We know that there is a scarcity of BAME leaders in our schools. Whilst just under 30% of pupils of secondary school age and just over 30% of pupils of primary school age are from Black And Minority Ethnic backgrounds, the proportion of BAME teachers is under 15% while the proportion of senior leaders in schools remains under 10% (for details see DfE 2017(a) and (b)). This disproportion between the ethnicity of pupils, particularly in urban schools, compared to the ethnicity of their teachers and school leaders deserves to be more fully researched.
A review of the school leadership landscape (Earley et al.,) concluded that the chances of making it to senior leadership were lower for all ethnic minority groups compared to White British, endorsing the findings of earlier research, for example, Bush et al, (2006). The government has recognised the need to intervene, identifying professional development for leadership related to equality and diversity as one of the priority policy themes to be supported in the latest £75 million Teaching and Leadership Innovation Fund (DfE. 2016).
Gunter (2006, p. 166) identifies the purposes of research as:
- Technical where the researcher’s purpose is to log what is taking place.
- Illuminative where the researcher attempts to interpret the meaning of what is taking place.
- Critical where the aim of the research is to question the power relationships within the activity taking place.
- Practical in that the research is intended to look for ways of improving.
- Positional which aligns the research with particular knowledge claims.
We need to know more about what is taking place with regard to the progression of BAME teachers and we need interpretations of what this means. We also need to question the power relationships involved and look for ways to improve the situation as well as furthering understanding of the underlying political standpoints.
More research about BAME leadership is needed to achieve all of these purposes. There have been many valuable and insightful small projects which it would be invidious to attempt to list here. However, at present, the single biggest relevant study remains that undertaken by Bush, Glover and Sood (2006) funded by what was then the National College of School Leadership (NCSL). This national research project incorporated a survey, case studies and an extensive literature review. The report that emerged was revealing but called for more; ‘research with BME teachers to establish their leadership aspirations and their experience in seeking to advance their careers.’
It is indicative of the paucity of published research in the area of ethnicity and educational leadership that, in 2012, (the year of the fortieth anniversary of the British Educational Leadership, Management and Administration Society (BELMAS)), a review of the articles relating to diversity in the previous 40 years of their journal, Educational Management Administration and Leadership, identified only one on ethnicity (MacKay and Etienne, 2006) out of around 50 articles on aspects of diversity (Coleman, 2012). Hopefully, the establishment of a research interest group on race within BELMAS will prove a positive step towards an increase in research and publications on ethnicity and educational leadership in the future, and I wish Professor Paul Miller and Dr Christine Callender every success in leading this initiative.