Faculty of Education

In England and Australia, higher education institutions (HEIs) are expected to widen participation (WP) in higher education (HE) to enhance social justice and improve individual and national economic returns. Furthermore, HEIs are the major providers of initial and in-service teacher education. This article surveys international literature to explore ways in which teacher education programmes could and do contribute to preparing teachers to advocate for WP, including drawing on learning from WP research that demonstrates the value of current HE students engaging young people in schools and colleges to support them in seriously considering progressing to HE. We conclude that teachers and pre-service teachers are well placed to be advocates for WP. In the majority of higher education institutions, however, WP and teacher education functions are not working collaboratively to embed advocacy for WP into teacher education programmes

The notion of what constitutes ‘literacy’ has shifted over time, from the de-coding of words where it is placed in the realm of an individual, cognitive skill to multiple literacies in the 21st century.  This volume celebrates and critiques literacy in various forms indicated by the scope of the chapters. It makes a timely contribution to our understanding of literacy as a multi-faceted, complexly situated activity. The contributing authors represent a wide variety of theoretical and research perspectives.  Each chapter provides the reader with a fresh perspective into a different site for literate behaviour, approaches, design and relationships. Presented are illustrations of ways in which scholars are beginning to respond to the challenge and also underscore the viability of the concept of literacy for specific purposes.  The central plank of this scholarly and innovative volume is that literacy curriculum would need to evolve from its current one-dimensional/discrete perspective if it is to cater for the demands of the 21st century contemporary globalised society.

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to explore how mentors can act as change agents for social justice. It examines mentors’ roles in initial teacher education in the lifelong learning sector (LLS) and how critical spaces can be opened up to promote a flow of mentor, trainee teacher, learner and community empowerment.

Design/methodology/approach
– Two thematic literature reviews were undertaken: one of UK LLS ITE mentoring and the other an international review of social justice in relation to mentoring in ITE and the first year of teaching. Bourdieu’s concepts of capital, field and habitus (Bourdieu, 1986) are used as sensitising tools to explore LLS mentors’ practices and the possibilities for increasing the flow of “pedagogical capital” between mentors, trainee teachers, learners and communities, in such a way that would enable mentors to become agents for social justice.

Findings
– LLS mentors and trainee teachers are uncertain about their roles. In the UK and several countries, mentoring is dominated by an instrumental assessment-focused approach, whereby social justice is marginalised. In contrast, what we call social justice mentors establish collaborative democratic mentoring relationships, create spaces for critical reflection, support trainees to experience different cultures, develop inclusive critical pedagogies, and generally act as advocates and foster passion for social justice.

Research limitations/implications
– While the literature reviews provide timely and important insights into UK and international approaches, the existing literature bases are limited in scale and scope.

Practical implications
– A model for mentoring that promotes social justice and recommendations for mentor training are proposed.

Originality/value
– The paper addresses the omission in policy, research and practice of the potential for mentors to promote social justice. The proposed model and training approach can be adopted across all education phases.