Ways forward: More inclusive teacher education in England

This paper underscores the need to address the matters of inclusion and social justice within the teacher education curriculum in England. Current curricula for teacher education emphasises subject and pedagogical knowledge for teaching, including supporting pupils with special educational needs. Although these knowledge are critical, we argue that matters of sexual orientation, disability, race and gender are not addressed in the statutory curriculum content. This has serious implications for pre-service teachers who may be inadequately prepared for teaching in classrooms with diverse learners and for pre-service teachers with minority and global majority identities who may feel excluded from the curriculum. We offer some ways forward for embedding inclusion into teacher education programmes.