Diversity in education, funded by Mission 44

Project overview

This project aims to play a part in addressing the under-representation of people from the global majority in the teaching profession. Funded by Mission 44's Diversity in Education Fund, the initiative brings together the National Institute of Teaching (NIoT), Now Teach and Mindful Equity UK to develop, test and evaluate approaches to improving diversity in teacher recruitment and Initial Teacher Education (ITE).

Although the number of applications to teacher training from the global majority is strong, these numbers are not reflected in the teaching workforce. Through a combination of research, curriculum development and targeted recruitment activity, the project seeks to inform the NIoT’s own approaches and to share learning across the education sector.

The partnership's key initiatives include:

• Creating a working group to build anti-racist expertise and mindsets
• Launching a pilot campaign in the West Midlands to attract ethnically diverse career changers
• Capturing, sharing and amplifying learnings
• Embedding anti-racist awareness and practices into the ITE curriculum across NIoT’s network

Project team at NIoT

• Sasha Fraser, Deputy Head of ITE Primary
• Amrit Singh, Chief Operations Officer
• Mariyambibi Mulla, Project Manager
• Rob Nash, Head of Psychological Research
• Yamini Almal, Research Assistant
• Dominic Wilson, ITE Recruitment Manager
• Mark Ebden, Associate Head of Partnerships (SW)

Project partners

• Aretha Banton, Mindful Equity UK
• Youlande Biosah, Mindful Equity UK
• Graihagh Crawshaw-Sadler, Now Teach
• Rob Fryer, Now Teach
• Ayesha Shaikh, Now Teach