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Class war: black teachers feel that management does not understand them

Black teachers cite prejudice among school management

From next year, trainee teachers will need to know and demonstrate awareness in racial diversity before acquiring Qualified Teacher Status (QTS).

The move, which will become compulsory in Autumn 2007, comes as a report commissioned by London Mayor Ken Livingstone revealed that BME teachers often face discrimination from their colleagues.

London school Ministers, Lord Andrew Adonis told the recently held London Schools and the Black Child (LSBC) conference that the Department for Education and Skills is developing new standards for the profession and that the current requirements for QTS demand that race and diversity awareness are compulsory aspects of Initial Teacher Training (ITT).

“From next year, trainees in schools with limited exposure to racial diversity will be expected to demonstrate understanding of issues around racial equality,” Lord Adonis told delegates.

REPORT

According to the report, produced by the multi-racial London Metropolitan University and which was officially launched at the meeting held at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in central London, BME teachers list racism as a major cause for concern.

They cite the lack of support from administrators and said they were instead faced with prejudice and racism.

It quotes one black teacher as saying “I think that a lot of people in management don’t have a clue about black people. They don’t understand us and they don’t even try to relate.”

Another said “survival is really sat squarely on the shoulder of the black teacher, their background, their selfexperience, and their ability to survive this environment.”

IGNORED

Speaking at the conference, Lee Jasper, director of equalities and policing within the Mayor’s office said black teachers “work from sunup to sun-down and still can’t get recognition and promotion. Their potential is ignored and they endure unacceptable levels of institutional racism.”

Lord Adonis said a key issue in promoting black achievement “is to recruit more teachers and head teachers from your own community.”

Schools, he said need to reflect the communities they serve, “and the more good teachers and head teachers there are from the black community, the better they will be able to serve their community.”

The schools minister praised the success of the Investing in Diversity Programme, which was created to ensure black teachers with leadership potential are recognised early and encouraged to progress rapidly.

Already, 400 London teachers have participated in or completed the programme and one third have since gained promotion.

Lord Adonis announced the government is providing an extra 200 places for secondary teachers from next year and a further 100 primary school teachers will benefit from the training and development opportunities available.

Another 30 who are very close to becoming head teachers will receive a tailored programme of coaching and mentoring “to help them make that final step into leadership.”

HEAD TEACHERS

Black staff account for 7 per cent of teachers in London and 1.5 per cent in England. However, only 4 per cent of black teachers go on to become head teachers or deputy heads, the report concluded.

Lord Adonis said the set targets to increase the number of BME teachers is on the increase, pointing out that one in four trainee teachers in London now comes from a BME background.

According to the report in 2003, 7 per cent (2,637) of new entrants to ITT courses were from a minority ethnic background. In that same year the Teacher Training Agency (TTA) set a national target of recruiting and retaining 9 per cent of trainees from a BME background by November 2005-06, which has been achieved, the report says.

However, the report concluded that the dropout rate of teacher traineesfrom BME backgrounds at 9 per cent is greater than their white counterparts, presently running at 5 per cent.

Campaigners have long called for black history to be taught in schools and it seems the government is finally heeding. According to Lord Adonis, his department aims to offer each child education which is tailored to their own interests and talents.

Last year, he said, the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority’s report into history teaching found that in many schools, too little attention is given to the black and multiethnic aspects of British history.

To much applause from the delegates, he said Keith Ajegbo, a former head teacher of Deptford Green School has been charged to report to the government on the possibility of introducing modern British social and cultural history – including its ethnic dimensions, into the curriculum and to consider the resource implications involved.

The minister conceded that more needs to be done to tackle the problem of exclusion, a major concern within the BME community.

“I fully recognise that we need to do more to tackle exclusion rates and the stereotyping of black children as under-achieving, troublesome or both,” he said to shouts of approval.

The report also pointed out that some parents saw schools as being unable to manage the ‘lively, boisterous’ behaviour of black children and invariably used expulsion as a behaviour management strategy.

“It was inferred that exclusion is used, more often than not, to avoid dealing with issues in school such as low teacher expectations, racism within the school, high staff turnover and poor pupil support,” the report noted.

TALENTS

Lord Adonis cited the Black Pupils Achievement Programme, which extends to over 100 secondary schools across 25 local authorities, as one aspect of correcting the problem. “It’s not just average achievement we’re aiming at, but the talents of black children developed to the fullest extent possible.”

He said schools have been instructed to identify and maintain a register of their gifted and talented pupils, representative of the whole student body. Providing statistics to strengthen his point, Lord Adonis said BME students are over-represented in higher education relative to their proportion of the working age population.

Last year, 18 per cent of higher education students came from the BME community as against 11 per cent of the general working population.

“This is encouraging, but we need more,” he said.

Published: 19 September 2006
Issue: 1236

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