O'Sullivan, Katriona and Burns, Gareth and Bird, Niamh (2019) Diversifying Initial Teacher Education: Who Utilises Alternative Entry Routes to Teaching & How They Compare to Direct Entry Students. In: 5th International Conference on Higher Education Advances (HEAd’19), 25-28 June 2019, Universitat Politecnica de Valencia.

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Abstract

Recognition of the growing homogeneity of the Irish teaching body (Keane & Heinz, 2016), and increasing awareness of the positive impact a more diverse teaching population have on disadvantaged and diverse students’ educational engagement, has precipitated an Irish policy response which has included funding a university foundation course (FC) which supports students who are underrepresented in teaching, to progress into initial teacher education (ITE).There is a dearth of empirical research on who is accessing these interventions, and how these students differ from those who ‘usually’ apply to and enter ITE directly. Consequently, in September 2018, twenty FC students and eighteen students from the direct entry group completed an on-line survey in order to compare the demographic make of both groups.The results of the descriptive analysis indicate that students utilising the ITE FC are more diverse in ethnicity, disability status and academic history, and have greater levels of disadvantage in terms of family history of education and family occupation than those entering ITE directly. These results highlight the value of utilising alternative entry routes to ITE, and their potential to support those disadvantaged and underrepresented to take the initial step into ITE.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Keywords:	Teacher Diversity; ITE Foundation Courses; Access to ITE; Higher Education;
Academic Unit:	Faculty of Science and Engineering > Psychology Faculty of Social Sciences > Adult and Community Education
Item ID:	14376
Depositing User:	Katriona O'Sullivan
Date Deposited:	26 Apr 2021 14:06
Refereed:	Yes
URI:
Use Licence:	This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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