The West African Supply Teacher as 'Other' in London Secondary Schools

Abstract

Many educational researchers writing on the subject of identity and the issues of marginality in the educational setting (see, for example, Paechter, 1998; Osler, 1997; Troyna, 1994; Gaine and George, 1999) have pointed out that in the educational context there is a multiplicity of "Others" that are marginalised and stigmatised because of their personal, individual and social identities. Many educational critics have condemned the ways in which some people experience discrimination and social exclusion in the school setting; and factors that cause them are being questioned and challenged in many educational quarters. In this paper, the author argues that the London educational setting perpetuates racism in the formation of the identities of supply teachers of West Africa. The author examines the ways in which racism is perpetuated and used as the main source of the discrimination, marginalisation and stigmatisation (or "othering") of the West African supply teachers in South East London secondary schools. The focus of this essay is the institutionalisation of racism in these schools and how this has been affecting the work of West African supply teachers who are made to conceive of their identity and their status as inferior to that of the permanent staffs in these London secondary schools.