Teachers to Be Taught to Challenge ‘Whiteness’ in Schools

Teachers will be taught to challenge “whiteness” in lessons.

Guidance has been created for teacher-training courses, to ensure future educators are “anti-racist” and prepared to implement this in the classroom.

Teachers will be instructed in how to “disrupt the centrality of whiteness” in schools, according to a best-practice document.

The term “whiteness” in critical race theory refers to social attitudes considered normal by white people, and guidance suggests that concepts including “meritocracy”, “objectivity” and “individualism” should be questioned.

Documents state that student teachers – if they happen to be white – should also be helped to develop and project a “positive white racial identity”.

‘Impact of whiteness’

Separate guidance has been developed in Scotland and England, and both documents have been endorsed by universities offering teacher training, including Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Newcastle, along with the National Education Union.

Documents claim that encouraging “anti-racist” teacher training will help to maintain a diverse teaching workforce, and will help to close the attainment gap between white and non-white pupils.

The Scottish “anti-racism framework”, drawn up by the Scottish Council of Deans of Education and endorsed by 10 universities, states that changes to the way in which teachers are taught will “disrupt the centrality of whiteness and enable different ways of seeing, thinking and doing”.

This process may involve more references to colonialism and racism in lessons, and instilling an understanding of the “impact of whiteness”.

This, it says, will help teachers project a “white racial identity grounded in reality and allyship” in the classroom, free from “false notions of superiority”.

The national anti-racism framework for initial teacher training, launched in 2023, states that those teaching future teachers should “debunk the myth of objectivity” in scholarship, and instead examine how some views are “silenced” in academic work.

Those educating teachers have been urged to strive for racial justice “through activism” and teacher unions, according to the guidance.

‘Tools of whiteness’

A parallel anti-racism framework for teacher training was commissioned by the National Education Union in 2023, and funded by the University of Newcastle, was developed for England.

It states that “teachers working with all age groups” are “crucial to anti-racism work”, and directs tutors to academic literature on how to deal with “whiteness”.

The term “white” has nearly 400 mentions in the guidance, the term “whiteness” features 121 times.

The assorted academic literature sets out the importance of dispelling “notions of objectivity” along with what are termed the “tools of whiteness”, including “individualism” and “belief in a meritocracy”.

The framework also directs tutors to passages that claim “white privilege” includes the “right to enjoyment”, and that “emotions are themselves racialised”.

Scottish guidance aims to tackle racism in education, and to create a more diverse teaching workforce.

It has been made available by higher education institutions providing teacher teacher training, including the universities Aberdeen, Strathclyde.

A Newcastle University spokesman said: “As we saw with the recent public unrest across the UK, racism is pervasive in our society. The way that we educate current and future teachers will play an important role in breaking this cycle and the framework was developed to provide practical guidance on this.”