Despite much good practice in trailblazing schools, the quality and quantity of education for diversity are uneven across England.
Not all school leaders have bought in fully to the imperative of education for diversity for all schools, and its priority is too low to be effective.
Some teachers lack confidence in engaging with diversity issues and lack the training opportunities to improve in this area.
Pupils’ voice is not given enough consideration in this area.
Links with the community – a rich resource for education for diversity – are often tenuous or non-existent.
Some indigenous white pupils’ experience of identity issues in the curriculum is that they have negative perceptions of UK/English identities.
Many teachers do not see the link between their subject and education for diversity and are unaware of how to treat it.
Teachers felt hampered by:
• lack of resources
• not knowing how to source those that do exist
• insufficient training in how to use them properly
There is insufficient knowledge capture and transfer of available resources, pedagogy and general good practice relating to education for diversity.
The resource of minority ethnic teachers for supporting education for diversity needs to be nurtured.
Schools do not always recognise the clear link between the promotion of education for diversity and the raising of standards.
There is insufficient effective teacher training – in Initial Teacher Training (ITT), Continuing Professional Development (CPD) or in the National Professional Qualification for Headship (NPQH).
There must be consistency in the messages coming from the national network of Ofsted, School Improvement Partners, QCA and the awarding bodies, local authorities and the National Strategies, for change and improvement to happen.
All children and young people need to understand their identities and feel a sense of belonging – as important for an indigenous white pupil as a newly arrived immigrant.
All pupils, regardless of their background, need to be helped to develop a sense of belonging and a cultural understanding and critical literacy skills within their neighbourhoods, however disparate. It makes no sense in our report to focus on minority ethnic pupils without trying to address and understand the issues for white pupils.
Many indigenous white pupils have negative perceptions of their own identity.
White pupils in areas where the ethnic composition of their neighbourhood is very mixed, or made up predominantly of different ethnic groups, often suffer labelling and discrimination, giving them a different take on how we live together. They can feel beleaguered and marginalised, finding their own identities under threat as much as minority ethnic children might not have theirs recognised.
If we want community cohesion and for the UK to be at ease with its diversity, as much thought and resource for education for diversity need to be located with the needs of indigenous white pupils as with pupils from minority ethnic groups.
Teachers need to be able, in different contexts, to promote the identities and self-worth of indigenous white pupils, white working class pupils, mixed heritage pupils and minority (and sometimes majority) ethnic pupils, and at the same time to be aware of religion and the multiple identities we all live with.
Critical literacy is crucial: if you are white, for example, living in a white area, how do you relate what you see on the television to your idea of being British and the nature of British society? If you are black, how do you interpret programmes on AIDs and famine in Africa, or inner city issues in America? If you are Muslim, how do you cope with the barrage of media images about terrorism or the veil? Schools must play their part in recapturing the middle ground for groups who are misrepresented.
The Ajegbo Report can be accessed here.