Race, culture and all that: an exploration of the perspectives of white secondary trainee teachers about race equality issues Seminar

This seminar reports on a project that explored the racialised perceptions of white trainee teachers preparing to teach in secondary schools in England. Drawing on critical race theory, the analysis focused on how the trainees’ ethnicity may influence their initial perceptions of schools and how notions of white privilege might inform their positions and responses to race-related issues in school. The data revealed the inadequacy of the trainees initial preparation to deal with the ‘scary’ situations associated with ethnicity and diversity in schools. The findings have implications for ITE policy and for curriculum and practice with particular reference to the HE-school interface of ITE programmes.