A critical exploration of the rhetoric of equity
belied by practice in postgraduate teacher education
| Show/
hide article menu (click icons opposite) |
 |
 |
|
|
Abstract
This paper presents the initial results of an investigation into
the current awareness and perceptions of equity issues amongst academic
staff working on a postgraduate learning and teaching course for
teachers in tertiary education in the Republic of Ireland. The study
is set in the contemporary landscape of discourses around equality,
egalitarianism and equity in education generally. The Irish White
Paper on Adult Education Learning for Life (2000)
recommends that adult education should be underpinned by three core
principles, one of which is to promote equality of access, participation
and outcome for participants in adult education, with pro-active
strategies to counteract barriers arising from differences of socio-economic
status, gender, ethnicity and disability. However, there is no detailing
of specific research conducted on equality issues on Postgraduate
Certificate Courses for teachers in tertiary level education and
how staff working on such courses conceptualise their own practice
within current, sometimes conflicting discourses. Therefore, the
primary aim of this study is to uncover whether the rhetoric of
equity in an Irish higher education institution is being put into
practice in reality by the academic course team specifically on
this particular course and more widely within the institution in
which the course is being delivered, and to critically examine the
implications for policy. A qualitative questionnaire was distributed
to the course team who designed and are delivering the particular
course under study to gauge their awareness of, and attitudes towards,
equity in higher education and their experiences of it. Findings
included issues with regards to equality of access, participation,
outcome and esteem.
Introduction
Through conducting small-scale qualitative research, in the form
of a questionnaire, the primary aim of this research is to discover
what the course team on the Postgraduate Certificate in Third Level
Learning and Teaching are actually experiencing in terms of equity
issues. By exploring what current, relevant literature is saying,
a secondary aim is to inquire into the philosophical, legal and
political positions with regard to equity in this third level educational
institution in Ireland. The literature examined indicated the perspectives
of stakeholders and policy-makers in higher education teacher training.
Within a philosophical and policy framework, this study proposed
to weigh up the implications of the data within the DIT Centre for
Learning and Teaching, and within the institution in which the centre
is located. Figure 1 shows the interrelationships between the issues
explored in this paper.
The structure of this work was influenced in part by a study conducted
in the area of Teacher Education in Northern Ireland, which explored
similar issues (Elwood et al.,
2003). My micro-study attempted to investigate the highlighted
themes further and to gauge the extent of cognizance and prioritisation
of equity issues in third level learning and teaching amongst the
providers of education on our Postgraduate Certificate in Third
Level Learning and Teaching. A triangle of evidence was used in
this study to investigate specific areas in relation to the content,
delivery and resources for the course.
|
