Education Scotland’s chief executive has released a statement condemning racist comments made in response to sessions on antiracist education at the Scottish Learning Festival (SLF).
Gayle Gorman said Education Scotland would “not tolerate” such comments and that they had served to “prove the importance of the antiracist professional learning offer”.
Education Scotland strategic director Ollie Bray, meanwhile, tweeted: “Some of the behaviours I have seen online over the weekend are completely unacceptable. Neither @EducationScot or I will tolerate any form of racism.”
One SLF session saw educators from various stages of education sharing examples of what an antiracist curriculum entails. Another session centred on how to “create safer, braver spaces” for learners who “cannot properly see themselves and confidently be themselves”, starting with antiracist professional learning.
There was also a session on “improving the experience of early-career minority-ethnic educators” and how to recruit and retain a diverse education workforce in Scotland. Another session showed how Arabic-speaking students from Oman worked with migrant children in schools across Glasgow.
The full statement from Gayle Gorman this morning read: “Several of our sessions at last week’s SLF focussed on antiracism and diversifying the education profession and the importance of our professional learning programme, Building Racial Literacy, which is being constructed in partnership with antiracist organisations, stakeholders and educators across Scotland.
“While there were many positive responses to these sessions on social media, the series of racist comments that have followed prove the importance of the antiracist professional learning offer and the need to promote antiracism and diversity more widely. Education Scotland will not tolerate any racist comments on our social media channels and that of our colleagues.”
In response, teacher Nuzhat Uthmani - chair of the EIS teaching union’s antiracist sub-committee and founder of the Global Citizenship in Education initiative - tweeted: “Very welcome and heartwarming to receive this show of solidarity. While there are some in society who will remain blind to the needs of equality there are many that will continue to stand beside us.
“Thanks @GayleGorman and all others offering us their support. Let’s keep going.”
The General Teaching Council for Scotland similarly tweeted that “a series of racist comments were directed toward our colleagues and others in the teaching profession” and described this as “unacceptable”.
The Scottish Learning Festival took place on Wednesday 21 and Thursday 22 September. It is now held predominantly online, apart from a series of in-person satellite events around the country.
UPDATE ON TUESDAY 27 SEPTEMBER:
Education secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville has tweeted to condemn the racist comments that followed the Scottish Learning Festival event.
She said: “There is no place for racism in our education system. It is appalling to see teachers and Education Scotland being abused in this way. Solidarity with those who have been targeted. Such abuse further demonstrates why this work is so important.”
Her message came after a statement from the EIS, Scotland’s largest teaching union, which read: ”Following a presentation at the Scottish Learning Festival last week, focusing on anti-racism in education and diversifying the education profession, several of our members and Education Scotland staff were subjected to vile online racist abuse. The EIS condemns this abuse, and all forms of racism, and will continue to work to eradicate this type of unacceptable behaviour from our society.
“Conversations about anti-racism in education are crucial to achieve an equitable education system for all, and the targeted abuse levelled at those speaking out, is a stark illustration of this. The EIS stands in solidarity with our colleagues in the fight against racism in every sphere of society. The anti-racist movement will not be silenced.”
The statement added: “The EIS urges the relevant social media platforms to urgently reconsider their apparent tolerance of such racist abuse of our BAME colleagues and take appropriate action against the perpetrators of online abuse. Racist abuse is a criminal offence, and the EIS will continue to do all that it can to protect its members from this type of discriminatory, offensive and wholly unacceptable behaviour.
“Any EIS member who has experienced racist abuse related to their work should report this to their line manager and to their EIS Representative in the first instance. Further information on EIS anti-racist work and policy can be found on our website.”
University of Edinburgh director of teacher education Dr Zoè Robertson said that she and her fellow staff “condemn in the strongest possible terms the racist abuse our colleagues received”, adding that this “only serves to strengthen our resolve to continue our work on anti-racist education and in diversifying the teaching workforce”.
Linda Brownlow, head of the University of Strathclyde’s school of education, said it joined others in “strongly condemning this display of racism, and we stand in solidarity with those who have been targeted”.
She added: “We remain fully committed to working with students, colleagues and partners to understand and fight against racism.”
