Did they jump or were they pushed? Reasons why minority ethnic trainees withdraw from initial teacher training courses

Abstract

This article reports the findings of a research project which examines the reasons why minority ethnic trainees withdraw from teacher training courses. It highlights a number of issues, the most significant of which is that withdrawal is a process not an event. The most common causes of withdrawal were 'personal' and 'family' reasons. However, the combination of these two factors with various issues to do with the initial teacher training (ITT) institution and the placement school made it impossible for most trainees to stay on the course. With the exception of perceptions of racism by some minority ethnic trainees, the reasons for withdrawal given by majority ethnic and minority ethnic trainees were by and large the same. The article concludes by suggesting a number of strategies for ITT institutions and placement schools to improve the retention of trainees. It emphasises the need for better support from ITT institutions, more structured mentoring during school placements, continuous and effective communication between the ITT institutions and placement schools, flexibility in course structure, improved funding, availability of affordable childcare, and the tackling of discrimination. It also stresses that withdrawal is not necessarily final, and these trainees should be encouraged to return to teaching as many enjoyed the course and would make good teachers

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

“…It extends other studies that have addressed BME students' and teachers' experiences of schooling, and career progression, by taking a particular focus on the subject specific context of PETE (e.g. Basit and McNamara 2004;Basit, et al, 2006;Carrington, et al, 2001;Wilkins and Lall, 2011). Whilst recognising the limitations of ethnic monitoring (not least how 'ethnicity' is categorised to produce 'groups' and 'labels' such as 'BME' -the term most commonly used in the UK, see Bonnett and Carrington, 2000), the statistics nevertheless do show a significant and enduring 'race' gap between the numbers of BME students opting into teaching across all subject areas (at 11%), and those opting specifically for PETE, a much lower figure -just 2.94% (Turner, 2007).…”

“…This is concerning, given the weight of evidence (including that of the TDA's own Performance Profile data), that BME students are significantly more likely to fail to complete teacher education than their white peers (TDA 2012). Moreover, this achievement gap has persisted over many years (Carrington & Tomlin 2000;Basit et al 2006;Wilkins & Lall 2010). One might have expected, therefore, especially given that supporting BME recruitment and retention is claimed as a key strategic priority by the TDA, that Ofsted would be examining carefully the performance data of providers and highlighting this issue in their reports.…”

“…However, any claims for success of these initiatives have been persistently undermined by evidence of poor retention rates (Carrington & Tomlin 2000;Basit et al 2006), and of institutional racism and discriminatory treatment from tutors, schools and white peers (Cohen 1989;Siraj-Blatchford 1991;Wilkins & Lall 2010). This evidence continues to emerge even following the introduction of the RRAA, which was envisaged as a turning point in public sector institutional cultures, by shifting the emphasis from a passive 'anti-discriminatory' ethos to one in which public bodies had a duty to positively promote race equality.…”

Re-making teacher professionalism in England: localism and social responsibility

“…Evans (2011) argues that the new Standards offer «a professionalism that focuses predominantly on teachers' behaviour, rather than on their attitudes and their intellectuality» (851). Roberts et al (2006) have explored the ways in which demonstrating achievement of the Standards involves careful acts of «fabrication» (Ball, 2001). Although it is the emotional and relational, rather than competence-related dimensions of professional learning, that present the greatest challenge in the early experiences of teaching, it is the performative dimensions that beginning teachers attend to as they work with mentors to achieve performances that 'meet the standards' -carefully assembling together presentations of the 'performing' and 'conforming' teacher.…”

Playing the ‘Race’ card? Black and minority ethnic students' experiences of physical education teacher education

“…Carrington et al, 2001;Basit et al, 2005;Basit et al, 2006), however none of these have adopted an explicitly intersectional approach, or focused on experiences within specific subject cultures.…”