Leaders like us

I wonder, how many leaders in your school are like you? Similar demographic in terms of gender, ethnicity, socio-economic background, education, sexual orientation, age? It is very possible that the answer to that question is ‘quite a few’ since research tells us that leaders regularly and repeatedly recruit and promote leaders just like them. 

And when it comes to ethnicity, this is a serious problem, because data released just this year shows us that UK minority ethnic (UKME) teachers are not progressing into leadership at anywhere near the rate of their white peers. The recent National Foundation for Education Research (NFER) report Racial equality in the teacher workforce highlighted that teachers from UKME backgrounds are in fact becoming increasingly under-represented the further up the school leadership ladder you go, with no sign of improvement.