How to lead a diversity research group
Written by Jayne Carter
Jayne is the Director of Ignite Education Ltd, providing consultancy for practitioners within the Early Years & Primary sector. She uses coaching a a model for change, facilitating professional conversations which are focused on empowering others & generating growth in knowledge & skills.
As part of the L.E.A.D Teaching School Hub’s extensive offer for EDI, I was invited to lead a diversity research group based on Bennie Kara’s fantastic book: Diversity in Schools. This blog is intended to support others who may wish to run similar groups for teachers and school leaders.
The research group was structured around one session per month for each book chapter. It worked well for each participant to read the focus chapter in preparation for the meeting, to be ready to discuss their reflections and implications for their own practice.
Discussions were facilitated around the key messages included in each chapter with the addition of extra resources focused on the needs of the group.
The aims of the research group included:
- To use research & literature as a tool for school improvement
- To develop a culture of peer-to-peer support & critical analysis
- To implement key strategies & approaches at a whole school level
Some of the attendees wanted to focus on whole school implementation, whereas others wanted to improve their own subject knowledge in preparation to share at school.
Each session included a planned gap task based on the focus of the chapter as well as an individual gap task which was identified by each attendee in order to meet the needs of their school.
For example, the third session focused on the chapter ‘How can we create a diverse classroom?’ Everyone carried out the audit included in the book. Individual gap tasks that were chosen included;
- sharing UNESCO inclusion research with members of their SLT
- exploring the free trial of Lyfta as a whole-school EDI resource
- considering how to organise their seating plan to ensure inclusivity
- evaluating the use of cold calling/trio conversations in their classrooms.
Time was planned into the following sessions to discuss reflections from the individual gap tasks and all resources were included in a workgroup padlet. The padlet worked well to ensure that everyone had constant access to key resources/research. It also provided an effective means of communication between meetings.
Being able to meet frequently with attendees helped me as a workgroup lead to understand the priorities for each school and what was important to them. As the meetings progressed, I was able to structure the sessions to become even more personalised to the group’s needs, with additional research and tools being shared and added to the padlet.
Over the seven sessions, attendees enhanced their EDI improvement plan or developed their own EDI plan. The next steps identified after each chapter supported these improvement plans by providing structure and focus.
During the final session the overall impact of and reflections about the workgroup were collected:
- All attendees found the structure of the workgroup useful as it moved from a training session to meetings which were collaborative and supportive of an action research improvement model.
- Attendees liked the planned gap tasks; especially the opportunity to carry out a shared task, which helped shared discussions but also a gap task which was personalised and prompted change at a school level.
- All attendees noted that the additional resources sourced and added to the padlet were valuable with everyone committing to using the padlet next academic year.
As the workgroup lead, the opportunity to guide attendees into analysing research was valuable as it gave me a useful reminder of day-to-day school priorities. One of my own personal outstanding reflections was the knowledge that the plans developed would be sustained as they had been developed carefully and with the vision of not only what needed to be in place but why.
My thanks to Bennie Kara for creating such an accessible and informative book. I hope that this blog encourages others to lead more reading groups or research groups on diversity in schools across the sector.
LGBTQ+ teachers don’t receive the training and support they need
Written by Dr Adam Brett
Adam has completed a doctorate exploring the experiences of LGBT+ secondary teachers. A presentation of his findings can be found here. He also co-hosts a podcast called Pride and Progress, @PrideProgress, which amplifies the voices of LGBT+ educators, activists and allies.
Originally posted on The Conversation in May 2024:
https://theconversation.com/lgbtq-teachers-dont-receive-the-training-and-support-they-need-228162
Republished with permission of the author.
LGBTQ+ teachers report feeling stressed and even discriminated against in the workplace due to their identity. This is a problem when keeping teachers in their jobs is vital. Teaching is facing a crisis in both recruitment and retention: in 2021-22, more than 39,000 teachers quit the profession.
But there is no formal support or training offered to LGBTQ+ teachers by the Department for Education. Supporting the teaching workforce who identify as LGBTQ+ and making teaching a welcoming profession should be a priority for the government.
For LGBTQ+ teachers, working in UK schools may no longer be the deeply traumatic and dangerous experience it was under Section 28 of the 1988 Local Government Act, which was repealed in 2003. This law sought to ban local authorities and their schools from promoting the acceptability of homosexuality as a “pretended family relationship”.
But LGBTQ+ teaching staff continue to face challenges such as feeling unsafe in their workplace.
Throughout their careers, LGBTQ+ teachers are placed in the difficult position of deciding whether they should conceal or reveal their sexual or gender identity. This is not a decision they are trained to deal with, nor a decision they make just once. It is particularly tricky in schools where teachers must decide if, when, and how to be open with different groups – staff, students, parents, and others involved in school life.
As an LGBTQ+ former teacher, I know first-hand the emotional tax that comes with continuously negotiating LGBT+ visibility and identity within school.
Unsafe spaces
For my doctoral research I worked with 12 LGBTQ+ teachers from a variety of contexts, including faith, private, and single sex schools. The teachers took photos to represent the spaces where they felt most and least safe within their school, and described the significance of their photos.
The teachers changed how they behaved out of fear of being seen as LGBTQ+. They did this in particular in open or visible spaces, such as when on break duty, leading an assembly or in the staffroom.
In these spaces, the LGBTQ+ teachers were fearful of comments or incidents related to their identity that they felt unequipped to deal with. One teacher said:
I give my assemblies quite often, and I don’t hide my sexuality from anybody, so the student body knows that I’m gay … but when I’m doing my assemblies I feel, I feel scared and I don’t know if it’s because I know that they know that I’m gay and therefore, I’m like afraid of them … I don’t know hurling a slur or something.
By contrast, the teachers often described their classrooms as the spaces where they felt most safe. Here, they had created their own routines, relationships and systems.
Among the 12 participants, there were teachers who had been told not to discuss their sexual or gender identity. One teacher told me that they and others had been asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement in a Catholic school: “We weren’t allowed to talk about the fact [that we were gay],” they said.
These are extreme examples. Generally, though, the assumption of heterosexuality in schools can lead to personal questions and situations that LGBTQ+ teachers often feel unequipped to deal with.
Cisgender and heterosexual teachers might be asked about their partners and families and would feel no fear of retribution or backlash in answering those questions. But what might be an entirely unremarkable conversation for a heterosexual teacher might well be deeply fraught for an LGBTQ+ teacher. This can be understood as “heterosexual privilege”.
Despite thousands of the teacher workforce identifying as LGB+, they receive no formal support or training for the challenges that they are likely to experience in their career. Sending LGBTQ+ teachers into schools without adequate support or training will probably lead to these teachers experiencing discrimination and stress.
Some teacher training providers ensure that trainees from minority backgrounds receive training and support to help them face the additional barriers they may experience in schools. However, implementation remains inconsistent.
Future reforms to the Initial Teacher Training and Early Career Framework, which outlines the minimum entitlement for trainee and early career teachers, must reflect these challenges to ensure a minimum and equitable level of provision for LGBTQ+ teachers. If they don’t, fewer LGBTQ+ teachers will enter or remain in the profession. Students and families won’t see themselves represented, and young people won’t be equipped for life in a diverse society.
LGBTQ+ people have the potential to make exceptional teachers and leaders. With the right support, they can thrive in the profession and provide young people with the role models that they desperately need.