Understanding Race Equality in British Schools: A 75-year Timeline 1950- 2025 

1950-1960s Migration

The presence of Black and Brown children in British schools was a new and strange sight. For 500 years Imperial Britain had ruled ‘her subjects’ over there in faraway colonies, but after the devastation of 2nd World War post-colonial New Commonwealth Citizens were needed over here to rebuild the ‘Motherland’. The unfolding history of people from the West Indies (Caribbean), India, Africa, Pakistan and Bangladesh tells a tale of racism, resistance, and an uneasy overcoming.

1960s -1970s Assimilation

The first wave of Black and Indo-Caribbean Windrush migrants met overt hostile racism with signs to “go home” and political prophecies of “rivers of blood flowing in the streets”. The educational response to the ‘dark stranger’ was to assimilate Black and Brown children into British culture by ‘flattening’ out their difference. They were bussed out of areas to cool out and placate White fears. However, the colonial legacy of White superiority and the idea of inferior Races meant that Black children were seen as having lower IQs and many were sent to Educationally Subnormal Schools (SEN) or ‘Sin Bins’- a patten still in play today with PRU’s (Pupil Referral Units) and school exclusions.

1970s- 1980s Multiculturalism 

Labour’s Roy Jenkins famously advocated multicultural integration through, “equal opportunity and cultural diversity in an atmosphere of mutual tolerance”. Now Black and Brown communities were able to openly express their difference by wearing a turban or saying their prayers. Schools responded in superficial but well-meaning ways with ‘happy clappy’ celebrations of ‘saris, somas and steelpans.’ However, Black and Asian parents set up Supplementary and faith-based schools outside the State system which was excluding and failing their children. 

1980s -1990 Underachievement

In the Thatcher years, underachievement which was rife among racialised ethnic groups was explained through problematic theories of cultural deficit, negative self-esteem, and the self-fulling prophecy of low teacher expectations. In the aftermath of the Brixton Riots, the Swann Report identified racial discrimination as the cause of ‘underachievement’. Antiracism was mooted as the solution by small pockets of White, Black, and Asian teacher activists such as the ILEA, who campaigned for Black Studies and positive images in textbooks, expressing an early incarnation of the current call for ‘Decolonisation’. 

1990- 2000 Diversity and Difference 

The euphoric New Labour years celebrated difference and embraced ‘can do’ attitudes where all can rise to the top regardless of Race, gender, and class origins. While many ethnic groups identified with the ideal of meritocracy and benefited from policies of ‘Raising Standards for all’, it also cemented existing inequalities though ‘markets and choice’ as privileged middle classes were able to access better schools in an increasingly fragmented and 2-tiered educational system.  Diversity policies made little impact, becoming entangled in institutional bureaucracy with ‘tick-box’ antiracist proclamations and window-dressing with brochures rather than action.

2000-2005 Institutional Racism 

The racist murder of Black teenager Stephen Lawrence and the Met Police coverup heralded a new era of antiracist rigour with the McPherson Report introducing the concept of institutional racism in public (not private) organisations. The focus was now on structural racism and exposing its everyday reproduction through learnt behaviour or unwitting racism, now reframed as unconscious bias. Legal remedies included Positive Duties to promote good Race-relations through ethnic monitoring and reporting of racist incidents. However, we have witnessed little meaningful institutional cultural change as mechanisms hinged on ‘individual redress’ and personal complaint rather than leadership accountability and scrutiny. 

2005- 2010 Community Cohesion

In the wake of the 9/11 and British 7/7 terrorist attacks Islamophobia became widespread, and politicians pronounced multiculturalism was as ‘dead’. Community Cohesion evolved in response to faith-based concerns with Muslim communities living “parallel lives” in poverty, in religiously segregated Northern towns. Securitization and safeguarding through controversial policies such as PREVENT shone a spotlight on Muslim communities, and schools were tasked with reporting pupils in danger of radicalisation and delivering British Values. 

2010-2015 Post Race 

The election of Obama in USA and rising professional and educational achievement of 2nd and 3rd generation British Black, Asian and Chinese young people signalled the ‘colourblind’ post-Race era. As the Sewell report exemplifies, the belief is now that Race is no longer a barrier to success and social mobility lies in individual endeavour and talent. The 2010 Equalities Act reflected this move away from Race and towards intersectional, inclusive EDI (Education Diversity and Inclusion) with its emphasis on 9 Protected Characteristics including LGBTQI+ and gender equality. However, the shadow of Race and racism still haunts the educational landscape as the ethnic inequalities exposed during the Covid 19 Pandemic so vividly showed.  

2015 - 2020 Decolonisation

The 2015 and 2020 Black Lives Matter (BLM) uprisings revisited the 1950s postcolonial call for a global ‘thought revolution’. Spearheaded by students this movement seeks to challenge the Whitewashing of colonial history and dominance of Enlightenment thought in the Eurocentric curriculum, economy, and architecture. However, the promise of this potentially world changing project has been side-lined by online ‘culture wars’ with all parties polarised and confused about ‘woke’ words, dismantling statues, and White allies. Schools and universities made worthy declarations to meet new curricula demands while 30 years of institutional racial attainment gaps and exclusions are still overlooked.

2020-2025 Post Covid Levelling up

The double whammy of the Covid 19 Pandemic and Brexit sent shockwaves through British society. Like health, education has become the touchstone for measuring the uneven consequences of an unaddressed history of racial inequality and British social class divisions. The Government’s ‘levelling up’ agenda aims to tackle the long-standing regional patterns of poor living and working conditions for ethnic communities and the working classes which impacts children’s access to good schools, learning, and mental wellbeing. This story of education in a divided Britain is yet to unfold in the context of mass migration and climate change, but the power of new technology and online learning may hold the key to social justice and class mobility ... only if all can equally open the door.