Making progress? Employment and retention of BAME teachers in England

Abstract

The study reported on here had two main objectives:- To investigate patterns of minority ethnic teachers’ employment across English schools.- To explore the reasons behind low rates of minority teacher retention through the perspectives of teachers from different demographics and professional backgrounds. The study used the 2018 School Workforce Census and related administrative school census datasets to model the distribution of non-White British teachers across English schools. We also conducted 24 narrative interviews with teachers from different ethnic and professional backgrounds working in urban disadvantaged schools to explore factors shaping their decisions to stay in or leave teaching. This report presents the key findings of the research, its implications and our recommendations. Overall, our findings question the idea that the education system is ‘making progress’ in terms of race equality in the case of teachers from minority ethnic groups.