Special Issue Race Ethnicity and Education: Initial teacher education: developments, dilemmas and challenges

Abstract

dilemmas and challenges IntroductionVini Lander University of Chichester v.lander@chi.ac.ukThe education of new teachers is a fundamental aspect of education provision within any country in the world. The education of pre-service teachers is known to have a direct impact on the outcomes for children in our schools. In England, teacher education within universities has been subject to erosion with the introduction of more school-based training and greater scrutiny by the government inspection agency, the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) (DfE 2011). The education of teachers in England continues to be an arena within which greater and greater government control is being exercised (DfE 2011). The preparation of teachers in England within the higher education sector has recently had to demonstrate greater flexibility as market forces have been brought to bear with the forthcoming introduction of School Direct in September 2013 (DfE 2011). This new training route reinforces the conception amongst some of the teacher as a technicist rather than an intellectual (Down and Smyth 2012). Under this new School Direct training regime new entrants will be trained to become teachers in one year, in one school, in one locality with minimum input from a higher education institution. The outcomes of such parochial preparation to teach will no doubt be documented in future years.In England, as in most countries, such as Australia and Norway, the pupil population is becoming increasingly diverse whilst simultaneously neo-liberal ideology plays out (Ball 2012) through government policies to limit the content of the teacher education curriculum to a list of classroom related competencies which include little or no reference to diversity, 'race', ethnicity or culture. The significance of these factors on the lives of children within a diverse society are absent within the official Teachers ' Standards 2012 (DfE 2012. This mismatch between the content of the teacher education curriculum, the ethnicity of the candidates who enter pre-service courses [in 2011, 12% of primary trainee teachers in England were from Black and minority ethnic groups (NCTL) and in the US approximately 21% of teachers are from African American or Hispanic groups (Nolet 2013)] and the demographics of the pupil population (in 2011 26.5% of primary/elementary pupils were from Black and minority ethnic groups) seem to be a concern for only a minority of teacher educators across the UK, US, Europe and Australia. In England, we continue to struggle to maintain a foothold (at times this feels like a fingernail hold) to introduce new teachers to issues related to 'race', ethnicity and the education for the benefit of all children in our schools. This special issue is intended to highlight the factors that student teachers, especially new candidates of colour, face in their pursuit to become teachers in what appear to be, at times, hostile or indifferent attitudes to ethnic diversity and the pursuit for social justice. As a teacher educator who has worked in t...

Changing the Narrative on Diversifying the Teaching Workforce: A Look at Historical and Contemporary Factors That Inform Recruitment and Retention of Teachers of Color

“…For TOCs who gain entrance into a preservice program at a predominately White institution, they encounter a number of additional obstacles as prevailing ideologies of whiteness permeate and inform the work of school. These include, but are not limited to, experiences with overt and covert racism (Jones & Maguire, 1998;Kohli, 2009); linguicism (Lippi-Green, 1997); stereotyping (Cole & Stuart, 2005;Griffin, 2018); microaggressions (Endo, 2015); color-blindness (Johnson, 2002); being rendered the professional "Other" (being viewed as a cultural expert) (Santoro, 2015); homogenizing racial and ethnic groups (Lander, 2014); lack of support within the faculty (Cho, 2013); a perception that ethnic and racial diversity is sought by employers and as such racialized teachers are "taking" the jobs of the dominant group (Ryan, Pollock, & Antonelli, 2009); and an assumption of a level playing-field (Coates, 2010). Some of the toxic environmental conditions that teacher candidates of Color experience continue in their inservice work experiences, thus contributing to retention challenges.…”

Student teachers’ beliefs about diversity: analysing the impact of a ‘diversity week’ during Initial Teacher Education

“…There are similarities between these local descriptions and the national summary offered by Elton-Chalcraft et al (2017, 31): a 'model of Britishness [that is] fearful of strangers, under siege and unsure of itself'. These demographics exacerbate what has been suggested -both nationally and internationally -to be an issue for teacher education programmes (Edgeworth and Santoro 2015;Bhopal and Rhamie 2014;Lander 2014Lander , 2011Larzen-Ostermark 2009;Mills 2009;Allard 2006;Ambe 2006;Clarke and Drudy 2006;Milner et al 2003;Ball 2000;Larke 1990), which 'have been found to be increasingly homogenousprimarily White, middle class and from the dominant culture' (Acquah and Commins 2013, 445). As Milner (2012) suggests, 'it is difficult to have a conversation about discrimination in urban education when those participating have never experienced discrimination themselves' (p.704).…”

Preventing school exclusions of Black children in England – a critical review of prevention strategies and interventions

“…There may be in-school variance as well as school-to-school variance based on ‘race'. A large corpus of the literature evidences the role ‘race' plays in spaces, organisations, and in a majority White teaching profession (see, Callender (2020); Allen and Liou (2018); Picower and Kohli (2017); Lander and Santoro (2017); Miller (2016); Matias et al (2014); Lander (2014); Picower (2009); Ahmed (2007); Puwar (2004)) for further exploration about how majority teachers' understanding of ‘race' affects interactions and outcomes in schools.…”