This webinar will feature the findings from the BERA-funded project ‘Ethnicity and the Early Years Workforce: A Census of Maintained Nursery Schools in England’. The project has examined how staff ethnicity reflects (or not) the children served by nursery schools, as well as how staff ethnicity intersects with qualification levels and leadership responsibilities.

The quantitative data will be elucidated through the qualitative research of Shaddai Tembo, which emphasises the need to make Black educator identity more visible in early years education. Looking at the experiences of Black Early Years educators through the lens of critical race theory highlights how ethnicity is a key aspect of lived experiences of working in the sector, and the continued silencing of dialogues about race and ethnicity in Early Years.