Why we must improve teaching’s ethnic diversity – and how

The government has yet to communicate a concrete plan for how it will deliver its pledge to ‘recruit 6,500 more expert teachers’. Our new research points to a vital route to substantially improving recruitment and retention and meeting this ambition.

A recent National Audit Office report noted that the Department for Education (DfE) ‘assesses its confidence in delivering the pledge as significantly challenging given the fiscal context’. Given this challenge, the government should be considering a wide range of low-cost approaches to recruiting and retaining more teachers and improving teacher supply.

Our new report on ethnic disparities in teaching, funded by Sir Lewis Hamilton’s Foundation Mission 44, highlights that improving racial equity could be crucial part of the solution.

At the same time, it would also ensure there are more equal opportunities to access the teaching profession and that it better reflects the diversity of the communities schools serve.

Up to 3,000 lost teachers

The evidence is clear that teaching, and especially school leadership, does not reflect the ethnic diversity in the working-age population, let alone in the even more diverse school-age population.

However, the ethnic diversity of applicants to teacher training is high, which presents a golden opportunity to increase representation.

Despite this, applicants from ethnic minority backgrounds experience higher rejection rates from Initial Teacher Training (ITT) courses than their white counterparts.

If UK-domiciled applicants to postgraduate teacher training from ethnic minority backgrounds were accepted onto training courses at the same rate as their white counterparts, the system would train around 2,000 more teachers per year.

Our analysis indicates that some of this gap – up to 600 teachers – is down to other underlying differences in characteristics between teachers in different ethnic groups, such as age, socio-economic background and region.

Also, these ethnic disparities should be interpreted with some caution given limitations with the currently available data. It is not possible to ascertain the proportion of applicants that were below the quality standards set by ITT providers (e.g. lacking required qualifications).

Nonetheless, addressing even a proportion of these disparities would mean more teachers in training and more representative flows of new teachers.

There are significant ethnic disparities in retention too. Retaining ethnic minority teachers in the state-funded sector at the same rate as their white counterparts could retain an additional 1,000 teachers per year.

Again, addressing these disparities would mean more teachers in schools and a more ethnically representative teacher workforce.

How to close the gaps

The government should embrace this agenda as an opportunity for positive change. While many of the levers sit with schools, the DfE can be more proactive in encouraging ITT providers, schools and trusts to adopt more inclusive practices.

The DfE should embed equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) within its programme frameworks and within selection criteria for appointing providers, including across ITT, the early career framework, national professional qualifications and teaching school hubs.

ITT providers and school and trust leaders should audit and evaluate their selection criteria and processes for EDI, identifying where reflection and professional development can improve them.

Our research also provides new insights into ethnic disparities in promotion to senior leadership, where ethnic representation is lowest.

Teachers from Asian and black ethnic backgrounds have a significantly higher intention to apply for promotion than their white counterparts, even after controlling for differences in other characteristics.

This suggests that the disparities in progression rates found in our previous research were not due to a lack of interest in promotion and were more likely to reflect a lack of opportunity or inequitable treatment in decision-making.

School and trust leaders should develop pathways to actively support ethnically diverse teachers who are interested in promotion, such as coaching, shadowing or promoting leadership training opportunities.

Equality improvements to recruitment and promotion processes must also be accompanied by a genuine commitment to inclusion. School and trust leaders as well as trustees and governors should provide ongoing support for ethnically diverse leaders to retain them and facilitate continued growth.

It was encouraging to see last week’s commitment from the government to collaborate with Mission 44 to recruit and retain teachers “that represent the communities they serve”.

Making strides now to reduce ethnic disparities in progression between applicants and teachers of different ethnic groups would support the government’s goal of increasing the number of teachers, the quality of teaching and, most importantly, equity.