Dr Sarah Pearce

Staff details

Position

Lecturer

Department

Educational Studies

Email

s.pearce (@gold.ac.uk)

Goldsmiths Research Centres/Groups

I am a member of the Centre for Identities and Social Justice

Sarah looks at how white teachers understand their racialised positioning and how this impacts on their work.

My research looks at how race and racism impact on teaching and learning. I have studied how white teachers understand their work in multi-ethnic classrooms; how students from diverse backgrounds experience the current schooling system as lacking in care; and how Islamophobia affects relationships between teachers and Muslim families. I am currently looking at how Master’s programmes can better meet the needs of students of colour and respond to the decolonisation movement.

Featured publications

2019: ‘It was the small things’: Using the concept of racial microaggressions as a tool for talking to new teachers about racism
Sarah Pearce. Teaching and Teacher Education, 79, 83–92.

2020: High attaining students, marketisation and the absence of care: everyday experiences in an urban academy
Kirstin Lewis and Sarah Pearce. Pedagogy, Culture & Society

2018: Changing attitudes to cultural difference: perceptions of Muslim families in English schools
Sarah Pearce and Kirstin Lewis. Cambridge Journal of Education, 49: 1, 1-14

2005: You Wouldn’t Understand: white teachers in multi-ethnic classrooms
Sarah Pearce. Trentham/ IoE (book)

2015: Dealing with racist incidents: what do beginning teachers learn from schools?
Sarah Pearce. Race Ethnicity and Education, 17:3, 388-406

Publications and research outputs

Book

Pearce, Sarah. 2005. You Wouldn't Understand: white teachers in multiethnic classrooms. Trentham Books. ISBN 1858563623

Article

Pearce, Sarah. 2023. ‘Why are we doing this if there’s no connection?’ The importance of prior experience in academic learning on a Master’s programme. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 47(4), pp. 563-575. ISSN 0309-877X

Lewis, Kirstin and Pearce, Sarah. 2022. High attaining students, marketisation and the absence of care: everyday experiences in an urban academy. Pedagogy, Culture and Society, 30(2), pp. 261-280. ISSN 1468-1366

Pearce, Sarah and Lewis, Kirstin. 2019. Changing attitudes to cultural difference: perceptions of Muslim families in English schools. Cambridge Journal of Education, 49(1), pp. 1-14. ISSN 0305-764X

Professional projects

I work with schools who want to develop their practice in relation to anti-racism and decolonisation.

Research projects

I am currently working with a team of colleagues researching how race and racism are addressed in schools.