Navigating School Life
Written by Matt Taylor-Roberts
Matt Taylor-Robert (He/Him) is the Founder and Managing Director of Proud 2 b Parents and with his husband, Matt is an adoptive parent to their amazing son. He feels privileged to work for a regional adoption agency as an independent panel member and has previously worked for an independent foster agency within the same role. However, he had to step away from this role due to becoming a foster carer for this agency. Matt has previously worked within Children's Services for a local authority. To find out more about Proud 2 b Parents please head over www.proud2bparents.co.uk.
As a gay dad, I embarked on a remarkable journey when my child entered school. From the early days of reception to the transitions and milestones of Year 1, I’ve witnessed firsthand the joys, challenges, and triumphs of being an LGBTQ+ parent in the educational system. I therefore wanted to share my experiences, insights, and reflections, shedding light on the unique journey of a LGBT+ parent navigating their child’s schooling.
From the first day of reception, I was determined to create an inclusive environment where my child would thrive. I approached the school teachers, emphasizing the importance of embracing diversity and promoting acceptance among all. I was pleasantly surprised by their open-mindedness and commitment to fostering an inclusive atmosphere. They then looked to me to answer their questions and point them in the right direction of equity and inclusion.
Throughout the early years of schooling, I discovered the significance of building strong relationships with teachers, other parents, and school staff. By being open about my family’s structure, I paved the way for understanding and acceptance. I actively engaged in school activities, volunteering my time and participating in parent-teacher meetings to establish connections and develop a sense of community. I, myself, joined the board of governors, while my partner became the chair of the PTA, ensuring we echoed the ‘normality’ of our family.
As my child progressed through reception and Year 1, I encountered occasional misconceptions and stereotypes surrounding LGBTQ+ parenting. I sometimes took these opportunities to educate and enlighten, sharing our family’s story and dispelling any doubts or concerns. Other times I was exhausted from educating others in the playground and just wanted to stand quietly in the rain, waiting for my ‘baby’ to finish school for the weekend.
Fortunately, my child has not faced overt bullying or bias but we have heard comments such as ‘why do you have two dads’, ‘are they your two dads’ and he has always been the child used for ‘every family is different’.
In Reception and Year 1, schools often organise events and activities that celebrate families, we always ensured one of our son’s parents were there to represent his family and that he had a cheering face in the crowds. We went to ‘Mother day or special person day’ events and planted seeds and enjoyed afternoon tea, as well as engaging in ‘fathers day’ sports activities.
We always felt that collaborating with teachers was pivotal to ensuring my child’s educational experience was positive and affirming. Regular communication, sharing important milestones, and addressing any concerns or questions were key aspects of this partnership. By fostering a strong parent-teacher relationship, we ensured our child received the support they needed to flourish academically and emotionally.
Looking back on the last two years of my child’s journey through school, I’ve witnessed the power of acceptance, education, and collaboration in creating an inclusive environment. While challenges may arise, embracing diversity, building relationships, challenging assumptions, and advocating for inclusivity have proven transformative.
By sharing my experiences, I hope to inspire other LGBT+ families to approach their child’s school journey with confidence, knowing that their unique perspectives and experiences contribute to a more accepting and inclusive educational environment for all.
‘I’m so glad we have one of you here!’
Written by Nabiha Mohamed
I am a British born Muslim Pakistani Geography teacher, who loves rocks and the Marvel Universe. I have spent 13 years living in Abu Dhabi but have now returned to the UK and am living in Bristol. I have taught in both comprehensive and independent schools, both of which I have enjoyed very much. I am a creative being who overthinks everything! I love to learn, and I have recently woken up to the fact that I am one of the few teachers of colour in this country and am now feeling the responsibility of this weighing heavy on my shoulders. Keen to ‘make a difference’ in the schools, I would love to connect with other teachers of colour in the UK.
We have been hit with comments like these throughout our lives. We have become accustomed to these ‘microaggressions’ in every aspect of our daily routines, and by ‘we’, I mean, people of colour.
As a British Asian Muslim woman (that’s a lot of labels already) born and raised in this country, I had never heard of the term ‘microaggressions’, until about 2 years ago in a CPD session at school. It was a turning point for me, in my career and my personal life. I have since been educating myself around the topics of unconscious bias, microaggressions and sense of belonging, particularly in schools. It’s been a rollercoaster ride since then, highs and lows in my teaching career, in my understanding of the issue and trying to work out how best to teach students to be assertive and staff to be ‘awake’. I am no professor in this area, I am not perfect, but I have grown to become passionate about this topic as one I can relate to and hopefully, an area I can help change in schools.
I have come to realise that many people who fire microaggressions at you, are often wonderful, kind, well-meaning people. They just don’t think about the gravity of their words; if you did have the courage to call them out on their inappropriate comments, they would be utterly devastated, which also makes us hold back on speaking up. Three recent examples I can think of (all said by adults):
- I can never learn the names of the girls who wear hijabs, they all look the same.
- I’m so glad we have one of you here now at school, the kids really needed someone like you.
- I loved culture day; it was my favourite day of the year! I loved all the costumes students wore; they were beautiful.
Costumes? I don’t wear my salwar kameez on Halloween, love.
I have delivered CPD sessions and assemblies on Unconscious Bias and Microaggressions to both staff and students recently, with the aim to give students of colour the confidence to speak up and say, ‘that’s not okay’ and to educate teachers on what many of their students go through daily as they go about their lives.
The thing is… I said in my assembly that I promised myself, whenever anyone was to say anything inappropriate directed at me, I would speak up and tell them. If ‘we don’t do this’, I said, ‘things will never change.’ Did I speak up when the above microaggressions came my way? Shamefully, no I did not. WHY, oh WHY did I not say anything?! Because, they were all lovely people who didn’t mean any harm. Because I, aged 47, did not know how to handle the situation at that exact moment, and if I couldn’t, how could I expect a child to?
However, I want to break the cycle. I want to have the confidence to say ‘errmmm, no’, and I want to teach students to be able to do the same in a respectful way, but I don’t know how to. We have school policies on explicit racism but there is nothing in means of reporting the implicit microaggressions from students or staff. Should there be? Is there a need? Do we ask our EDI Leader to speak to the guilty ones or should we have the guts to do it ourselves? But the interesting, or annoying thing amongst these questions in my head is, why am I struggling to speak up like I am the guilty one? I haven’t done anything wrong.
An Exploration of the Persisting Legacy of Imperial Rhetoric in Modern Education through a Case Study on ‘Eugenics, Race, and Psychiatry in the Cape Colony, 1890-1908: Dr Thomas Duncan Greenlees’
Written by Rosa Legeno-Bell
Rosa is co-founder and Director of Diverse History UK (DHUK); an LGBTQ+ and female-owned business. DHUK provides educational consultancy to address diversification of educational curricula. Rosa has worked in the education sector for over a decade, mainly in inner-city London comprehensives; as a History Teacher, Head of History and Associate Assistant Principal. Rosa graduated with distinction from the University of East Anglia with a Master’s Degree in Modern History.
This blog examines imperial rhetoric around race and eugenics through a case study of colonial psychiatrist Dr Duncan T Greenlees and explores how the legacy of imperialism lives on in the education sector.
Greenlees was the medical superintendent of Grahamstown Asylum in the Cape Colony from 1890–1907, regarded by his peers as an authority on race and eugenics (T. Duncan Greenlees M.D., 1930).
Greenlees’ Theories on the Native Mind
‘[African natives’]… wants are simple and their habits primitive; they are… willing servants, and naturally look up to white people…’ (Greenlees, 1882)
Greenlees maintained that biological and cultural differences between Africans and Europeans explained native mindsets. He attributed native ‘insanity’ to the exposure of ‘savage’ minds to Western civilisation (Swartz, 1995). The myth of primitive natives was key to the justification of British paternalism in the colonies as well as the confinement of natives who refused to conform to their prescribed roles in colonial society (Summers, 2010). In A Statistical Contribution to the Pathology of Insanity (1902), Greenlees declared that:
‘…[if] brought under the artificial influences of civilisation…[the native] …is particularly liable to chest troubles.’
And also claimed:
‘While mania is considered a disease of undeveloped [native] brains, melancholia may be regarded as one of developed [European] brains’
(Greenlees 1902, p. 12).
The falsity that non-whites were incapable of melancholia was supported by later colonial psychiatrists and is still echoed in practice today (Rosenberg, 2019). Greenlees also appealed to the common myth of the unhygienic native, stating they are ‘extremely filthy in habits,’ (Greenlees, 1902. p. 17) a stereotype commonly used to underpin dehumanising imperial rhetoric.
The influence on Greenlees of Victorian hegemony, such as Darwin’s theory of natural selection, is discernible. Darwin’s theory was commonly misapplied by imperialists to claim racial superiority and, under the guise of Social Darwinism, to justify imperial actions (Dafler, 2005). In Insanity Among the Natives of South Africa Greenlees warns:
‘The time will soon come when civilisation will overshadow [native tribes] with its baneful pall, bringing innumerable diseases in its train and ultimately exterminating all races that oppose its progress.’
(Greenlees, 1895, p. 75)
Greenlees’ Principles of Eugenics
‘…how much suffering might be avoided if…men were allowed to exercise the same care in the selection of their mates as they do when breeding their cattle’
(Greenlees, 1892, p. 302).
During the Nineteenth Century, white-working class British people were also dehumanised and infantalised by the British state. The white working classes were integral to imperial rule as they powered the industrial revolution on home soil through cheap labour and terrible working conditions.
Greenlees worked in the Cape Colony after the emancipation of Transatlantic slaves and during the Second Boer War (Facing History and Ourselves, 2018). At this time, it was believed that many South African whites, particularly Afrikaans, were becoming less civilised, mirroring British stereotypes of native peoples (Klausen, 1997). For Greenlees it was paramount that the white race maintained an air of supremacy. (Burdett, 2014), He argued that the breeding of ‘lunatics,’ ‘imbeciles’ and ‘drunks,’ constituted a grave threat to imperial rule (Klausen, 1997).
Greenlees’ also theorised about ‘coloured’ (mixed-raced) people, referring to them as ‘the bastard.’ Highlighting his fears regarding race and degeneracy, he contended:
‘a mixture of white and black blood… seems to present the worst characteristics of both races.’ (Greenlees,1892, p. 71)
Greenlees opined that, mixed-race communities were degenerates and threatened British dominance (Kolsky, 2013), a view mirrored by segregationists in the southern states of America around the same time.
So, Greenlees advocated for people to make genetically ‘wise’ choices over their marriage partners and proclaimed that it is:
‘…absurd… that we should devote more…consideration to the mating of our horses and pigs than we do that of our sons and daughters’ (Greenlees, 1903, p. 11).
The Impact of Colonial Rhetoric around race and class on the Current Education System
‘… decolonising and detoxifying the education regime are a sine qua non for… academics, especially those who are cognisant of the true meaning of education.’
(Nkwazi Nkuzi Mhango, 2018)
Elhinnawy (2022) maintains that a diverse book collection does not suffice and that educators need to honestly explore their own internal prejudices and their origins. While Bentrovato (2018) contends that colonialism is a ‘hallmark of modern world history.’ whose legacies survive because of modern institutions such as education.
But, decolonisation has been controversial. Seemingly concerned, The Department for Education (2022), introduced a guidance on impartiality in schools in 2022 on the back of the growing call to decolonise education.But decolonisation is possible still, as the guidance does not include any additional statutory requirements, and there is still room to decolonise if a range of historical evidence is engaged with and views are not taught as objective fact. The dichotomy between a government and its institutions can cause friction. Leading governmental leadership posts are filled disproportionately by privately educated people (predominantly white and male) who attended Oxbridge colleges. In 2019, 57% of the government’s cabinet and 36% of those who work in the media had attended an Oxbridge university (The Sutton Trust, 2019). Notably, private schools and Oxbridge universities were avid mouthpieces for colonial rhetoric.
Despite the controversy over decolonisation, it is a no-brainer. As diversity increases, decolonisation becomes more urgent –with 43% of young Black people saying that:
‘A lack of curriculum diversity was one of the biggest barriers to…achieving in schools,’(Anna Freud, 2021).
Yet many schools still pursue whitewashed curricula and old-fashioned pedagogies. Critics of decolonisation have argued against it on the basis that we should not eradicate history, but true decolonisation does not entail deleting history, it encourages adding to existing narratives and amplifying historically silenced voices. Another criticism is that decolonisation only considers marginalised black voices, but that is too literal an understanding. Decolonisation believes in amplifying all marginalised voices such as the white working classes who too were downtrodden and exploited for the empire. One compelling reason for decolonisation is that the amplification of many voices and celebration of shared histories may also repair relationships between marginalised communities, too often pitted against each other.
Greenlees provides a significant insight into the ideologies that propped up the British empire, and serve as a shocking reminder of the philosophies on which modern Britain was founded. If educators work together to build a fairer education for our students, then we are playing a part in creating a kinder and more compassionate society for our students and our children.
Read more and find the references here:
AI: Ethics, Equity and Education
Written by Gemma Clare
Gemma is an experienced writer, specialising in education and child development. With a background as a former Inclusion Leader, Teacher, and SENCo, she is dedicated to sharing ideas that make a positive impact on the lives of children.
Maya sits down to do their homework. Instead of reaching for their textbooks, they turn to Artificial Intelligence (AI) to complete their research. Aiko sits down to assess their students. Instead of relying purely on their teacher-judgement and observation, he uses an AI-powered assessment tool.
AI provides an exciting opportunity for students and teachers to work in different ways and it’s becoming more established as a helpful tool in education. You can read numerous articles celebrating the benefits of AI for schools and colleges – as a tool for planning, assessment, personalised learning and more.
However, AI is presenting us with a new set of ethical issues. With concerns over bias, misinformation and unreliable sources, it’s become more important than ever for the education system to effectively teach pupils how to be critical of information.
The Bias Problem
Machine learning algorithms are only as unbiased as the data they are trained on, which means that they can perpetuate and even amplify biases in society. There are numerous examples of where AI bias has caused both small and large-scale discriminatory practices.
Take for example COMPAS, a tool used to predict whether criminals will re-offend, which wrongly predicted that black defendants were nearly twice as likely to do so as white defendants.
There’s also Tay, the Twitter bot from Microsoft that quickly became a sexist, racist and xenophobic holocaust denier after engaging with the public.
There are countless other examples, across healthcare, education, recruitment and more where machine-based bias has had a damaging effect on those with protected characteristics.
Think about how unchecked bias in AI technologies could impact the pupils in your school, and the wider influence this might have on society. For example, what would happen if an algorithm designed to predict student performance wrongly predicted that the black pupils in your class wouldn’t achieve as well as their white peers?
Misinformation
Another significant concern with AI is the prevalence of misinformation and false narratives. For example, despite scientific knowledge being used to train Galactica AI, ‘It spat out alarmingly plausible nonsense‘ such as incorrect summaries of research.
The increasingly popular ChatGPT-3 collates information from across the web, much of which is not factually accurate despite how assured it sounds in its delivery. It also seems to churn out multiple ‘sources’ which, when you look for them, simply don’t exist.
It’s now simple to create a very convincing narrative which is either partially or completely fabricated. This can be particularly problematic in the era of social media, where content can spread rapidly and without verification (either intentionally, or not).
Combine this with the flaws in bias and you can see how quickly AI can be at the forefront of disastrous consequences for equality and equity.
Take for example the case of ChatGPT-4 reinforcing sexist gender stereotypes when prompted to describe the education and career choices of a boy and a girl. In this example, the boy says “I don’t think I could handle all the creativity and emotion in the fine arts program.” and the girl replies that she can’t handle “all the technicalities and numbers in the engineering program”. Imagine your pupils using these tools to study and taking the answers as fact – reinforcing harmful narratives.
So, What Does This Mean for Educators?
You may be thinking, ‘these are problems for the developers of AI to solve, what have I got to do with this?’ and of course, developers need to be actively addressing these concerns. However, until every piece of AI technology is held accountable against rigorous ethical standards, these damaging flaws will remain, and we need to be aware of our own role within this.
Many of our pupils will be users of AI technology, both at home and in school. They’ll be accessing information and learning in a completely different way to previous generations. Educators play a vital role in preparing pupils for their future – and their future now includes AI technology.
As educators, we can empower our pupils to make informed decisions based on what they read and listen to. We have the opportunity to teach them to evaluate the credibility of sources and question information. Pupils can be explicitly taught to recognise and challenge biases when they encounter them and to understand the signs of unreliable sources, such as an over-reliance on anecdotal evidence.
Of course, teaching pupils to be critical of all information available to them is important, not just AI-generated content. With the prevalence of targeted advertising and propaganda circling the internet, it’s also important to teach pupils how to recognise the agendas of the content they encounter. This includes being able to identify political or commercial interests that may influence the information presented to them.
One way to achieve this is to teach pupils to identify language techniques, such as loaded language or euphemisms, that may reveal a hidden agenda. This can be particularly useful when analysing news articles or opinion pieces, where the author’s bias can be subtle but powerfully influential. By understanding how language can be used to manipulate readers, pupils can become more critical and discerning consumers of digital content.
This is an important conversation to be having in the education space right now. The ability to critically analyse the trustworthiness of content and separate fact from fiction is becoming an increasingly essential skill. If we’re not preparing the next generation of young people for this, we risk further aggregation of societal polarisation and inequality.
Educators have a unique opportunity and power to help young people to navigate the problems generated by new AI technology.
The next question is, are we adequately equipped to meet this challenge?
Hair Equality in UK schools: Why Hair Is More Than “Just Hair”?
Written by Tori Sprott
Tori has a BA in Philosophy and an MA in Policy Studies in Education. She has a particular interest in Sociology of Race and Education and exploring counternarratives from a racial perspective.
Introduction: Equality in Schools
School is a place where young people spend most of their lives. Schools should be safe spaces for young people to learn and develop their values, self-esteem and life skills. It should be a space where equality is championed and held high as a core value, but unfortunately, this isn’t always the case. This blog will focus on a specific type of inequality that Black and mixed-raced people are often faced with in school, hair discrimination, and will provide schools with some tools for navigating this issue.
In this blog, I will introduce the concept of hair discrimination with a brief outlook on Afro hair and its significance. I will also be referring to real examples of young Black and mixed-race people who have been punished by schools for wearing natural hairstyles. In this blog, I will be using the terms ‘natural hair’ and ‘Afro hair’ interchangeably, referring to the natural kinky texture of Black people’s hair. It is worth mentioning here that in acknowledging Afro hair, we must also acknowledge the diversity within this term, as there is no single natural hair texture.
Hair discrimination: a brief history
On the surface, many may assume that hair is just that: hair. Why the big fuss over something so trivial? The history attached to Afro hair is vast but also a huge identity marker for Black and mixed-race people that many aren’t aware or conscious of. Historically, Afro hair has been a symbol of background and status, a site of oppression, something that required alteration, particularly post-transatlantic slave trade, and a symbol of Black power (Jahangir, 2015). This indicates that the perception of Afro hair has changed throughout history – once being seen as beautiful and powerful, then being seen as the opposite during the transatlantic slave trade where many Black people had their hair shaved off. This led to many people with Afro hair (chemically) straightening their hair to avoid the abuse and stigma post-transatlantic slave trade, and also led to a period of time where people with Afro hair reclaimed power and pride over their natural hair as a response to racism and hair discrimination. The impacts of these ever-changing perceptions are wide-spread and still exist in present day.
The impact of the transatlantic slave trade on how society perceives Afro hair is still present today, resulting in Black and mixed-race people feeling as though they need to straighten their hair to “fit in”, with concepts of ‘good’ [looser curls, softer texture] and ‘bad’ [kinkier more dense hair textures] hair formulating ideas about the acceptable appearance of Black people’s hair (Robinson, 2011).
Hair discrimination in schools: UK context
Research from World Afro Day Hair Equality Report (2019) showed that 82.9% of young people had experienced having their hair touched without consent, and 58% experienced being on the receiving end of uncomfortable questions. These are troubling statistics. These occurrences can be offensive because it points out that there is this sense of difference that inclines those without Afro hair to touch it or ask questions that could leave people feeling alienated. If there were more education on Afro hair, perhaps the occurrence of these uncomfortable encounters would reduce, and overall comfortability for those with Afro-textured hair would increase.
I can remember various occasions as a young Black person being told, “you should straighten your hair”, typically by people who did not have Afro-textured hair. This is quite offensive as it suggests that your Afro-textured hair is perhaps incomplete or undone. It is unfortunate that hair discrimination exists, and we see such incidents occurring in UK schools with Black and mixed-race pupils facing exclusions due to culturally dismissive uniform policies.
Ruby Williams is a young person who faced hair discrimination at school in London. She was told that her hair was a distraction and “too big”, and as a result was sent home on multiple occasions, disrupting her learning. She also speaks on the pressures to straighten her hair in her younger years as natural hair was never represented around her. The problems started when she decided to stop straightening her hair, and she was routinely targeted by the uniform policies that the school had in place, which have since been removed. Ruby’s family took legal action against the school, however, it ended with an out of court settlement (Virk, 2020). In March 2021, students at Pimlico Academy staged a walk out due to uniform policies banning hairstyles that “block the view” of other students (BBC, 2021). In this context, students are having to take matters into their own hands in order to be heard, but this commitment to equality needs to be taken further by those who have authority in policy-making processes.
Jewellery Quarter Academy in Birmingham recently adopted the Halo Code – coined by the Halo Collective as a means of committing to hair equality in workplaces and schools (Newsround, 2020) – stating that “all students should be able to come to school being themselves and feel proud of their identity. That is why we are proud to sign up to the Halo Code” (Chamberlain, 2021).
So, where do we go from here? What can schools do to prevent this from occurring in the future?
Recommendations for school policy – how can we tackle hair discrimination in schools?
- Schools must ensure that their uniform policies surrounding hair styling do not have a disproportionate impact on Black children. Avoid exclusions or any kind of behaviour punishments that would further marginalise that child. Thinking about uniform policies, the language used in such policies (for example, ‘professional’ – what is being suggested if Afro hair isn’t deemed professional, and what impact does this have?), why they have been implemented, and whether they can be adapted for inclusivity. Schools can consult with stakeholders in order to better understand the implications of language used within a policy.
- Schools must create an environment of inclusion and commit to embedding understanding of diversity in the school ethos. Understanding how certain language and descriptions about Afro hair can be problematic. Actively challenging stereotypes and assumptions about Afro hair[styles] that reinforce racist ideas about groups of people. Members of staff should be aware of discriminatory language [amongst pupils and staff] regarding Afro hair and ensure that this is not tolerated or acceptable. For example, the idea that Afro hair is ‘messy’ or ‘not done’; the idea that straighter hair is more ‘professional’ than Afro hair; asking a Black or mixed-race student/staff member if their hair is a wig if it is long or straight.
- Make a pledge – As mentioned earlier, The Halo Collective are a group of campaigners who advocate for hair equality in schools and workplaces. Adopting their Black Hair Code shows commitment to rejecting hair discrimination. A number of schools in the UK have adopted this code. Schools can also make their own pledges about how they will tackle the issue of hair discrimination within their setting and embed this in the school rules.
References
BBC (2021) Pimlico Academy pupils stage protest over ‘racist’ uniform policy, BBC, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-56594570
Chamberlain, Z. (2021) School’s bid to end hair discrimination after shocking number of black students face name-calling, Birmingham Mail, https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/schools-bid-end-hair-discrimination-21935497
GOV.UK, Discrimination: your rights https://www.gov.uk/discrimination-your-rights
Jahangir, R. (2015) How does black hair reflect black history? BBC. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-31438273
Newsround (2020) Halo Code: What is it and how does it protect afro hair? BBC, https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/55249674
Robinson, C. L. (2011) Hair as Race: Why “Good Hair” May Be Bad for Black Females, Howard Journal of Communications, 22:4, 358-376.
Are the Equality Laws fit for purpose?
Written by Shola Adewale Sandy
Shola is the proud author of the debut novel called ‘ICE, the trilogy’ which stands for I Can Explain, it’s her memoirs that follows her journey in the educational system as a black women professional and the importance of stopping systematic discrimination, unfortunately she has experienced and witnessed over the years in inner London schools.
When I first walked into a secondary school in inner London, as a black member of staff, I didn’t think anything of it, after all there were others there and they seemed to be doing fine on the surface… I rolled up my sleeves, I was committed, prepared and ready. To the best of my ability, I would do good by those students. I felt this was my calling in life…
I looked at the decorated reception and walked around the massive assembly hall. It was early in the morning, I was enjoying the silence, but excited at what was to come… this is where dreams and aspirations are developed for those young minds and maybe for me too…
Fast forward and they soon sprout up in Year 11, leaving to go out into the big wide world. Having gone through the school system knowing what equality, fairness and hard work really looks like. This is what we teach them, isn’t it?
So what happens, if you find yourself in a situation where you were not being paid the same as your white counterpart or given the same opportunities, despite being a dedicated and a hard working member of staff?
That was me! Can you imagine? I initially thought nothing more of it, after all we have laws to protect people like me in a work environment. I was not even in a union because I was so confident that fairness and common sense would prevail!
“This must be a minor mistake; it will get cleared up in no time!” I said to myself over and over again, as the years went by.
Before you all go for me, I am not generalising, but if you happen to be in a situation and the odds were against you like I was, being in front of such a cantankerous headteacher, what would be your choices?
Remember, you are reminded daily by the micro aggressions towards you, grating away at your skin, getting right to the very core of you. You are nothing more than a mere irritable speck on their shoe, that they can’t seem to get rid of. So where do you go from there, if you please…
Ignore and march on, hoping and praying things would improve – check
Informal discussion with line managers – check
Discussions with other school leaders – check
Union rep – check
Informal discussions and meetings with headteacher –check
Human Resources – check
Union rep again – check
School Governors – check
Formal meetings with headteacher – check
Headteacher’s Peers and other leaders in the community – check
Local Authority – check
Tribunal system – I can’t disclose everything here folks, you will have to read my memoir….
And all you can think of to do in-between!
What do I have to do to be treated fairly, was the question I kept asking myself? As I made my way through the above list.
For most people, their response probably would be:
” I can’t deal with this; I would have been straight out the door!”
Yeah right, I wish it was as easy as that! I was invested in those students for better or for worse! (It’s an unwritten contract when you work in those types of inner city schools)
“No way! I would have to be dragged away in chains screaming and protesting, I would not leave those students by choice!”
Anyway, it was the principle of the whole damn thing! After all, why did our forefathers sacrifice and suffer for, all those years ago, surely so we wouldn’t have too now!
Yes, leaving and getting a job in another school would have been an option, but that’s another conversation to be had. In reality, it is much harder to successfully achieve this, as we need that all important, crucial reference from your former headteacher! Could they be trusted to give you a glowing reference despite your differences, hmm, a lot of people might hesitate at leaving that in the hands of such a person! I know I certainly would!
When I look back, I realise that it is also the system to blame. Giving permission for gross misconduct to take place within Education, allowed that specific headteacher to have the confidence to treat me that way. Knowing profoundly, that they had the power and would ultimately get away with their treatment of me, especially with the support of their loyal allies.
Thankfully, not all headteachers are like this, but you only have to come across one in your lifetime as a black person and trust me you will never forget the experience in a hurry!
How about making sure your World Book Day Celebrations have inclusive and representative impact too?
Written by Ndah Mbawa
Ndah runs Happier Every Chapter, a literacy service committed to helping schools and families improve diversity awareness and reading attainment through library diversity audits and the provision of diverse, inclusive and representative bestsellers for children. Her passion for decolonising mindsets within the school-to-workplace pipeline and supercharging the will/skill to read is shared by her teenage daughters, Kirsten & Aiyven.
It’s a little known fact that children start to form biases like racial bias much earlier than we think. For instance, from as early as 3 – 6 months, a baby’s brain can notice racial differences in the people around them. By the time they are 2, most children have soaked up stereotypes about race and may express these with one way or another. By 4, children can directly express race based prejudice or bias by teasing. And, by age 12, many children become set in biased thoughts, actions and decisions. Makes you think about what’s in the school-to-workplace pipeline doesn’t it? One doesn’t need to look further than the Ashford School incident for hard and gravely worrying evidence of such biased actions.
World Book Day provides a great opportunity to be more intentionally inclusive and it doesn’t always have to come down to dressing up. It’s never too early to begin the work of anti-racism & diversity awareness or to help your school setting make progress in conscious equality even as you promote the love of reading. With 34.5% of primary age pupils in the U.K being from minority ethnic backgrounds, diversity will not be the issue for a lot of school settings. How included these pupils feel and consequently how much of a sense of belonging they have will often be the issue. Somewhere in those corridors, a significant amount of pupil engagement is lost. How will you use events like World Book Day to further drive home the message that all are welcome and all belong?
Here are some tips to celebrate World Book Day in a more inclusive way:
📖 Start a book, an anthology and encourage children from different ethnicities or cultures to contribute short stories from their heritage. It will be a great way to uphold this year’s theme of making it ‘your’ World Book Day.
📖 Read stories with a diverse range of characters making sure that these are not limited to ethnic and cultural representations but also include other forms of diversity like gender, ability, neurodiversity, family set-up, sexual orientation etc. When stories featuring diverse characters are told with authenticity, it helps children develop empathy and inclusion giving them an opportunity to see themselves and the world around them in the books they read.
📖 Where possible, ensure the diverse titles selected / included in your World Book Day list are written by own voice authors. As much own voices are not always entirely representative of everyone within that group, it will for the most part foster better connection with the stories as children will not only see themselves in the books but will also be able to relate to the person behind the words thus giving confidence that the worlds created or described are represented in the most genuine light possible. The most powerful advantage of reading own voice books, has got to be that the stories are often told in a way that shines the light on the nuances and subtle differences within that group which can help dispel the stereotypes, generalisations and harmful single stories we may have become so attached to.
📖 For author visits around World Book Day and beyond, engage authors who represent diverse groups or voices. The phrase “We can’t be what we can’t see” will not be new to most of us. Having a face-to-face or virtual encounter with someone we can relate to in one way or the other, is a powerful way to make the right impact.
📖 Promote the use of World Book Day £1 tokens to buy books with diverse characters or books on anti-racism, diversity and inclusion. Being an Ally: Real Talk About Showing Up, Screwing Up, and Trying Again by Shakirah Bourne & Dana Alison Levy is a fabulous choice.
📖 Educate children on how World Book Day is celebrated around the world.
📖 Encourage children to proudly own their heritage by asking them to dress up as their favourite character from one of their cultural folk tales.
Let’s make it a “WORLD” Book Day as the name suggests.
Why I pretended my dyslexia wasn’t a big deal - my experiences as a dyslexic teacher.
Written by Catrina Lowri
Catrina Lowri is the founder of Neuroteachers and a neurodivergent teacher, trainer, and coach. As well as having 22 years’ experience of working in education, she also speaks as a dyslexic and bipolar woman, who had her own unique journey through the education system.
When I had already been teaching for about 10 years, I met a pair of grandparents at a friend’s barbecue. They had just received some devastating news; their 9-year-old grandson had been diagnosed with dyslexia.
They told me this in hushed voices, as if they were ashamed.
Although, their reaction was not unusual (97% of respondents in one survey viewed dyslexia negatively *), I was taken aback. Did this mean I should be ashamed or devastated about my own neurodivergence?
I did my best to reassure the couple that their grandson would be fine. I told them lots of successful people, like Richard Branson and Tom Cruise are dyslexic. Although he might need extra support, their grandson could get GCSEs and A levels if he wanted. They seemed reassured. Then I told them I was a dyslexic teacher.
Their reaction astounded me even more than the shamed hush had done previously. They were over the moon at my success! The grandfather toasted my talents, and the grandmother gave me a hug. They both treated me like I had just climbed Mount Everest. I couldn’t fathom why.
Until that point, I had never considered my achievements anything special. Yes, I’m a dyslexic teacher who went on to gain a master’s degree but was that out of the ordinary? I knew no other dyslexic teachers, but they must exist. I’ve always disliked it when people say I’ve ‘overcome’ my dyslexia. I haven’t. I’m still as dyslexic as I was the day I was born ( it’s genetic). I’ve just found ways around it. Most of which involve the use of technology.
I used to downplay my attainment in a matter-of-fact fashion. I disliked people who made ‘ a big deal’ of their dyslexia. My dyslexic friend, and I used to joke that we would write a book called ‘So you’re dyslexic? Just live with it!” As if all you had to do was keep calm and carry on.
I have talked before about my experiences at teacher training, where another student commented that he believed dyslexia was a middle class camouflage of a lack of intelligence. That must have stuck because, up until my chance meeting with these grandparents, I had just shrugged off my neurodiversity (ND) and downplayed my success.
After meeting my fellow barbeque guests, however, I changed my attitude. No, it hasn’t been easy to forge my career, firstly as a schoolteacher and now as a private specialist teacher and trainer. Yes, I do find several aspects of the job harder because of my ND. And yes, I am proud of my achievements.
I’m now 23rd years into my career, I’ve met hundreds of colleagues, yet I know very few ND teachers and even fewer dyslexic ones. My next step is to try and find us all support and recognition so that we can be good role models to ND children. And perhaps inspire the next generation of ND educators.
Reference Dr Kate Griggs ‘ The Creative Brilliance of Dyslexia’ https://www.ted.com/talks/kate_griggs_the_creative_brilliance_of_dyslexia
Whistle-blowers are damn nuisances aren’t they?
Written by Sonia Elmer-Soman
Sonia Elmer-Soman has a background in both law and education. She is a qualified law lecturer and has many years’ experience working as a legal practitioner in two prestigious law firms in the City and now within a reputable law firm local to her home town in Essex. She is also a qualified primary school teacher and is a guest writer for professional journals.
– The Pitfalls of Whistleblowing in UK Schools –
Official figures from the Standards and Testing Agency revealed that 793 maladministration investigations were carried out in 2018 – a rise of more than 50% in two years according to the Independent.
Data compiled and analysed from the Teaching Regulation Agency, shows us that sexually motivated and other inappropriate conduct was the reason for a third of teaching bans between 2013 and 2018.
The charity, Protect, say that between 2020 and 2022 they received the highest number of calls about wrongdoing in the education sector than any other profession. In the majority of cases concerns will have been raised by well- intentioned individuals or, as legislation has it, – Whistle-blowers.
What is whistleblowing?
Whistleblowing occurs when an employee raises a concern about an alleged wrongdoing, including corrupt, illegal or unethical behaviours in a public or private sector organisation. The disclosure must be in the public interest and not for private gain.
Emma Knights, the Chief Executive of the National Governance Association, writes ‘Arguably the need to speak out is important in the education sector, which deals with young and vulnerable people , people to whom there is an overriding duty of care’.
What are the pitfalls faced by whistle-blowers?
In reality, many whistle-blowers say they face micro-aggressions, spurious claims of misconduct, gas-lighting and compromised or lost career opportunities.
Writing for Protect, Louise O’Neill explains how ‘gas-lighting’ involves the whistle-blower being told ‘they have not quite understood the situation’, that what they witnessed is ‘part of a bigger picture’ and that it is they who have ‘failed to fit in’.
O’Neill cites psychologist Doctor Jennifer Freyd (https/www.jjfreyd.com/about-research) when explaining the concept of ‘DARVO’ – Deny, Accuse, Reverse, Victim and Offender. So now the whistle-blower will hear comments as ‘You are intimidating and harassing me’ and ‘Your messages are harassing and hurtful to me’.
Discrimination following whistle-blowing does not end when the whistle-blower leaves the school gates. ‘Work and life intertwine in teaching’, ‘with threads running into and over other threads’.
Whistle-blowers may never have come across the term and it is not a particularly helpful one. They may not know that a school has a whistle-blowing policy and there are strict guidelines to follow.
There is no legal aid available for whistle-blowers and legal advice can be expensive. Furthermore, what falls within the arena of a protected disclosure can be confusing.
The All Party Parliamentary Group believes that legislation is no longer ‘fit for purpose’. They are seeking a revised definition of whistle-blowing to include ‘any harmful violation of integrity and ethics’, even when not criminal or illegal.
Mis-stepping.
Without access to legal advice before, during and after whistle-blowing, it is likely that a whistle-blower will find themselves having to evidence concerns, mend reputational damage and deal with resulting treatment, causing them to mis-step in the process or face detriment even when they have followed due process.
For instance, a professional couple were forced out of their jobs from a school in the south of England for exposing ‘systematic exam malpractice’. Rianna Croxford. ‘Whistleblowers: We spoke out and lost our jobs’. (15th July 2019) BBC News. (bbc.co.uk).
It is a failing in the system that claims of unfavourable treatment following whistleblowing are commonly dealt with under an internal grievance policy. This means that the organisation whom concerns have been raised against, is then in charge of determining the outcome.
In one case, a SEN teacher lost her job when a panel found she had stood on a pupil’s foot while he screamed, pushed a pupil down when he tried to get up and shouted and screamed at children. However, the teaching assistant who raised concern was ostracised and ultimately dismissed from her position.
Laura Fatah, Policy Officer of Protect writes “The problem of accessing justice when you’ve lost your job, have no lawyer, and are facing a strong armed employer is sadly all too familiar’.
Croxford reports only 3% of the 1,369 employment tribunal cases brought in connection with test maladministration between 2017 and 2018 were successful according to Government figures. A report by the University of Greenwich found that when examining employment tribunal outcomes between 2015-2018, women who whistle-blow are less likely to be represented or succeed.
What are the challenges and benefits of whistle-blowing for leadership?
School leaders perform a delicate balancing act in protecting all stakeholders including the rights of individual(s) whom claims are made against.
Dealing with concerns effectively can demonstrate an appetite for improvement, minimise the risk of more serious breaches, enhance structural practices, increase productivity, retain vital skills and encourage the best applicants.
Failing to listen and investigate concerns can result in reputational damage and time lost in defending claims and resulting legal proceedings.
Perhaps the worst injustice, however, is to the very people to whom there is an overriding duty of care and for whom the vast majority of staff work tirelessly to educate and safeguard – the children. Every child Matters. Every school day matters. Every year group matters.
Let’s Fix It.
Protect is seeking to reform the law so that whistle-blowers have access to greater legal support and guidance, while Baroness Kramer’s Bill introducing an Office of the Whistle-blower is working its way through the House of Lords. Schools which are geared up to deal with concerns effectively, will already be ahead of the curve whatever future changes in law and practice may follow.
How can leadership teams engage effectively with whistle-blowers?
- Look and interpret facts and patterns. Have concerns been raised before?
- Containing a situation is not the same as dealing with it.
- Do not make the whistle-blower do your job. Whistle-blowers are witnesses/messengers, not investigators.
- Maintain confidentiality.
- Avoid impromptu, unrepresented meetings.
- Avoid polarising individuals, as this serves only to distract from the original concern.
- Create a safe environment in which stakeholders can voluntarily disclose mistakes/breaches.
- Roll out training on your School’s whistle-blowing policy.
- Embed a culture of honesty.
- Imagine potential harm if an individual turned the other cheek to something they knew to be wrong, because they have seen how a previous whistle-blower was treated.
- Consider whether it is appropriate to have staff and Governors as eg, Facebook “Friends”, who have access to and are commenting on every aspect of your personal life.
- Look around your School. Who sits on your leadership team and at the table of the Board of Governors? Is diversity reflected anywhere? Lack of such can lead to conformity of thought and exclusion in dealing with concerns.
What can whistle-blowers do to mitigate loss?
- Consult with a Solicitor, the CAB, ACAS or speak with Protect or WhistleblowerUK before you raise the concern and harness that support going forward.
- Read the whistle-blowing policy before raising a concern.
- Be clear what and why you are raising a concern.
- Ensure meetings are scheduled, recorded and you are represented.
- Be realistic. Potentially harmful cultures are rarely remedied by one person/small group particularly if lower down in the hierarchy.
- Avoid Colluding with other colleagues/witnesses. Others may speak up or they may not. Be prepared to go it alone.
- Be patient. Potentially harmful cultures will take time to unpick if found to be present.
- Do not sign any document (eg, NDA) without getting legal advice.
- Check in with your mental wellbeing. The institution will stand long after you have gone. If there isn’t the vision for change, you alone are not responsible for it.
‘Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is watching’ (C.S. Lewis)
Against the backdrop of a system that is largely autonomous and results driven, structures and procedures can become ethical quagmires and a perfect storm for conflict.
Protect asks us to hold each-other to account courageously. Indeed, there is a moral imperative to do so.
‘School leaders can find themselves in uncomfortable positions’, but by working together ‘the best leaders will use the experience as a catalyst for change’.
Flour on my Face
Written by Siya Twani
I am a Motivational Speaker who speaks in schools and businesses, on Diversity, Equality & Inclusion, Resilience and Mental toughness.
My name is Siya and I speak in schools and businesses across the country and internationally. Like Nelson Mandela I am a man who stuck my neck out like a giraffe and spoke up against the Apartheid regime. This resulted in me being arrested, tortured, and put in prison for four years. I have a lived experience of facing, the odds, and reinvented myself by defying the regime in letting my voice be heard and recognised as co-equal. The struggle for belonging has been my life long struggle. I went to prison because I wanted to create a South Africa and a world where all of us as human beings can experience the joy of belonging, not just some but ALL OF US TOGETHER.
Our children are dual heritage. My children have struggled with belonging and acceptance or not being accepted for who you are.
My youngest son is Sipho. When he was about nine years old, Sipho and Megan were friends at primary school and one Friday after school Sipho went to play with Megan at her house. On collecting Sipho I noticed that he was covered in white powder, before I could enquire Megan said, ‘Look Siya I made Sipho white like me.’ I said, ‘That is so lovely Megan’, as she was just an innocent child, wanting a friend to look like her. All Megan’s dolls were white and so thought because all her world is white therefore Sipho as friend needed to be white. It was an innocent gesture and attempt of acceptance and inclusion. She wanted Sipho not to feel different.
Now fast forward to when we moved from Essex to Edinburgh. Now in Edinburgh one beautiful summer’s day, I decided to take my three beautiful children to a park to play on the swings at a local park. As we entered through the gate, myself and my children were subjected to racial abuse, called monkeys and told to get out of her you are dirty, you brown people. They taunted my children. They went on to say, ’You are not welcome here’, and my children broke down in tears. I approached these ignorant white kids who were never exposed to a people of different colour or background. They all ran out of the park. Three of the older teens came back to the park to apologise. I then took that opportunity to educate these young people and expand their horizons. I asked them, can you imagine what it must feel like being spat at, called names, being bullied all because I was different? Can you imagine the power of your words, attitudes, and behaviours towards my children? I went to ask them. One day how would they feel if their own children were subjected to racial trauma and abuse. They were stunned and all they did they kept apologising and their apology was accepted as I said to them. it takes a strong person to apologise for their mistakes.
I wish I could say that was the last time that my three little children were subjected to racial trauma and abuse. That incident is stuck in their minds as they often reminisce about it and how big daddy protected then form those empty-headed idiots.
In writing this blog I do not want you anyone of you as readers the impression that either myself or my children had persecution complex. It was our daily bread” our daily experience of being a dual heritage family in predominantly white village just outside of Edinburgh, called Black Hall and by the very nature of the demographics was predominantly white.
My daughter who was then 10 and my son who was then 8 were the only dual heritage children in the whole school. Again, the demon of racism that taunted me growing up in South Africa was now tormenting and terrorising my children and impacting on their mental health and wellbeing. I remember my daughter having cultural and racial identity crisis. One day she locked herself in the bathroom bleached herself because she wanted to be white like all the other kids in the school. She took the scissors and cut her hair off because it was not blond like her mums and the kids in the school. These two stories of my children’s lived experience and their struggle of belonging or not belonging is a real one to this very day. When people see my children, they don’t see white people first they say black children because they are not “pure white” like everybody else around them.
To this day my children live with this creative tension that, for white people they will never be white enough and for black people they will never be black enough. They are in no man’s land. I went to prison in South Africa so my children and my grandchildren could experience the joy of belonging and not have to go through what I went through because of racially divided South Africa. Not so long ago in this country there were signs in the 60s saying, No blacks, no Irish, no gay, no Jews and no dogs.
It was Dr Martin Luther King in his famous speech ‘I have a dream’……. who said, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin, but by the content of their character.” The question I ask myself is …why should they be judged in the first place whether they are black, white gay or not gay, trans or not, short, or tall?
The incident I related above of those young people in the park. They did not realise the impact of their words, attitudes, behaviour and the racial trauma my children suffered as the result of their ignorance. Because really, racism is a child of ignorance. They did not know how it would make my children feel for the rest of their lives. ‘Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me’ those words cut deep into the psyche of my children, and profoundly affected their mental health, wellbeing and sense of belonging.
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” ― Maya Angelou
My passion is to educate, empower and expand young people’s horizons about Diversity & Inclusion That is why I speak in schools and delivery inclusion and diversity workshops and promoting mutual respect. Celebrating diversity and not seeing diversity as a threat but as a strength that unites all human beings. Because there’s only one Race …The human Race.
In my culture we do not have the concept of stranger danger. Every is potential friend or a friend you haven’t met yet. The word for community in Zulu is Umphakathi meaning we are together on the inside. No one is excluded or marginalised, picked on, we all experience the sense of belonging to one another.
In the stage play and movie HIGH SCHOOL Musical : After Gabriella and Troy successfully perform their song (“Breaking Free”), Ms. Darbus gives them the lead roles, making Sharpay and Ryan understudies. Both teams win their respective competitions, and the entire school gathers in the gym to celebrate (“We’re All In This Together”). Chad asks Taylor out, and Sharpay makes peace with Gabriella. We need to be curious, embrace, celebrate diversity and respect differences and not see differences as threat but as a strength.
This is what drives me into schools because as Nelson Mandela said, “Education is the most powerful weapon with which we can change the world”.
As a passionate, engaging educator I have moral obligation to educate, empower and enthuse young people to make this world a better place to live in.
Instead of putting flour on my face… let’s put flowers in each child’s life so they can thrive.
“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.” – Nelson Mandela