Ethnicity and the professional socialisation of teachers: final report to the Teacher Training Agency

This report draws together the outcomes of a programme of research that has extended over two years. The project, which was financed by the Teacher Training Agency (TTA), aimed to fill some important gaps in our understanding of issues surrounding the recruitment of people from ethnic minorities into the teaching profession, and their subsequent experiences during training and in their first appointments. The project was organised under five interlocking strands. The first consisted of a postal questionnaire to all 1998 Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) entrants who had identified themselves in the Graduate Teacher Training Registry’s (GTTR) returns as being from an ethnic minority, or who had ticked the category of ‘Other’. The questionnaire invited the respondents to comment on a range of issues concerning their motivations for entering teaching and for choosing the particular institution in which they were to train. Two hundred and eighty-nine of the 776 questionnaires sent out were returned, giving a satisfactory response rate for this kind of survey. The second strand examined a similar set of issues from the perspectives of PGCE staff in sixteen initial teacher training institutions, with above average ethnic minority intakes. This strand, which was based on interviews with course directors, admissions tutors and other key personnel, was conducted in seven pre-1992 universities, eight post-1992 universities and one SCITT (i.e. an institution providing school-centred initial teacher training). In the third strand of the study, we returned to many of the same institutions and, with their help, set up interviews with a cross-section of respondents to the trainee questionnaire. In all, forty-nine trainees participated. The fourth strand involved another questionnaire, this time going to newly qualified teachers (NQTs) who had just completed a PGCE course (i.e. the same cohort as had been targeted in the first strand). The main NQT sample comprised 149 respondents. Finally, in the fifth strand, we followed up forty-four of the respondents from the main NQT sample to obtain their personal reflections after nearly one year of teaching. As well as giving a detailed account of each strand of the research, the report also provides a critical bibliography of related work from recent years, an account of the methodologies used, and a set of conclusions and recommendations. The methodology section highlights the limitations of a study such as this, and should be read carefully before any claims are made on the basis of our work. This executive summary draws attention to the main points in each part of the report. 5 On 1 September 2005 the Teacher Training Agency (TTA) became the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA) and took on an expanded remit. Visit www.tda.gov.uk for further information. We are re-branding our literature only when necessary

The recruitment of new teachers from minority ethnic groups

This article reports on part of a larger, ongoing two-year investigation supported by the Teacher Training Agency into the recruitment of new teachers from minority ethnic backgrounds via Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) courses in England. The authors focus here on interviews with admissions tutors, course directors and other senior staff at teacher training institutions. The interviews revealed differences between institutions in the measures taken to attract minority ethnic students. The research indicates a need for much clearer guidelines for admissions tutors on the issues surrounding the question of ‘positive action’ on the recruitment of new teachers from minority ethnic groups