Investing in Equity and Anti-
Discrimination in ITE courses
Rowena Arshad
School of Education
University of Edinburgh
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Why we need to invest (1)
“I can see diversity issues are
important. But how can we consider
these issues of diversity without
„disrupting‟ the curriculum?”
BEd 4 student (May 2008)
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Why we need to invest (2)
“changing current practice in order to
accommodate one or two Muslim girls
in PE (in the gym) was ridiculous and
pandering to political correctness.”
Bed PE 4th year (May 2008)
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Research tells us:
Homogenous teaching populations are
largely unprepared for teaching diverse
pupil populations (Pohan, 1996; Garmon 1998; Fecho
2000; Ladson-Billings 2001; Gaine 2001 and Pearce 2003)
Studies of student perceptions of issues of
difference within higher education have
found less reflexivity on the part of majority
group students than minority group
students (Reay et al 2001:865). Qu i kT me ™ a nd a
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What else does research tell us?
 Teacher expectations are pivotal in
influencing pupil motivation (Ashton and Webb
1986; Good 1987; Macbeath 1998, Gillborn and Youdell 2000)
 Teacher attitudes are critical when working
with diverse pupil populations in developing
a culture of recognition of difference as well
as addressing issues of discrimination (Mac an
Ghail 1988; Cline et al 2002; Arshad et al 2005, LGBT Youth
Scotland 2006)
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Enabling positive change…
 Smith et al (1997) identified four factors as
pre-requisites that assist a teacher become
positive about diversity:
Exposure to different cultural backgrounds
Education
Travel
Personal experience with discrimination as
a child or as an adult
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Three further dispositions…
Garmon (1998 and 2004) suggested three
further disposition:
Openness
Self-awareness/self-reflectiveness
A strong sense of social justice
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From my own study…
Activism
Preparedness to take risks
Strong sense of national identity
Faith
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Arshad and Mitchell (2008-2012)
108 responses
BEd Primary 22 (21.6%)
BEd PE 4 (3.9%)
PGDE Primary 57 (55.9%)
PGDE 19 (18.5%)
(Secondary)
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Emerging issues from the online
questionnaire(1)
 A significant majority of respondents claimed
they have knowledge of UK equality legislation-
particularly the Sex Discrimination Act 1975.
Only 54 respondents had heard of the ASL Act
2004
 At least a quarter said they understood the
difference between medical and social models of
practice
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Emerging issues (2)
The majority said they were familiar with
social justice terms e.g. positive
action, positive discrimination, institutional
discrimination. Terms they were most
familiar with are ‘additional support needs’
and ‘inclusion’.
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Emerging issues (3)
36 respondents felt they would not be
confident to discuss any equality issue
in an informed way.
Those that indicated they were able to
discuss issues in an informed way
were most confident to discuss issues
of social class, children‟s
rights, human rights and racism.
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What I would like from my ITE course?
“Information that will help me become more aware
of how an individual’s background and context
might contribute to prejudicial views”
“Advice on how to deal with difficult and
controversial issues as a result of difference and
values conflict.”
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And…
“Ideas and strategies for raising issues of social
justice and social inequalities with pupils”
“ Becoming more informed about how social
justice issues can be embedded as part of
learning and teaching”
“ More discussion around issues of
racism, poverty, sectarianism and religious
discrimination”
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Preferred way of learning…
Tutor-led discussions in tutorials
Through placements
Greater engagement with people who
have experienced discrimination
Least preferred: E-learning
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Focus group question areas:
levels of knowledge prior to entering the
course
how knowledge in social justice issues
have been enhanced since coming on the
course
how informed are students on the different
equality areas ( strengths, gaps)
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Early emerging data…(1)
For subject disciplines to address
issues of SJ- students can see the
relevance and will be more convinced of
SJ issues e.g. within English Language
lectures, consider how students with
dyslexia might access text; within
environmental studies- demonstrate how
gender, class, race issues might apply
etc.. Qu i kT me ™ a nd a
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Early emerging data…(2)
Greater opportunities to work with
lecturers and professions from other
disciplines e.g. social
work, health, community education -
integrated community school?
Focus is more on disability- very little on
social class, sexual
orientation, race, gender, EAL
Working with parents
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Hollway‟s notion of „investment‟:
 that for members of dominant cultures to become
interested in minority cultures or alternative
discourses, these members need to develop a
reason to become conscious or curious about these
other cultures or discourses, that is, they need to
find a reason to „invest‟ time and intellect in these
matters.”
[Hollway, W. (1984) „Gender difference and the production of subjectivity‟ in W. Hollway, C.Unwin, C. Venn and V.
Walkerdine (eds) Changing the subject (London, Methuen), 227 -263]
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Jalongo et al (1995:13) suggests:
 “…that outstanding teachers draw a great deal
from intuition.”
Jalongo, M. R., Isenberg, J. P. and Gerbracht, G. (eds.) (1995)
Teachers’ Stories: From Personal Narrative to Professional
Insight (San Francisco, Jossey-Bass Publications).
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To encourage investment…
Humanise the theories
Building bridges between the „self‟ and
the „other‟
Balancing the epistemological and
technical aspects of teaching
Linear forms of learning are insufficient
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Humanise the theories
Praxis- theory and practice-
humanising the learning (e.g. Laing
lecture, networking, personal experience)
Demonstrating relevance - embedding
into all lectures, not just discrete equity
lectures
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Building bridges
“walking a mile in someone else‟s
moccasins”
 valuing your own experiences, making
connections, identifying commonalities
as well as differences
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Balancing the epistemological and
technical aspects of teaching
Intellectual rigour as well as
functionalism: teacher as technician but
also teacher as a professional decision
maker
Critical pedagogy - what is knowledge?
Who constructs this knowledge? Who is it
for? Is it useful? How can it be useful?
What is the connection between different
areas of knowledge?
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“Greater „modelling‟ from lecturers
on how to work in an embedded and
cross-curricular manner. At the
moment, issues are in silos or
bolted on e.g. one lecture
on X, one lecture on Y..”
PGDE student April 2009
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Linear forms of learning are
insufficient
 Single teacher (mentor) and student teacher
(mentee) model is dated
 Learning from diverse others(community
schools/integrated working): other
professionals e.g. health, social
work, community education, local vol orgs
 Providing formal experiences of diversity - to
those who have suffered discrimination or
exclusion and those who work in an explicit anti-
discriminatory way
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Students as change agents
Lane et al (2003) drawing from the work of other
academics suggest that pre-service programmes in
general do not provide sufficient attention to teachers as
change agents with the result that teachers do not
believe that they can really make a
difference, particularly at institutional levels.
Lane, S., Lacefield-Parachini, N. and Isken, J. (2003) „Developing novice teachers as change agents: Student teacher
placements “against the grain”‟, Teacher Education Quarterly, Spring, 55–68.
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Addressing conceptual ambiguity
Recognising schools as sites of
struggle
Being clear about the possibilities of
ASL and the limitations of the Act
„…changes in language, whilst they can be important, are not
sufficient to shift meaning on their own: when material
practices remain unchanged, and when relations of
subordination and domination are relatively
untroubled, then new forms of language can become co-
opted into reactionary agendas‟ Benjamin 2002:310
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For more information, please contact
rowena.arshad@ed.ac.uk
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© Rowena Arshad

For more information, please contact
rowena.arshad@ed.ac.uk
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© Rowena Arshad