Teacher training providers should look at introducing “name-blind” recruitment to improve ethnic diversity in the workforce, a report has said.
An evidence review by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) found that teachers of colour face barriers to the teaching profession – from entry to senior leadership level.
Despite being over-represented among applicants for initial teacher training (ITT), people from black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds have “lower acceptance rates” on to ITT courses than their white peers, the report said.
It said people who are not white are “considerably under-represented in teaching”, with figures showing that around three in five (60%) schools in England had an all-white teaching staff in 2021/22, while 86% of schools had an all-white senior leadership team.
The review – which was funded by Mission 44, a charitable foundation launched by Formula One star Lewis Hamilton – recommended a number of strategies to help improve recruitment diversity.
It said name-blind applications, contextualised recruitment and conditional offers could be used to tackle low acceptance rates for ITT applicants who are of colour.
Charity Teach First already uses blind recruitment – where assessors know as little as possible about the background of the candidates, including their name, age, ethnicity and school information – in its ITT application process.
The NFER report uses teachers and people “of colour” as an umbrella term referring to people who do not identify as white.
