Chances for progression are “stacked against” non-white teachers, a school leader has warned.
Evelyn Forde, former president of the Association of School and College Leaders, said that she does not believe the government is aware of “systemic racism” in the teaching sector.
She was speaking at an event hosted by WomenEd, titled “Unlock the ITT pipeline to ensure race equity in schools”.
Research has previously shown “significant disparities” in the career progression of non-white teachers and their counterparts, as well as acceptance rates to initial teacher training (ITT) courses.
Ms Forde said she wanted the pipeline of applications to ITT from people of colour to be “unblocked”.
System is ‘stacked against us’
“I am sure there are many...who have the lived experience of being fortunate enough to actually get into teaching. But then when we do pass that part of the pipeline, the pipeline gets blocked again. And so for me, it is actually unblocking it at every single point of our journeys,” Ms Forde added.
She warned that until the problem was “truly” addressed, “we will not have a profession that is truly representative”.
“Whether we like it or not, our system is systemically racist, and it is stacked against us in terms of progression. And I think until everybody gets a little bit uncomfortable and leans into this, then we will forever be where we are,” she added.
Experts have previously called for the government to launch an action plan to improve diversity within the teaching profession and warned that teachers of colour face an “invisible glass ceiling”.
Ms Forde also said that school governors, who are involved in the hiring process of school leaders, are “not diverse enough” and said there are some who would look at people of colour and think that it’s “quite risky to have a Black or Asian leader leading our school”.
Dr Kulvarn Atwal, headteacher of two schools in London and a member of Headteachers’ Roundtable, agreed with Ms Forde that there is a problem “among governing bodies appointing people of colour in particular”, but added that he believed there was a particular problem in the recruitment of women of colour.
“The statistics of Asian, Black men and women in leadership and headteacher positions are, frankly, embarrassing”, he added.
Allana Gay, co-founder of BAMEed Network, who was also speaking at the event, said that those applicants of an ethnic minority heritage “are likely to be from lower income inner parental homes”.
But she said teaching is “effectively a middle class profession”.
Ms Gay claimed that “the fault in the pipeline” is with recruitment “and the selection criteria that we use that are based on all traditional tropes of what makes the best teachers”.
Many governing boards ‘not diverse enough’
Speaking to Tes, Sam Henson, deputy chief executive of the National Governance Association, acknowledged that lack of diversity was an issue for governing boards.
He added that “many boards are simply not diverse enough to reflect both the national demographic and the local community” and that 95 per cent of governors and trustees in the latest annual survey identified as white.
Mr Henson said: “This is a big issue. The increasing diversity of the wider population is not being replicated across either board membership or school leadership. This really matters.”
“The lack of ethnic diversity on governing boards is a long-standing issue that potentially undermines the effectiveness and inclusivity of any decision-making processes, which could potentially include the recruitment of the next school or trust leader.
“Boards that do not reflect the diverse communities they serve will likely struggle to understand and address the unique challenges faced by different ethnic groups, leading to policies and decisions that do not fully meet the needs of all stakeholders, including staff and pupils.”
A Department for Education spokesperson said it was “working hard to make sure our services and recruitment marketing campaigns are inclusive to all applicants, trainees and teachers, regardless of background”.
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