Over the past couple of years I’ve been working with educational institutions, such as Multi Academy Trusts to diversify their workforce and create more inclusive working environments for teaching staff, middle and senior leaders.
They rightly identified the lack of diversity in their schools and senior management teams as a big problem and a problem that’s been there for decades. Most importantly they acknowledged that there’s no quick fix and the challenge cannot be solved in one academic term.
Their reasons for working with All-in Education have focused on seeing the imperative to have a representative staff body to ensure their diverse student body can see themselves in their teachers and school leaders, and also a desire to be more inclusive to benefit from the huge value that a diverse workforce can bring to an organisation when it comes to productivity, innovation and better outcomes overall.
Because of the recent events in the United States with the brutal murder of George Floyd and the global reactions to racism, I’ve been approached by numerous education institutions who feel bewildered about what to do next. However, a common denominator is that that they want diversity training. It is hugely promising that so many are now reacting, but I’d urge caution and take an evidenced based approach to ensure any interventions are impactful.
Let me be clear, a training session can form part of the response but no organisation or individual will become anti-racist, anti-sexist or anti-homophobic by attending a standalone diversity training session. If you panic into this work you’ll soon see that you’ll panic out of it.
Diversity and inclusion work requires grit, stamina, resilience, self-reflection (both individually and organisationally) and sometimes difficult decision-making. If your Multi Academy Trust, Local Authority, Teaching School Alliance or individual school is ready for this then I believe you’ll have a fighting chance to create the change that education so desperately needs.
Start by asking yourself: ‘what is it that I want to achieve, on the back of becoming aware of the Black Lives Matter movement and the inequalities that black people face in your school community?’.
All-in Education which I head up with Louise Ishani, a former senior leader in education, have open and honest conversations with education leaders about how they can best start their journey into this. We have set out our approach on our website, we would encourage you to take a look and we would welcome a conversation.