networking Along with engaging individuals from the community, a huge amount of time has been spent developing strong relationships with existing community groups and also with the statutory bodies i.e. VEC and PAUL Partnership. In June 2002, a meeting was arranged for all the groups in Southill that are involved in adult or community education to discuss co-ordination of provision in the area. As a result 6

• f the centres in the area applied together for adult and

community education VEC hours and were very successful. The group have met since on several

• ccasions and made an integrated

application to the Department

• f

Education for the BACK TO EDUCATION INITIATIVE, which was approved in December 2002. A flexible four-module course will be run for local adults consisting of communications, childcare, computers and skills development. A decision was made to target people who have not completed upper secondary

• education. By advertising and outreach

with these local groups 10 people will be recruited for the programme. Listening to People’s Needs It will also be through this network of groups that local people will be identified to take part in a local case study to identify barriers to participating in learning and from which an adult education group of community people can be formed. Listening to adults in a safe, informal and participatory manner about their learning needs and interests and responding appropriately will be the key to the success of the programme. It is important to remember that at one stage

Social Inclusion

the majority of adult learners in Southill were once the hard to reach. They are a resource not to be overlooked when trying to find ways to contact and sustain a relationship with people that are now hard to reach in the community. Facilitated focus groups and feedback sessions will be the first step in that process. Home visits As of yet a domiciliary outreach approach (visiting people in their homes) has not been adopted for various reasons including the size of the local population. But it is envisaged that by engaging people from the community in a working group that will promote adult and community education and giving ownership of the programme to the community, mentors will emerge who will be in a better position to visit peoples homes. A slow but steady process One year into the programme it is evident that widening participation to include a hard to reach audience will be a very slow process and that because of previous lack of communication between adult education providers in the area there will also be a fair share of strategic co-ordination. However, as the success of September 2002 registration has shown and with specific targeted programmes like BTEI and CAIT and a local case study, the future of the outreach programme looks promising. Ruth Bourke is the adult education outreach co-ordinator, Southill, Limerick. Nano Nagle, founder of the Presentation Congregation, and last year voted no 1 in the Sunday Tribune Survey of Most Influential Irish people, pioneered outreach in the 18th

• Century. Fr Dominic Murphy in his Memoirs of Miss Nagle

(1845), records how she visited the poor and the sick in the back lanes of Cork: “It was said of her that she left not a garret in Cork unvisited.” As well as setting up small schools, a very subversive activity in penal times Ireland, she had an active involvement in reaching out to the parents of the children in her schools. She would visit the families in the evening, ‘moving thoughtfully along by the faint glimmer of a wretched lantern’, recorded Bishop Coppinger. Not for her the security of the enclosed convent, she was active and reached out to those in need, to the extent that she became known as the “walking nun”.

Nano Nagle and Outreach

Nano Nagle ( 1718 - 1784 )

Foundress of the Presentation Sisters

Listening to adults in a safe, informal and participatory manner about their learning needs and interest and responding appropriately will be the key to the success

• f the programme.

Opinion and Analysis

Education For Transformation

Transformation of Education ?

By Aileen Walsh

The Presentation Centre is committed to working towards the transformation of society and views the education system as a vehicle for the change process. Two questions immediately emerge. Firstly, what is the inherent assumption? To seek transformation is to seek change out of all

• recognition. Is this possible? Secondly, will

this aspiration invite the accusation that it represents further evidence of the placing of responsibility on the education system as the panacea for all ills? The perspectives from which responses are

• ffered will determine the answer to the first
• question. Many individuals and communities

will attest to the fact that their pathway to transformation has been through educational

• pportunities. However, the parallel fact, as

evidenced by powerful and forceful statistics and other circumstantial evidence, is that the education system not only fails many but also perpetuates social injustice and

• inequality. From this perspective, it seems

reasonable to be sceptical about the likelihood of a flawed system securing social

• transformation. However, the truth of both

perspectives exists. A reasonable answer is perhaps that, yes, if education has been an enabler and source of advancement for many then it can be or, more importantly should be, for all. This, perhaps, answers the second question in suggesting that placing responsibility for social transformation on the education system seems justified. A reasonable conclusion from this argument is that the aspiration towards education for social transformation is legitimate, responsible and worthwhile but only possible if the transformation process begins with the education system itself. Circumstantial evidence of the need for such a transformation can be drawn from research findings and practice both in Ireland and elsewhere. Professor Kieran Byrne, Director of the Waterford Institute

• f

Technology suggests where the starting point must be. ‘As with all change the toughest struggle is not encountering new ideas, it is leaving old ideas behind’. Many commentators agree and argue that, whilst there have been many important and significant changes in Irish education during the last 25 years, there has been no great change in educational

• mindsets. Thought provoking suggestions

have been made around the types of mindsets that need to change. Space here will only allow for a mere glimpse at some

• f the suggestions.

For instance, Abbott, 1996, in his Policy Paper The Strategic and Resource Implications of a New Model of Learning, suggests that ‘powerful changes to current educational arrangements’ are required. In the Irish context, despite forward thinking and innovative interventions, education is still mainly placed in institutional settings (classrooms, schools, lecture halls, colleges/universities), it is provided mostly by specialists and is linked to prescriptive curricula whose outcomes are mostly assessed by measurement. Is it these limiting and confining arrangements that have resulted in the exclusion of those for whom they do not work? The fact that the formalised setting can be a foreign and alien environment for disadvantaged individuals and groups has been highlighted and well argued. The mindset that dictates that the people must come to education, must be changed to

• ne that believes that outreach

to those who cannot cope with the current arrangements, is the way forward. Fifteen hundred years ago St. Augustine said: ‘I learnt most not from those who taught me, but from those who talked with me.’ Is only the formal and measurable to be validated as learning? The mindset that allows curriculum to be imposed from the outside

• r from the top down must also change. Are

‘specialists’ the only ones recognised as teachers and educators? Is the constant acknowledgement that parents are the prime educators of their children a true recognition

• f the significance of the home or simply lip

service? What structures are in place to allow the full participation of parents in the education of their children or to provide bridges between the school, the home and the community, particularly in cases where there is discontinuity between the culture and values of the home and the school? There needs to be more of the mindset that values new forms of parent participation, and home / school / community links. If parents are to be involved in a participatory way in their children’s education, does it not follow that they themselves need to be educated? As the Education Commission of CORI has advocated, the development of adult and second chance learning should be within the context of entitlement. The questions that emerge are those that should shape the development of policy. In his paper, Curriculum and Assessment; Some Political and Cultural Considerations, Gleeson, 1996 points out, ‘Policy development thrives on rigorous debate’. Therein, lies an irony. Is the rigour dependent upon the participation of all the stakeholders in the debate and upon their articulation skills and self-confidence? The education process plays a big part in honing such skills but, ironically, those most in need

• f them have often not benefited from the

education process. Others, who despite their goodwill and intention, can only sympathise rather than empathise with the problems of social injustice and inequality are left to speak about these problems and lobby for change. Which voices are more powerful, those that speak on behalf of others or those that speak for themselves? Adult literacy and

• racy

development must be prioritised in order to give the type of voice to the disadvantaged and marginalised which will enable them to articulate their

• wn needs with the force that will insure

their being listened to. If there is to be a transformation of society those who will benefit from the transformation must have a voice in its shaping. In the context of a transformed education system, hallmarks of a new paradigm need to be its capacity to speak to the disadvantaged, to engage them and to facilitate their empowerment to speak for themselves, in voices that are as powerful as those that currently speak for them. As Freire has asserted, the education process is not neutral. Transformation may not change this but it can certainly change the direction

• f the bias! Freire suggests the shift needs to

be towards a mindset that views education as ‘the practice of freedom’. Through this practice, individuals and communities can ‘participate in the transformation of their world’. Perhaps the real challenge for those who seek to transform the education process and thereby the social order is in having the courage to allow this ‘practice of freedom’. Changing the social order will mean disturbing what may very well be a comfortable status quo for powerful vested

• interests. So we are pushed back to

questions again. Some will ask, why should we change the education system? Others will ask, how can we change it and yet

• thers, who should be involved in changing

it? Finally, from what type of mindsets do these questions emerge and whose interests do they serve?

As with all change the toughest struggle is not encountering new ideas, it is leaving old ideas behind I learnt most not from those who taught me, but from those who talk with me

Aileen Walsh is the researcher with the Presentation Centre.

Page 6

People

Aileen Walsh

Aileen Walsh is the newly appointed researcher with the Presentation Centre. Prior to taking up this position, she was principal of St Canice’s Special School in Limerick. She was the course co-ordinator for UL’s Graduate Diploma in Guidance and Counselling

• utreached to the Carrick-on-Shannon education centre. She has also worked in

Traveller education and adult literacy and has studied the Montessori system of

• education. She has conducted research and evaluations commissioned by CORI, IBEC,

Tralee VEC, Killarney Traveller Training Centre, joint IBEC/Conference of Heads of Irish University Committee, University of Limerick/Dept of Education and the Residential Managers Association. She holds a BA (English and Psychology) from UCD and a Masters in Education from University of Limerick.

David Rose

David Rose is the director of the Presentation Centre. Prior to this, he was a research and training officer, with the Respond Housing Association where he was co-ordinator

• f a Diploma in Housing and Community Studies. He previously served as deputy

chief executive officer of the Australian Catholic Social Justice Council, the Church’s human rights agency. He had responsibility for lobbying and advocacy on social justice issues, research on human rights, and the management of the education and publications programme. He holds degrees in philosophy and theology. While in Australia, he gained a Master’s degree in International Social Development at the University of New South Wales, Sydney.

Marie O’Driscoll

Marie O’Driscoll is in charge of administration at the Centre. Prior to joining the Centre she worked for the IBM Computer Users Association for 12 years where she was responsible for all aspects of administration including phone and email queries, the

• rganisation of conferences, typing and liaison with printers on production of reports.

In 2001, she completed the ECDL computer programme receiving 100% in all modules.

Presentation People

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Your Say

Let us know what you think. We welcome your views on this newsletter. Write to: Presentation Centre, 37-37 Terenure Rd West, Dublin 6W, Tel 01 4927097 Fax 014926423, email: presirl@iol.ie

A New Name - A New Logo

Last year, the three Presentation Leadership Teams agreed a change of name from Presentation Ireland to the Presentation Centre for Policy and Systemic Change. The then chair, the late Sr Teresa McCormack, was anxious that the new name should accurately reflect the main purpose of the organisation, namely to tackle the systemic nature of injustice and disadvantage through influencing public policy. The new logo for the Centre is the acorn with the tag line: working for social

• transformation. The acorn is a traditional Presentation symbol. There was an Oak

Forest at Ballygriffin, the birthplace of the Congregation’s founder Nano Nagle. From small acorns great oaks can grow: from small beginnings, great change can

• ccur. Working for social transformation sets an ambitious task for today but also

recalls the radical and risk-taking work of Nano Nagle. During the penal times, she dared to establish a network of small schools to educate Catholics who were poor and excluded from education by the colonial

• establishment. The introduction of education for poor Catholics was a response to

unmet social needs that provided a way out of poverty and the means to challenge the institutionalised injustices that perpetuated poverty. This small beginning near Cove Lane in Cork would grow into an alternative anti-colonial education system in the 19th century and ultimately contribute to the transformation of Irish society. Keep up to date with the work of the Presentation Centre, Visit our New Website

Address: www.presentation.ie Launching in August

Aileen Walsh David Rose Marie O’Driscoll Page 7

The Ministry of Influence

By Imelda Wickham

Sr Teresa McCormack was the founding chairperson of the Presentation Centre. This is an extract from the homily given at her requiem Mass by Sr Imelda Wickham. In the reading today St. Paul, in his letter to the Romans, reminds us of how the life and death of each one of us has its influence on others (14.7). When we think of our own lives and how we have been influenced by events and happenings and people and how we in turn may have influenced the lives

• f others, we can easily identify with the words of Paul. And if

we further reflect on how from time to time, at different moments in history, certain people emerge in our midst whose very vocation or mission in life it seems, is to be an influence

• n others, we can further identify with his words.

One such person was Teresa. Teresa deliberately set out to influence, to influence public policy, to influence decision making at national level, to influence the Department of Education and to influence Religious Congregations. In one of her recent documents she wrote of what she described as the ministry of influence and reminded us of our obligation as religious to ensure that public policy is continually subjected to scrutiny from a Christian perspective. She encouraged us to engage in public debate and advocacy, as a means of bringing about social justice / social change and being a voice for the

• poor. She had a vision and a dream that were truly Gospel

based because she too had been influenced, influenced by the Gospel, by the social teachings of the Church, by the documents

• f Vatican Two and she was deeply influenced by our own

congregational documents. If we look at her work, we see that for her the essential nature of religious life itself was its attempt to proclaim and to give witness to a radically alternative way of

• life. In her work for the Conference of Religious of Ireland, she

challenged the membership to lead their respective congregations towards this radical way of life. Like Nano Nagle, Edmund Ignatius Rice, Catherine McAuley, just to mention three of the great national founders or foundresses

• f religious life in Ireland, Teresa read the signs of the time in a

provocatively challenging and disturbing way. She recognised the structural inequalities in society as the underlying causes of educational disadvantage. We did not want to hear it and like the prophets of old the messenger was sometimes set upon. But a conviction born of true faith and a strong sense of justice meant that she was willing to embrace rejection, if such was to be her lot. I have many memories; memories of a woman with a fire in her belly, to use one of her own most frequently used phrases. I’m inclined to believe that heaven will never be the same again now that Teresa has joined the ranks and I am just hoping for his sake, that St. Peter had his aims and objectives, his strategies and action plans in order before Teresa arrived at his gate on Sunday morning. Sister Imelda Wickham is a chaplain at Wheatfield Prison.

She had the courage to proclaim… that education played an indirect but important part in the the perpetuation of

• poverty. The message

was not always welcome.

Sister Teresa McCormack

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