Diversity in the teaching profession minutes: June 2019

Attendees and apologies

Attendees 

• Professor Rowena Arshad, University of Edinburgh (Chair)
• Maureen McKenna, Association of Directors of Education Scotland (ADES)
• Ken Muir, General Teaching Council Scotland 
• Louise Barrett, Scottish Council of Deans of Education (SCDE)
• Lesley Whelan, Education Scotland 
• Khadija Mohammed, Scottish Association of Minority Ethnic Educators (SAMEE)
• Carol Young, Coalition of Racial Equality and Rights (CRER)
• Hakim Din, Calabar Education Consultants, former HMIE
• Jenny Kemp, EIS 
• Melina Valdelievre, NASUWT
• Fearghal Kelly, Scottish Government 
• Kelly Ireland, Scottish Government (Secretariat) 

Apologies 

• Ken Edwards, Skills Development Scotland 

Items and actions

Welcome and introductions 

The Chair welcomed members to the second meeting of the extended working group and welcomed the newer members of the group Jenny Kemp (EIS) and Melina Valdelievre (NASUWT). The Chair noted that the COSLA representative had moved on and Debbie Hall will replace her on the group at the next meeting in September.  

Resignation of BEMIS 

The group noted their disappointment with the decision taken by BEMIS to withdraw from the working group. However, there was agreement that if their support was required during the life of this work, contact would be made with them via the Equalities Unit at the Scottish Government.  

Minute of previous meeting 

Members of the group agreed the minute was an accurate reflection on the last meeting. However it was suggested the wording on the remit should be revisited to capture the group’s desire to include and to go beyond the legal definition included at the last meeting.   

Action:

• Secretariat to redraft remit.

Update from EIS  

EIS provided an update on their next steps since the publication of their EIS members survey on experiences of racism and Islamophobia. EIS noted that since the publication they have taken a number of steps to address some of the issues raised at a strategic and operational level, these include: 

• supporting BME teachers and students to share their experiences of racism with their white colleagues at an event about anti-racism approaches in the education system
• started to design a communication strategy targeted at schools and the wider education sector on racism in the profession
• learning from other countries on how they have addressed racism in the profession
• briefing ADES on the survey findings
• feeding relevant information from the survey into discussions on teachers’ career pathways
• seeking to expand the EIS offer of professional learning e.g. for BME teachers seeking leadership roles or for teachers seeking to offer more anti-racist education
• agreeing to update EIS bullying and harassment guidance during session 2019/20
• putting forward a motion to STUC Congress on anti-racism in e
• promoting race equality across promotional material and conferences

The chair thanked EIS for their helpful update and congratulated them on the drive to support race equality at a national level.  

NASWUT also provided an update on their work noting they were progressing with a number of actions to promote and support race equality across the UK.   

Action:

• the chair asked working group members to collate case studies of issues arising and share them with the group. An option may be to share these with the ADES Personnel Group to support their work.  

Update on recommendations 

The group reviewed the progress of each recommendation and took time to discuss those which will require collaborative efforts from more than one sector. It was agreed those who had specific leads would provide a written update to populate the internal progress tracker.  

A summary of the discussion points is noted below, however the tracker will be updated by members to ensure a full record of activity is held:

Recommendation 1    

GTCS confirmed the draft professional standards will be shared with the working group for comment prior to them being issued for wider consultation in September.  

Action:

• Ken Muir to share with working group in August.  

Recommendation 2  

EIS confirmed they would be happy to ask their representative on SBTE to progress this, with support from the Group.  

Action: 

• EIS to discuss with their representative on SBTE and feed back to the working group on the outcome of that discussion.   

Recommendation 3    

Education Scotland are currently undertaking learning and development on race equality, working group members were keen to ensure their learning was part of a continued learning journey and not just a one-off focused activity.    

The next step is to review and refresh all leadership content and courses. Education Scotland agreed to share draft versions with the working group prior to publication and wider dissemination.  

Education Scotland also plan to revisit the EQIA on professional learning and pick up on issues which may not have been addressed on this to date.  

Another action being considered within this recommendation is the application form and recruitment process for applying to Education Scotland leadership professional learning opportunities, although this is likely to at a later date.    

Actions:

• CRER to share links to research published on the advantages and disadvantaged of unconscious bias training
• CRER to share their SG training materials with the group

Recommendation 4    

ADES representative confirmed they had secured funding to recruit a post to deliver on recommendations 4, 5, 6, 13 and 14 on behalf of the West Partnership.  The job description was being drafted and will be uploaded to MyJobScotland towards the end of August (post school summer holidays).  

Actions:

• working group members are invited to feed into essential and desirable criteria for the job advert
• members encouraged to share the link to this advert when published
• Secretariat to set up a meeting with COSLA lead and Chair of working group

Recommendation 5    

ADES representative confirmed they had secured funding to recruit a post to deliver on recommendations 4, 5, 6, 13 and 14 on behalf of the West Partnership.  The application was being drafted and will be uploaded to MyJobScotland in August (post summer holidays).  

Recommendation 6    

ADES representative confirmed they had secured funding to recruit a post to deliver on recommendations 4, 5, 6, 13 and 14 on behalf of the West Partnership.  The application was being drafted and will be uploaded to MyJobScotland in August (post summer holidays).  

GTCS noted that they are considering producing a ‘So you want to teach in Scotland’ booklet specifically aimed at students from a minority ethnic background.  

SAMEE also noted they have been invited to a meeting with Skills Development Scotland to discuss equalities guidance and how that can be included in their discussions with schools and pupils.  

Recommendation 7    

CRER shared the work they had undertaken as members of the Curriculum Resource Group. It was noted that the Curriculum Resource Group no longer exists. 

Actions: 

• CRER to share curriculum research and final report with the group
• Secretariat to confirm the status of the Curriculum Resource Group and issue an addendum to the recommendations if required 

Recommendation 8    

The ITE action group are now looking at recommendations 8, 9 and 10. Relevant data is being gathered in collaboration with ITE providers, SG and Scottish Funding Council.  

Opportunity for ITE representatives to review the data and source the pinch points at which the sector is losing BME students or teachers.  

Action:

• Council of Deans representative to ensure feedback is provided as this work progresses.  

Recommendation 9    

The ITE action group are now looking at recommendations 8, 9 and 10. Relevant data is being gathered in collaboration with ITE providers, SG and Scottish Funding Council.  

Opportunity for ITE representatives to review the data and source the pinch points at which the sector is losing BME students or teachers.  

Recommendation 10  

The ITE action group are now looking at recommendations 8, 9 and 10. Relevant data is being gathered in collaboration with ITE providers, SG and Scottish Funding Council.  

Opportunity for ITE representatives to review the data and source the pinch points at which the sector is losing BME students or teachers.  

Scottish Government commented they were in the process of collating data from the Scottish Funding Council to support this recommendation. The data set they are collating looks at students entering into ITE through to exiting with qualification. Scottish Government suggested they collaborate with the Council of Deans to get a whole picture from UCAS through to exiting with qualification.  

Actions:

• Council of Deans representative to collate UCAS data from each university as per discussion - number of BME students applying through UCAS through to gaining a place in ITE.  
• SG and Council of Deans representative to meet to share and assess dataset prior to next working group meeting.

Recommendation 11    

This recommendation will be added to the 2020 symposium discussing the self-evaluation framework.  

Action:

• Education Scotland to feedback to the self-evaluation framework 2019 symposium that local authorities should be invited to attend these discussions to ensure the whole partnership are able to contribute to these discussions - in particular when the theme is related to Local Authorities.  

Recommendation 12    

GTCS confirmed they would anticipate seeing their guidance updated in the 2020 handbooks as each accreditation is reviewed.   

Recommendation 13    

ADES representative confirmed they had secured funding to recruit a post to deliver on recommendations 4, 5, 6, 13 and 14 on behalf of the West Partnership. The application was being drafted and will be uploaded to MyJobScotland in August (post summer holidays).  

Recommendation 14  

It was agreed this recommendation would be led by the GTCS and they would review the PRD guidance.  

Recommendation 15    

It was agreed this recommendation needed formalised and would be discussed at the next meeting.  

Action:

• members to suggest to SAMEE potential people from across the sector who could provide support to the coaching and mentoring programme.  

Recommendation 16    

Opportunity to combine some of this work with recommendation 2. To be discussed at next meeting.  

Actions:

• EIS to consider this alongside recommendation 2
• to be considered by all working group members

Recommendation 17    

Scottish Government noted that the teachers panel had been refreshed recently and now includes a more diverse membership.  The group was pleased to hear this and commented they would be keen to be kept up to date with all groups that are refreshed and to understand if securing BME representation is difficult why that was. 

Measuring success 

The chair of the group noted that the role for this group was to ensure the recommendations were implemented and being considered over the course of a two year period and to report on that to the SBTE in time for the Race Equality final 5 year report.  However, the chair did ask if this was something CRER could build into their work plan with the equalities unit.  CRER agreed they would speak to equalities unit about this.  

Action:

• CRER to speak to equalities unit about their work plan and how they can include a review of this work leading into the final 2021 parliamentary term report.  

Any other business and date of next meeting 

No other business was raised.  It was agreed the next meeting would take place in September ahead of a progress report being submitted to the SBTE in time for the November meeting.  

Summary of actions arising from the meeting 

• the chair asked working group members to collate case studies of issues arising and share them with the group.  An option may be to share these with ADES Personal group to support their investigations on the matter
• Secretariat to redraft remit
• Ken Muir to share with working group in August  
• EIS to discuss with their representative on SBTE and feed back to the working group on the outcome of that discussion   
• CRER to share links to research published on the advantages and disadvantaged of unconscious bias training  
• CRER to share their SG training materials with the group
• working group members are invited to feed into essential and desirable criteria for the job advert
• members encouraged to share the link to this advert when published
• Secretariat to set up a meeting with COSLA lead
• CRER to share curriculum research and final report with the group
• Secretariat to confirm the status of the Curriculum Resource Group and issue an addendum to the recommendations if required
• Council of Deans to collate UCAS data from each university as per discussion - number of BME students applying through UCAS through to gaining a place in ITE
• SG and Council of Deans representative to meet to share and assess data set prior to next working group meeting
• Education Scotland to feedback to the self-evaluation framework 2019 symposium that local authorities should be invited to attend these discussions to ensure the whole partnership are able to contribute to these discussions 
• members to people to SAMEE who could provide support to this group 
• EIS to consider recommendation 16 alongside recommendation 2
• recommendation 16 to be considered by all working group members
• CRER to speak to equalities unit about their work plan and how they can include a review of this work leading into the final 2021 parliamentary term report