Not one of us likes to be simply defined by our race, gender or class. Yet it happens in school all the time with the disassociated definitions we use to describe children. “I have four SEND pupils in my class” or “I have eight pupil premium” inadvertently define pupils in ways that need wider consideration.

More often than not, these single stereotype stories are themselves shaped by deficit narratives that require “fixing”. These stereotypes may not be untrue, but the incomplete representation of the child has dangerous consequences.

We need a better way of capturing the real experience and condition of people disadvantaged by multiple sources: race, class, gender identity, religion, disability and other identity markers.

One approach to understanding how to connect the difficult dots is the concept of intersectionality, coined by social theorist Kimberlé Crenshaw in the late 1980s in her work on tackling discrimination.

Using the metaphor of the intersection of two or more roads crossing, she describes the convergence of multiple categories, leaving those at the intersection unprotected and vulnerable as their identity markers collide.

It’s relevant today because the funding process for school improvement is only aligned to group labels and current priorities. The problem is twofold. The insistence that children fit a group label reinforces biases associated with that group - lowered expectations, for example - and the fact that some children may well be dealing with another set of conditional circumstances means the real complexity of their needs is simply ignored.

Intersectionality can give us a wider and different perspective, based on the true individual situation of the child.

These ideas do have their detractors, but structured thinking about actual multiple challenges and complexity in schools is notable by its absence, and acutely so in times of deprivation.

Take the example of a middle-class girl from an ethnic minority group whose parents have requested an assessment for autism. She struggles to socialise but missed the opportunity to engage in a social skills intervention group because she is not “pupil premium”. The fact that she is actually experiencing a multiplicity of barriers to learning does not qualify her for additional relevant support. Her labels weren’t the current priority.

The most important learning here is to ensure your school and classroom has an intersectional awareness. We need to understand how particular inequalities are made and remade through our very own policy and practice. As teachers and leaders we are susceptible to making and remaking disadvantage if we don’t pay attention to all of the factors in a child’s experience.

Margaret Mulholland is the SEND and inclusion specialist at the Association of School and College Leaders

This article originally appeared in the 27 September 2019 issue under the headline “At the crossroads of discrimination”