ABSTRACT
Summary : Bradford College is a comprehensive community college, providing a range of courses to meet the needs of its urban, industrial, multicultural community. The College's academic policy and its teacher education programme are shaped by three aims: (a) to be responsive to community needs; (b) to ensure the interaction of community values with those of wider social organizations ; (c) to equip all ethnic groups with the ability both to play a full role in their own community and to be successful within the majority culture.
To implement these, the College encourages ethnic minority students, places teacher education in the context of community, and involves members of ethnic minority groups in planning and teaching. Using its inner-city location, it centres all school experience on predominantly multiracial schools to which its staff are systematically attached. Professional preparation focuses on the specific needs of these schools, and is based on the interaction between school experience and college teaching. Curriculum materials emphasize the mastery of teaching skills in language and mathematics and the inter-relation of school and community in the educative process. Undergraduate students come to this after a Diploma in Higher Education which has sensitized them to the nature of urban, multicultural society, whilst postgraduate students are oriented through the Education Studies course. All programmes place great stress on giving students credibility in the eyes of schools. The College believes that its achievement is distinctive but recognizes that it can be improved.
