Teachers from Diverse Backgrounds: ‘Making a Different Kind of Difference’

The recent government investment in the Programme for Access to Higher Education (PATH) and its aim of widening access to initial teacher education, has focused attention on the need for greater diversity in the teaching profession. Much of the research on the benefits of a diverse teaching profession focuses on the potential of teachers from under-represented groups to act as positive ‘role models’ for students from various socio-demographic backgrounds (Villegas & Irvine, 2010). This study adopted a narrative life history methodology grounded in phenomenology. Semi-structured, life-history interviews were conducted with 18 early career teachers drawn from three urban designated disadvantaged primary schools. Significantly, the sample contained a balance of teachers drawn from a range of socioeconomic backgrounds, which was very advantageous considering the emphasis the study placed on exploring teachers’ habitus and its influence on idealised and realised teacher identities and practices. The very distinct and positive contribution early career teachers with strong childhood ties to working class communities are making in social justice terms, offers a window into the transformative influence a more diverse teaching population can have. However, the strength of this cohort’s belief in the importance of students acting appropriately within prevailing, non-controversial and non-political discourses of meritocratic participation, points to the need to problematise the way in which the desirability of a more diverse and representative teaching force is framed in the policy discourse

‘Making a Difference’: What it means for early career teachers working in designated disadvantaged schools

Given the increasing influence of overly rationalistic and technicist views of teaching, it is even more difficult to imagine education as a transformative praxis (Apple, 2005, 2011, Lmgard & Keddie, 2013) By viewing themselves as public intellectuals and cultural workers, teachers can ‘make a difference’ in terms of social justice Focusing specifically on Irish primary teachers m disadvantaged schools, this study explores early career teachers’ understandings of ‘making a difference’ and what shape this takes m their day-to-day practice This study defines ‘early career teachers’ as those with a minimum of three and a maximum of nine years teaching experience. The literature indicates that while the experiences of teachers m the early stages of their professional lives has become a topic of interest for Irish researchers, much of it has been concerned with teachers in the first five years of their careers No previously published research has provided critical socio-cultural analysis of the life worlds of Irish early career teachers. In order to explore and shine light on the professional lived experiences of early career teachers, a narrative life history methodology grounded m phenomenology was adopted Semi-structured, life-history interviews were conducted with 18 participants drawn from three urban designated disadvantaged schools The factors and processes that shape the professional identities, felt responsibilities and practices of early career teachers were investigated and explored through their stones of becoming and being teacher. The study’s empirical findings are integrated with concepts drawn from critical educator and sociology discourses, equality perspectives, and teacher identity literatures There were two distinct and contradictory views of ‘making a difference’ articulated in participants’ understandings of ‘making a difference’. The first view was concerned with working towards sameness m the name of equality and making a difference In response to academic and policy demands, this view of ‘making a difference’ was characterised by pedagogies of sameness and understandings of equality as sameness The second view was underpinned by a caring ethic that characterised their educational relationships, and was m tension with these pedagogies and practices of sameness. This research concludes that the concept of ‘making a difference’ is complex, and the variation in situations m which it is produced and articulated means that it is best understood as a context, career-stage and habitus specific idea It is also a fluid and relational concept that is capable of evolution and change, with positive and negative implications for teaching and learning The study concludes that it is through engagement with the political, as well as the moral, ethical and emotional dimensions of teaching that teachers can continue to make a significant difference to students’ lives

Refugees, political bounding and the pandemic: Material effects and experiences of categorisations amongst refugees in Scotland

From Crossref journal articles via Jisc Publications RouterScholars are increasingly interested in and concerned with both the way various migrant populations are categorised, and the lived impacts of that categorisation. In this article, we examine how categorisation was experienced by people at various stages of the refugee journey during the biggest public health crisis for generations. We argue, using original interview data, that the way refugees are categorised, or politically bound, has material impacts on the way they experience their lives, and that this was evident in extremis during the Covid-19 lockdown in Scotland. As populations attempted to traverse public health messaging, this is shown to interact with longstanding state proclivities to control, marginalise and stratify. Consequently, how people experienced and managed the request to ‘stay home and save lives’ varied markedly by where they were in their refugee journey and how they arrived in the UK.Funder: Chief Scientist Office, Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorate; FundRef: 10.13039/100011529; Grant(s): COV/GLA/20/12, COV/QMU/20/02aheadofprintaheadofprin

Diversifying Initial Teacher Education: Who Utilises Alternative Entry Routes to Teaching & How They Compare to Direct Entry Students

[EN] Recognition of the growing homogeneity of the Irish teaching body (Keane & Heinz, 2016), and increasing awareness of the positive impact a more diverse teaching population have on disadvantaged and diverse students’ educational engagement, has precipitated an Irish policy response which has included funding a university foundation course (FC) which supports students who are underrepresented in teaching, to progress into initial teacher education (ITE).There is a dearth of empirical research on who is accessing these interventions, and how these students differ from those who ‘usually’ apply to and enter ITE directly. Consequently, in September 2018, twenty FC students and eighteen students from the direct entry group completed an on-line survey in order to compare the demographic make of both groups.The results of the descriptive analysis indicate that students utilising the ITE FC are more diverse in ethnicity, disability status and academic history, and have greater levels of disadvantage in terms of family history of education and family occupation than those entering ITE directly. These results highlight the value of utilising alternative entry routes to ITE, and their potential to support those disadvantaged and underrepresented to take the initial step into ITE.O'sullivan, K.; Burns, G.; Bird, N. (2019). Diversifying Initial Teacher Education: Who Utilises Alternative Entry Routes to Teaching & How They Compare to Direct Entry Students. En HEAD'19. 5th International Conference on Higher Education Advances. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 649-658. https://doi.org/10.4995/HEAD19.2019.9409OCS64965

Diversifying Initial Teacher Education: Who Utilises Alternative Entry Routes to Teaching & How They Compare to Direct Entry Students

Recognition of the growing homogeneity of the Irish teaching body (Keane & Heinz, 2016), and increasing awareness of the positive impact a more diverse teaching population have on disadvantaged and diverse students’ educational engagement, has precipitated an Irish policy response which has included funding a university foundation course (FC) which supports students who are underrepresented in teaching, to progress into initial teacher education (ITE).There is a dearth of empirical research on who is accessing these interventions, and how these students differ from those who ‘usually’ apply to and enter ITE directly. Consequently, in September 2018, twenty FC students and eighteen students from the direct entry group completed an on-line survey in order to compare the demographic make of both groups.The results of the descriptive analysis indicate that students utilising the ITE FC are more diverse in ethnicity, disability status and academic history, and have greater levels of disadvantage in terms of family history of education and family occupation than those entering ITE directly. These results highlight the value of utilising alternative entry routes to ITE, and their potential to support those disadvantaged and underrepresented to take the initial step into ITE

Dynamics and Deposition of Sediment-Bearing Multi- Pulsed Flows and Geological Implication

Copyright © 2019, SEPM (Society for Sedimentary Geology) Previous studies on dilute, multi-pulsed, subaqueous saline flows have demonstrated that pulses will inevitably advect forwards to merge with the flow front. On the assumption that pulse merging occurs in natural-scale turbidity currents, it was suggested that multi-pulsed turbidites that display vertical cycles of coarsening and fining would transition laterally to single-pulsed, normally graded turbidites beyond the point of pulse merging. In this study, experiments of dilute, single- and multi-pulsed sediment-bearing flows (turbidity currents) are conducted to test the linkages between downstream flow evolution and associated deposit structure. Experimental data confirm that pulse merging occurs in laboratory-scale turbidity currents. However, only a weak correspondence was seen between longitudinal variations in the internal flow dynamics and the vertical structure of deposits; multi-pulsed deposits were documented, but transitioned to single-pulsed deposits before the pulse merging point. This early transition is attributed to rapid sedimentation-related depletion of the coarser-grained suspended fraction in the laboratory setting, whose absence may have prevented the distal development of multi-pulsed deposits; this factor complicates estimation of the transition point in natural-scale turbidite systems

Submission to the independent review of the Student Grant Scheme by The Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science Department of Adult and Community Education, Maynooth University

The Department of Adult and Community Education, Maynooth University, welcome this opportunity to contribute to the consultation for the independent review of the Student Grant Scheme by The Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science. Based on consultation with staff and students in our department, we present key discussion points and recommendations below about the current SUSI eligibility criteria and grant support, the potential impact of changing income thresholds and of widening the supports to include part time provision, postgraduate programme, FET learners and blended/online provision. Since its establishment in 1974, the Department of Adult and Community Education (DACE) in Maynooth University has focused on meeting the educational needs of diverse groups in our society, supporting the transformation of lives and communities through adult and community education to create a just, equitable and sustainable society. Our work is informed by the experiences of students and staff of the department through programmes ranging from outreach certificates and diplomas, undergraduate and post-graduate programmes to thousands of students from diverse backgrounds on campus and across outreach centres nationally over the past 40 years. Our work is set within a broader context where Maynooth University welcomes students from diverse backgrounds, including having approximately half of its 1st year full-time undergraduate new entrants in receipt of a student grant, the highest proportion of students in receipt of a grant in the University sector (HEA 2015, 2017). We consulted with staff and students in our department to explore their experiences and opinions on the student award system, including those in receipt of SUSI and those who are not currently eligible. We also consulted with the Communiversity Network of community based adult education coordinators and adult guidance services who are advocates for lifelong learning among the most disadvantaged groups. The document that follows is informed by the insights provided by these students, staff and community actors. In particular, we wish to highlight issues about current income thresholds and the costs of higher education; diverse student pathways and knowledge about progression; and the rationale and impacts of widening the supports to include part time provision, postgraduate programme, FET learners and blended/online provision

Dynamics and deposition of sediment-bearing multi-pulsed flows and geological implication

Previous studies on dilute, multi-pulsed, subaqueous saline flows have demonstrated that pulses will inevitably advect forwards to merge with the flow front. On the assumption that pulse merging occurs in natural-scale turbidity currents, it was suggested that multi-pulsed turbidites that display vertical cycles of coarsening and fining would transition laterally to single-pulsed, normally graded turbidites beyond the point of pulse merging. In this study, experiments of dilute, single- and multi-pulsed sediment-bearing flows (turbidity currents) are conducted to test the linkages between downstream flow evolution and associated deposit structure. Experimental data confirm that pulse merging occurs in laboratory-scale turbidity currents. However, only a weak correspondence was seen between longitudinal variations in the internal flow dynamics and the vertical structure of deposits; multi-pulsed deposits were documented, but transitioned to single-pulsed deposits before the pulse merging point. This early transition is attributed to rapid sedimentation-related depletion of the coarser-grained suspended fraction in the laboratory setting, whose absence may have prevented the distal development of multi-pulsed deposits; this factor complicates estimation of the transition point in natural-scale turbidite systems

Optimizing Precision Medicine for Public Health

Advances in precision medicine have presented challenges to traditional public health decision-making paradigms. Historical methods of allocating healthcare funds based on safety, efficacy, and efficiency, are challenged in a healthcare delivery model that focuses on individualized variations in pathology that form the core of precision medicine. Public health policy and decision-making must adapt to this new frontier of healthcare delivery to ensure that the broad public health goals of reducing healthcare disparities and improving the health of populations are achieved, through effective and equitable allocation of healthcare funds. This paper discusses contemporary applications of precision medicine, and the potential impacts of these on public health policy and decision-making, with particular focus on patients living with rare diseases and rare cancers. The authors then reconcile these, presenting precision public health as the bridge between these seemingly competing fields