How can only 18 black teachers working in Liverpool represent a diverse teaching workforce? A critical narrative

Black male student teachers: tomorrow’s teachers?

“…(Dudley) Saliently, Dudley was concerned that his university lecturers had emphasised that preservice teachers "mustn't be prejudiced or stereotyped towards [their] pupils" yet they had not given any "warning that actually you might need to expect people to treat you differently" as the children in his class had done. The experiences of pupil racism and hostility recounted by Dudley are not usual (Siraj-Blatchford, 1991;Hick et al, 2011;Howard, 2014;Boyle and Charles, 2016). Notwithstanding, they were turned on their head by Dudley's mentor, who rather than accepting that the pupils were rude and racist suggested he was "aggressive" when responding to "shy" students who needed to be treated "gently".…”

“…Much has been written about the underrepresentation, positioning, roles and experiences and value of Black teachers in primary and secondary schools in England (e.g. Blair, 1994;Osler, 1997;Maylor et al, 2006;Coleman and Campbell-Stephens, 2010;Boyle and Charles, 2016), Canada (e.g. Martino and Rezai-Rashti, 2010;Howard, 2014) and the USA (e.g.…”

“…Black teacher recruitment Much has been written about the underrepresentation, positioning, roles and experiences and value of black teachers in primary and secondary schools in England (Blair, 1994;Osler, 1997;Maylor et al, 2006;Coleman and Campbell-Stephens, 2010;Boyle and Charles, 2016), Canada (Martino and Rezai-Rashti, 2010;Howard, 2014) and the USA (Ladson-Billings, 2005;Ingersoll and May, 2011;Ahmad and Boser, 2014;Brown, 2014;Kohli, 2014;NCES, 2014;Santoro, 2014;Cherng and Halpin, 2016). Concerns about the lack of black male teachers in English schools in the early 2000s contributed to local government and teacher recruitment agencies encouraging the recruitment of black male teachers from Africa and the Caribbean (Maylor et al, 2006).…”

“…Informed by racism, black skin colour on the "'scales of desirability' in schools may position black teachers as 'outsiders', not part of 'us'" (Blair, 1994, p. 277), which is the white majority. Positioned in opposition to white teachers, black teachers continue to be constructed as racially less desirable/unacceptable in some schools than white teachers (Boyle and Charles, 2016). Notions of black teacher un/desirability are not straightforward as black teachers may not be desirable in predominantly white classrooms, whereas they are desired or considered appropriate to teach black students because they are "seen to be naturally equipped to manage, minister to, and deal with issues relating to black students" (Blair, 1994, p. 281).…”

Effective Teaching and Learning: Decolonizing the Curriculum

“…The importance of social community cohesion is one of the major goals of schooling because education is the most revolutionary process in any society; if inclusive, it automatically transforms vulnerable groups into empowered individuals (Freire, 1976; Kamene, (2019); Johnson, 2015). The researcher’s findings (Boyle & Charles, 2010a; Boyle & Charles, 2010b; Boyle & Charles, 2016) have implications for how young learners view and internalize knowledge construction and indentify formation. The researcher supports Irvine’s (1988) assertion that “a lack of black teachers promotes the idea that teaching is a white profession and serves as a disincentive for black students to select the teaching profession for themselves” (p. 509).…”