they cannot be held responsible for the well-being of all or any minority children in
addition to the usual workload (see Brown et al. 2008 ).
Should the question be asked, why should teachers learn to engage pleasantly
and productively (not just one or the other!) with migrant students the answers can
be constructed in a number of ways.
For those who subscribe to religious beliefs there are any number of precepts
about behaviour to the‘stranger at the gate’.
For those of a more philosophic turn of mind we might turn to Levinas. If the
foundation of the‘self’is what we see mirrored in the other’s face, then, as long as
one is open to or attuned to his kind of notion of self, there is a clear pay-off, in
terms of positive self-image, in treating others with respect (Levinas 1999 ).
Where this approach falls down is where an ITE teacher does not‘see’the migrant
student and so is indifferent to the image of self reflected in that gaze. Understandably,
the migrant students are likely to object to this little oversight and start to clamour,
perhaps disruptively, for attention or withdraw from an indifferent engagement.
All of these reasons are to some extent self-interested. But the most instrumental,
the most governmental reason of all is that given by the writers ofThe Knowledge
Economy( 1999 ). Here the WPAG argue that, given our unbalanced demographic,
the overweighting, especially in the (quite near) future, of the aged in our popu-
lation, we need well-educated, productive young people, and the major sources of
such young workers are Maori (although their fecundity rates are falling to
European levels), Pacific peoples (who still have high numbers of children under
15); and other migrants. This is true of New Zealand and even more true of other
countries without comparable numbers of indigenous and migrant children—this is
part of the reason Germany has welcomed the Syrian refugees. Despite the rum-
blings of those who feel that migrants represent competition for jobs and housing,
the continued well-being of our ageing population depends on them—but only if
teachers do their jobs well.
Finally, in our list of reasons why teacher educators and student-teacher
researchers should engage in research of this kind in order to lift the quality of their
teaching, we omitted the two most important reasons of all. One is that it is simply a
matter of justice: it is the right thing to do. The other, is that the process, the
becoming-other of this experience will be immensely joyful. Challenging, even
frightening, but rich and satisfying.
So—to summarise—as this is a handbook for teacher education research.
Inquiry done with honest intention will probably yield life-changing, or at least
pedagogy-changing results. The inquiry can be both theoretic and empirical: the most
significant theoretic approach would be one that interrogates the totalising nature of any
theory, pedagogic, political or social, and contemplates the possibility of respectful
engagement with different ways of knowing the world (see for instance King 2003 ).
Empirical research can as productively be focused on student teachers and their
attitudes, values and behaviours as on the target migrant community. Where
empirical work is done with migrants it might well include the family as well as the
student and for some cultural groups this will be more appropriate (and in the long
run more helpful).
31 Teacher Education, Research and Migrant Children 479