Christine Callender
UCL Institute of Education
Christine’s research is focussed on: equality and diversity, intersectionality and race and teacher education/school leadership. Equality and diversity: examining how teacher education policy positions equality and diversity, discourses and rhetoric and the erosion of equalities issues in English education more generally (curricular and practice orientated). This work is critical as equalities has become more peripheral in education debates. She is interested in the ways in which different social identities intersect and impact upon the lives of minoritized teachers at different stages of the career trajectory. Currently she is examining the experiences of black males as they are under-represented in the educational leadership literature. Alongside Professor Paul Miller (Huddersfield University) she is working in the area of Race and Leadership, an under-developed area in the educational leadership literature in England and aims to theorize the role and status of race in leadership discourse and to present alternative as well as counter-narratives to existing discussions and debates.
Recently there has been increased public-policy focus on Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) educational outcomes and employment prospects within the British education system and labour market. Several reviews have highlighted the inequality gaps that have stubbornly persisted over time between BME and non-BME groups in education and career progression. These have showed that, whilst the levels of educational attainment and degrees have improved significantly for people from BME backgrounds, these successes have not translated into improved labour-market outcomes.
This session provides unique insight to the ways whereby BME students and teachers access higher education, and teaching and their progress within it. It brings to the fore policy and practice and the barriers/enablers that facilitate access to and progression in education and employment. Examining these issues across the educational and occupational landscape highlights how seemingly different policies and practises and educational pathways reproduce similar outcomes for BME students and teachers. In particular the significance of ‘authenticity’ (Crozier et al, 2016; NASUWT, 2017) appears salient.
The session illustrates overt and covert institutional policies/practices which affect access and progression in education and employment. The papers provide a unique insight to the parallel experiences of BME students and teachers and the impact of government and institutional policies and practices, It illuminates the ways in which BME students and teachers are simultaneously included in policy discourse, whilst at the same time excluded by policy enactment (Picca and Feagin, 2007).
Drawing on the work of scholars such as Gunaratnum (2003) analyses are informed by the knowledge that race is in a constant state of intersectional production with other forms of difference such as class, gender, sexuality, disability and age (Lindsay, 2013; Rankin and Reason, 2005).
This roundtable comprises four inter-linked papers which highlight that despite significant political and policy change there is evidence of everyday racism (Essed, 1991) in schools/ universities, discrimination, harassment and ostracism, it is increasingly clear that they remain deep-rooted, endemic and institutionalised. The first paper examines the potential of Sen’s capability approach in investigating BME female students’ degree aspirations. This is followed by an exploration of teacher educators’ perspectives of race and race equality over the last 10 years. Following this the specificity of overseas trained teachers work in the UK (OTTS) is analysed. The final paper illustrates how a university aims to understand the reasons underlying a BME attainment gap, illuminating the complexity of policy interpretation and enactment in the UK.
