Why are Black and Global Majority teachers underrepresented at all stages in teaching? How can the teacher and leader workforce be more representative of the diversity of the pupil community?
This is an extract from the Teaching Commission Report, Shaping the Future of Teaching, July 2025
Addressing the teacher recruitment and retention crisis demands that we acknowledge the experiences of Global Majority teachers and leaders. Government data from June last year shows that 37.4% of primary and 36.6% of secondary school pupils are from minority ethnic backgrounds yet only 10% of teachers identified as being from Black, Asian or Mixed Heritage backgrounds. The teaching workforce should better represent the diversity of the pupil intake in our schools.
NFER research (Ethnic Diversity in the Workforce, 2024) found that while people from Asian, Black, mixed, and other ethnic backgrounds are over-represented in initial teacher training (ITT) applications, they are disproportionately likely to be rejected. This higher incidence of rejection continues throughout their careers, as is reflected in their under-representation in promoted posts.
Despite this clear trend, there is no system-wide approach to tackling racial inequities in education.
‘Race to the Top’ is a commitment to justice. Real progress means embedding racial equity into every policy, training programme and practice, so that the priorities of our profession reflect and uplift the experiences of Black and Global Majority pupils and educators. Putting race at the top means building an education system and a teaching workforce that truly values and serves all children. Racial justice is not a special interest. It is a safeguarding issue. It is a care issue and it is a societal responsibility.
Institutional silence
In giving their evidence to the Commission, Professors Vini Lander and Heather J. Smith along with Alison Wiggins highlighted a systemic failure to address racism at policy levels. This significantly impacts recruitment, retention, and racial literacy within the profession.
Key policies such as the teacher standards, the Initial Teacher Training Early Career Framework (ITTECF) and the inspection framework all fail to mention race, racism, or anti-racism. As Professor Smith noted, “absences in social policy betray and authorise symbolic value regarding what is and is not important.” This omission signals to institutions that racism is not a priority, making it less likely to be addressed.
Racism is often framed as an individual issue rather than a structural one, meaning systemic barriers remain unchallenged.
Prejudiced from the Start
Global Majority trainees frequently experience racism and microaggressions during their training, including being treated as second-class citizens, subjected to harmful assumptions, and having their experiences dismissed. Some Global Majority trainees experience racist incidents in their school placements only to be told by course tutors that nothing can be done and that it is “part of the experience.”
If new entrants to the profession are treated this way, it is no surprise that long-serving Global Majority teachers experience similar discrimination, hindering their career progression. The issue is not a shortage of Global Majority teachers but a system that fails to support and retain them.
The burden of illiteracy
Teachers and leaders from Black and Global Majority groups bear the burden of exposing and challenging racism—an exhausting and often thankless job. Despite decades of data showing the persistent underrepresentation of Global Majority teachers and leaders, the profession has failed to tackle the issue in a meaningful way.
Over a quarter of Black and Global Majority teachers (28%) reported workplace discrimination as a major source of stress, three times the rate of white teachers. https://neu.org.uk/latest/library/black-teachers-pay-and-progression-report.
Professor Lander highlighted that the underrepresentation of Global Majority teachers has been a “pervasive and perpetual issue for at least 40 years.” Why this has been tolerated for at least 40 years, and why institutional racism in teaching and Initial Teacher Training remain unaddressed are fundamental questions for the profession. Simply put, our profession cannot afford to privilege whiteness. Challenging this requires white teachers and leaders to recognise their role as allies and advocates. This notion was also reinforced by Fellows and Members at a Chartered College of Teaching roundtable in March 2025.
Racism in ITT must be tackled, and projects like the one led by The Chartered College of Teaching, Chiltern Learning Trust and Being Luminary, funded by Mission 44, do just that. With the goal of increasing the proportion of Global Majority teachers, they are working with School Centred Initial Teacher Training (SCITT) providers and school placements to provide expert coaching and personalised antiracism training to identify and address the explicit and implicit racism that ITT applicants and trainees may face. The project also aims to provide racial literacy training for schools, ITT providers and Higher Education Institutions to consider their marketing and recruitment practices.
Rethinking representation: addressing structural barriers to leadership
Representation matters but it cannot be performative or tokenistic for educators as well as the young people we serve. Diversity in school leadership is powerful for the children and young people as well as for the recruitment and retention of Black and Global Majority teachers.
Even when diverse leaders achieve leadership roles, they are often the minority or the only one. Being the only person from a minority ethnic group is an emotional and professional burden. The emotional labour of being a role model, managing microaggressions and repeatedly proving legitimacy cannot fall solely on Black and Global Majority colleagues. This underrepresentation is not a pipeline issue, it is a structural one as the current system of access and progression is not meritocratic.
Reclaiming space: building a future where Global Majority educators thrive
The responsibility for this does not and cannot lie with Global Majority teachers. They are not missing from the ranks of applicants. They are dealing with systemic barriers that exclude them from the profession and hamper their opportunities to thrive. We must address the daily microaggressions, career roadblocks and institutional failures that perpetuate
this situation. Without immediate and sustained action, we will continue to lose talented educators from the Global Majority, perpetuating a system that does not serve all its pupils equally.
Recommendations
- A comprehensive anti-racism framework should be used to guide Initial Teacher Training (ITT) providers in embedding anti-racist practices. Schools and training providers should adopt such frameworks to ensure meaningful change.
- Schools and ITT providers should explicitly commit to anti-racism in partnership agreements, ensure clear reporting mechanisms for racist incidents, and involve race equity specialists in handling complaints. Tutors and mentors should be trained to offer anti-racist, culturally competent, trauma-informed support in schools and during ITT.
- The government should advance proposals to make ethnicity pay gap reporting compulsory so that employers are encouraged to identify and address disparities.
- The government should launch a campaign which supports racial justice for teachers and leaders through a celebration of the work of diverse educators, and amplify the voices of Black and Global Majority teachers in recruitment materials and public engagement.
- The education sector should fund leadership development programmes including shadowing, coaching, and mentoring opportunities for Black and Global Majority leaders. Organisations must also consider ways to proactively create belonging for them to thrive in leadership settings. Governing bodies should be reviewed regularly to ensure that they reflect the diversity of their communities and the broader society.
This blog is taken from the Teaching Commission Report published in July 2025. You can read the full report ‘Shaping the Future of Teaching’ here.
