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Promoting Quality in Teacher Education

UCET Equalities Group

UCET Equalities Group

Is your work and/or your research related to equalities issues? Have you heard of the work of the UCET Equalities Group? If the answer to the last question is "no" and you are looking for a space to share your work with other colleagues who work in the area of equalities education in ITE then please consider joining the UCET Equalities Group. There are three meetings per year which are all held online. So there's no need for travel etc. You don't have to be a member of any other UCET Committee to join the group.

We have good representation across the group from the North and the Midlands (happy to welcome other interested colleagues from these regions) however there are very few members from London, the South-East and the South-West or indeed Northern Ireland or Wales.

The UCET Equalities group was set up in January 2021 by Professor Vini Lander, Leeds Beckett University. The current Chair of the group is Balbir Kaur, University of Nottingham.

The meeting dates for academic year 2026/2027 are:

All meetings are on-line at 10:00 am - 12:00pm, by MS Teams. Please email info@ucet.ac.uk if you would like to join the group.

Trainee Teacher Workforce Survey

The UCET Equalities subgroup is working to gather a picture of the demographics of the trainee teacher workforce with the ambition that it will then be extended to the teacher workforce in the UK which will be phase 2 of the project. It is our intention that the sector can use this data to infer from this what they as an organisation need to do to ensure a diverse representation in their workforce in their own locality. We hope that by collecting the data annually it will provide us with a longitudinal picture of the teaching workforce and inform policy and practice across the sector. Full ethical approval has been sought, the data is collected anonymously and will be analysed and presented on the UCET website for use across the sector.

A new survey will be issued in September 2026 so please watch this space.

Anti-Racist Teacher Education Network

Are you a teacher educator committed to anti-racism? The Anti-Racist Teacher Education Network (ARTEN) is a long-established network which started in the 1980s to improve the content and teaching of antiracism in pre-service teacher education. However, as initial teacher education (ITE) policy changed and members of ARTEN retired, the ground-breaking work of the network seemed to disappear off the ITE radar. It is with great pleasure and the support of the current members of ARTEN that the Centre for Race, Education and Decoloniality at Leeds Beckett University would like to invite you to build the next iteration of ARTEN. The new network for teacher educators committed to anti-racism will build on the anti-racist schools’ award which has been developed at the Centre and the Leeds City Council and Liverpool City Council anti-racist schools’ networks.

How will it work?

The new ARTEN will largely be a virtual/online community which will develop anti-racist practice in ITE/T. There will be four meetings per academic year.

Who is it for?

The network will consist of teacher educators committed to anti-racism and racially-just teacher education. It will
include teacher educators in higher education, school mentors as well as ITE/T tutors in SCITTs who are willing to
share and develop their anti-racist practice.

What will it do?

The Network will have a page on the Centre for Race, Education and Decoloniality website, and we will look to develop videos and other resources which ITE/T tutors can download in order to develop anti-racist curricula, pedagogy and practice. ARTEN will showcase antiracist practice in ITE and develop a collegial approach to advancing anti-racism in ITE/T. In time, it may develop regional groups which could provide in-person support to colleagues wanting to develop antiracism in ITE/T related to the Anti-racism Framework for ITE/T. The network will provide a supportive environment to enable the collaborative development of anti-racist practice, support the development of teacher educators wishing to embed anti-racism in their work with pre-service teachers and the network will seek to research anti-racism transformations in ITE/T.

Please email: cred@leedsbeckett.ac.uk if you would like to become a member of ARTEN.

Developing resources to support trans and gender diverse candidates in ITE

Over the past few years there has been both heightened trans visibility as well as ‘backlash’. Higher education (HE) has been one arena in which this has played out and universities have reflected this context. The combined effect of this context, sensationalised, often negative, media coverage, the draft DfE guidelines for ‘gender questioning’ pupils (Department for Education, 2024), and the publication of the Cass report (Cass, 2024), means that colleagues might appreciate resources to support both current and prospective trans and gender diverse students in ITE. The UCET Equalities subgroup has been discussing the possibility of working to develop such a resource for ITE providers. If you would like to contribute to this, by sending or signposting any examples of current/best practice, or collaborating on the creation of guidance/resources, please send a brief email to Dr Lyndsay Muir: Lyndsay.muir@bishopg.ac.uk outlining what/how you might be able to contribute.

References

Cass , H. (2024). The Cass Review: independent review of gender identity servives for children and young people. NHS. Retrieved May 8, 2024, from https://cass.independent-review.uk/home/publications/final-report/

Department for Education. (2024, May 8). Gender questioning children: non-statutory guidance for schools and colleges in England, draft for consultation. Retrieved from consult.education.gov.uk: https://consult.education.gov.uk/equalities-political-impartiality-anti-bullying-team/gender-questioning-children-proposed-guidance/supporting_documents/Gender%20Questioning%20Children%20%20nonstatutory%20guidance.pdf