This project aims to uncover why so few Black and Asian students train to become teachers. This will be done by asking minority students (age 14-16) about their aspirations for and barriers to becoming teachers. The placement will involve the analysis and write up of focus group data collected in spring 2022.
Department: Technical Support Unit
Supervised by: Nasreen Majid and Holly Joseph
We know that Black and Asian teachers are underrepresented in school, especially at senior levels, meaning that students of colour are less likely to see themselves reflected in the classroom which may affect their aspirations. This project is a small-scale pilot study which aims to understand minority secondary students’ perceptions of a career in teaching and any barriers to achieving this. A series of focus groups will be conducted during the spring term with minority students across four secondary school in the Reading area. The placement will focus on undertaking data analysis of the focus group data. The aim is to understand the themes that emerge from the data in order to understand how these students identify themselves and whether they had considered/ would consider a route into teaching. The successful candidate will be fully trained in transcribing and analysing qualitative data and will also have the opportunity to present findings to the Institute of Education’s Decolonising the Curriculum teaching and learning group. This is important because of the low representation of minority groups in the teaching workforce. It is estimated that 46% of all schools in England have no teachers from minority backgrounds. Therefore, it is important to understand why groups from minority backgrounds are not pursuing a career into teaching. The data from this project will support in understand this and help in applying for further funding to scale up this important work.
The student will carry out a short literature review to reflect on the current situation of on teachers from minority backgrounds in England, which can then feed into an academic article. This will be followed by doing an in-depth analysis of the data collected from the focus groups. The student will have tutorials in how to develop themes and use the research framework to analysis and form conclusion from the research data. Innovative approaches, such as graphical representation of data, will be explored with the student in to support their insight into these techniques and to bring the research data to life. The student will be supported in understanding how to frame results and discussion for the project. These skills will support their development of how to undertake their own research projects in future.
The successful student will have: • Excellent communication skills • Sense of responsibility in presenting self in a professional manner (including punctuality) • Good organisational skills Desirable skills/knowledge/experience: • Experience in handling datasets • Be expecting to achieve a high 2.1 or a 1st class degree • Interest in social justice and equality issues • Good critical and enquiry skills to support the analysis of data sets.
The successful candidate will be expected to report to the PIs and to engage in discussions about interpretation of the findings. They will also have plenty of opportunities to develop their academic writing skills which should help them with their final year dissertation once the placement is over. The contribution of the student to any conference presentation and written paper resulting from the research will be acknowledged in accordance with American Psychological Association and Harvard guidelines. Finally, the student will be given the opportunity to present results to the Decolonising the Curriculum teaching and learning group at the IoE, thereby gaining expertise in public speaking and improving their communication skills.
Institute of Education, University of Reading.
7 hours per day ( average)
Friday 10 June 2022 - Sunday 17 July 2022
The post will be advertised centrally on the UROP website between 21st February and 4th April 2022. Students should submit their CV and Cover Letter directly to the Project Supervisor (click on supervisor name at the top of the page for email). Successful candidates will be invited for an interview.