Uvanney Maylor

‘They do not relate to Black people like us’: Black teachers as role models for Black pupils

Growing concerns about the experience and achievement of Black pupils (especially Black males) underpin calls for more Black people to serve as teacher and lay mentor role models in schools. Calls for increased numbers of Black teacher role models assume firstly, that Black teachers regard themselves as role models and want to perform such a role in school. Secondly, that Black pupils will automatically see Black teachers as role models for Black pupils and make a connection between the behaviour modelled by Black teachers and their own behaviour, aspirations or achievement. Thirdly, that Black teachers are the most appropriate role models for Black pupils. This article draws on empirical data to explore these assumptions and to illustrate the ways in which they are flawed.

Notions of diversity, British identities and citizenship belonging

This article reports on a small‐scale research study commissioned by the then Department for Education and Skills ([DfES] now the Department for Children, Schools and Families [DCSF]) in June 2006 to aid the work of the Diversity and Citizenship Curriculum Review Group, headed by Sir Keith Ajegbo. The findings concentrate on how ‘diversity’ is viewed by schools and the implications of this for developing pupil understanding of British diversity, British identities and citizenship belonging. The article highlights student perceptions and experience of a diverse curriculum together with their perceptions of ‘Britishness’ and citizenship belonging. In examining school and student understanding of diversity, this article explores two discrete aspects: ‘diversity’ education and education about ‘Britishness’. While supporting the need to value British diversity, the article nevertheless challenges the assumption that ethnic or cultural ‘heritage’ is always positive and/or learning about it positive.

Is it because I’m Black? A Black female research experience

This article examines what it means to be a Black female researcher in contemporary Britain. Drawing on Black feminist theory and critical race theory (CRT), this article seeks to highlight some of the experiences and challenges that Black female researchers face when undertaking research, particularly research that has diversity, equality or ‘race’ as key foci. Such experiences often remain silent, yet they are integral to how Black researchers conduct and experience research. The article adopts a reflexive approach in uncovering these hidden realities. It explores a small number of racist experiences encountered in English schools and other educational establishments. The article examines how these various experiences are situated, internalised and negotiated as part of a Black researcher’s everyday practice. In drawing attention to Black researcher (in)visibility, the discussion also reveals why some White staff sometimes find it difficult to acknowledge racist experiences endured by Black colleagues.

Processes of middle‐class reproduction in a graduate employment scheme

Teach First is an educational charity that places graduates to teach in ‘challenging’ schools for two years. It is marketed as an opportunity to develop employability while ‘making a difference’. In this paper, I examine the process of class reproduction occurring in this graduate employment scheme through examining the discourses used in Teach First marketing and by Teach First participants. I begin by arguing that the Teach First participants interviewed as part of an evaluation were predominantly middle‐class, and possessed social and cultural capital which had facilitated their access to the Teach First scheme. I then illustrate three processes of middle‐class reproduction within Teach First. The first is the accumulation by participants of additional social and cultural capital. The second is the reproduction of middle‐class values and stereotypes of the working‐class other, and the third is the obscuring of middle‐class advantage through discourses of ‘natural ability’. I conclude that although well‐intentioned Teach First participants worked extremely hard to combat educational disadvantage, their actions were twisted by class forces, and resulted in the reproduction of middle‐class privilege.

What is the meaning of ‘black’? Researching ‘black’ respondents

Abstract ‘Black’1 is a contested term. Its usage has attracted much academic debate. Issues of terminology are important as they produce real consequences for the lives of those using and/or who are subsumed within particular definitions. A study designed to explore the experiences of ‘black’ staff in further education provides the impetus for examining the impact of using generic terms such as ‘black’ on the data collection process and its significance for those subsumed under the category. The paper explores the implications of employing collective terminology in arriving at shared meanings and understandings. It highlights the ways in which the funders of the study and a group of prospective research institutions and participants constructed and in some instances resisted the term ‘black’. This is also a reflexive account of some of the challenges and ethical conflicts encountered during the research process.

Challenges in theorising ‘Black middle‐class’ women: education, experience and authenticity

This viewpoint draws on discussions at two seminars to consider ambivalent attitudes amongst a group of Black women towards considering themselves and/or other Black people as ‘middle class’. The first seminar highlighted the experiences of a group of Black ‘middle‐class’ parents and the second, which was organised as a result of the reaction the first seminar received, sought to explore attendees views as to whether they thought Black people could be Black and ‘middle class’. The viewpoint contends that the concept ‘Black middle class’ is incompatible with some Black women’s notions of self, and that their ambivalence about the ‘Black middle classes’ is partly rooted in an emotional need to remain connected to the wider Black community. Whilst these women’s understandings of the ‘Black middle classes’ are informed by their gendered and racialised experiences, there is also evidence of a denial of (class) privilege.

‘I’d worry about how to teach it’: British values in English classrooms

Abstract What is meant by fundamental British values? How are they constructed and can they be taught in schools? In trying to address these questions, this paper revisits a small-scale research study commissioned by the UK’s previous New Labour government. The research was concerned to understand the extent to which schools delivered a diverse curriculum (reflecting the composition of Britain as an ethnically diverse society) as well as teacher and student conceptions of British values and contentions of shared British identities which could be explored in schools as part of the secondary citizenship curriculum. Drawing on interviews with teachers and head teachers in six case study schools across England, this paper examines school and government conceptions of shared ‘British’ values. It explores how current government promotion of British values is embedded in sociopolitical historical contexts in Britain. Using social construction theory, the paper aims to challenge conceptions of British values being shared by teachers. The paper examines the implications of this for initial teacher education given that qualifying teachers standards require teachers not to undermine British values, yet some teachers do not buy into contentions of British values, and consequently worry about how to teach them. The teacher discourses highlighted also present challenges for teacher education in developing teacher understanding and practice, especially where student teachers bring uninformed views about particular ethnic groups to the classroom.

Exploring the impact of supplementary schools on Black and Minority Ethnic pupils’ mainstream attainment

This paper reports findings from a study commissioned by the (then) Department for Children, Schools and Families. The research mapped the provision, and explored the impact, of supplementary schools and aimed specifically to develop further understanding as to how supplementary schools might raise the attainment of Black and Minority Ethnic pupils. Drawing on a national survey and case study data from 12 supplementary schools, we highlight a range of perceived impacts identified by teachers, pupils and parents and problematise the concept of impact. We identify the unique contribution and impact that supplementary schools make to the mainstream school attainment of pupils from diverse (linguistic, cultural, ethnic) backgrounds. We suggest that there is much to be learnt by the mainstream school sector about the difference supplementary school education makes to minority ethnic children, while questioning whether mainstream indicators of impact should be applied to supplementary schools.

Young black males: resilience and the use of capital to transform school ‘failure’

This article addresses the idea of ‘failure’ of young black males with respect to schooling. Perceptions of black masculinity are often linked to ‘underperformance’ in the context of school academic achievement. This article addresses how young black men, by great personal effort, recover from school ‘failure’. It explores how young black men, despite negative school experiences, see possibilities for their future and how they seek to transform school ‘failure’ into personal and educational ‘success’. Low attainment combined with permanent/temporary exclusion from school does not necessarily deter young black men from pursuing their education. This low attainment is used by some to make a renewed attempt at educational progression in a different post-school learning environment. Yosso’s concept of ‘community cultural wealth’ provides an understanding of how different forms of capital are accessed by young black men to form a ‘turnaround narrative’. This article considers the complex ways in which young black males work to transform their negative school experience. Their narratives reveal a determination to succeed and the ways in which cultivation of this determination by the family, organisational/community agents promotes a sense of possibility. However, it remains to be seen how, in the UK, the cuts to vital local services and support will impact on this sense of possibility.

Dialogue or Duel? A Critical Reflection on the Gendered Politics of Engaging and Impacting

This chapter seeks to offer a critical reflection on the politics of engaging stakeholders in research. Specifically, we shed light on the difficulties and tensions encountered in delivering a seminar series on the ‘inter-relationships of education and culture’ that had at its heart a desire to facilitate a dialogue between academics and policy makers and practitioners. This series of seminars, ‘New Perspectives on Education and Culture’ (http://educationandculture.wordpress.com/), ran from January 2011 to January 2013 and was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC, 2012).