Using a cultural lens to explore challenges and issues in culturally diverse schools for Teach First beginning teachers: implications for future teacher training,

This article builds on earlier research that explored challenges faced by TeachFirst teachers during their first year of teaching in a culturally diverse school. The research was extended to include a greater number of participants in a wider variety of schools across the Yorkshire and Humberside region. Using a variety of methods, both qualitative and quantitative data are collected, focusing on the perspectives of the teachers over the course of the academic year. A constructivist grounded theory approach was used to conduct a detailed analysis of the returned data, and to provide a way forward for further data collection as the study continued through the academic year. Data analysis revealed that while participants in some of the schools experienced particular issues/challenges relating to cultural differences between themselves and the curriculum and the pupils they taught it to, across all the schools there were issues of aspiration and parental involvement that participants struggled to overcome. Links between the data and cultural theory enabled recommendations to be made for the future training of TeachFirst participants, in order to better prepare them for the challenges they might face in both culturally different schools and also in schools where there is low pupil aspiration and minimal parental support. This adds to a growing amount of expertise in this area. It also allows us to identify that some problems are more wide spread, and are independent of race/religion/ethnicity. Common issues of a lack of aspiration and low parental involvement would seem to be deep rooted across schools similar to the ones used in this study. In raising our awareness, and that of our participants, to these issues, we may be able to better prepare our trainees for the reality of life in school.