Beyond professional compliance: redefining teacher education as a moral visionary profession
Professor Anne Moran and Dr Lesley Abbott
Paper presented at the A merican E ducational R esearch A ssociation Annual Conference, San Francisco , 5-11 April 2006
Economic and Social Research Council’s (ESRC) Teaching and Lear ning Research Programme (TLRP) A Values-based Approach to Teacher Education : Inclusion
Introduction
Work to date in the inclusion strand of the ESRC TLRP project A Values-based Approach to Teacher Education, includes the preparation of a research paper which is to be presented at the annual American Educational Research Association (AERA) conference in April 2006. A second paper is in preparation. An outline of this paper has been accepted for presentation at the British Educational Research Association (BERA) conference in September 2006. It will also be submitted to a peer reviewed journal for publication. Brief summaries of both papers are presented below.
Beyond Professional Compliance: redefining teacher education as a moral visionary profession
The paper seeks to analyse existing recruitment and selection practices to determine the characteristics of the intake profile to postgraduate initial teacher education (ITE) programmes and to establish whether broadening the criteria might alter the profile of those applying to ITE programmes. This could result in a more representative teaching workforce, capable of effectively engaging with increasingly diverse learners, and resulting in significant improvements in learning.
More specifically the objectives of the research aim to:
- determine whether the profile of applicants recruited is capable of effectively meeting the learning and other needs of increasingly diverse learners;
- examine what it means to embrace diversity in ITE and to prepare prospective teachers to teach for social change and social justice;
- assess the effectiveness of government initiatives which are designed to achieve fair access and participation in Higher Education for all.
The HEFCE (2004) Widening Participation and Fair Access Research Strategy sets out its commitment to increasing fair access and has identified core objectives in respect of learners, all of which are designed to lead to improvements in learner outcomes (HEFCE: 2004). The Widening Participation (WP) Strategy addresses issues relating to gender and social disadvantage and is concerned with diversity in terms of ethnicity, maturity and disability, all issues which are pertinent to teacher education. Preliminary survey data for this research has revealed significant gender imbalances, particularly marked in certain subject areas. The majority of students were under 25 (65%). 0ver the last five years, just 0.5% (5 students) indicated that they were from a non-white background while 3.6% (35 students) reported a disability. The occupations of the parents/guardians of PGCE students was surveyed and classified using categories based on 18 socio-economic groupings identified by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA). The largest categories for student teachers’ fathers’ occupations were skilled manual and intermediate non-manual, with intermediate non-manual and junior manual the main categories of response for mothers.
Teacher Predispositions
The predispositions of both teacher educators and student teachers are social and specific, and are influenced by their previous life and learning experiences. They, too, are affected by the social, political and cultural contexts in which they work. The unique biographies, values and beliefs which they bring to teacher education, profoundly influence the approaches they adopt and the courses of action they take in their work. Learners are often then expected to conform to a mono-cultural educational system which closely reflects the dispositions of teacher educators. Irvine (2004), in her foreward to Walking the Road (Cochran Smith: 2004), suggests that those who have closer associations with diverse populations have fewer difficulties and less hesitation in embracing cultural differences. She believes that teachers who grew up or live in
integrated neighbourhoods and who attended integrated schools, were more likely to be stronger educators of children, reflective and complex thinkers, and more willing critically to examine assumptions about racism, culture and prejudice.
Transforming Initial Teacher Education (ITE) : progressing inclusive pedagogies and practices
Throughout the UK all courses of initial teacher education are underpinned by a Code of Values determined by the General Teaching Councils (GTCs), and all devote a set of competence or standards statements to Professional Values and Practice, but how does this translate in practice? What are the values implied? Are they commonly identified and shared? Are they located within social structures (Higher Education Institutions and schools) as well as being associated with individuals? To what extent are they openly articulated and discussed in ITE programmes? Is it possible or even desirable to devote attention to a concept that does not readily lend itself to precise measurement as judged against a set of quantifiable indicators or standards?
As part of the ESRC-TLRP project, and in attempt to respond to some of these questions, the concept of values was examined with reference to the extent to which teacher education programmes in Northern Ireland are truly underpinned by sound values and inclusive practices. Both concepts were examined and the relationship between the two terms was explored. The views of 40 student teachers were sought on their understanding of inclusion, and on the extent to which they believed they were adequately prepared to work in inclusive school environments. All eleven tutors who worked on the PGCE programmes were similarly interviewed to determine their understanding, views and commitment to inclusion. Preliminary analysis of the data indicates that both groups held a relatively narrow view of the concept, most confining their comments either to making provision for pupils with a range of abilities or to integrating those with special educational needs into mainstream schools. Another finding revealed that teacher educators saw it predominantly as the schools’ responsibility, to support student teachers in the development of inclusive practices.
Among the most important goals of teacher education, therefore, should be a commitment to enable prospective teachers to understand diversity and to develop equity-oriented/productive pedagogies, or a set of principles of pedagogy that allow them to confront and frame some of the injustices that shape pupils’ self esteem and opportunities to learn. Teaching for inclusion and social justice is not so much a matter of practice but of praxis, a term used to denote the interactive, reciprocal shaping of teaching and practice. Across contexts, this is not uniform but rather is guided by specific contexts based on a set of common principles. It is the recognition, that for many pupils, bridging the gulf that exists between life and school experiences, of those with and without social, cultural, racial and economic advantages, requires fundamental changes in the ways student teachers are educated. One of the greatest challenges is that teacher educators are often unaware or are unwilling to confront the issue of inequality and, therefore, cannot understand students whose biographies and experiences do not largely resemble their own. Dealing with diversity is a major challenge and learning to teach for social justice and inclusion involves coming to understand oneself and one’s values in relation to others, and appreciating how classrooms can be transformed to value diverse human experiences leading to enhanced learning for all students.
A focus on inclusive education may provide a useful framework for reform through focusing on the broader experiences of inequality and exclusion. If this is to occur space and scope must be established with ITE programmes steadily to transform educational practices and pedagogies. The responsibility, however, lies with teacher educators wholeheartedly to confront, engage with, and take ownership of the reasons for pupil marginalisation, failure and exclusion, and to develop approaches that are socially responsible, that lead to social change and that result in quality learning for all children and young people.