Discussing Decolonisation: Anti-racist teacher training in England – An in-person workshop with Prof Vini Lander

This is the fifth event of our six-part mini-series, ‘Discussing Decolonisation’, taking place in person and online across the academic year 2023-24. Find out more and book your place at other events in the series here.

You can also read more about our intentions for the series and community expectations here.

Title: Anti-racist initial teacher education and training in England: the continuing absent presence of race

Summary:

This workshop draws on my research in initial teacher education to place learning about race and racism on the teacher education curriculum. The workshop will explore the “absent presence of race” (Apple 1999) in teacher education policy and practice. This absence has stubbornly persisted for two decades resulting in pre-service and in-service teachers who lack the racial literacy to negotiate ethnically diverse classrooms to the detriment of all students, but particularly those from racially minoritised backgrounds. 

In this workshop, I will share the work undertaken by the Centre for Race, Education and Decoloniality, sharing examples of good practice in pre-service teacher education provision as well as the work undertaken within schools. The rationale and research underpinning the creation of the anti-racism framework for Initial Teacher Education/Training will be outlined to show how “pockets of possibility” (Joseph-Salisbury and Connelly 2021) can be exploited to embed anti-racist curricula and pedagogy to counter the de-racialised teacher education policy and curricula to better meet the needs of student teachers, pupils, and schools. 

Workshop participants will be invited to discuss the barriers which prevent anti-racist practice in teacher education, and how they may be overcome, and to share effective anti-racist practice they have established to meet the needs of pre-service teachers and their future students.

Speaker bio:

Vini Lander is Professor of Race and Education and Director of the Centre for Race, Education and Decoloniality (CRED) in the Carnegie School of Education at Leeds Beckett University (LBU). She is also Visiting Professor of Race and Education at Cardiff Metropolitan University. Professor Lander’s research focuses on race, ethnicity and education. She uses critical race theory (CRT) as a theoretical framework to examine race inequalities in education. 

Professor Lander’s research focus primarily on race and teacher education examining pre-service teachers’ attitudes to race and the recruitment of racially minoritised candidates to initial teacher education and training (ITE/T). Professor Lander’s international research highlights how the white space of ITE/T serves to embed and reproduce predominantly white curricula and practices which perpetuate the dominance of whiteness. 

She has also undertaken research on the mandate to promote fundamental British values within ITE/T – a policy which positioned students from Black and global majority heritage groups, especially those of Muslim faith, as suspect others who were subject to greater surveillance and scrutiny in schools and universities. Her research also examines the lived experiences of teacher educators of colour in the UK and abroad, whose marginalisation and slow rate of career progress highlights the depth of work required to address racial inequity in ITE/T.

In 2022, in collaboration with Professor Heather Smith at Newcastle University, Professor Lander launched the Anti-Racism Framework for Initial Teacher Education and Training. The Framework is designed to instigate change in teacher education curricula, placement practices and ITE/T management to address evident racial inequity in teacher education.

Over her career, Professor Lander has worked with many organisations to develop anti-racist knowledge, understanding and practices. In recognition of her research and work with practitioners, Professor Lander is the successful recipient of the BERA (British Educational Research Association) Education and Equality award in November 2023.

Booking information:

Booking for this event, and all events in the mini-series, is via Eventbrite.

If you have any questions or concerns ahead of the event, please email co-organisers Lucy Potter (l.potter@yorksj.ac.uk) and/or Laura Key (l.key@yorksj.ac.uk) from the Teaching & Learning Enhancement Team, YSJU.