Earlier this week, Katharine Birbalsingh, the founder and headteacher of Michaela School, caused a mini-Twitter storm when she tweeted that she would like to have a black police officer come to her school “to dispel the myths around police racism”. 

As she put it simply: “A black policeman is the best person to talk about being black and being a policeman and the issues of racism in the police.”

For Birbalsingh, the reason is obvious: it’s about role-modelling. Just as girls would look up to women for pursuing a career in a profession such as science or technology, where women are under-represented, so too ethnic-minority children would increase in confidence from hearing from a professional from a similar background to their own.

Her critics have made two major arguments, which go to the heart of educational practice. 

Shaky foundations

First, Birbalsingh’s claim seems to go against what the best of a liberal education should be about. One of the first logical fallacies any student learns about is the ad hominem, where someone attacks the person speaking, rather than the argument they’re making. 

In a good liberal education, we should be trained to think about the substance of the argument itself, irrelevant of who is making it. There are facts to learn about alleged police racism, and so surely it doesn’t matter who we learn those facts from. 

Indeed, many of those concerned about today’s ever-widening divides observe that resorting to ad hominem attacks - unsurprisingly rampant among politicians - indicates poor thinking and shaky foundations for one’s own beliefs.

Second, is it really true, as a supporter of Birbalsingh claims, that “only a black police officer can say what it’s like to be a black police officer”?

For example, in 2017, the popular author Anthony Horowitz was warned off including a black character in his book, because it was deemed “inappropriate” for a white writer. This is because being black is outside the experience of white men. 

As Horowitz responded: “Taking it to the extreme, all my characters will from now be 62-year-old white Jewish men living in London.”

‘I am human’

As any lover of literature knows, many great writers have captured the lives and experiences of characters nothing like their own. From Thomas Hardy and EM Forster’s memorable female leads to William Styron’s understanding of the Jewish-American experience in post-war New York in Sophie’s Choice, we would surely be the poorer if we didn’t aspire to understand, learn and write about the other.

As Terence, the Roman-African playwright, declared: “I am human, and I think nothing human is alien to me.”

Yet Birsbalsingh does make an important observation, which is supported by the evidence. In response to her critics, she tweeted: “They would prefer I had a decorated white policeman - as if that would have any impact on the kids!”

While liberal educational theory (a little like capitalist economic theory) would like us to think that we are or can become homo economicus - purely rational beings - this is simply a myth. Groundbreaking studies in behavioural economics show that in reality, we don’t make our choices based on reason. 

The way we present the facts

As teachers, we must recognise that the way we present the facts will affect the way our students think about the issue at hand. Hidden forces shape our decision-making processes, and neutrality just isn’t an option. 

In fact, psychology professor Dan Ariely, in his book Predictably Irrational, goes as far as to suggest that the notion that we make our decisions based on reason or evidence is itself indoctrination.

For example, studies show that, if we put healthy foods in a prominent position in a canteen, students will be more likely to choose those options rather than go for the cakes and chocolates. Those in charge of school lunches would be silly not to arrange the food options accordingly.

So too in the classroom. Nudge theory insists that the education that teachers offer should be “choice-enhancing” - or at least not choice-restricting. Birbalsingh is surely right in pointing to the impact that “choice architecture” - the way that options are presented - will have on our students’ decision-making processes. 

In a highly emotive subject like police racism - especially against the backdrop of Black Lives Matter, where many students are sceptical of specific sources of information - a teacher should act sensibly in order not to restrict their understanding, but rather to enhance their exposure to competing ideas.

The sciences of human nature

Another important area of consideration is climate-change denial. Many argue that those who oppose the overwhelming scientific consensus that humans are contributing to global warming are simply ignorant and unaware of the facts. Simply “educate” them and they will change their minds.

Yet Dan Kahan, a Yale law professor who developed the theory of cultural cognition, has shown that climate-change sceptics are as well-versed in the science as climate realists. 

Moreover, data shows that any education that aims to reinforce the global-warming message will only backfire and reinforce the climate-change sceptics’ viewpoint. As Kahan observed: “Individuals, as a result of a complex of psychological mechanisms, tend to form perceptions of societal risks that cohere with values characteristic of groups with which they identify.”

Therefore, just like Birbalsingh’s search for a black police officer to reassure black children, psychology professor Steven Pinker has suggested that climate realists would be better off “recruiting conservative and libertarian commentators who have been convinced by the evidence and are willing to share their concern...than recruiting more scientists to speak more slowly and more loudly.”

We can go further and say that even the language we use will be decisive in how we teach those students who are prejudicial towards an opposing view. 

For climate-change sceptics who come from a traditional culture, environment protection could be couched in terms of the importance of conservation and looking after God’s creation. 

Similarly, for children from minority groups, recognition of their experiences and how they may affect their outlook will help create for a more inclusive educational environment.

By drawing on the latest findings in the sciences of human nature, we can help develop a more realistic and informed teaching experience.

Glenn Y Bezalel is assistant head (academic enrichment) at a North London secondary, and is working on a PhD on the pedagogy of controversy