As educators we are very aware of the importance of engaging parents and carers as we collaborate to provide the best possible circumstances for their children.
The importance of this relationship cannot be overestimated. In fact, the children in our system who thrive are often those whose families have a strong relationship with the school – a school in which they feel they belong, have a strong sense of self, and are able to advocate for their child and themselves. In an ideal world every parent and carer and every child would have this relationship.
In this article, I want to consider the things we can do as leaders to encourage an “antiracist” approach to our engagement with parents, especially our parents from black and global majority backgrounds who, as we know all too well, are often marginalised in our society.
A review of parental experiences
The first consideration is what we understand about the different experiences of parents and carers within our school community.
Every school can have an ambition for every family to be treated fairly, but living in an unequal society as we do it is important to recognise that as a microcosm of that society there will be parents and carers in our school who are not having an “equal” experience.
We must review what those experiences are like in our school and for whom. If we haven’t spoken to our parents and carers and we haven’t understood their experiences from their own perspectives, it is likely that we know very little and that we are simply making assumptions based on our unconscious biases and own life experiences.
A deeper question to ask is what we think our parents and carers think of our school. Do we think they are all treated the same? Do we believe they are all heard equally? And can we set-up a safe way that will enable us to understand our parents’ and carers’ views?
A letter that asks for their attendance at a meeting with the headteacher where parents and carers are “invited” to say what they are not happy with is not going to get the response we need.
How will you communicate such a meeting with families so that they understand you have worked hard to make the space open, engaging, and safe? You need to consider power dynamics – who will be there, how much power will they have, how well can you listen and not interject or lead the conversation? When will it be? How will it be introduced?
‘Hard-to-reach’?
We need to dismantle and remove this term from our language. As a school we must understand the importance of the language we use and the impact it has on our own perception of relationships, ways of engagement, and excuses for poor connection.
By using “hard-to-reach” we are mandating across our schools that “of course our staff will not be able to engage them”. This risks giving staff the excuse we may need to avoid these relationships. It also disempowers staff to find new ways to engage families and create a sense of belonging.
I had the pleasure of interviewing a black Caribbean parent for my book How to Build Your Antiracist Classroom (2023). She completely debunked the myth about being from a “hard-to-reach” community. She cited many occasions when her school had not struggled to reach her at all – when her child was receiving a consequence, for example, or when her child needed to change her hair to meet the uniform expectations. She recalled that at those times the school could get hold of her within minutes.
Therefore, she stated quite rightly that she, and others, were not and never had been “hard-to-reach” – but the school had been unable to engage effectively and genuinely.
How racially literate is our team?
This parent was not interested in tokenistic engagement. She could see when the school was trying to engage her community and often the methods they chose were tokenistic and one-dimensional. This often comes from staff in schools having a poor racial literacy.
In his paper, Race and racism in secondary schools, Remi Joseph-Salisbury (2020) describes racial literacy as follows: “Racial literacy refers to the capacity of teachers to understand the ways in which race and racism work in society. It also involves having the language, skills, and confidence to utilise that knowledge in teacher practice. Focusing on racial literacy means that issues pertaining to race and racism become the responsibility of all teachers.”
While we know that we would all benefit from a diverse staff team with well-informed racial literacy, we know that this does not exist in many UK schools.
The latest Department for Education statistics show that only 2.7% of teachers are from black backgrounds, 1.8% are from other mixed backgrounds, 0.9% from other ethnic groups, and 5.5% from Asian backgrounds. This compares to 89.2% who are white. Furthermore, teachers from black or global majority backgrounds are not equally represented in leadership positions (DfE, 2024a).
DfE figures (2022) also show that 6.9% of headteachers and 9.8% of senior leaders are from ethnic minority backgrounds. These figures are improving over time, but we know that 37% of pupils are from a minority ethnic background (DfE, 2024b) and, as the DfE has pointed out, in the 2021 Census, 10.1% of the working age population were Asian or Asian British and 4.4% black or black British.
Reviewing UK data, Joseph-Salisbury (2020) emphasised that we cannot wait for diverse teams to have a racially literate staff but must educate all of our staff on the history and manifestation of race and racism in the UK.
For example, one aspect of that history is the creation of educationally subnormal schools in the UK and their place in creating and reproducing systemic racism in the UK education system.
A documentary from Steve McQueen, Subnormal: A British Scandal, describes how British black children in the 1960s and 1970s were disproportionately sent to schools for the so-called educationally subnormal (see BBC, 2021).
Many families were forced to send their children who were often of average or above average intelligence to these schools. This did and continues to have a serious impact on the relationship between schools and black and global majority communities.
Without our staff being aware of this history it is possible that they can exacerbate families’ concerns for their children in our education system.
A racially literate staff team is a team which knows the history and therefore can produce the best, well-informed strategies to disrupt those inequalities.
The ways we seek to engage
The parent quoted earlier talked about the tokenistic ways her child’s school tried to engage with black and global majority parents and carers – often via workshops with a deficit model.
Another example is the implicit assumption that all black and global majority parents and carers needed parenting classes or sessions about how to read with their children.
We need to review the sessions we hold for particular parents and carers and review as a staff team why attendance might be low. We need to understand why parents don’t attend. It could be that the sessions do not fit with their hours of work, that they feel safer attending sessions online (observing impact of power on engagements), or that they haven’t seen a history of genuine engagement and therefore do not yet trust our motives.
I have worked with many schools who offer a range of ways to engage with black and global majority parents and carers that build trust and seek genuine collaboration.
They include sessions on understanding the school’s journey to anti-racism or describing the diverse curriculum. Sessions might focus on preparation for 11-plus or other tests that may support their child’s educational journey or it could be black community groups attending and leading coffee mornings.
The list is endless when you speak and listen to a racially literate team and your parent community to understand what kind of engagement will make the difference.
Every staff member is vital to build trust
The impact of one staff member can never be underestimated. If you have a racially literate team who seeks to be inclusive at all times, one teacher or staff member who does not speak to this ethos or live those values can damage relationships.
Having worked with many parents and carers whose child has either been excluded or is at risk of exclusion, they often cite the impact of one staff member and how damaging that can be for an entire family.
We must ensure balance and call parents and carers in for positive reasons. Do you have a requirement that stipulates how much a family should expect to hear from their child’s teacher. Is there a focus on what percentage of these contacts is positive?
During Covid, many schools stepped up their family contacts and while the same levels may not be deemed necessary now the positive impact they had would suggest otherwise.
Senior leadership placing emphasis on every staff member working to deepen relationships with families is imperative if we are going to ensure every parent feels seen, valued, and welcomed into their school community.
This sense of belonging should never only be for some parents.
- Orlene Badu is a former primary school headteacher who also has experience working in alternative provision. She is the author of How to Build Your Antiracist Classroom (https://bit.ly/3YXRDrz) and now works across London as a leadership and management advisor supporting schools and local authorities. She is also a school improvement advisor and is the curator of Hackney’s Diverse Curriculum. Read her previous articles for Headteacher Update via www.headteacher-update.com/authors/orlene-badu and visit https://orlenebaduconsulting.co.uk/
Further information & resources
- BBC: Subnormal: A British scandal, 2021: www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000w81h/subnormal-a-british-scandal
- DfE: School leadership in England 2010 to 2020: Characteristics and trends, 2022: www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-leadership-in-england-2010-to-2020-characteristics-and-trends
- DfE: Reporting year 2023: School workforce in England, 2024a: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england
- DfE: Academic year 2023/24: Schools, pupils and their characteristics, 2024b: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics/2023-24
- Salisbury: Race and racism in secondary schools, Runnymede Trust, 2020: www.runnymedetrust.org/publications/race-and-racism-in-secondary-schools