In his letter James Scott reminds us that, as far back as 1988, a National Foundation for Educational Research-funded study on the treatment European teachers received in schools reached roughly the same conclusions as we did (TES, October 10).
However, whereas the NFER’s advice to these teachers was to “react to pupils’ insults with humour”, it is worth underlining that our recommendations were fundamentally different. Our research (www.sussex.ac.uk usiercfinal_rep_tta.pdf) looked at the wider constituency of British-born Asian and black student teachers as well as those from overseas whose first language was not English andor who came from a significantly different educational culture.
Xenophobic and racist insults are totally unacceptable. We urged a full implementation of the Race Relations Amendment Act and the raising of awareness throughout education of the nature of racism in British society.
Dr Mike Cole
University of Brighton
Falmer, Brighton
Dr Janet Stuart
University of Sussex, Brighton
