Almost half of the schools in England lack teachers who are black or from minority ethnic backgrounds. Even in schools where there is some diversity among staff, the top leadership positions are usually held by white individuals, according to research.
This absence of diversity means that students from minority ethnic backgrounds might not see teachers who share their background. On the other hand, minority ethnic teachers often have to handle issues related to racial inequalities in schools, leading to burnout and many leaving their jobs, researchers noted.
Kavitha Ravindran, ex-secondary science teacher and Co-founder of sAInaptic- an AI-based automarking tool for descriptive answers in GCSE science feels that “from grassroots to top level, you’ll find fewer teachers from the minority ethnic group that enter the teaching profession and then there are even fewer who actually progress and are taken up for leadership roles. So this problem seems to exist across the education system.”
In her experience over the year, she has often been the only ethnic minority student in a course and often, the only ethnic minority teacher. “When you want a diversified teacher group to be in education, you are trying to reflect what exists in society and we are very far away from that ideal setup.”
“I do definitely believe that it is important that a diverse set of students interact with teachers of their own kind and that is what true diversity is about, where the cultural understanding and everything else can be much more on par”, she further adds.
While Kavitha believes that the education system will only take diversity seriously is through changes in policy, there is a lot that can be done on the ground level. “How are you supporting the teachers who really want to teach? How are you giving them the tools to make sure that they are well-skilled, to go into the classroom with much more confidence?”, she asks.
“Forming a support group can help minorities find solutions to their troubles at the workplace. And again, for trainee teachers entering the system, role models of their own kind are an inspiration like none other.”
Shalina Patel has been teaching for the last 14 years and feels that “teaching as a career is not something that's really talked about in the South Asian community. In my years of career, I haven't had anybody to speak to from the same community as me about doing this job.”
Speaking about the lack of diversity at the administrative level, Shalina said, “I would say in terms of diversity and leadership, it is very much mirrored in what happens in other sectors as well, where there is a lack of diversity at top positions. Similarly, there's definitely a lack of diversity in school leadership in terms of head teachers and deputy head teachers, etc.”
Shalina feels that “there is a real crisis in teacher training recruitment at the moment and that is simply because this is not a profession that people see as desirable for many reasons. Part of that is the pay and part of it is the way teachers are portrayed and demonized in the media, we're not particularly valued.”
In order to address the negatives, many initiatives can be taken at the ground level. “In terms of staff that already are teachers, giving people the opportunity to be coached and mentored by people in senior positions and to do work in areas that they may not have experience. And then I think there's obviously the other end of the spectrum, which is that actually getting people into the profession in the first place”, she said.
