Racism, as a covert but pervasive presence in teacher training in England, remains a major structural issue and its effects on student teachers, from Black and Minority Ethnic groups, are real and troubling. This Study asserts that they face multiple challenges in the Initial Teacher Education process which has implications for the teaching workforce and for pupils in schools. While national statistics for recruitment of BME applicants onto Initial Teacher Education courses are at good levels, in proportion to the BME population in general, their numbers are not viable because the drop-out rate between starting and completing courses, and becoming employed as classroom teachers, is significant. Furthermore the numbers of BME qualified teachers are small in relation to both the BME and white populations in England. This Study, which focuses on 32 BME student teachers at four universities across England, looks at how they journey through and negotiate obstacles and microagressions on their ITE courses. It shows that for those who choose to continue on their teaching course, their responses and modes of coping are complex and varied. Using Critical Race Theory to analyse their stories and make visible the way that hidden racisms within ITE can silence and disempower BME student teachers, the key findings reveal that they may adopt four 'cultural positions': Manoeuvred Cultural Position, Vibrant Cultural Position, Discerning Cultural Position, Stagnated Cultural Position. These demonstrate whether they are managing, struggling, culturally visible or culturally invisible. This study has implications for teacher educators and senior managers in universities involved in Initial Teacher Education in England.

Parent-teacher meetings are well-established and attended by a high proportion of parents. This places significant demands on both schools and families. However, little research involving direct observation within secondary schools has been reported. I have investigated parent-teacher meetings at one English secondary school, my aims being to explore the aims of parents and teachers and the nature of their relationships. My findings will be of interest to parents and teachers, as well as researchers and school leaders. I collected audio recordings of parent-teacher conversations over two years and conducted one-to-one interviews with parents, students and teachers. I analysed my data using conversation analysis and interpreted my findings using politeness theory. I found that the aims of parents and teachers can be divided into two categories. Instrumental aims are directly concerned with educational outcomes, whereas interpersonal aims relate to the individual needs of the participants and do not necessarily affect students’ learning. I also found that the behaviour of the participants in my study was not consistent with models based on partnership, opposition, or market forces. My findings do, however, support a model in which teachers assume the role of ‘expert’ and control conversations. For researchers, my findings question the way in which Epstein’s typology is used to classify parent-teacher meetings and suggest that the presence of students during meetings may be significant. My study has also highlighted politeness theory as a useful tool for interpreting parent-teacher behaviour. For families and schools, my research raises questions regarding the use of parent-teacher meetings to influence students. My study also suggests that parents and teachers do not make productive use of their limited contact time. My study provides up-to-date and reliable data regarding a widespread educational practice. My methodology may also provide a useful template for researchers wishing to investigate parent-teacher conversations. Future research involving contrasting schools would indicate whether my findings were context-related or more general. The occupational backgrounds of parents and the roles played by students may also be worthy of further investigation.

Emotional aspects of teaching impact on classroom relationships, as well as on teacher burnout and resilience. The research reported here contributes towards understanding emotional knowledge in initial teacher education. Using particularly Boyatzis and Goleman’s ideas of emotional competence, a four-quadrant framework was constructed, showing emotional knowledge as categories of self- and social awareness and self- and relationship management. This framework was tested in an inquiry to support student teachers during their work-based learning in classrooms. The research aimed to find the meanings attached to emotional knowledge by these student teachers and their school placement mentors. One hundred and nineteen student teachers following a primary postgraduate programme provided an opportunity sample of participants. After introduction to the framework, eighty-four completed an online survey, self-reporting both their emotional knowledge and their confidence in making those self-reports. Eleven agreed to provide written reflections during school placements, to participate in a focus group and be interviewed. Their mentors supplemented this with interviews and their written end-of-placement reports on the student teachers. In a mainly qualitative and interpretivist approach using thematic analysis, responses were coded using ATLAS.ti software and triangulated across data sets. This built a picture of how emotional knowledge was understood. The research found that student teachers used emotional knowledge in managing behaviour and building trusting and respectful relationships with mentors and pupils while participants experienced it as a developmental part of reflective practice. The findings were used alongside the ideas of dealing with emotions by transforming teacher knowledge and Zembylas’ concept of emotional ecologies, thereby developing a new theoretical framework for emotional knowledge. The main recommendation - that teacher educators prepare student teachers to explicitly recognise emotions and use emotional knowledge – has relevance to any work that involves dealing with emotions. The thesis also points towards empirical research into the re-theorised model.