Minoritised teachers are less likely to stay in teaching than their White counterparts, citing the added burden of racism as a contributing factor (Worth et al., 2022). Ethnic minoritised staff feel their successes and failures are often associated with their ethnicity, not their intelligence or professionalism. A report by Education Support (2023) shows that such experiences result in minoritised teachers carrying an emotional weight that their White peers do not. The wellbeing of racially minoritised teachers is, therefore, subject to greater erosion than that of their White peers and it is the responsibility of school leaders to address this. In this blog post, I outline the case that the burden of having issues of racism and Islamophobia handled by racially minoritised/Muslim staff in schools contributes to their recruitment and retention crisis.

Discussing controversial issues in schools has become increasingly challenging. Pace and Oberholzer (2022) suggest this includes ethno/racial conflict and that thoughtful planning and preparation is needed to develop communities where these conversations can happen. This includes addressing teachers’ fear of backlash from parents and community members as well as preventing student conflict (Pace & Oberholzer, 2022). Pace and Oberholzer also recognise that UK teacher training has little emphasis on developing appropriate pedagogies and skills for discussion, so many teachers are ill-prepared for this.

Handling issues of racism and Islamophobia is beyond the scope of ordinary practice for many UK teachers. In an anonymous opinion piece in Schools Week a teacher states that ‘never has working in education felt so lonely’ when discussing the sector’s response to 7 October and ongoing events in the Middle East (Anonymous, 2024). Leading teaching and interventions on racism and Islamophobia also disproportionately increases the workload of minoritised/Muslim staff. In another opinion piece, Amjad Ali (2024) writes, ‘I am worried about the ones who say they “hate us” even more now’ in relation to Islamophobia and the place of schools. The Department for Education’s 2025 report on race, racism and safeguarding children shows that schools are largely silent on issues of racism, resulting in a detrimental impact on students. The need to protect wellbeing of racially minoritised members of the school community is, therefore, readily apparent.

The ‘hidden burden’ of tackling racism on minoritised staff is significant. Navigating the poor racial literacy of senior leadership teams, limited racial diversity among staff, limited development and progression opportunities to deputy and headteacher level, and the psychological energy required to manage covert and overt racism are all part of the ‘hidden workload’ that Black, Asian and minority ethnic teachers face (Tereshchenko et al., 2020). Further, this reduces the wellbeing of minoritised staff, and reduced wellbeing results in reduced performance (Yardley, 2022).

‘Expecting Black colleagues to lead assemblies or write PSHE resources on racism or to take on pastoral mentoring for underachieving Black students is also an error schools may make.’

Expecting Muslim staff to lead on interventions for underachieving Muslim students, to sacrifice their lunchtimes to supervise the prayer room or to share their experiences of Islamophobia to train staff are examples of this. Expecting Black colleagues to lead assemblies or write personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education resources on racism or to take on pastoral mentoring for underachieving Black students is also an error schools may make. Such behaviours contradict the Department for Education’s wellbeing charter which advises schools to reduce unnecessary workload, to promote equality of opportunity and to support staff to progress in their careers. Furthermore, appraisal processes can include not only out-group hostility but also in-group bias (Kandola, 2018); if minoritised staff are expected to take on workload that their peers in the sector are not, this is likely to reduce their overall wellbeing and thereby limit their career progression and lead to pigeon-holing.

Fundamentally, the response to handling seemingly controversial issues in schools requires planning and care. Staff with responsibility to do this must be appropriately recognised (for example via suitable appraisal processes and promotion opportunities) and supported (for example with continued professional development and wellbeing interventions). The training for, often White, leaders and school staff should also address racism and Islamophobia which results in poor wellbeing for minoritised staff. Failure to do so puts racially minoritised staff at a disadvantage when compared to their White peers and does nothing to address the professional exodus of our much-needed teachers from minoritised groups.

References

Ali, A. (2024, March 2). Islamophobia exists: And we must combat it in our schools. Schools Week. https://schoolsweek.co.uk/islamophobia-exists-and-we-must-combat-it-in-our-schools/

Anonymous. (2024, January 13). Events in Israel and Gaza are the biggest challenge of my career. Schools Week. https://schoolsweek.co.uk/events-in-israel-and-gaza-are-the-biggest-challenge-of-my-career/

Education Support. (2023). Mental health and wellbeing of ethnic minority teachers. https://www.educationsupport.org.uk/media/painjg2z/mental-health-and-wellbeing-of-ethnic-minority-teachers.pdf

Kandola, B. (2018). Racism at work: The danger of indifference (pp. 131–145). Pearn Kandola Publishing.

Pace, J. L., & Oberholzer, L. (2022). Hard questions: Learning to teach controversial issues. BERA Blog. https://www.bera.ac.uk/blog/hard-questions-learning-to-teach-controversial-issues

Tereshchenko, A., Mills, M., & Bradbury, A. (2020). What makes minority ethnic teachers stay in teaching, or leave? (Policy briefing) UCL Institute of Education. https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10127240/1/What%20makes%20minority%20ethnic%20teachers%20stay%20in%20teaching%20or%20leave.pdf         

Worth, J., McLean, D., & Sharp, C. (2022). Racial equality in the teacher workforce. National Foundation for Educational Research. https://www.nfer.ac.uk/publications/racial-equality-in-the-teacher-workforce/

Yardley, E. (2022). How minority identity can influence performance through wellbeing. In B. Kandola (Ed.), Free to soar: Race and wellbeing in organisations. Pearn Kandola Publishing.