'I don’t think lectures are ever going to change a closed mind’: student teachers’ learning journeys and teaching for diversity

Context of research: • Repeated failures of HEIs to prepare student teachers adequately for working in diversity and inclusion field (Bhopal 2009) • 2011 Teacher Development Agency NQT (Newly qualified teacher) survey (TDA, 2011), • 52% of newly qualified primary teachers felt unprepared to teach learners from minority ethnic backgrounds • 55% felt unprepared to teach learners with EAL. Aims of study: To explore the relationship between: • student teacher’s experiences of Religion and RE • their attitudes towards teaching for diversity To discover if student teachers’: • knowledge and experiences impacted positively or negatively on their attitudes and confidence • University sessions had any impact

Faith into practice.

India’s education system is one of the largest and most complex in the world with more than 1.4 million schools and more than 230 million enrolments (British Council 2014:6). Recent policies have sought to reform India’s education system but some have argued with variable success. This presentation offers some insights into how policies are worked out in practice in a sample of Christian foundation schools in India with a particular emphasis on provision for special educational needs children

Religious education, racism and citizenship: developing children’s religious, political and media literacy

This summer the newspapers were full of pictures of armed French police forcing Muslim women to remove articles of clothing on a beach in Nice. The pictures showing four policemen standing over the woman while she removed enough clothes to make sure her outfit was one that was ‘respecting good morals and secularism’. Some accounts reported that as police roamed the beaches of Nice making women undress, onlookers applauded and shouted ‘go home’. How can teachers support children making sense of such media stories? Teachers of religious education are often asked to justify the existence of their subject when the number of people who claim to be religious in the UK declines year on year. Yet, the incident described above is an illustration of how religion is rarely out of the news. Very often the presence of religion in the media also signifies questions of racism and discrimination and raises issues and questions related to freedom of expression, immigration and human rights that could be addressed in the Citizenship classroom. It makes sense then that some of these issues could be addressed with more thoroughness, nuance and depth if teachers were able to consider not just the civic, moral and political context and content of many of those issues but the religious as well. Later in this article we critique classroom approaches

The use of the bible in the institutional body language of Christian schools in India: mediating Western; Christian; or Western-Christian culture in contemporary India?

As a white, British, female teacher educator I had the privilege of spending two summers conversing with children, parents and teachers in Indian Christian schools in India using an ethnographic approach to data collection within a qualitative research design. This chapter draws on some of the findings from a project funded by St Christopher’s Trust and the University of Cumbria. Visits were made to a sample of Christian foundation special schools and mainstream schools in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Assam and Mizoram—five Indian states which are very different politically, culturally and economically (British Council 2019)

Can education be anti-racist?

This public lecture explores the complexities of anti-racism in education through an investigation of the following questions: What is the purpose of education? What does successful school education look like? What barriers do some children encounter and why? Is English Education white, patriarchal and middle class? How can schools provide equitable opportunities for all children? How can schools be anti-racist? With reference to a range of research and the professional experience and academic engagement of the speaker suggests possible solutions to dismantle injustice and promote equity including a need for teachers to Thoroughly understand the issues/ problems. Openly engage in professional development alongside others. Bravely advocate equitable learning and teaching

Pathways to teaching and passion for middle and senior management

The British Bangladeshi Teachers Association UK invited Professor Sally Elton-Chalcraft, Director of the Learning Education and Development Research Centre (LED), University of Cumbria, to present a speech at this event

Reflecting on values: Christian values and ‘institutional body language’ in Indian schools: implications for the British teacher educator

Aim: For delegates to consider the impact of values on teacher educators with reference to a case study in Indian Christian foundation schools. Content: The lead investigator spent two consecutive summers visiting Christian foundation schools in five Indian states and this paper focuses on the impact of Christian values on practice using West-Burnham and Davis (2014) tree metaphor, where education is seen as a moral activity. The research team reflected on the interconnectedness of values, the Christian religion, the context of the Indian education system and the impact on practice. We explored how espoused values, a teacher’s faith and the ‘institutional body language’ of the school (Dadzie 2000), are enacted in practice. I did not set out to gauge the extent to which teachers showed a shared belief system rooted or inspired by their faith, rather, I listened to their stories using IPA approach and identified themes which arose - ‘making sense of them making sense of their views’, (Smith and Osborne 2003) and some views were shared while others were in stark contrast. The findings illustrate how the thirty-four participants narrate firstly the impact of their faith on teaching and learning and secondly the influence of the Christian values in their schools given that the majority of learners are predominantly Hindu, (with some from Muslim, Christian or Sikh backgrounds) all within the context of Indian governmental policy prohibiting proselytising. Three themes emerged which are mapped on to West-Burnham and Davis tree metaphor (2014): 1. Christian values provide deep ethical roots. 2. Biblical texts and Christian doctrine informs decision making – the tree trunk, and the day to day action – the branches. 3. Differences and commonalities. The presentation highlights the tension of conflicting values - Indian Christian teachers sharing God’s love whilst adhering to governmental policy not to coerce non-Christians to convert. We are thinking deeply about values in teacher education; reflecting on the impact of espoused personal values, adherence to governmental policy, and implications for practice in an Indian context. This has implications for our role as teacher educators where governmental directives may conflict with a teacher’s values

India’s education system: challenges of policy into practice

India’s education system is one of the largest and most complex in the world with more than 1.4 million schools and more than 230 million enrolments (British Council 2014:6). Recent policies have sought to reform India’s education system but some have argued with variable success. This presentation offers some insights into how policies are worked out in practice in a sample of Christian foundation schools in India with a particular emphasis on provision for special educational needs children. In different countries attitudes vary towards inclusion or segregation of children with special educational needs. Educating special educational needs (SEN) children in special schools is the norm in India but there is a growing trend towards inclusive practice since the introduction of the Right to Education Act 2009. This keynotes draws on findings from a research project undertaken in Banagalore, India. Perspectives were sought from children, their parents and teachers to investigate perceptions of effective provision for SEN children using an interpretative approach to provide ‘thick descriptions’. Findings suggest that integration of SEN children in mainstream schools was not the preferred model for both the children and adults in the study, despite this being the aim of the Right to Education Act. Separate schooling was cited by the majority of respondents as the most appropriate model for reasons of unsuitable pedagogy and curriculum, a lack of individualised attention for children and difficulties of social interaction. The study reveals that teacher dedication, passion and care for the SEN children in their classes is juxtaposed with an acknowledgement of their professional training and development needs. These findings provide teachers and policy makers with an in depth insight from this sample case study into the perspectives of children, their parents and teachers on appropriate SEN provision and the challenges of implementing inclusive practice

Walking a tight rope: anti terrorism policy, anti racism and RE- implications for ITE?

How do RE, anti terrorism policy, and conceptions of race and ethnicity intersect? With particular reference to Muslim communities this presentation considers how the RE teacher and teacher educator can balance requirements of governmental policy with their own beliefs about the aims of RE as a vehicle for Anti racism. However the the emerging RE discipline moving away from RE now not It could be argued that Muslim children, students and their families are recognised as the first target of the UK Prevent Policy and there is an emerging consensus that there has been the creation of Muslims as a ‘suspect community’. A collaborative project between three female professors drills down into the how and why Muslims have come to be viewed as ‘at risk or risky’ and we propose a ‘Muslims as a Suspect Community typology’, drawing on existing research and our own theorisation, to illustrate the complex continuum from ‘potential terrorist’ to ‘good’ Muslim and why some Muslims choose to adopt a ‘least Muslim role’. We contextualise the concept of ‘Muslims’ which highlights the diverse ways in which some Muslims speak about Islam and racism (Abbas 2019; Khan 2016) and  whether Muslim youth feel they are viewed as a risk to society and at risk of catching the terrorist disease (Thomas 2020), or if they are vulnerable to radicalisation (O’Donell, 2017) and whether different societal perspectives hinder or support anti-terrorist policy enactment. There are moves to decolonise the ITE curriculum with Lander and Smith’s anti racist framework but many feel there is a long way to go (Revell and Bryan 2018; Elton-Chalcraft, Revell and Lander 2022; Warner and Elton-Chalcraft 2022)