Written by: Declan Markey, Co-Coordinator of Turn To Teaching
Adult and community education is about the development of skills, human relationships and the engagement of people in understanding the wider social forces that impact both locally and globally (Lynn Tett in Radical Learning for Liberation 2007:73 )
I used to love a good (random) house party in my hedonistic days. There was something about getting together with a group of people you didn’t know and learning about their lives, if only for a short while. I loved the sense that we all had a common cause to have a good time and keep the night going – let’s face it the rest of the week could be fairly mundane. But most of all it was the thrill of not knowing what might happen. They were my three ingredients for a good house party – good people, a common cause and an element of the unknown. It makes me laugh that they are the three main reasons why I get a thrill from Adult Education. They motivate me every time I’m with a group.
The Turn to Teaching (TtT) programme is one of those groups – a one-year college access/preparation course for students from diverse backgrounds or communities who are under-represented in higher education. It’s aimed at young adults and mature students who want to be primary school teachers but didn’t get the necessary points or have the required criteria to apply. What’s really pro-active about TtT is that once the students acquire a set grade, they are guaranteed a place in one of Maynooth’s primary teaching education programmes. The steps are clear – “you do this, and you will go there”. That’s a BIG, BRIGHT carrot on the end of a short stick for anyone who needs a different way to achieve their dream of becoming a primary school teacher. You could say TtT is it’s very own “yellow brick road” where dreams come true. Only this road is made of orange carrots with each step being another motivating force and supportive step to help people on their way.
One of the most challenging parts is the recruitment process. We only have 16 places. All applicants complete a personal statement explaining why they want to be a teacher and every year we receive between 80 and 100 applications who meet the criteria for entry. One hundred minus 16 means a lot of disappointed applicants and every year, it is abundantly clear to the TtT team that our schools are missing out on some of the most amazing people who want to be primary school teachers but can’t because of the entrance criteria. But unfortunately, due to the lack of places many of the applicants will embark on different journeys that will take them away from their dreams of being a teacher.
Turn to Teaching is, what we call, a “widening participation initiative” – that means the people who are selected are coming from groups or communities who, on average, don’t usually become primary school teachers; Travellers, people with disabilities, people from working class backgrounds, minority ethnic groups and more. We are widening/increasing the participation of people from these groups in primary teacher education. Being a widening participation programme we realise that for those that don’t get accepted– once again the education system has let them down. This plays heavy on our minds and is the main reason why we make sure to reach out to all applicants, especially those who are not offered a place, and stay linked in with them as they try to navigate different ways of continuing their education. Sometimes, we are the first people to talk about PLC courses or to provide clear information about grants or to explain how a full time course doesn’t always mean 9am to 5pm every day. Many of us in the third level sector know all of this as if it was common sense but this information about going to college is a language and form of cultural capital all of its own. For many of the people for whom widening participation initiatives are aimed at, a conversation with someone who cares about their future – at the time when they are thinking about their future – and how college/university can play a part in that future – is the ultimate form of student support. And this is the point at which the relationship starts for TtT and the many people we engage with.
VIPs
Because so many TtT students are from groups or communities who we don’t see enough of on university campuses, it may be fair to say that the “imposter syndrome” can hover around like an unwanted guest at a house party; somebody who nobody invited, nobody can get to leave, and….there is a sense that they might cause havoc at any minute. It’s a very real feeling for many students that find their way to university through widening participation projects. But this is the very reason why “how we do things” in adult education – building relationships, learning about each other (students and staff), understanding our strengths and our challenges, all play a vital part in how we pave the yellow brick road of chasing dreams. We’re not throwing out the ‘imposter syndrome’ guest, we actually want them to stay. But in staying we want to understand how they were invited to the party in the first place, and what is making them stay.
Turn to Teaching, like all of the programmes in the Department of Adult and Community Education, is about building relationships first and foremost, of the group of learners and the course they are on. For many students their previous educational experience maybe has not been as positive as they would have wanted it to be or, for some, it may have been an entirely negative experience. Through our adult education processes (how we do things) this previous experience (whether positive or negative) now becomes a strength, now becomes something to learn from and use to help shape the TtT student into the educator/teacher they want to become. Afterall….
In a sense Turn to Teaching turns something our students may have perceived to be their weakness into their strength. And we do this through learning about ourselves, our fellow students, the wider university and the education system by critically reflecting on our lived experiences as they are connected to all of those things.
Our hope is that the relationships we build with any of the Turn to Teaching applicants or students will continue for as long as it’s required, even if that requires going to some house party with an unwelcome “imposter syndrome” who eventually passes-out in the corner and we all forget they are even there.
The Turn to Teaching Team would like to dedicate this blog to our friend and TtT student Catherine Gavin, who tragically passed away this year after a short illness. Catherine was on her journey towards achieving her dream of becoming a primary school teacher and will forever be in our hearts.
Photo by Aleksandr Popov on Unsplash
Department of Adult and Community Education Maynooth 