This NFER review of research identifies the barriers and promising approaches to support recruitment, retention and progression of people of colour within the teaching workforce.
Despite being over-represented among applicants for initial teacher training (ITT), people of colour are considerably under-represented in teaching. Some 60% of schools in England had an all-White teaching staff in 2021/22 and this is even more pronounced at senior level (with 86% of schools in England having an all-White senior leadership team).
A key factor in the lack of ethnic diversity in teaching is the low acceptance rates of ethnic minority pplicants onto ITT programmes compared with their White peers. While the reasons behind this disparity are not clear, there are two main areas of speculation in the literature: one suggestion is that White candidates have higher qualifications or more relevant experience; another suggestion is that there are some underlying sources of bias in favour of White applicants.
Retention is also significantly lower for teachers of colour than for their White peers. Beyond high workload, often cited reasons for leaving include (1) overt and covert racial discrimination from staff, pupils and parents; (2) disillusionment with their ability to make a difference for pupils from ethnic minority backgrounds; and (3) a lack of opportunities for progression.
The barriers to achieving ethnic diversity in the teaching workforce coalesce around the unequal treatment of teachers of colour in a system that was not designed with diversity in mind. To capitalise on the fact that people of colour are increasingly encouraged to enter teaching there must be complementary actions to support teachers of colour already in the profession to progress in their careers.