Navigating Access: Managing the ambiguity of "special admissions".

Abstract

To facilitate the entry of members of "visible minority" and Aboriginal groups into the teaching profession, the Faculty of Education at the University of Ottawa implemented an "Access" admissions policy in 1994. This study examines how people of colour admitted through this preferential admissions policy are affected by the discursive formations of merit, deficit, and multiculturalism. Furthermore, this study explores the political and pedagogical practices utilized by Access -admitted student teachers of colour to manage their presence in the educational system. Interviews conducted with six people show that being admitted through "special measures" makes it difficult for them to establish their presence as legitimate participants. Their "questionable" presence is further exacerbated by the everyday reality of racism they feel they experience as members of "visible" minority groups. Their ambiguous positioning is negotiated through a number of strategies including challenging, resisting, and/or assimilating into the structures that marginalize them.