The government must mandate anti-racism training for all school staff, a headteachers’ union says.
In a motion brought to the Trades Union Congress (TUC) Black Workers’ Conference today, the NAHT school leaders’ union calls for anti-racism training to become part of Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) guidance.
The motion also says the number of school students studying texts by global majority authors is “abhorrently low” and urges the government’s review of curriculum and assessment to promote more texts by authors from diverse cultures and heritage.
Teachers must directly counteract and challenge negative stereotypes and prejudicial language, the NAHT’s motion adds.
Fighting racism through education
Lorna Matthews, a member of NAHT’s national executive and its Leaders for Race Equality Network, said: “Embedding anti-racism into education from the start is a matter of safeguarding children and society. Children as young as 3 can pick up on racial bias, so all educators must be equipped to balance and counter potentially harmful attitudes.
“If we do not address the mechanics of racism and all othering, we inadvertently give implicit consent, as the unchallenged sharing of racist, sexist, homophobic tropes impacts on how we all think.”
The motion will be voted on by delegates at the conference, which takes place in London from today until 13 April.
It calls for the TUC to further develop its work in lobbying the government for an anti-racist approach to education.
University of Oxford researchers for the Lit in Colour project reported that only 1.5 per cent of GCSE students in England answered on a text by an author of colour in 2023. This was an increase from 2019, when the proportion was only 0.7 per cent, and the rise was solely due to new texts added to exam board Pearson’s specification.
Students who studied the new Pearson texts reported increased engagement in their lessons, and were more likely to report them as relevant to their lives.
Exam boards OCR and AQA have since also added new texts by authors of colour to their specifications.
The curriculum review’s interim report said the next stage of the review will examine where there are opportunities to increase diversity in representation across the curriculum.
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT, said: “Education can play a pivotal role in tackling discrimination, improving awareness and challenging prejudice. But words are not always enough - we need action, too.
“We know that racism and racial inequality continues to exist within the education sector, as it does across society. We are committed, as an organisation, to helping our members actively address this.
“It matters for the health, wellbeing and futures of school leaders, their staff and the pupils and communities that they serve.”
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