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

1. Background to the Action Guide

In 2018, the Scottish Government published a report titled, ‘Teaching in a diverse Scotland: increasing and retaining minority ethnic teachers. The report stated that the teaching profession did not reflect the Scottish population and that action was necessary by local authorities, schools and Initial Teacher Education Institutions and made the following recommendation.

Recommendation 14 (November 2018) stated that

“Local authorities should recognise and support aspiring minority ethnic teachers and encourage them to apply for promotion both within schools and across the wider education service. As part of this local authorities should examine how racism, institutional racism, bias (conscious or unconscious), and lack of awareness act as blocks to the promotion of BME teachers. This should be done in partnership with BME teachers who can inform such an exercise.”

In March 2021, the Scottish Government published a progress and final report titled, ‘Teaching in a diverse Scotland - increasing and retaining minority ethnic teachers: 3 years on. Overall, the report stated that some progress had been made. However, it highlighted that minority ethnic teachers continue to be significantly underrepresented. The report also identified that the 2022 population census will likely mean that the 2030 target set in the original report of 4% will need to be reviewed.

The most recent data report related to Teaching in a Diverse Scotland was published in May 2024.^[1] It shows that minority ethnic teachers in Scotland continue to be underrepresented.