Programme & Keynote Speakers

Biography

Professor Elaine Keane, PhD, is Professor and Head of the Discipline of Education in the School of Education at the University of Galway, Ireland. Her research focuses on social class and education, teacher diversity, and constructivist grounded theory, and she has published widely and has led national and international projects in these areas, including as Co-PI on the Diversity in Initial Teacher Education (DiTE) project, funded by the Irish Research Council (2013-2015), and the Access to Post-primary Teaching (APT) project, funded by the Higher Education Authority (2017-2024). Elaine was lead editor of Diversifying the Teaching Profession: Dimensions, Dilemmas and Directions for the Future (Routledge, 2023). She is Co-Editor of Irish Educational Studies, serves on the Editorial Board of Teaching in Higher Education, is Inaugural Chair of the National Initial Teacher Education Diversity Network and Convenor of the Educational Studies Association of Ireland (ESAI) Special Interest Group on Teacher Diversity Research. A member of the International Association of Grounded Theorists, Elaine teaches constructivist grounded theory internationally, including in the USA at the Odum Institute for Research in Social Science (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), the International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry (ICQI) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and ResearchTalk Inc., and is lead editor of the Routledge International Handbook of Constructivist Grounded Theory in Educational Research (Routledge, 2025).

Abstract

Keynote Title: Traversing and Navigating Classed Identities and Spaces: The Experiences of Student Teachers from ‘Working Class’ Backgrounds, and Implications for Research, Policy, and Practice

Teacher diversity has assumed growing importance in national education policy in Ireland since its first appearance in the 2015-2019 National Access Plan and its subsequent enaction through the Higher Education Authority-funded PATH1 (Programme for Access to Higher Education: Strand 1 - Equity of Access to Initial Teacher Education) initiative. Based on the National Access Plan objectives and target groups, 12 teacher diversity projects have been implemented over two phases through PATH1 since 2017, with several including a focus on the recruitment and support of student teachers from lower socio-economic groups. While social class has long been a core focus in the Sociology of Education, little attention has been paid to how it is conceived and enacted in the context of the professions, including teaching. Indeed, considerations of social class in teaching have long been relatively ignored (Reay, 2008). However, research on class-related issues in the profession has increased in recent years, both in Ireland (Keane et al., 2018, 2022, 2023; Keane, 2023, 2024a,b) and internationally (e.g. Lampert et al. 2016; Jones, 2019). While research in the area is increasing, we know relatively little about “the daily class work” (Van Galen, 2008, p. 99) of teachers, and student teachers, in schools. In the context of drives internationally to diversify the teaching profession, attention is needed to the experiences of those from lower socio-economic groups in their (generally) upwardly mobile trajectories.

Following a consideration of the development of teacher diversity policy and practice to date, I draw on data gathered during two research strands of the University of Galway Access to Post-primary Teaching (APT) PATH1 project and explore the perspectives and experiences of student teachers from ‘working class’ backgrounds. In particular, I focus on their ‘chameleoning to fit in’ behaviours during school placement, their rejection of the ‘middle classness’ of teachers’ social status, their wider critique of societal class categorisations, and some ‘push and pull’ factors which impact decisions to remain in or leave the profession. Findings from these linked studies will be considered drawing on a range of theoretical tools, including Goffman’s (1956) dramaturgical analysis of social life, Bourdieu’s (1999) concept of habitus clivé, previous scholarship regarding silences about social class in Irish policy, and cultural sociological theories of (class) disidentification. I end by looking to the future of teacher diversity research, policy and practice in Ireland in the context of discourses of authenticity and the ethical implications of diversifying the teaching profession for under-represented groups without concomitant adaptation of the culture of the profession and schools (Keane, Heinz, and McDaid, 2023).

Biography

Dr Denise Frawley works in the Higher Education Authority (HEA) as a Senior Manager in Access Policy. The Access Policy unit is responsible for leading and monitoring the implementation of the National Access Plan 2022-2028. Prior to her current role, Denise worked as Head of Performance Evaluation and as a Data and Policy Analyst in the HEA. Before her time in the HEA, Denise worked at the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) in Education Research and on the Growing Up in Ireland study.