Black Female Leaders in Education, Role, Reflections, and Experiences

Abstract

Black female leaders and Black and Ethnic Minority (BME) female leaders are used interchangeably The Shortage of Black Female Leaders in EducationEngland currently has 32,113 schools (primary and secondary) with a workforce of 498,100 teaching staff (including teachers, deputy and assistant headteachers, and headteachers). BME teachers make up approximately 10,000 (2.1%: Black African, 1.3%, Black Caribbean 1% and Black Other, 0.4%) of the teaching workforce, which is a cause for concern. Even more worrying is that approximately 3,000 are men and 7,000 are female. Regarding senior leadership posts in England, there are 900 BME deputy and assistant headteachers (combined) and 200 head teachers (0.7% male and 1.2% female). Most BME teachers are currently working in secondary education (DfE 2018). On the other side of the