The preconceptions and perceptions of teachers about race equality affect their responses, action and inaction in the classroom (Epstein, 1993; Jones, 1999; Pearce 2005). Alongside strategies to work against institutional and cultural racism in the education system at different levels, some see hope in educating future teachers more effectively. Yet such education faces the task of deconstructing taken for granted whiteness amongst the majority of students (Marx, 2004; Solomon et al 2005), who grow up in areas of low minority settlement and are ‘trained’ in predominantly white institutions. In the 1990s, when much more space had been given to these issues in his own institution, Gaine (2001) showed that student teachers experienced considerable discomfort and cognitive ‘pain’ when they engaged at an in-depth level with issues of race. More recently, government reqirements for the race equality component of teacher training is smaller (TDA 2007). Arguably, white student teachers in such institutions are unlikely to be significantly affected by the small race equality element of their initial preparation to teach. The dominant discourse of whiteness is unlikely to be fractured. The research is UK based, but given population changes throughout Europe (Gaine, 2008), its findings about fracturing taken for granted assumptions and supporting students in challenging dominant discourses about 'race' have wider relevance.

Folowing an analysis of the ethnic breakdown amongst student teachers and the location of training institutions in England, this work initially examines the predispositions/attitudes and knowledge of a cohort of 88 undergraduate primary teachers about issues of 'race' and race equality. This material was gathered via a 30 minute questionnaire completed during a taught session, with the co-operation of a colleague and presented to the students by an undergraduate student on another (non-teaching) degree. The paper then contrasts this contextual climate, through interviews in their first year of teaching, with the personal and professional journey through training and into their first employing schools, of a small group within the same institution who chose to specialise in citizenship education, a specialism that involved some in-depth coverage of 'race'.

In choosing citizenship as a main subject this group were exposed to more sustained challenges and deconstructions of whiteness, arguably in an environment that supported them, with consequent changes in their perspectives and a much more engaged stance than the majority of their peers. Several had not initially chosen citizenship, some simply wanted to be teachers but were not appropriately qualified for other main subjects, so they were not an obvious self-selected group. It is evident from their responses that this had been a journey for them, and sometimes a difficult one, but they moved.