‘Purpose’ as a Way of Helping White Trainee History Teachers Engage with Diversity Issues
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Literature Review and Conceptual Framework
2.1. Diversity in the Curriculum
Cultural, ethnic and religious diversity: Pupils should explore cultural, ethnic and religious diversity and racial equality. Diversity exists within and between groups due to cultural, ethnic, regional, linguistic, social, economic, technological, political and religious differences. Cultural understanding should be developed through the range of groups and individuals investigated, for example minorities and majorities, European and non-European. People and societies involved in the same historical event may have different experiences and views and may develop a variety of stories, versions, opinions and interpretations of that event.
2.2. The Challenge of Changing Trainee Teachers’ Ideas, Attitudes, Beliefs and Actions
Teacher educators appear to be faced with an almost impossible task. Not only do student teachers show a strong resistance to attempts to change their existing preconceptions, but these preconceptions also serve as filters in making sense of theories and experiences in teacher education. The resistance to change is even greater because of the pressure that most student teachers feel to perform well in the classroom…In stressful conditions, people try even harder to keep their equilibrium…Thus teacher educators appear to be involved in the paradox of change: the pressure to change often prevents change.
2.3. The Relationship between Purpose and Diversity in History
3. Methodology
3.1. Action Research
a participatory process concerned with developing practical knowing in the pursuit of worthwhile human purposes. It seeks to bring together action and reflection, theory and practice, in participation with others, in the pursuit of practical solutions to issues of pressing concern to people, and more generally the flourishing of individual persons and their communities.
3.2. The Reconnaissance Stage
- greater awareness of the needs of pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds;
- greater awareness of ‘self’ (and the limitations of one’s own knowledge and experience);
- understanding appropriate pedagogical approaches to teaching diversity (to avoid insensitive handling of more diverse content);
- appropriate selection of curriculum content (to present a more diverse curriculum);
- and purpose (namely the reasons why subjects should be taught in the curriculum).
3.3. The Intervention
3.4. The Sample and Ethical Considerations
Trainee 2007–2008 | Gender | Age | Ethnicity | Degree and employment/school experience history |
---|---|---|---|---|
Sharon | F | 27 | White British | 2:1 in Ancient History and Archaeology, 5 years’ work in financial services industry |
Dominic | M | 23 | White British | 2:2 in History, worked in a Pupil Referral Unit |
Jess | F | 21 | White British | 2:1 in History and Politics, voluntary experience as a student, taking younger pupils on camps |
Louise * | F | 48 | White British | 2:1 in History, career in tax sector |
Carol | F | 25 | White British | 2:1 in History, no school experience |
James | M | 50 | White British | History degree from Princeton, career in financial sector, some experience as a cover supervisor |
Anne | F | 23 | White British | 2:1 in History, worked as a Learning Support Assistant (LSA) in a secondary school |
Trainee 2008–2009 | ||||
Jane | F | 25 | White British | 2:1 in History and Politics, worked as a LSA in a secondary school, travel and teaching in Ghana |
Kate | F | 21 | White British | 2:2 in History, work experience in secondary school settings |
Jake | M | 24 | White British | 2:2 in Modern History, worked as a cover supervisor at a secondary school |
Grace | F | 22 | White British | 2:1 in History and Drama, young leader for Brownies/Guides and work experience in a Pupil Referral Unit |
Ally | F | 24 | White British | 2:2 in History and Education Studies, worked as a LSA in a secondary school |
Emma | F | 21 | White British | 2:1 in History, worked as an activity leader on a youth camp |
The rationale underlying this methodology is that when commenting on a dilemma, participants’ beliefs and attitudes will be reflected in their responses, and the researcher can then cull the transcripts of their verbal responses to identify patterns. Thus, the methodology is designed to indirectly tap into participants’ beliefs…and attitudes.
4. Findings
4.1. Purpose as Reinforcement of Ideas
…the fact that there is even an issue means that something needs to be addressed and I think that is probably why I’m a lot more now, like something needs to be done and I think if people don’t because they’re worried that they’re going to upset someone, it’s just going to get worse.
Until teachers see it as a real priority which has got to come from higher up…it’s got to come from senior leadership in the school and the government, because, I mean, one teacher I spoke to said, oh, you know it’s just another, um, what was the word he used, you know, it’s just another phase, it’s just another initiative that’s going to go and die a death.
4.2. Purpose as Challenge to Preconceptions
I think it should be definitely more mixed. There’s no reason why it just has to be British history. I was doing some reading about it and talking about its culture, it’s not a nation anymore, we can’t just define it as one nation.
Um, I don’t know. [pause]. I suppose, links to the Empire to, er, the country did bad things, it happened…um, I don’t know what I’d want, I don’t know really.
what I think will be a problem for me in the first year of teaching is that you’ll just get through the lesson, just to get through the lesson and it’s not for another year or so when you can really reflect on the actual lessons and what your aim, really aims are in the lesson and have you, are you actually achieving them.
I know it’s towards the end that I started to get it... I can see it through the Holocaust and I think almost doing that topic has made me realize with other topics what their purposes are and it’s almost like the penny’s dropped and I look at things slightly differently to how I did before.
4.3. Purpose as One of Many Competing Demands
But I don’t know what the purpose, I’ve never taught this or come across it, so I wouldn’t actually know what the purpose is of teaching that, I’d have to think about it.
5. Discussion
5.1. The Need to Engage With Fundamental Questions About the Curriculum
5.2. The Need for Subject Specific Courses Infused With Diversity
5.3. The Learning Context within Which Trainee Teachers Operate
5.4. The Move into Full Time Employment
in terms of teaching in the next few years, then I’ve got to sort of do what the school wants me to do, so, um, that would stop me from doing anything major but I don’t suppose, it wouldn’t stop me from drip feeding diversity into the traditional, British curriculum…I think a lot of us have said, actually, it would be really good if, like a lot of elements of the course we can come back and do when we get made head of departments, how a lot of the things are actually things that we almost can’t use until we’re at that position by which time they’ve been forgotten and been sucked into system.
6. Final Thoughts
Conflict of Interest
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Appendix
‘Scenarios’ used for interviews
- a) The National Curriculum includes a large amount of British history from 1066 to C20th, covering political, religious, social and economic developments. You are teaching in a school that has a mixed ethnic population and includes a diversity of religions. In this context how appropriate do you think it is for young people to learn about the political development of Britain and events such as the Norman Conquest, the Reformation, the development of Parliament and so forth? How comfortable would you feel about teaching such topics? If you were teaching in a predominantly white, monocultural setting, how appropriate do you feel this type of history would be?
- b) You are teaching the British Empire—you could focus on areas such as why it grew, the benefits of the empire, the perceptions of those ruled by the British, the downside of British rule, the contribution of the colonies to the British Empire and so forth. What ‘story’ would you want pupils to understand? What would influence your decision in deciding which angle to adopt? What concerns would you have teaching this topic? Would the nature of the school population alter how you would approach this topic? How comfortable would you be teaching this topic?
- c) You are teaching about the Transatlantic slave trade. What would you want to cover when teaching this topic and why? What concerns would you have teaching this topic? Would the nature of the school population alter how you would approach this topic? How comfortable would you be teaching this topic?
- d) Your department is discussing whether to include a GCSE unit on the ‘War on Terror’ as part of the coursework. This will involve looking at Afghanistan, the war in Iraq, 9/11 and so forth. The school has a large number of Muslim students. Would you argue for or against introducing this unit? Why would you adopt this stance? Would it alter your view if the school population did not include any Muslim students? How comfortable would you be teaching this topic?
- e) Your department, in a white, monocultural school, is discussing whether to include more multicultural topics within the curriculum, either more units on other cultures beyond Europe or the experience of ethnic minorities within Britain—currently 70% of curriculum time deals with ‘traditional’ British topics. This will involve doing less ‘traditional’ British history due to time constraints. Do you argue for doing more multicultural history, if so why and what multicultural topics would you include, or do you argue for the importance of keeping British history. How comfortable would you be teaching these topics?
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Harris, R. ‘Purpose’ as a Way of Helping White Trainee History Teachers Engage with Diversity Issues. Educ. Sci. 2012, 2, 218-241. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci2040218
Harris R. ‘Purpose’ as a Way of Helping White Trainee History Teachers Engage with Diversity Issues. Education Sciences. 2012; 2(4):218-241. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci2040218
Chicago/Turabian StyleHarris, Richard. 2012. "‘Purpose’ as a Way of Helping White Trainee History Teachers Engage with Diversity Issues" Education Sciences 2, no. 4: 218-241. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci2040218