Scholarships to help non-white teachers climb the leadership ladder and specific teacher training pathways for teachers without required qualifications could be considered to increase workforce diversity, a new report suggests.
“People of color are significantly underrepresented among school staff, particularly school leaders,” according to the National Foundation for Education Research’s (NFER) review of evidence on ‘Ethnic Diversity in the School Staff’.
The report found that by 2021-22, around 60% of schools in England will have staff made up of white people, and 86% will have senior leadership teams made up of white people.
Katherine Aston, research manager at the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER), said: “The message of the study was clear. Teachers of color report being socially excluded, stereotyped, denied promotions and professional development, and experiencing overt racism.”
She said four times more teachers of color need to be promoted to principals, about 2,500 more, to make the role more representative of the population.
Meanwhile, non-white teachers are less likely to be accepted into teacher training than white teachers, according to an NFER study published in 2022.
![NFERgraph | Schools Week](https://schoolsweek.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/NFER-graph-970x698.png)
Today's report, funded by Mission 44, the charitable foundation founded by Sir Lewis Hamilton, sets out recommendations to tackle this problem.
NFER said interventions in initial teacher training (ITT) “should be a priority” due to the gap in uptake.
They called for an inquiry into gaps and strategies to combat them, with all teacher trainers working to implement equality, diversity and inclusion policies.
All ITT programs must also include content about anti-racism as part of the curriculum “to raise awareness of the issue for all trainees and to support trainee teachers of color.”
Another proposal is to provide “alternative pathways” for non-whites who do not have the necessary qualifications to participate in training.
‘Catalyst of change’
Meanwhile, in school leadership, scholars called for schools to have “senior-level selection panels that include people of color,” as well as training, support networks and personalized mentoring.
“Scholarships may be needed to enable teachers of color, especially those from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds, to undertake leadership development,” the report added.
The report also called for change, criticizing the lack of “specific government targets, programs or funding to improve the ethnic diversity of teaching staff in England”.
They highlighted that Scotland is committed to achieving representative ethnic diversity among teachers by 2030.
Schools Week revealed that in 2020 the Department for Education cut millions of pounds of funding for the Teacher Diversity Hub scheme in a “disgraceful” move.
Jason Arthur, CEO of Mission 44, said:: “We hope this report will be a catalyst for change by highlighting the key barriers and factors preventing a more diverse education system.”
Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union, said: “The issue of lack of representation of teachers from the black community in the workforce has been discussed many times without being effectively addressed.
“This is an issue that the government must not overlook as the recruitment and retention crisis deepens.”
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “Teaching must be an inclusive profession where outstanding teachers provide positive role models and shape the lives of young people, regardless of their background.
“We now have a record number of teachers in our schools. This is an increase of 27,000 since 2010, achieved through a range of initiatives including the introduction of tax-free scholarships and scholarships worth up to £30,000.
“The proportion of teachers and leaders who self-identify as belonging to an ethnic minority group has increased by about 4 percentage points since 2010.”