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‘Benign racism’ is blighting the profession, Scottish teachers warn

‘Benign racism’ is blighting the profession, Scottish teachers warn

Research highlights ‘critically low’ proportion of black and ethnic teachers in Scottish cities

12th May 2017, 12:01am

New findings show the stark underrepresentation of teachers from black and ethnic minority backgrounds in some of Scotland’s biggest cities, amid concerns that “benign racism” is blighting the profession.

Research by the Coalition for Racial Equality and Rights (CRER) highlights the “critically low” proportion of BME (black and minority ethnic) staff in education posts in the four councils with the largest proportions of BME residents: Glasgow (pictured), Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dundee.

In Glasgow - where 12 per cent of residents are from a BME background - only 3 per cent of teaching job applicants in 2016 were BME.

The CRER figures also show that, in Dundee in 2014, 6 per cent of residents were BME, but candidates from BME backgrounds made up 1.3 per cent of applicants to the education department; none were offered jobs.

The evidence is being submitted to the Scottish Parliament as part of an ongoing inquiry into teacher workforce planning by its education and skills committee.

CRER director Jatin Haria said that “something happens at the interview stage”, with possible factors including outright racism and “benign racism” - for example, a feeling that BME people should be protected from “racist treatment from kids”.

It was also possible that BME interviewees interviewed less well - perhaps for cultural reasons such as discomfort with eye contact, he said. The figures for education were similar to other parts of the public sector, Mr Haria said. However, the CRER sees it as particularly critical for schools to address the problem.

Mr Haria said teaching was one of two professions with “power over people’s lives” where it is crucial to have more BME staff - the other being the police.

Having more black teachers would increase role models for black pupils and encourage more of them to choose teaching as a career, he added.

Andrea Bradley, assistant secretary at the EIS teaching union, said it was “very concerned” at the under-representation of people from BME backgrounds in the education workforce, particularly in headteacher and deputy posts, where they are “invisible” in government statistics.

Research being undertaken by the union has uncovered:

A teacher with Asian heritage being told ‘we need people like you in the EAL [Englih as an additional language] base
A teacher who wore a hijab being asked for ID when visiting a school to assess student teachers in training, when none of her colleague were asked
One Muslim teacher being asked by a colleague: “So which country would you bomb, then?”

A Scottish government spokeswoman said: “We want BME groups to be better represented in teaching and recently met the Scottish Association of Minority Ethnic Educators, [ethnic minorities umbrella group] Bemis and other groups to get their views on how to make that happen.

“We are also setting up a working group, which will make recommendations around the factors that impact on under-representation in teaching.”

This is an edited version of an article in the 12 May edition of Tes Scotland. Subscribers can read the full story here. To subscribe, click here. To download the digital edition, Android users can click here and iOS users can click here. Tes Scotland magazine is available at all good newsagents.