Educational inequality is a worldwide phenomenon; in the UK, one of the most unequal societies in the developed world, a wealth of evidence shows that poverty is strongly correlated with poor educational outcomes. Recent UK government discourse in both England and Scotland has voiced significant concerns about this educational inequality, and this focus has had some effect on policy and practice in initial teacher education (ITE). For example, ITE programmes in both countries are expected to prepare beginning teachers to meet the needs of all learners, including those living in poverty. However, despite this focus of attention, there has been surprisingly little research on the perceptions held by student teachers on the effects of poverty on pupils' learning and well-being. The limited research that has been conducted in this area (e.g. Thompson, McNicholl and Menter 2015) indicates that many student teachers hold unsophisticated attitudes towards the effects of poverty on pupils based on deficit models. This paper reports findings from interviews and observations of the impact of a recent literacy clinic project intervention in Glasgow aimed at challenging primary school student teachers’ understandings of and attitudes towards poverty and their own role in relation to challenging inequality. The project, based in one of the poorest parts of the city, is designed to build primary level student teachers’ fluency in real-time teaching responses in ways that provide a strong emotional and social dimension to their learning. In this short-term intervention student teachers use their literacy-teaching knowledge to support children with reading problems. The literacy clinic project gives key insight into the sorts of experiences that can change student teachers' understandings of poverty by enhancing their understanding and agency in terms of what they can do as teachers. This article has two main aims: to disseminate the key findings from this intervention in student teachers’ perceptions of poverty in Scotland; and to stimulate further discussion about how teacher education – whether school or university based – can ensure that the new generation of teachers meet the needs of pupils living in poverty. The authors conclude that there is much to learn from this study about the effects of both school experience and University led interventions on student teachers’ perceptions of poverty.

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