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Leeds Beckett academic calls for recruitment bias law change
They should encourage positive action in recruitment by interviewing all suitably qualified and experienced BPoC (Black and People of Colour) candidates when recruiting teachers in order to counter a recruitment bias.
Professor Tate, of the Carnegie School of Education, believes the move could help to address a large imbalance between the proportion of BPoC teachers compared to BPoC pupils.
At present, just 13 per cent of state-funded school teachers are BPoC, compared to 27 per cent of pupils.
Professor Tate – the UK’s first Professor of Race and Education – said the current law, which only allows positive action, needs to change to address racial inequality in the recruitment process.
“The figures speak for themselves. Throughout my career, I have spoken to many BPoC teachers who have found it difficult to even get an interview for a job.
“They have the same qualifications as everyone else, and yet they are not being given the same opportunities. This has been going on since the 1980s, and as a country we have ended up with this huge imbalance, all at a time when we are crying out for new teachers while experienced teachers are leaving the profession in large numbers.
“Research has shown that there are BPoC students qualifying as teachers, yet they are not ending up in the classroom. This shows there must be bias during the recruitment and selection process.
“At the moment, it would be illegal to make schools interview BPoC candidates because we do not have affirmative action in the UK. Perhaps it is time the Government looked at changing the law, especially given Theresa May’s ‘race audit’.”
At present, affirmative action is illegal in the UK, although The Sex Discrimination (Election Candidates) Act 2002 allowed the use of all-women shortlists.
In January, The Football Association announced it would interview at least one applicant from a BME background for future roles, adopting its own version of the NFL’s 'Rooney Rule'.
Professor Tate said: “When schools put together a shortlist, they look at who they think will fit into the existing staff team.
“I have personal experience of this: when I was looking for my first teaching job, I once turned up for an interview and was told they were expecting me to ‘be blonde’ because of my name. Obviously, they thought I was white. I didn’t get the job.
“I became more and more frustrated. I did a bit of supply work in Dewsbury teaching English as a second language for about six months. Eventually I started working in the voluntary sector instead.
“The lack of BPOC teachers in our schools is a huge problem for the country. Many of our schools are diverse and complex institutions, with pupils from a wide range of social, economic, racial and ethnic backgrounds.
“And yet research shows that if you are from a BPoC background, you have a much smaller chance of becoming a teacher even when well qualified.”
“The impact of this is enormous. The teaching staff in a school should reflect the pupils they are teaching.”
The NASUWT has previously said that BPoC teachers face discrimination and prejudice when applying for jobs, with 68,000 BPoC teachers needing to be recruited to reflect the country’s population.