Increasing and retaining minority ethnic teachers: action guide for local authorities

Ministerial foreword – Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills

Minority ethnic teachers continue to be underrepresented at almost all levels within Scotland’s teaching profession. Addressing this is a vital step to meeting the Scottish Government’s ambition of creating an education system that is fundamentally anti-racist. In short the Scottish Government wants Scotland’s education system to be one where every teacher has equity of opportunities to embark upon, sustain and progress their careers.

There is no doubt that a diverse teaching profession has many clear benefits for all of Scotland’s learners. It ensures that our children and young people have role models in schools that are representative of their lived experience and are sensitive to a variety of cultural, religious and linguistic traditions. It ensures that our education system is enhanced by a variety of perspectives and as a result helps to counter negative stereotypes and misconceptions, in turn ensuring greater community cohesion and a more just society that is confident in tackling and eliminating racism.

We have consistently heard from our minority ethnic teachers that they face barriers and challenges to successful recruitment, retention and progression within the profession. We have equally heard that our education employers do not feel empowered and enabled to address these barriers and challenges and that further support was needed.

This Action Guide for Local Authorities has been informed by external anti-racist experts and consultants, the Diversity in the Teaching Profession and Education Workforce subgroup of the Anti-Racism in Education Programme and the Association of Directors of Education in Scotland. It seeks to offer support and guidance to local authorities in how to embed an anti-racist approach within their recruitment, retention and progression policies and practices.

Tackling and eliminating barriers within the teaching profession must be done collaboratively and collectively in order to ensure that the changes are permanent, systemic and sustainable. I wish to thank Hakim Din, the members of the Diversity in the Teaching Profession and Education Workforce subgroup and the Association of Directors of Education in Scotland for their input into this important Action Guide and look forward to seeing it implemented effectively.

The Scottish Government remains resolutely committed to supporting local authorities and other education employers in diversifying their workforce and ensuring that our minority ethnic staff have no barriers to an equity of success within Scotland’s education profession.