BERA President Marlon Moncrieffe denounced the race riots of summer 2024 as ‘nativist’ and ‘acts of ugly violence’, but he remains sceptical of this Labour government’s willingness to implement antiracist initiatives (Moncrieffe, 2024). Where the big players do not provide clear ways forward, it rests with smaller projects to step in. Passionate and knowledgeable antiracist and equity-focused groups and individuals, within initial teacher education (ITE), have the capacity to shape societal thinking and actions through educating each generation of teachers.

ITE is a hope in times of discord and uncertainty and a bridge to enable children and young people to critically and compassionately engage in the world. ITE not only provides a vital route over difficult terrain but leads to hooks’s ideal of education as building a ‘capacity to be aware and live consciously’ (hooks, 2003, p. 72). While hooks’s ideas are visionary they are not always easy to incorporate into a standardised teacher training framework which excludes notions of difference and culture, as seen in the Initial Teacher Training and Early Career Framework (DfE, 2024).

‘Passionate and knowledgeable antiracist and equity-focused groups and individuals … have the capacity to shape societal thinking and actions through educating each generation of teachers.’

At Manchester Metropolitan University the equality, democracy, diversity, inclusion (EDDI) programme educates student teachers about social justice with racial literacy and equity at its heart. It now also includes other equalities, such as LGBTQI+, physical and emotional disabilities, and socioeconomic inequalities. The project aims to create open and honest discussion about identity and what it means to be a teacher in the 21st century. We envision that students embody their role as social agents through their engagement with EDDI, which is consciously threaded through our curricula in seminars and lectures, for student teachers, and is part of training for academic staff and teachers in our school partnership.

The initiative also works alongside the student teachers in network support groups where they can discuss personal identity issues, such as cultural and religious needs for Muslim students or how to sensitively present their sexuality on school placements. These network groups, meeting before and after placements, allow openness about being a teacher when they feel in the minority (Warner & Crompton, Forthcoming). EDDI work provides that bridge to grow knowledge and it reflects the vigilance needed to deflect cultural and racialised discriminations that are embedded in education systems (Elton-Chalcraft et al., 2017; Farrell & Lander, 2019).

Working with colleagues in schools is an essential part of EDDI so that values and practices are upheld seamlessly between university and school. A working group between university tutors and teachers created an Equalities Statement in 2024 that states:

‘Education is our work; an education where division and barriers have no place. We will work to resist these, engage in research and knowledge creation, and support nurturing and inclusive spaces in the university and in schools.’

We acknowledge that EDDI is imperfect and is always a work in progress because inequality and injustice are elusive and shape-shifting; but we draw on the wisdom of Smith & Lander (2022) who call for action against a de-racialised teacher education. Through systematic approaches, which are underpinned by critical thinking, our future antiracist teachers will see and understand that education about race and racism is a necessary endeavour.

References

Department for Education [DfE]. (2024). Initial teacher training and early career framework. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/initial-teacher-training-and-early-career-framework

Elton-Chalcraft, S., Lander, V., Revell, L., Warner, D., & Whitworth, L. (2017). To promote, or not to promote fundamental British values? Teachers’ standards, diversity and teacher education. British Educational Research Journal, 43(1), 29–48 https://doi.org/10.1002/berj.3253  

Farrell, F., & Lander, V. (2019), ‘We’re not British values teachers are we?’: Muslim teachers’ subjectivity and the governmentality of unease. Educational Review, 71(4), 466–482. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131911.2018.1438369

hooks, b. (2003) Teaching community: A pedagogy of hope. Routledge

Moncrieffe, M. (2024). ‘Black-led protests’ and ‘white-led riots’: How might these public actions steer the review of the national curriculum for schools and pupils in England? BERA Blog. https://www.bera.ac.uk/blog/black-led-protests-and-white-led-riots-how-might-these-public-actions-steer-the-review-of-the-national-curriculum-for-schools-and-pupils-in-england

Smith, H., & Lander, V. (2022) Finding ‘pockets of possibility’ for anti-racism in a curriculum for student teachers: From absence to action. Curriculum Journal, 34(1), 22–42. https://doi.org/10.1002/curj.177

Warner, D., & Crompton, S. (Forthcoming). ‘There’s only a few of us dwindling down, because it’s not easy for us to exist.’ The emotional and psychological dangers that affect South Asian students in UK teacher education.