The Odds Are Stacked Against Ethnic Minority Teachers From The Start

Ethnic minority teachers face an uphill struggle to reach school leadership – but they face the biggest barriers at the start of their careers.

While non-white teachers are less likely to be promoted into leadership positions than their white peers, new research in the U.K. suggests that they odds are stacked against them from the start.

Ethnic minorities are under-represented at all levels of teaching: a third of students but just 15% of teachers in England’s schools are from a minority ethnic background.

And for every 20 White British teachers promoted to school principal level, 16 teachers from ethnic minorities would be promoted, leadership level, Department for Education analysis suggests.

But the most significant obstacles to progression happen in the early stages of a teacher’s career, according to a new study.

While there is no shortage of ethnic minority applicants to teacher training courses, acceptance rates are well below those for white applicants.

For applicants with a mixed ethnic background, the acceptance rate is nine per cent below that of white applicants, for Asian applicants it is 13% lower and for Black applicants it is 21% lower, according to analysis by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER).

These disparities continue throughout a teacher’s career, with non-white teachers less likely to progress into middle leadership – head of year or head of department level – senior leadership, such as assistant and deputy principal, and into headteacher or principal positions.

Teachers from an ethnic minority background are also less likely to stay in the profession than their white counterparts.

“We currently do not have a teacher workforce that reflects the ethnic makeup of wider society,” said Jack Worth, the report’s co-author and the NFER’s school workforce lead.

“Opportunities to enter and progress within the teaching profession are not equal,” he added.

The report found that the disparities are smaller, however, in schools with more diverse leadership teams, and larger in schools where the leadership team is all white.

The differences in acceptance rates are also smaller in London, which has a more diverse population than the rest of England.

But the gap in promotion rates from middle to senior leadership for white and black teachers is significantly wider in London than in the rest of the country, suggesting a mixed picture across different phases of a teacher’s career.

Among the report’s recommendations is encouraging providers of teacher training courses to review their selection processes to better understand why applicants from ethnic minorities have a lower acceptance rate.

Training providers and large groups of schools should also commit to publish data on diversity and monitor progress in reducing disparities, the report’s authors said.

“Ethnic diversity and representation in the teaching workforce are key goals if we want an education system that is truly inclusive and allows every young person to thrive,” said Russell Hobby, CEO of Teach First, which partnered with the NFER to produce the report.

“We know that a diverse teaching workforce has a positive impact on outcomes for pupils from under-represented backgrounds – but it is also beneficial to all pupils, bringing different perspectives to the classroom and enriching their education experience as a whole.”

Improving recruitment and retention will also improve the supply of teachers, at a time when schools are struggling to fill vacancies, according to Sufian Sadiq, director of the teaching school at the Chiltern Learning Trust, which overseas 11 schools.

“We see evidence of interest in teaching – from black and ethnic minority candidates – and a pool of potential talent that is not currently being tapped,” he said.

“Addressing the racial disparities that exist within teaching is therefore not only a moral imperative, but increasingly necessary if we want to tackle teacher supply problems, and ensure every child has a qualified teacher standing before them.”