Originally published here.

Four weeks into his tenure as education secretary, Nadhim Zahawi was speaking at the NAHT school leaders' union conference when he was asked what he thought about the diversity of the teaching profession in England.

His response was clear: "I want us to make sure that we continue to encourage more Black and ethnic minority candidates into the profession," he said.

For some, it would have felt like a typically political statement: claim the situation is improving ("continue to encourage") when it was doing nothing of the sort. After all, calls for more Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) representation are frequent and the frustration of many BAME teachers at a lack of action from the government to tackle this issue is growing.

But whether Zahawi realised it or not, his claim that progress was in motion actually holds some truth.

A few months before that speech, the latest Initial Teacher Training Census data from the Department for Education (DfE) revealed that 21 per cent of postgraduate trainees declared they belonged to a minority ethnic group.

In real terms, this meant of 27,713 postgraduate trainees in the 2021-22 academic year who declared their ethnicity (from an overall total of 31,233), 5,720 said they were from an ethnic minority background, broken down as follows:

Asian ethnicity: 3,052

Black ethnicity: 1,233

Mixed ethnicity: 950

Other ethnicity: 485

The data marked six years of growth in ITT diversity data, having risen by around a percentage point each year since the 2015-16 ITT census, when it was just 14 per cent. It's a notable rise and the DfE is claiming much of the credit.

It says it "made diversity a feature" of its recruitment and retention strategy three years ago, and it is "investing in programmes that support all teachers to develop and progress their careers".

Of course, that alone hasn't shifted the situation. Elsewhere, numerous teacher training institutions have publicly discussed efforts they have made to improve diversity in their ITT offerings, such as Ark Teacher Training, Manchester Metropolitan University and Teach First.

And Emma Hollis, executive director of the National Association of School-Based Teacher Trainers (NASBTT), says school-based training providers, and her own organisation, have undertaken a "renewed focus" on racial inequality to boost BAME recruitment over the past few years.

"We've made diversity and inclusion a key part of our past two annual conferences, with speakers on the topic and masterclasses for teacher trainers with diversity specialist Hannah Wilson," she adds.

Katrin Sredzki-Seamer, director of the National Modern Languages School Centred Initial Teacher Training (SCITT), agrees that work in this area has become a priority in the past few years.

"We have looked at our marketing materials, application and interview processes, and in-training support to ensure that trainees from BAME communities - and, indeed, also our foreign nationals - are supported and their needs are considered and addressed."

Ann-Marie Bahaire, director of ITT at the Surrey South Farnham SCITT at South Farnham Educational Trust (SFET), says they are also seeing focus on this area starting to have an impact.

"We've tried to increase [our BAME recruitment] because our average over the past few years was five or six per cent [of intake], which is really low compared to nationally, and our current cohort still follows that trend."

"But our [BAME] recruitment for 2022-23 has increased to 13 per cent, which is quite pleasing."

All this suggests that there is not one single cause for this rise but rather that a raft of initiatives across the sector have combined to drive diversity over the past six years. Not only that but, if the data from the likes of SFET is replicated elsewhere, we could see another year of growth in this area of ITT national data for 2022-23.

Numbers only one side of the story

So, is it just a case of sitting back and watching diversity in our schools improve?

Not quite. Because while the data sounds positive, some are wary of putting too much stock in it.

"It doesn't necessarily mean that things are getting better in the sector," says Dr Malcolm Cocks, an English teacher who is head of inclusion at St Paul's School and set up the Black Teachers' Network within the African Caribbean Education Network (ACEN). 

He notes that the economic disruption caused by the pandemic has to be considered within the ITT numbers for the past two years. "There's a scarcity of reliable jobs and teaching is a profession that offers some security," he adds.

You can read the complete article here.

Originally published here.

Four weeks into his tenure as education secretary, Nadhim Zahawi was speaking at the NAHT school leaders' union conference when he was asked what he thought about the diversity of the teaching profession in England.

His response was clear: "I want us to make sure that we continue to encourage more Black and ethnic minority candidates into the profession," he said.

For some, it would have felt like a typically political statement: claim the situation is improving ("continue to encourage") when it was doing nothing of the sort. After all, calls for more Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) representation are frequent and the frustration of many BAME teachers at a lack of action from the government to tackle this issue is growing.

But whether Zahawi realised it or not, his claim that progress was in motion actually holds some truth.

A few months before that speech, the latest Initial Teacher Training Census data from the Department for Education (DfE) revealed that 21 per cent of postgraduate trainees declared they belonged to a minority ethnic group.

In real terms, this meant of 27,713 postgraduate trainees in the 2021-22 academic year who declared their ethnicity (from an overall total of 31,233), 5,720 said they were from an ethnic minority background, broken down as follows:

Asian ethnicity: 3,052

Black ethnicity: 1,233

Mixed ethnicity: 950

Other ethnicity: 485

The data marked six years of growth in ITT diversity data, having risen by around a percentage point each year since the 2015-16 ITT census, when it was just 14 per cent. It's a notable rise and the DfE is claiming much of the credit.

It says it "made diversity a feature" of its recruitment and retention strategy three years ago, and it is "investing in programmes that support all teachers to develop and progress their careers".

Of course, that alone hasn't shifted the situation. Elsewhere, numerous teacher training institutions have publicly discussed efforts they have made to improve diversity in their ITT offerings, such as Ark Teacher Training, Manchester Metropolitan University and Teach First.

And Emma Hollis, executive director of the National Association of School-Based Teacher Trainers (NASBTT), says school-based training providers, and her own organisation, have undertaken a "renewed focus" on racial inequality to boost BAME recruitment over the past few years.

"We've made diversity and inclusion a key part of our past two annual conferences, with speakers on the topic and masterclasses for teacher trainers with diversity specialist Hannah Wilson," she adds.

Katrin Sredzki-Seamer, director of the National Modern Languages School Centred Initial Teacher Training (SCITT), agrees that work in this area has become a priority in the past few years.

"We have looked at our marketing materials, application and interview processes, and in-training support to ensure that trainees from BAME communities - and, indeed, also our foreign nationals - are supported and their needs are considered and addressed."

Ann-Marie Bahaire, director of ITT at the Surrey South Farnham SCITT at South Farnham Educational Trust (SFET), says they are also seeing focus on this area starting to have an impact.

"We've tried to increase [our BAME recruitment] because our average over the past few years was five or six per cent [of intake], which is really low compared to nationally, and our current cohort still follows that trend."

"But our [BAME] recruitment for 2022-23 has increased to 13 per cent, which is quite pleasing."

All this suggests that there is not one single cause for this rise but rather that a raft of initiatives across the sector have combined to drive diversity over the past six years. Not only that but, if the data from the likes of SFET is replicated elsewhere, we could see another year of growth in this area of ITT national data for 2022-23.

Numbers only one side of the story

So, is it just a case of sitting back and watching diversity in our schools improve?

Not quite. Because while the data sounds positive, some are wary of putting too much stock in it.

"It doesn't necessarily mean that things are getting better in the sector," says Dr Malcolm Cocks, an English teacher who is head of inclusion at St Paul's School and set up the Black Teachers' Network within the African Caribbean Education Network (ACEN). 

He notes that the economic disruption caused by the pandemic has to be considered within the ITT numbers for the past two years. "There's a scarcity of reliable jobs and teaching is a profession that offers some security," he adds.

You can read the complete article here.