Vini Lander is Professor of Race and Education and Director of the Centre for Race, Education and Decoloniality (CRED) in the Carnegie School of Education at Leeds Beckett University. She is also Visiting Professor of Race and Education at Cardiff Metropolitan University. Professor Lander’s research focuses on race, ethnicity and education. She uses critical race theory as a theoretical framework to examine race inequalities in education, specifically in teacher education.

The persistence of educational inequality based on race from early years to higher education has spurred Vini to educate teachers to think beyond the status quo, which may perpetuate these inequalities and to understand why they persist. Teachers make a valuable contribution to children’s educational experiences and journeys and teachers deserve better preparation to teach in a racially diverse society. This has been Professor Lander’s guiding principle throughout her career in teacher education. Vini challenges students to think differently, supporting them to find ways to act to make a difference in their schools and classrooms. Professor Lander's inspirational teaching was recognised with the award of a National Teaching Fellowship by the Higher Education Academy (Advance HE) in 2014.

Professor Lander’s research focus primarily on race and teacher education examining
pre-service teachers’ attitudes to race and the recruitment of racially minoritized candidates to initial teacher education and training (ITE/T). Professor Lander’s research highlights how the white space of ITE/T serves to embed and reproduce predominantly white curricula and practices which perpetuate the dominance of whiteness. Her research with colleagues in Spain indicates similar patterns of cultural dominance within ITE/T despite the expressed needs of student teachers in Spain and England to know more about teaching in racially diverse contexts. Vini Lander has also undertaken research on the mandate to promote