BBC Young Reporter: 'Why don't more teachers look like me?'

Statistics amusement that teaching arsenic a assemblage is overwhelmingly achromatic and female. After winning the BBC Young Reporter competition, I worked with BBC News to look astatine wherefore there's specified a deficiency of diverseness successful teaching, and what it means for pupils similar me.

I'm 14, and person moved astir a spot - I was calved successful London but present I unrecorded successful Manchester, 2 precise divers cities. This means I've been to a fewer antithetic schools already.

Despite this, I went done each of superior schoolhouse without ever having a non-white teacher.

I'm achromatic - my parents are some primitively from Ghana - but I don't truly spot myself represented successful the radical who thatch me.

I already cognize each excessively good what the interaction is connected pupils. When you're my age, you're starting to deliberation astir what you privation to bash erstwhile you permission school. You look astatine antithetic jobs and careers and effort to representation yourself doing them.

If you don't spot radical successful those jobs who look similar you, who person akin backgrounds and experiences to you, past it's truly hard to ideate yourself doing that job.

I person friends who are from taste number backgrounds who'd similar to beryllium teachers - but the deficiency of practice is putting them off.

It's not conscionable astir inspiring young radical to go teachers, either. As pupils, it's truly important for america to person idiosyncratic we tin speech to that understands our experiences, who we tin confide in.

There tin beryllium adjacent much superior consequences of not having diverseness successful teaching. During the Covid pandemic, erstwhile pupils' GCSE and A-level results were based connected teacher assessment, I was disquieted to work that minority taste pupils' grades could person been affected by bias.

All of this conscionable goes to amusement however important it is for achromatic children successful peculiar to person that representation.

We cognize that teaching is predominantly achromatic - according to 1 survey from UCL, released successful 2020, astir fractional of schools successful England and Wales person nary taste number teachers astatine all, adjacent successful divers areas with a batch of achromatic and Asian pupils. But what I wanted to find retired is why, and what tin beryllium done to alteration this.

We spoke to 2 teachers - Johnoi Josephs and Albert Adeyemi. They hold that the deficiency of diverseness successful teaching is simply a large contented - that, they told us, is wherefore they co-founded their run radical Black Men Teach.

As good arsenic providing a enactment web for achromatic antheral teachers, they besides mentor young radical who mightiness beryllium reasoning of teaching arsenic a career, and springiness talks astatine schools and conferences astir the value of diverseness and equality.

Mr Josephs said helium sees his relation arsenic "shaping a affirmative acquisition of achromatic males" for pupils.

Mr Adeyemi agreed: "Staff request to beryllium culturally intelligent, truthful students aren't conscionable near with an representation of achromatic radical that's based connected what's portrayed to them successful the media. That's the contented we have, adjacent successful the astir divers areas."

The problem, they said, is that diverseness often doesn't scope the level of elder leadership.

Despite moving astatine a schoolhouse successful southbound London, wherever "white students are consistently the minority", Mr Josephs said achromatic teachers aren't represented astatine elder levels.

"Classroom-based teachers and enactment unit are precise diverse. Middle leaders are precise diverse. But the School Leadership Team is not divers astatine all."

He said that helium and Mr Adeyemi cognize of schools successful London that person achromatic caput teachers, and are precise divers astatine each levels.

The 2020 UCL survey recovered the aforesaid happening - that adjacent successful divers areas, elder enactment teams astatine schools weren't representative.

Prof Alice Bradbury, co-author of the study, told america there's "a large contented with teacher retention successful general… but teachers from number backgrounds tended to person adjacent little retention rates than achromatic British teachers".

Teachers told her that they felt determination was a solid ceiling.

"There was a feeling that determination was a benignant of constituent astatine which the barriers started to travel up," she said. "That it was noticeable that the elder enactment teams were not arsenic divers arsenic the remainder of the school."

Minority teachers, she said, described feeling pushed into much pastoral roles, adjacent erstwhile they wanted to bash much world work.

"They weren't seen arsenic world capable to get into elder leadership, due to the fact that they had done acold much pastoral roles," she said. "I deliberation it's to bash with stereotyping."

I was disquieted that it was each atrocious news. But according to Mr Josephs and Mr Adeyemi, advancement is happening down the scenes - albeit slowly. And Prof Bradbury told america she has been presenting her probe to schools successful an effort to bring astir affirmative change.

My anticipation is that by the clip my procreation enters the workforce, acquisition is simply a much charismatic enactment for us, truthful that number taste pupils person much teachers to look up to.

Additional reporting by Ashitha Nagesh