Minority ethnic teachers’ professional experiences

This study of minority ethnic teachers’ professional experiences extends the findings of
one strand of the Teacher Status Project (Hargreaves et al., 2007a). The Teacher Status Project was a four-year study of public and individual teachers’ perceptions of the status of teachers and the teaching profession, conducted by the University of Cambridge, Faculty of Education and funded (following a process of competitive tendering) by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES).

This report summarises the views of African Caribbean, Bangladeshi, Indian and Pakistani teachers collected in 12 focus groups conducted in London, the West Midlands and the North West between 2005 and 2006. It highlights, in particular, the views of African Caribbean teachers, in response to two main research questions:

1. What part does the current status of the teaching profession play in attracting
people from minority ethnic backgrounds to the profession?

2. Do minority ethnic teachers hold alternative perceptions of professionalism,
which perhaps make teaching more or less attractive to them?

You can download the report here