Gender ARC and Global Women’s Studies at NUI Galway are pleased to invite you to a research seminar:

Diversity in Initial Teacher Education (DITE) in Ireland: Critical Perspectives on Gender and Sexuality

Dr. Manuela Heinz, Dr. Elaine Keane, and Dr. Kevin Davison, Education, NUIGalway

Abstract: The homogeneity of the teaching profession is an international phenomenon; teaching bodies are generally from majority group backgrounds, frequently in contrast to student populations. Research in Ireland suggests a similar situation, yet we lack adequate data describing our national context. Diversifying the teaching profession is an international policy concern, and in Ireland, a number of policy recommendations have addressed the matter. Arising from IRC funded researchon Diversity in Initial Teacher Education (DITE), this paper will examine data from an online questionnaire administered with applicants to postgraduate post-primary initial teacher education programmes across Ireland in 2014 (n=746, rr=46.6%). In our presentation we will explore the intersectionality of applicants’ genders/sexualities with their ethnic and social class backgrounds.We will, furthermore, explore relationships between applicants’ gender/sexualities and their experiences of schooling as well as their motivations to become teachers and perceptions of a teaching career. This examination of gender as the most prominent element of diversity in anotherwise homogeneous sample holds the potential for greater insight into the benefits of diversifying teacher education in Ireland.

Dr. Manuela Heinz is a Lecturer and the Director of Teaching Practice in the School of Education at the National University of Ireland Galway. Her research interests include initial and continuous teacher education, school-university partnership, teacher education recruitment and admission policies, career motivations and the diversity profiles of teacher education candidates. Manuela is co-principal investigator of the IRC-funded Diversity in Initial Teacher Education (DITE) project.

Dr. Elaine Keane is a Lecturer in Sociology of Education & Director of the Master of Education programme in the School of Education at NUI Galway. Her research area is widening participation in higher education (with a particular focus on social class), including in initial teacher education. She has published in a range of journals, and in 2013 she authored the Ireland report for a six country study of widening participation effectiveness, funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). She is Co-Principal Investigator on the IRC-funded Diversity in InitialTeacher Education (DITE) in Ireland national research project.

Dr. Kevin Davison is a Lecturer with the School of Education at NUI Galway with an interest in sociological issues in education including: boys and academic achievement, role models, and innovative approaches to science outreach. He is the author of: Negotiating Masculinities and Bodies in Schools: The Implications of Gender Theory for the Education of Boys (2007: EdwinMellen Press), and co-author of Masculinities and Schooling: International Practices and Perspectives (2007: Althouse Press). He is also the co-author of the report A Review of Science Outreach Strategies, North and South (2008: Centre for Cross Border Studies).

For questions, please contact Gender ARC Seminar and Public Lecture Series coordinator: Emma BrÌ_nnlund at e.brannlund1@nuigalway.ie