Initial teacher education seminars and minority ethnic students: exploring dialogic teaching and engagement

ABSTRACT

This small-scale action research acts on the calls for more inclusive and holistic higher education. It explores the impact of dialogic teaching approaches on student engagement, focusing on the experiences of initial teacher education students from ethnic minority backgrounds. The qualitative analysis reveals how these practices increase student engagement and contribute to better student experiences. Dialogic teaching cultivates safe learning spaces and empowers students to contribute more freely during seminars, improving their social, emotional, and personal engagement with learning. The students included in this study also perceived dialogic teaching practices as improving their experiences by supporting them in forming relationships. However, the analysis suggests that they do not fully remove all barriers to learning and engagement. Therefore, further research is needed to examine both the benefits and complexities of dialogic pedagogies in HE and the extent to which these practices contribute to fostering inclusive spaces within multicultural university settings.

KEYWORDS:

• Dialogic teaching
• higher education
• minority ethnic students
• initial teacher education
• student engagement

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).