A lot of my teacher training has political undercurrents

I understand that one aspect of teaching is to promote British politics but not share your own view.

But so many of my lectures are about social and cultural politics. I genuinely get annoyed because sometimes I just want to learn without the whole idea of politics coming into it.

It always seems to have to be about how x article links to politics/Social or cultural politics. Like if I wanted to study or teach politics I would. I don’t get the purpose of this???

Reply 1

EierVonSatan

21

Yeah, it's how it is these days. They will tell you it's not about politics though.

Reply 2

paperclip90

OP

10

Original post by EierVonSatan

Yeah, it's how it is these days. They will tell you it's not about politics though.

It really is. It’s just stupid. I didn’t join to learn about this. I also think the Russel groups are really notorious for this. Constantly projecting political views inadvertently

Reply 3

Englishteacher24

10

Original post by paperclip90

I understand that one aspect of teaching is to promote British politics but not share your own view.

But so many of my lectures are about social and cultural politics. I genuinely get annoyed because sometimes I just want to learn without the whole idea of politics coming into it.

It always seems to have to be about how x article links to politics/Social or cultural politics. Like if I wanted to study or teach politics I would. I don’t get the purpose of this???

You don't "promote British politics" when teaching - do you mean British values?

You'll find it hard to avoid politics in teaching; it's idealistic to think that social and cultural politics don't affect education.

Reply 4

SarcAndSpark

20

Teaching is political though- or at least it's heavily influenced by politics.

There's a lot of emphasis at the moment on "closing the disadvantage gap" etc. But it's important to understand where this gap comes from, what the causes are and why it exists before we can begin to tackle it.

A lot of decisions made around students with SEN are also hugely political.

Arguably, a lot of the curriculum is decided on political grounds, and in some cases things that should be objective actually have a huge bias (I see this quite a bit in the biology curriculum, for example).

I think a good teacher needs to have a political understanding in order to effectively teach and advocate for their students.

Reply 5

hotpud

18

Original post by paperclip90

I understand that one aspect of teaching is to promote British politics but not share your own view.

But so many of my lectures are about social and cultural politics. I genuinely get annoyed because sometimes I just want to learn without the whole idea of politics coming into it.

It always seems to have to be about how x article links to politics/Social or cultural politics. Like if I wanted to study or teach politics I would. I don’t get the purpose of this???