My guest in this episode is Dr. Maria Campbell. Maria is a lecturer and teacher educator in the School of Education in St. Angela’s College in Sligo http://www.stangelas.nuigalway.ie/ where she teaches Sociology of Education (and other modules) and is Director of Graduate programmes. She is also the Southern co-chair of SCoTENS 2019-2022 and is a member of the Ubuntu Assembly (embedding Development Education in 2nd level Initial Teacher Education). Maria is a former primary school teacher and principal. As a newly qualified teacher Maria spent her summers travelling to India, South America, Africa and many other countries where she did some voluntary work over the years, going beyond the tourist holiday, taking the opportunity to live with and work with people in different countries. Maria believes that this opened up for her the notion of ‘differences’, different perspectives, different geographical backgrounds, different cultures, etc. Living and working with people in different countries, thinking in different ways fascinated Maria and informed her thinking and forced her to question herself about what she didn't know as she tried to understand why people thought in different ways, why they acted in different ways, what caused them to think differently and how that impacted on her and her role as a teacher.

In this episode we discuss positioning and positionality and how this influences our perspectives. Maria describes the concept of positionality in relation to her place of work, and her life practices, and in relation to norms and practices in communities and looking at the bigger picture and overall context. She uses the example of children all going to school (a norm in many communities) and how it came to be the fact that all children go to school? She asks if that was a bottom up idea or did we all come together in a small community and say this is a great idea, or was it a top-down idea or an imposed approach? She talks about how we might agree and go along with the norm or how we can go the opposite route and challenge the norm if we don’t agree with it. Maria asks the question if practices, norms and structures impact on children’s privilege, advantaging some and disadvantaging others. She uses these example to explain how in Sociology of Education in an Initial Teacher Education context we rationalise depending on our positioning and where we locate ourselves in the overall context.

We discuss the concepts of ‘othering’, ‘identity’, ‘equality and equity’, ‘agency’ and ‘power’. concepts Maria describes as being underpinned by social justice. We also discuss ‘deficit’ and charity and how the circle of privilege often shields us, in that whatever we see, what we do, whoever we are, as “the way to go”. And for those who do not fit into ‘our’ mould or modus operandi (whether we are coming from a good place, potentially, or perceived),  are in need of charity and are seen as being a deficit, because “they're not as good as you are and not like you”. We discuss cultural mediation, what culture is, cultural norms, culture and traditions, sets of norms, be it in our homes, in families and how different families can be have totally different cultural norms. We discuss the sociological theories of Nussbaum and emotions, Bourdieu and habitus and Bernstein and how these theorists all manifest in Initial Teacher Education Sociology of Education.

Maria also discusses SCoTENS (The Standing Conference on Teacher Education, North and South) https://scotens.org/  which is a network set up in 2003 as part of the broader peace dynamic that was gathering momentum on the island of Ireland at the time to create a safe space for teacher educators  in Ireland North and South to come together and discuss issues of common interest, and explore ways of co-operating closely together. SCoTENS has always been rooted in the deepest commitment to quality teaching and learning for all and Maria is currently the Southern co-chair and a member of the steering committee. 

Maria describes her experiences both as a teacher and a principal and her extensive research past and present including a research project with Home Economics teachers collaborating with  the University of Helsinki, another project on teacher agency with colleagues in Stranmillis, a student-teacher based project focusing on technology and online platforms with her colleague Dr. Deirdre Harvey and a Sociology project with Dr. Niamh Hourigan from Mary Immaculate College, Limerick; The TEACH Report (Traveller Education and Adults: Crisis, Challenge and Change)  which mapped challenges faced by young Mincéirs (Irish Travellers) in dealing with adult transitions in the Irish education system.

We also talk about the impact of Covid on us as teacher educators and on student teachers, using technology, break-out rooms, collaboration, broadband access, equities and inequities for students, isolation, student honesty and openness during lectures and tutorials and much more.

Tune in to hear much more in a very enjoyable, thought provoking and motivational contribution from Dr. Maria Campbell.