Confronting The Difference: Ethnicity And Patterns Of Achievement In Initial Teacher Education For The Further Education And Skills Sector

In Higher Education (HE), an ongoing and incompletely understood achievement gap in degree classification has been identified between white and Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) students. BME students have been found to achieve less well than their white counterparts, even when initial A Level grades are the same. This paper examines a related issue, which has received scant attention; ethnicity and differential achievement in Initial Teacher Education (ITE) for the Further Education (FE) and Skills Sector. At the University which provides the focus for this paper, BME students are well-represented overall, and specifically well-represented on ITE provision for the sector. The introduction of a teaching observation grading pilot during 2010-11 made possible a detailed analysis of an aspect of ITE trainee progression and achievement. This paper presents the findings of further analyses of grading for the overall University trainee cohort, where differential achievement by ethnicity has been revealed. Strategies designed to promote the achievement of all trainees will be discussed.