How much more time do we need to progress on racial equity in our schools?

In the midst of a global pandemic, we witnessed the tragic murder of George Floyd and an increased awareness of the Black Lives Matter movement. So, of course, I would expect to see anti-racist education included in a party manifesto for the upcoming Scottish Parliament election.

I am struck, however, by the number of times I have heard, “This is a step in the right direction…we will get there.” Sadly, the progress has been painfully slow and what has happened does not go far enough in addressing the issues.

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Over the past few months, BAME (black and/or minority ethnic) educators and young people and community-led organisations have worked with the Scottish government’s race equality and anti-racism in education stakeholder group clearly outlining what work is needed to address racism in education. Our General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) and teacher unions have also been proactive in this area.

Anti-racism education in schools

However, the manifesto from the SNP - which seems likely to be the largest party in the Scottish Parliament once again after the 6 May election - is somewhat underwhelming in its attempts to tackle race inequality in education.

See, for example, these two excerpts:

“We will fund the development of an online programme on Scotland and the UK’s colonial history throughout the world that can be delivered to schools, and we will encourage local authorities to adopt the programme in all schools.”

“Taking the widely acclaimed TIE (Time for Inclusive Education) campaign as a model, we will create a new programme of anti-racist education in schools, including support for teachers’ professional development, allowing every school to access high-quality anti-racist education. To track progress, we will improve the reporting and publication of data on racist incidents in schools.”

This manifesto shows some misunderstanding of the issues - surely learning about Britain’s true colonial past is essential within an anti-racist education programme? We need to disrupt how knowledge is inevitably marked by power relations. It is about rethinking the structures of knowledge and what counts as authoritative knowledge - whose voices are missing and what negative stereotypes are being reinforced?

It is this exposing and transforming through critical thinking and action that will help schools to reframe forms of racialised disadvantage. So, developing an anti-racist education programme requires rethinking, reframing and reconstructing our current curriculum with a focus not only on what is taught but how it is taught.

The use of language in the above manifesto pledges is also quite revealing: phrases such as “can be delivered” and “we will encourage” seem to suggest that this will not be a mandatory part of the Scottish curriculum and, once “delivered”, another box can be ticked - fait accompli!

There have been too many times in the past when local authorities have been offered a get-out clause, particularly in areas of low ethnic diversity, and school leaders have claimed “we have no problem here”.

So, here’s the thing - we do. In data revealed by a recent freedom-of-information request, 2,200 racist incidents were reported in Scottish schools in the previous three years. Therefore, we need to provide mandatory anti-racist education to support our leaders, teachers and young people to develop an anti-racist consciousness.

The message we hear time and time again is that we are making progress. I can’t help but think about the Race Equality Framework for Scotland, which aims to progress racial equity over a 15-year period from 2016 to 2030. In 2021, how do you explain to young people that they will need to wait another decade before their human rights are upheld?

To conclude, the words of James Baldwin come to mind: “What is it you wanted me to reconcile myself to? I was born here almost 60 years ago. I’m not going to live another 60 years. You always told me that it takes time.

“It’s taken my father’s time, my mother’s time, my uncles’ time, my brothers’ and my sisters’ time, my nieces’ and my nephews’ time. How much time do you want for your progress?”

Khadija Mohammed is a senior lecturer in education at the University of the West of Scotland, where she is also programme leader of early years undergraduate provision. She was one of the 2020 Tes Scotland people of the year and tweets @khadijamohamme8