To confidently address racial challenges in today’s schools, UK teachers must surpass superficial understandings of racism. ‘Racial literacy’ is the capacity to grasp how race and racism function in society, and, most importantly, to apply this knowledge in practice (see Joseph-Salisbury, 2020). My research (Rabiger, 2025) underscores the importance of recognising racism as structural and systemic (see Delgado & Stefancic, 2001), not limited to individual acts of prejudice or actions of a few ‘bad apples’. Although racism is embedded societally – influencing every aspect of education, from curriculum to classroom management, to interactions with students and parents – educators are trained to adopt ‘race-evasive’ practices, which deny the existence of systemic racism (Stewart-Hall et al., 2022). Through sustaining myths of meritocracy, teachers often meet resistance from an education system that discourages teachers from engaging critically with race (Hakak, 2025).

‘Through sustaining myths of meritocracy, teachers often meet resistance from an education system that discourages teachers from engaging critically with race.’

As Derrick Bell teaches us, racism is not an anomaly but a permanent, systemic feature of society (Bell, 1992). However, teachers’ efforts often focus on optics above structural change, which may actually reinforce the status quo of racism (see Bonilla-Silva, 2003). A significant challenge for educators lies in the ‘slipperiness’ of whiteness and race (see Bonnett, 1996): white teachers, when exposed to knowledge about structural racism, may initially engage in antiracist work but often revert to race-evasive practices. This pattern is linked to what C. W. Mills (2015) coins ‘white ignorance’, which shields white educators from fully acknowledging their role in sustaining systemic racism. By framing racism as something external to their own beliefs and actions, teachers evade the responsibility of dismantling these structures, further entrenching inequity.

In recent years, governmental and institutional pushback against antiracism efforts has increased. Some policies aim to depoliticise and neutralise discussions of race, treating them as controversial rather than factual (Hakak, 2025). The Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities’ 2021 report downplayed the role of structural racism, and schools have been instructed to maintain ‘political impartiality’. A false equivalence between racism and antiracism as opposing viewpoints hampers teachers’ ability to address racism as a pervasive, historical issue.

While claiming to address inequality, race is sidelined in favour of a more generalised approach to social justice through diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives (Case & Ngo, 2017). This shift diminishes the radical potential of antiracism, making it more challenging for educators to engage. To effectively respond to these challenges, racial literacy must become a mandatory component of teacher education (Smith & Lander, 2022). Developing meaningful antiracist strategies requires not only initial training but ongoing engagement and reflection to resist the pullback to familiar, race-evasive practices. Educators must cultivate the confidence to confront and challenge institutional racism, even when doing so is uncomfortable or meets resistance. This can only be achieved through prioritised racial literacy development; in-built structures for deep and sustained dialogue about race and racism; and antiracist praxis embedded at all levels of teacher training and professional standards (Lander & Rabiger, 2025). Without this foundation, schools risk perpetuating racial inequalities, regardless of their stated intentions.

When teachers lack racial literacy, well-meaning initiatives can easily become tokenistic or counterproductive. Only by equipping educators with a deep understanding of systemic racism, and the tools to confront it, can schools truly begin to dismantle the barriers that continue to disadvantage racialised students.

References

Bell, D. (1992). Faces at the bottom of the well. Basic Books.

Bonilla-Silva, E. (2003). Racism without racists: Color-blind racism and the persistence of racial inequality in the United States. Rowman & Littlefield.

Bonnett, A. (1996). Anti-racism and the critique of ‘white’ identities. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 22(1), 97–110. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.1996.9976524

Case, A., & Ngo, B. (2017). ‘Do we have to call it that?’ The response of neoliberal multiculturalism to college antiracism Efforts. Multicultural Perspectives, 19(4), 215–222. https://doi.org/10.1080/15210960.2017.1366861

Delgado, R., & Stefancic, J. (2001). Critical race theory: An introduction. NYU Press.

Hakak, N. (2025). Silencing dissent: Government measures and moral panic in the aftermath of the Black Lives Matter resurgence. Equity in Education & Society. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/27526461251320115

Joseph-Salisbury, R. (2020). Race and racism in English secondary schools. Runnymede Trust. https://www.runnymedetrust.org/publications/race-and-racism-in-secondary-schools

Lander, V., & Rabiger, P. (2025). Anti-racist practice: A lens, not an activity. In National Education Union, Thinking beyond the box: Developing critical curriculum perspectives and culturally responsive pedagogy. https://neu.org.uk/sites/default/files/2025-05/NEU3804%20Thinking%20beyond%20the%20box%20%28digital%29%20v4%20%28Compress%29.pdf

Mills, C. W. (2015). Global white ignorance. In Routledge International Handbook of Ignorance Studies.

Rabiger, P. (2025). Jumping and pushing through the cruel optimism of racial justice work in schools. Education, Society and Cultures, 70, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.24840/esc.vi70.1125

Smith, H., & Lander, V. (2022). Finding ‘pockets of possibility’ for anti-racism in a curriculum for student teachers. Curriculum Journal, 34(1), 22–42. https://doi.org/10.1002/curj.177

Stewart-Hall, C., Rabiger, P., Lander, V., & Grant, V. (2022). Resisting whiteness: Anti-racist leadership and professional learning in majority white senior leadership teams in English schools. Curriculum Journal, 34(1), 138–155. https://doi.org/10.1002/curj.196