Conference Agenda

Initial teacher education (ITE) is becoming increasingly important to ensure that all students have an equitable, inclusive and high-quality school experience (EC, 2021) and learn to play an active role in today’s complex and multicultural society (Cochran-Smith, 2020; Kaur, 2012). Issues of intercultural education and social justice are central in an increasingly interconnected and globalised world (Aguado-Odina et al., 2017; Bhatti et al., 2007). But it needs to be studied in depth how to promote intercultural education in ITE curricula in such a way that future teachers can acquire an habitus focused on social justice and value the uniqueness of everyone, by avoiding the risk of falling into empty rhetoric about diversity (Leeman & Ledoux, 2003; Tarozzi, 2014) and taking into account teaching and learning methods.

Thus, it might be useful to discuss ITE, starting from university teaching, by proposing a change in traditional teaching methods to achieve this much-needed valorization of diversity and the construction of shared knowledge based on dialogue (Cochran-Smith & Fries, 2008). There is a need to move away from traditional delivery transmissive methods to participatory methods that effectively can engage future teachers in an intercultural dialogue and enable them to build their professionalism by deconstructing their ideals, perspectives and beliefs about diversity and their role in class and developing new interpretive lenses and teaching strategies to be effective in heterogeneous contexts. The process of questioning those implicit beliefs and knowledge and fostering complex professional interpretations must be supported (Stephens et al., 2022). In this way, a disorientation can be brought about that creates imaginative spaces for new scenarios of pedagogical action in the classroom and for professional identity (Ellis et al., 2019). Undertaking this process is precisely the basis for intercultural education, which is not only about acquiring knowledge and theoretical principles, but also about constructing and rethinking one’s own professional identity in dialogical contexts.

Our paper aims to contribute to this discussion by proposing to use collaborative philosophical dialogue following the model developed by Matthew Lipman (2003; 2008) to design courses in ITE on issues of intercultural and social justice in education in academic courses. Lipman’s approach has traditionally been used in schools to promote complex thinking (Kennedy, 2012), but its potential can also be used for ITE, especially to reflect on educational processes in heterogeneous and multicultural contexts. Indeed, it encourages the active participation of future teachers in the form of an inquiry exercise that allows them to give original interpretations and unexplored perspectives on the issues discussed and to develop an ethical stance through the confrontation with different perspectives (Oliverio, 2014; Santi et al, 2019). This process can trigger a virtuous circle between philosophical dialogue and intercultural education (Anderson, 2016), as prospective teachers develop the ability to question their own beliefs about education, move between different systems of meaning, and open up to shared contexts.

Our paper addresses this issue from a theoretical standpoint by discussing a case study conducted within a ITE course at the University of Turin (Italy), in which future teachers were engaged in community philosophical dialogues to develop, discuss and problematize some issues of intercultural education. In particular, we would like to encourage discussion on the following questions:

• How can Lipmanian philosophical practise be used and developed in ITE?
• How can it support the future teachers in building a social justice-oriented habitus?
• Could the application of this approach become a resource for ITE to address intercultural issues in terms of reflectivity?

The system of initial teacher training in England is changing and this presents new challenges for Black and Asian students whose lives are already impeded by memories and experiences of racism. This presents an increasingly uncertain future and compounds the backdrop of existing racialised structures that occur recursively to continually suppress them (Marom, 2019). Teacher training in the mid-21st century has consistently standardised and normalised practices that reinforce white spaces and cultural knowledge (Warner, 2022). The new changes to teacher training begins in Autumn of 2024 will intensify and further embed hidden racialised and oppressive expectations and practices in the training curriculum (Department for Education, 2022). This Paper examines the debilitating effect of becoming a teacher, on British South Asian people who are often positioned as deficit and under-performing.

The teacher training curriculum in England does not include teaching about race, culture or ethnicity (Department for Education, 2019) despite the UK’s rich multicultural position. Alongside this, the forthcoming new restructure will increase time on school placements; which is recognised as the main combustion point for Black and Asian student teachers, leading to acute emotional and mental difficulties or leaving the course (Warner, 2022). Being undermined, under-supported and marginalised, are some of the findings of the research of the Paper. The research conducted in an English university, was motivated by the annual recurrence of the same problems experienced by South Asian students. There were 10 female and one male student teachers, identifying as British South Asian. Their narratives of obstacles and problems that obfuscate and impede their progression and understanding are manifold. Racialised practices, embedded within both university and school systems, are found to disproportionately affect them.

Attrition rates and under-achievement of student teachers who identify as British South Asian, in the English system of initial teacher training, are an unfortunately common occurrence (Tereshchenko, Bradbury & Mills, 2021).  The Pakistani heritage of nearly all of the participants in our research, raises specific intersectional cultural issues such as high parental and community expectations, gender roles of marriage and motherhood expectations and lack of knowledge of gaining entry into and navigating higher education systems (Subedi, 2008). There are also fears of losing their cultural and religious values through the university process.  However, possession of self-efficacy means they are able to transform and rework their parents’ cultures and religion to reflect their contemporary world, thus retaining links with the past while being successful in their personal lives.

It is evident that British South Asian student teachers navigate through a social system that fears their presence and devalues them. Subedi (2008) suggests that systems of teacher training mark South Asian teachers as “inauthentic”; signifying them as “marginal, perhaps deviant, both of which are interwoven with tropes of national identity and values” (p.57). The concept of ‘gendered Islamophobia’ stigmatises them and sets them against Eurocentric, white ideals, that essentialises and categorises people according to colour, language and culture (Bibi, 2022).   However while they also engage in self-motivation and agency to navigate these situations, they become enmeshed in power hierarchies, that are evident in teacher education requirements and categorises them as non-legitimate in their teacher identities (Subedi, 2008).

Motivated by the increasing recognition of the anti-colonial potential of teacher education (TE), this study examines how Finnish teacher educators engage with and understand knowledge about and from the Indigenous Sámi people (‘Sámi knowledge’). The research delves into the discourses, meanings, practices, and challenges the interviewed teacher educators express regarding the inclusion of Sámi knowledge to TE programmes. Thus, the paper aims to contribute to ongoing Nordic and international discussions about the wicked problem of ignorance about Indigenous peoples and colonial realities ('settler ignorance'), which is documented perpetuating oppressive structures and hindering Indigenous rights (Cook, 2018).

While the phenomenon of settler ignorance and its presence in education has been globally discussed (e.g., Godlewska et al., 2020; Taylor & Habibis, 2020), the issue remains under-researched in the contexts of the Sámi, the only Indigenous people in the European Union. The Sámi inhabit Northern European regions currently spread across Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Russia. National truth and reconciliation processes in Finland, Sweden and Norway all emphasise the goal of better public knowledge about Sámi matters, underlining its significance in overturning the historical and ongoing mistreatment (e.g., Prime Minister’s Office, 2021). Furthermore, the European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance has repeatedly highlighted the need for education to address the profound lack of knowledge about Sámi people, recognizing mainstream ignorance as a source of hate speech and Sámi discrimination (ECRI, 2019). Acknowledgment of the problematic nature of transnational ignorance has prompted initiatives at both national and EU levels to raise awareness of Indigenous issues (see Saami Council, 2022).

In the Finnish context, the incorporation of Sámi knowledge into education depends largely on teachers, given the minimal support and accountability the curricula and teaching materials assign for Sámi inclusion (e.g., Miettunen, 2020). Sámi scholars Keskitalo and Olsen (2021) reinforce the interconnectedness of stronger Sámi education and Sámi inclusion in mainstream teacher education. Recognizing settler ignorance not as a mere absence of knowledge but as a cognitive, affective and social force (Cook, 2018), it has been highlighted that dismantling such ignorance necessitates proactive and systematic incentives and support at different educational levels, thus deeply affecting TE institutions (e.g., Somby & Olsen, 2022). Together with these conceptualisations, we apply Susan Dion’s (2007) theory of educators’ common ‘perfect stranger’ position toward Indigenous matters as we examine whether future teachers receive both Sámi-related teaching and opportunities for critical reflection, both of which they need to truly access the 'difficult knowledge' related to Indigenous/colonial realities.

In a preceding sub-study linked to this paper, we discovered that Finnish TE programmes' written curricula often privilege liberal/nationalistic narratives over openings for Sámi knowledge or critical reflections on colonial responsibilities (Mattila et al., 2023). Given the influential role educators play in curriculum interpretation and development, as well as in institution-wide anti-colonial efforts (e.g., Parkinson & Jones, 2019), the perceptions of educators become a highly relevant focus of research. The work of teacher educators is complex and influential considering their multiple intertwining roles and the dripple-down effect of being the teachers of teachers (see Boyd & White, 2017). Through interviews with teacher educators from Finnish TE universities, this study seeks to deepen our understanding of the current state of teaching/learning Indigenous and colonial matters and provide insights for future TE development.