The teaching of 'race', diversity and inclusion on PGCE courses: a case study analysis of University of Southampton

Bhopal, Kalwant, Harris, Richard and Rhamie, Jasmine (2009) The teaching of 'race', diversity and inclusion on PGCE courses: a case study analysis of University of Southampton Multiverse, TDA

Abstract

Multiverse is interested in publishing Case Study material that shows how institutions are addressing issues of ‘Race', Inclusion and Diversity. As part of this endeavour, Multiverse commissioned a small-scale investigation at the University of Southampton.

The main objectives were to:

examine the views of trainee teachers and tutors on PGCE courses, regarding the teaching of ‘race', diversity and inclusion,
explore how the views of trainee teachers and tutors could be used to develop materials on such courses (e.g. workshop sessions, reading materials).
Tutor questionnaires were distributed to a small group of tutors and seven in-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with PGCE trainee teachers. The resulting report is however based on 59 questionnaire surveys with students on PGCE courses, the majority of which were on secondary PGCE courses.

Workshops for trainee teachers and tutors were designed on the basis of data from the questionnaires collected as part of the investigation and are included as attachments to the report. There are also suggestions for further reading.

The most important conclusion to emerge was that trainee teachers and tutors understandings of ‘race', diversity and inclusion are crucial in order to provide a social justice and equalities agenda for teaching in schools. The more trainee students and tutors are aware of the range of issues connected to ‘race', diversity and inclusion the better equipped they are able to deal with instances of racism and to develop an inclusive teaching agenda.

The main recommendations for future policy and research are:

Implementation of a compulsory course on issues to do with ‘race', diversity and inclusion for trainee teachers. The course should make reference to how trainee teachers can incorporate a more diverse range of teaching in the classroom as well as how to deal with incidents of racism in a sensitive manner.
Continuous professional development for tutors on teacher training courses - to include legal updates on diversity and equal opportunities as well as an assessment of how tutors are teaching diversity issues to trainee teachers, the challenges they are facing and how they could improve their teaching practice in these areas. A sharing of ‘good practice' for tutors would form the basis of these courses.
A national survey of all teacher trainers in England to examine how they are teaching their trainee teachers to be aware of issues of ‘race', diversity and inclusion with a view to disseminating and sharing ‘good practice'. The data could be used to change policy and practice for teacher trainers on a national level.

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