Rakhit, Anuradha (1999) The career experiences of Asian women teachers : a life-history approach. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

This thesis explores the career perceptions and experiences of 20
experienced Asian women teachers who had commenced their careers in
the last 25 years. By focusing on the accounts / stories of those Asian
women teachers, I have attempted to answer the question: What is it like to
be a black teacher in British schools? The stories were collected through a
series of life-history interviews.
Early research on the educational experience of black people in Britain
focused more or less exclusively on schooling and 'black
underachievement'. All tended to locate the problem and its solutions, within
black children, their families and cultures, hence isolating 'race' issues from
those of gender and social class. The research also have tended to continue
to focus on pupils in schools and on those who are seen to have failed
within the system. Instead, this study examines the experiences of Asian
women teachers who had largely succeeded in their education.
Despite the fact that my interviewees did not comprise a homogeneous
group, there was uniformity regarding their perceptions of their career
experiences and the way they related to their social environment. The Asian
women teachers in this study encountered barriers at all stages in their
careers and faced racism, albeit in different forms and guises. These
teachers were perceived by white colleagues, parents and pupils as being
the inferior 'Other'. In addition, apart from the overt, wounding type of racism,
they were subjected to institutionalized racism, which denied them their
dignity and made professional advancement very difficult. Many of these
teachers often had to find alternative routes to promotion, in multicultural
areas of teaching and not in mainstream section. They, sometimes, had to
survive in hostile environments. But they all succeeded despite the system,
rather than because of it. Success was often made at considerable personal
cost, and with great determination and commitment.
The study concludes that the experiences of these teachers were racially
affected. A number of generalised patterns regarding their career
developments and on the articulations of racism in their working lives
emerge from these biographies and are discussed in this thesis. However,
despite the existence of structural racism in society, the Asian teachers in
this study found different ways of managing and responding to it.

Item Type:	Thesis or Dissertation (PhD)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HT Communities. Classes. Races L Education > LB Theory and practice of education
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Minority women teachers -- Great Britain -- Case studies, Racism in education -- Great Britain, Racism in the workplace -- Great Britain
Official Date:	April 1999
Dates:	Date Event April 1999 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Institute of Education
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Troyna, Barry ; Sikes, Patricia J.
Extent:	iii, 395 leaves
Language:	eng

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