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Effective Leadership in Multi-Ethnic SchoolsPart I: Priorities, Strategies and Challenges

Part II: School Community Perspectives and their Leadership Implications

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Authors

Part I: Priorities, Strategies and Challenges

Professor Allan Walker

Chair of the Department of Educational Administrationand Policy at the Chinese University of Hong Kong

Part II: School Community Perspectives and theirLeadership Implications

Professor Clive Dimmock, Dr Howard Stevenson, Brenda Bignold, Dr Saeeda Shah, David Middlewood

Centre for Educational Leadership and Management,University of Leicester

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Preface.................................................................................. 2

Key findings.......................................................................... 3

Defining terms .................................................................... 4

Part I: Priorities, Strategies and ChallengesIntroduction ...................................................................... 5

Headteachers as proactive leaders ................................ 7

Priorities, strategies and challenges .............................. 9

■ Priorities ...................................................................... 10

■ Strategies...................................................................... 12

■ Leadership challenges ................................................ 18

Conclusion ........................................................................ 25

Part II: School CommunityPerspectives and their Leadership ImplicationsIntroduction .................................................................... 26

Leading multi-ethnic schools: identifying the leadership contribution ...................... 26

■ Articulating and implementing values ...................... 27

■ Creating inclusive organisational cultures ................ 28

■ Focusing on teaching and learning............................ 30

■ Recruiting, nurturing and developing staff................ 31

■ Mobilising the community.......................................... 33

Values-driven leadership, within and beyond the school ........................................................................ 36

The importance of the school’s micro-context .......... 37

Developing successful multi-ethnic schools: identifying strategies ...................................................... 40

Appendix 1: research design ........................................ 44

References .......................................................................... 46

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Contents

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The education of diverse groups of students fromdifferent cultural and minority ethnic groups continues toclimb higher on political, social and educational agendasthe world over (Banks & McGee Banks, 2003). Educationalprovision to best meet the needs of minority ethnicstudents and the communities they represent has formany years presented serious challenges to schools andschool systems. These challenges have recently taken on anew complexity, as global, social and domesticdemographics have shifted in response to political andeconomic circumstances, and through both forced andvoluntary migration (Gardner, 2001). The nature ofdemographic movements means that the contours ofethnic diversity are constantly shifting. Global trends,whether driven by the imperatives of labour markets, orthe consequences of military conflicts, are resulting inever more fluid population movements. Communities,especially in urban areas, are increasingly dynamic intheir ethnic composition. Such changes need to bereflected in our understanding of schooling andeducational processes.

Ethnic diversity has long been a feature of schools inEngland, especially schools located in urban areas. Manyof those in such schools have considerable experience ofworking in multi-ethnic environments. However, forseveral years, there have been concerns about the extentto which such schools are able to provide an educationthat meets the needs of both individual students from

minority ethnic backgrounds and an ethnically diversesociety. These concerns were most clearly articulated forthe first time in the Swann Report (Swann, 1985), andhave been the subject of continuous debate since then.More recently, the Macpherson Report (Macpherson,1999), which followed the racially motivated murder of aschoolboy, Stephen Lawrence, has served to emphasisethe persistent nature of these issues, whilst researchrelating to the differential rates of achievement betweenethnic groups has persistently highlighted different, butrelated, concerns.

Though research on school leadership and managementhas tended to approach its subject matter from a context-neutral perspective – focusing on the generalities ofleadership and transferring these unproblematicallyacross schools, regardless of context - more recently, therehas been recognition of the importance of context. Forexample, there has been increasing attention paid to thespecificities of leading and managing schools in areas ofsocial disadvantage (Louis & Miles, 1990; Stoll & Myers,1997; Harris & Chapman, 2002). The project reportedhere seeks to add to the body of context-specific researchby exploring issues of school leadership and managementin schools with a significant proportion of students fromminority ethnic backgrounds. It attempts to inform thework that headteachers have to do in meeting thechallenges of providing worthwhile, socially responsibleand equitable education to diverse groups. Those

E F F E C T I V E L E A D E R S H I P I N M U L T I - E T H N I C S C H O O L S2

Preface

This research report explores issues relating to the effective leadership of English schools in which asubstantial proportion of students are from minority ethnic communities.


challenges are at once both exciting and frightening. Thechallenges frighten because they confront prejudice,injustice and historical misconceptions that are soprofoundly entrenched in the fabric of our systems thatthey often appear insurmountable. They are exciting notonly for the potential vibrancy and richness they carry,but also for their too-often muted promise to help builda more equitable and even society.

Key findings

This research has highlighted the need to locate anunderstanding of school leadership processes within aschool-specific context. The ethnic profile of the schoolstudent population decisively shapes this context and inturn shapes the actions and responses of school leaders.This study identified a number of factors that wereimportant aspects of successful school leadership andthat, when located within the context of a multi-ethnicschool, took on a distinctive nature. It highlights threekey findings.

1. Successful school leadership in multi-ethnic schools isbased on the articulation and implementation ofexplicit values that promote an agenda of equality,fairness and respect. The notion of a values-drivenleadership was central to the school leaders in thecase study schools. These leaders defined theirleadership, and their aspirations for the school, interms of their commitment to principles of socialjustice. The clarity of these values provided schoolleaders with a moral compass with which to shapetheir leadership role.

2. School leaders in multi-ethnic schools project theirleadership beyond the school and into the widercommunity. School leaders are well known in theircommunities and respected for the way in which theywork with community representatives and respond tocommunity needs. Leaders in the case study schoolsdid not see their responsibility to their students asconfined to the perimeter of the school fence, nor thering of the school bell. Boundaries between theschool and the community were largely ephemeral,with significant resources being devoted to ensuringthat parents and the wider community wereencouraged to participate fully in the life of theschool.

3. School leadership is shaped decisively by context.Issues of ethnicity have an important role to play informing that context. However, it is important todevelop a more sophisticated understanding ofcontext – in particular, the unique ways in which localcommunity factors, based largely on demography, areinterdependent with local labour market factors inwhich parents are able to exercise choice betweenschools. These micro-contextual factors exert asignificant influence on how school leaders performtheir role and it is important to recognise these whenanalysing how leadership is exercised in a multi-ethnic school context.

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Defining terms

Throughout this report, the term ‘ethnic group’ is used todescribe the background of students who provide a focusfor this study. It is recognised that the terms ‘race’ and‘racial group’, with their implied notions of biologicaldeterminism, are inappropriate and unhelpful in thiscontext. Notions of ethnicity are largely sociallyconstructed and are based on shared cultural values andnorms that distinguish one group from another. Thissense of cultural distinction can be highlighted by anumber of factors including language, history, ancestry,religion and styles of dress. In this sense, it is importantto recognise that ‘ethnic differences are wholly learned’(Giddens, quoted in Gillborn, 1990). As such, this termbest reflects the reality, and increasing complexity, ofcultural diversity in contemporary England (Hall, 1996).The term ‘minority ethnic group’ corresponds to the PupilLevel Annual School Census descriptors that designatespecific ethnic groups in this way. Within the context ofthis study, the particular ethnic profile within the casestudy schools varied considerably, with members of some‘minority’ ethnic groups forming a majority of thestudent population in that school.



Introduction

The challenges of multicultural education are notconfined by national or societal boundaries. Educators incountries from New Zealand to Holland, Australia toCanada, Singapore to the United States (US), and China tothe United Kingdom (UK), to name but some, facecommon if differently shaped issues at various stages ofmaturity. For example, Singaporean schools have, sincenational formation, consciously structured to battleracism and advance educational opportunities for Indian,Malay, Chinese and Eurasian students, while Hong Kongschools are only now becoming broadly aware ofmulticultural education. Schools in Australia, the US andNew Zealand continue to battle institutionalised racismand the endemic underachievement of members of bothindigenous groups and other minority ethnic groups. Gay(2004, p.30) describes the latter of these problems in theUS thus: ‘As disparities in educational opportunities andoutcomes among ethnic groups continue to grow, theresulting achievement gap has reached crisis proportions’.Similar problems endure for certain ethnic groups in UK

schools where the students who are ‘most likely tounderachieve come from African-Caribbean, Bangladeshiand Pakistani backgrounds’ (Gillborn & Gipps, 1996, citedin Blair, 2002, p.82).

The real work of designing and implementing meaningfulprogrammes for students from minority ethnic groupsfalls squarely on the shoulders of teachers, mid-levelschool leaders, parents, school support staff andheadteachers, often in partnership with various formaland informal community support and interest groups.The focus of this report is headteachers in schools withsubstantial numbers of minority ethnic students.

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Part I: Priorities, Strategies and ChallengesProfessor Allan WalkerChair of the Department of Educational Administration and Policy at the Chinese University of Hong Kong


This report is based on data collected from theheadteachers of five case study schools as part of a largerproject, which focused on the leadership of schools withsubstantial numbers of minority ethnic students Thisproject was being undertaken by the University ofLeicester’s Centre for Leadership and Management onbehalf of the National College for School Leadership(NCSL). The headteachers all had established reputationsas ‘good leaders’ of multi-ethnic schools. The motherproject collected perceptions from a range of formalschool leaders, teachers, students and communitymembers, and these are reported on in the second partof this booklet. This report draws on perceptions of theheadteachers themselves and attempts to locate some ofthe challenges they face within an international context.This segment of the investigation has three main aims.These are to:

■ elicit the perspectives held by headteachers of issuesrelated to their leadership of schools with substantialnumbers of minority ethnic students

■ clarify the major priorities and associated effectivepractices employed by headteachers in leading multi-ethnic schools

■ discuss the tensions and challenges faced by theheadteachers as they attempt to exercise effectiveleadership

This report has four major sections.

■ The first section introduces the headteachers asproactive and active leaders committed to addressingissues of social justice in their schools. Five forms ofproactive leadership are described.

■ The second section briefly outlines the six majorpriorities of the headteachers. These focus ondemanding that staff work to understand the valuesand needs of the students, locating the school firmlywithin its constituency and building an inclusiveculture.

■ The third section attempts to isolate some of thestrategies employed by the headteachers as theypursued their priorities. For example, theheadteachers actively reaffirmed and encouraged thevalues and contributions of minority ethnic staff andcommunity members.

■ The fourth section discusses the often complexchallenges facing the headteachers involved in thestudy. These challenges are augmented by relateddiscussion from other contexts and raise awareness ofthe difficulties headteachers do and will continue toface. The data and ideas reported do not presume tocover all the priorities, strategies and challengesfacing headteachers; this would be impossible toachieve here. However, they do represent at leastsome of the major issues headteachers must dealwith and summarise their values-driven attempts tomake a difference in the lives of the students in theirschools.



Headteachers as proactive leaders

“The tendency to locate the blame forunderachievement in students and theircommunities overlooks the role of schools asinstitutions, and teachers and headteachers asleaders, in processes that lead to poor studentperformance.” Blair, 2002, p.182

The headteachers in the multi-ethnic schools involved inthe study held a clearly articulated and unwaveringcommitment to attacking ingrained societal inequalities,particularly racism and poverty, and saw this asinexorably linked to students’ achievements. They did notrest on their laurels or the rhetoric of their values andbeliefs but loudly proclaimed them and expendedconsiderable strategic and practical energy toward theirrealisation, often in the face of quite daunting obstacles.

The headteachers involved in the study were both activeand proactive in anticipating future problems, needs orchanges based predominantly on what the school coulddo to equalise opportunities for their students. Like theircolleagues in Singapore (Walker & Dimmock, 2002a) andthe US (Henze, 2000), they showed that, despite powerfulconstraints, they believed they could make a difference,including to better race relations.

The beliefs and strategic intentions of the headteachersin the study showed dedication to recognising whatBanks (1994) labels ‘cultural difference’ rather than‘cultural deficit’. Cultural deficit is the notion thatstudents from minority ethnic groups often fail in schoolbecause of the culture in which they grow up. Theassumption is that students from minority ethnic groupsdo not have the skills and knowledge to succeed – inshort, that the culture of the student is the problem, notthe culture of the school. As a result of this line ofthinking, action toward multiculturalism is isolated anddoes not target the school as the agent of change.Cultural difference, on the other hand, assumes thatminority ethnic students often fail because they havedifferent values from those of the school, not becausethey are culturally deficient. According to thisassumption, schools must themselves change to respectand include all cultures and institute strategies that areconsistent with the cultural characteristics of the students(Minnesota Independent School Forum, 2001).

Based firmly within a dedication to cultural difference,the proactive demeanour of the headteachers in thestudy took at least five interrelated forms. Thesecombined to give an outline to their leadership.

■ First, they held strong, equity-focused values and werealmost aggressive in communicating these within andoutside school boundaries. Their values were verypersonal to their educational and personal existenceand vision, and this appeared to be the main factordriving their constant and forceful messaging.

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■ Second, as well as wearing their values ‘on theirsleeves’, they regularly reflected upon these valuesand how to apply them practically as strategies withintheir schools and the broader community.

■ Third, they did not just follow policy, but workedactively to shape it, even though the sometimesuneven intersection between broad governmentpolicy and priorities unique to their schools andcommunities often resulted in stressful tension. Theheadteachers vigorously sought to build synergyinternally and between external and internalpriorities to promote equality and inclusion.

■ Fourth, the leaders were proactive in their almostunshakeable belief that they could and would make apositive difference, not only in the immediate livesand learning of their students, but also to allay thedisadvantages and inequalities too often attached toethnicity and racism. The headteachers were generallypositive people, even though they admitted they hada hard road to follow and faced considerable tensionalong the way.

■ Finally, the headteachers were not blind optimists:rather their proactiveness was grounded firmly in therealities of their own unique contexts. They stressedagain and again, as do their colleagues in othercountries, that each school, each community, eachethnic group and positions within the same ethnicgroup, vary, often to a significant degree.

In sum, the headteachers involved in the study wererealistically proactive: they held strong personal beliefsabout what they and their schools were attempting to do.They openly expressed and put into operation theirvalues, using a range of strategies. They weretransformers, who demanded action and commitment,rather than tolerators or tinkerers. They strongly believedthat they could make a difference in their schools butwere realistic about the influence of their context onwhat could be achieved: in other words, they recognisedthe inherent tensions of their jobs. They differentiatedthemselves from other cohorts of principals through theirdedication to tackling disadvantages related to ethnicity,racism, culture and poverty aggressively. In short, theywere committed to implementing in a very practical orhands-on way the principles of social justice.



Priorities, strategies and challenges

The work of the headteachers involved in the study canbe described in any number of ways. For the purposes ofthis report, it will be discussed in terms of their prioritiesand strategies and the challenges they face. Findingswithin each of these elements reflect the headteachers’predisposition to take a proactive approach to schoolleadership.

■ Priorities here refer to the values, beliefs andprinciples, which the headteachers sought vigorouslyto embed into the life and operation of their schools.The priorities discussed here are not intended toencapsulate all those held by the headteachers, butdo represent the strongest patterns that emerged fromthe data. In many ways, the six priorities identifiedhere represent the non-negotiable or fundamentalprinciples that guided their attempts to address issuesof learning, living and social justice in their schools.

■ Strategies refer to the concrete actions taken by theprincipals to meet their priorities. The strategies ofcourse varied considerably in terms of their shapeand intensity across schools in line with their micro-contexts. They do, however, represent a collection ofintentional actions taken by the headteachers.Although organised under priorities, the strategieswere neither always linear nor deliberate, and theyshifted in line with local conditions and theheadteachers’ predispositions.

■ Challenges are tensions, confusions or dilemmasfaced by the headteachers as they attempted topursue their complex agendas. These challenges oftenresulted from contradictory expectations, for example,between government policy and headteachers’priorities, between academic and social agendas orbetween personal and group goals. The challengesdiscussed include those raised by the headteachersinvolved in the study, as well as a number of thoseappearing in some international literature.

The following sections scan the headteachers’ prioritiesand strategies, as well as the challenges they do or maywell face during their tenure. The discussion draws on theconversations with the headteachers and a selection ofinternational literature. More information, particularlyrelating to the priorities and strategies, can be accessedfrom the sister reports.

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The headteachers’ six most visible priorities areintroduced below.

1. Demanding that the values of professional andother staff cohere with principles of social justice andequality

The headteachers were genuinely committed to theprinciples of social justice and redressing inequality at alllevels through what happened in their schools, and theydemanded that others working there held similar beliefs.As one headteacher stated, “I think the key quality isbeing prepared to stand up for what you believe is rightin human justice terms [. . .] If you’re not committed tothat type of belief, I don’t believe you can work in anyschool, but you certainly can’t work in this school.” Thefoundations of such beliefs have recently been suggestedas key in Australian and US schools catering for minorityethnic students. Cooper & Jordan (2003) go as far as tosuggest that the current school restructuring movementshould include the restructuring of the norms that drive

school mission and operation. They tie their argumentstrongly to catering for disadvantaged minority ethnicstudents:

“Restructuring of the norms that guide and directpolicy and practice refers to altering institutionalethos in ways that value and celebrate the uniquecontribution and learning style of each student.This involves seeing racial affirmation, culturalhistory, family background, and native languageother than English as assets to the learningprocess not as barriers to intellectual pursuits.” Cooper & Jordan, 2003, p.387


Priorities

The headteachers’ values-driven priorities can be roughly grouped into six interrelated statements.The statements strongly reflect the principled and proactive pursuit of equity and equality. Thepriorities are given in no particular order as all appeared to be of approximately equal importance.Interestingly, they fit neatly with Blair, Bourne & Coffin’s (1998) features of successful multi-ethnicschools: ‘The most important characteristic of a leader [. . .] who is creating or who is going to createan equitable and excellent school is that this person has developed a strong ethical or moral corefocused on equity and excellence as the only right choice for schools in a democracy. For thisperson, this is an indomitable belief, an indomitable commitment.’ (Scheurich & Skrla, 2003, p. 100).


2. Demanding that professional and other staffdemonstrate a willingness to understand the culturesand background realities of their students and schoolcommunity

The headteachers themselves worked hard to understandtheir students’ beliefs and value structures and toappreciate reality through their eyes. They also robustlypromoted this among staff and the wider community,particularly in schools with a number of differentminority ethnic groups. Headteachers constantlyreiterated to staff the need to locate their leadership andwork within the unique context of their school.

3. Attempting to recruit and retain staff with similarcultural and ethnic backgrounds to those existent inthe school community

In line with the first two priorities, headteachers believedit was important that the staff profile, as much aspossible, should parallel the ethnic profile of the school.They placed a high priority on both the recruitment anddevelopment of suitable staff, with the idea that theywould provide positive role models for the students andbring cultural knowledge that comes only from livingwithin a culture. Achieving a balanced staff profile wasalso seen as a means of openly expressing the school’sdedication to its students and community.

4. Locating the school firmly within the immediateand broader societal context

The headteachers openly recognised that their schoolscould not be successful if they operated in a vacuum.They, without exception, stressed the importance ofunderstanding and connecting with the broadercommunity and held that the unique blend of localcircumstances had a marked influence on theirleadership and the culture of the school. Theheadteachers saw working beyond the school as essentialif students were to achieve within the school.

5. Promoting the importance of improving high-quality learning and teaching as a way of addressingdisadvantage

High-quality learning and teaching were seen asnecessary prerequisites for raising students’ self-esteem,achieving school mission, improving achievement scoresand widening pathways to battle racism and otherinequalities.

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6. Consciously constructing and nurturing aninclusive school culture

As reflected in the other main priorities, the headteachersclearly linked their values to inclusive school cultures. Aschool-wide belief in inclusive cultures was seen as moreimportant, or at least more influential, than technicalsystems or structures, although these were also seen asintegral to facilitating inclusion.

The following section outlines a number of the strategiesemployed by the heads to put their chief priorities intooperation. These are in outline form only and it shouldbe noted that there was no one best strategy associatedwith any of the priorities – some worked in one context,but not in another, and vice versa. Discussion of thestrategies is worthwhile, however, as they provide a grab-bag of ideas that have been shown to be useful in multi-ethnic schools, often in challenging circumstances.

Strategies

1. Demanding that the values of professional andother staff cohere with principles of social justice andequality

In demanding that the values typifying the schoolunequivocally support a social justice agenda, theheadteachers clearly and regularly articulated thesevalues and made no secret of the fact that these valuesshould drive school relationships and actions. Theheadteachers moved beyond the ‘said’ to link the priorityexplicitly to practical school activities such as missiondevelopment, teaching and planning. For example,values demanding social justice were evident in formalschool communication devices such as mission statementand school improvement plans. Through this widespreadarticulation, both within and outside school forums, staffwere provided with opportunities to challenge widerstructural inequities and ways to deal with them. Whilecertainly recognising the constraints on embeddingvalues coherence among staff, the headteachers wereunapologetic about the openness of their quest and theimportance of it in underpinning school success.

The headteachers’ proactive approach to social justicesaw them addressing the subtly embedded causes ofethnic conflict (such as racism), not simply its visibleindicators. In their own ways, they recognised theinterrelatedness of conflict in the school and community.They appeared to view conflicts through a similar guise tothat described by Henze (2000), who reported thefindings of a large-scale US research project into racialand ethnic tensions in schools. Henze’s sample groupinvolved schools where there was evidence of innovative



leadership to improve inter-ethnic relations. She foundthat school leaders viewed conflicts on a continuum. Touse her words:

“The most overt conflicts, such as physical fightsand racial slurs, are at one end; underlyingconflicts and tensions, such as avoidance ofcertain groups and perceptions of unequaltreatment, are in the middle. At the other end arethe root causes of ethnic/racial conflicts, includingsegregation, racism and inequality – conditionsendemic to the larger society.” Henze, 2000, p.2

Purposeful strategies that pushed staff to look beneaththe obvious through constantly challenging theirworldviews and encouraging them into the communityserved consistently to re-focus attention on the need forsocial justice to be reflected across school life.

2. Demanding that professional and other staffdemonstrate a willingness to understand the culturesand background realities of their students and schoolcommunity

Closely aligned with strategies associated with theprevious priority was the fact that headteachers stronglyencouraged staff – both teaching and support staff – toview the school and broader society through the eyes oftheir students and the communities the staff served. Suchaction was based on the belief that the meaningsstudents attached to the world were fashioned by theirculture and place in society. The headteachers helpedstaff to see, for example, that refugee children often

carried memories of harrowing experiences from theirhome countries and the sometimes perilous journeysthey had undertaken. Likewise, Muslim students had verydifferent interpretations of the events surroundingSeptember 11 2001 than members of other ethnicgroups. Heads were careful to note, however, that suchinterpretations also varied markedly among Muslimsthemselves, depending on other factors such as socio-economic status (SES) or the length of time they had livedin the UK. Headteachers encouraged understanding bycelebrating cultural occasions and asking staff to get intothe community.

Strategies to promote cultural understanding are alsoseen as essential in other countries. Cooper & Jordan(2003, p.287) stress that if the emphasis is to shift fromacademic failure to an examination of alternativestructures and practices leading to improved academicachievement, then teachers, leaders and others mustview different ethnic groups positively – or in terms oftheir successes, not just failures. The headteachers in thestudy acknowledged this not just through theirrequirement that staff look empathetically into thebackgrounds of their students, but also through theirhuman resource policies. Among these was theirapproach to professional development, which in someschools was integrated closely with knowing thecommunity – such as language background, SES, primaryschool background and cultural awareness (Boothe,2000).

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3. Attempting to recruit and retain staff with similarcultural and ethnic backgrounds to those existent inthe school community

The headteachers went to considerable lengths to try todevelop a staff profile that broadly reflected the ethnicprofile of the school community. This strategy targetedboth teaching and non-teaching staff. In many instances,this was a difficult task as the schools’ challenging urbansituations made even recruiting enough staff regardlessof ethnicity a problem, particularly in terms of seniorstaff. Such problems seemed common whether the schoolwas largely mono- or multicultural. The heads actively(even aggressively) tried to recruit teachers who wereeither qualified or experienced from appropriate minorityethnic groups. However, since this met with minimalsuccess in most sites, a number of headteachersinstituted a more home-grown approach. This strategymainly involved two, sometimes related, strategies. Thefirst was to identify potential future teachers, providethem with involvement through non-teaching roles andthen work on nurturing them toward qualified teacherstatus. The second was to try to achieve a more balancedprofile by increasing the number of staff from minorityethnic groups in non-teaching support roles.Other long-term strategies for retaining and attractingstaff involved openly valuing and rewarding involvementby all staff, not just teachers, and focusing on any specialcontributions made by staff from minority ethnicbackgrounds. Extra effort was sometimes made toencourage participation by these groups in response tolanguage or cultural barriers. Such positiveencouragement is also considered important in the US,where Mabokela & Madsen (2003, p.108) recommend that‘school leaders [need to] take proactive steps to scrutinize

their organisational culture and create an environmentthat is supportive to African-American teachers andteachers of colour’.

The headteachers in the study also placed a premium onprofessional learning and career developmentopportunities as a way of retaining and even attractingthe right staff. These strategies were strongly linked to thebuilding of an inclusive school culture, one where theheadteachers worked hard to create organisations wherestaff wanted to be and could make sense of what theywere doing, in both social justice and academic terms. Aswith all strategies, the headteachers were realisticallyproactive – they did not underestimate the difficulties ofhiring and retaining the right staff – but chose toapproach the exercise in a positive way. This issue isfurther discussed in the section on building an inclusiveschool culture.

4. Locating the school firmly within the immediateand broader societal context

“Emancipatory leaders know when they are out oftheir depth in complex socio-cultural areas: theyacknowledge the greater expertise of communitymembers or colleagues in certain situations linkedto concerns for diversity, and they actaccordingly.” Corson, 1998, p.16

All the headteachers recognised the importance ofconnecting with and understanding their extendedcommunities. Such communities included those directlyassociated with the students, and the various social,



social service and community groups with a meaningfulplace in their lives. Strategies for locating the schoolwithin its context involved inviting people into the schooland moving purposefully outside school boundaries. Bothforms of linkage were vital and considered critical to aschool’s ability to make a difference to its students’ livesand learning.

Involvement within the school included inviting students,parents, governors and members of community groups toserve on school committees. It was emphasised that thesecommittees had a genuine role to play and were not justconcerned with selective events such as organisingcultural festivities, for example. Moving outside schoolboundaries was equally important for the headteachersand all other staff members. External connection wasnecessary for the headteachers personally as itdemonstrated their commitment to their students andtheir circumstances. It also allowed them to betterground their leadership in the contexts of their students.Similarly, moving into the community allowed (or forced)other staff to understand more fully the cultural heritageof their students and also sensitise their awareness ofcommunity concerns and aspirations.

Through their efforts to build coherent values within theirschools and to locate these schools squarely in theirbroader communities, the headteachers attempted toincrease leadership capacity – a capacity grounded inshared ownership and responsibility. Henze’s (2000, p.3)description of US principals captures succinctly theessence of what the headteachers were trying to do: ‘This[involving multiple people and ethnic groups] paved theway for more diverse leaders to take on formal leadershiproles in the future, and ensured that efforts to improve

human relations were not “owned”’ by any one individualor group. Thus they had a greater likelihood of beingsustained’.

Locating the school within the wider communityconsumed considerable time and other resources but wasnon-negotiable in terms of making schools meaningfulplaces for the minority ethnic students. Again, althoughthe leaders had a clear vision of how to connect with thecommunity there was no best way to do it. Theheadteachers saw school governance issues as stretchingwell beyond traditional school boundaries and towardsgreater inter-agency collaboration. Although such inter-agency links have traditionally been weak (Capper, 1996),such collaboration was seen as providing a powerfulmeans for understanding, interacting and empoweringdifferent minority groups. Capper suggests thatcommunity-based inter-agency collaboration canpromote the involvement of traditionally disempoweredgroups across the gamut of human welfare serviceprovision. Connections deliberately and consciouslyforged between the school, systems, agencies andinformal community service organisations that have longbeen seen as peripheral to schools can be harnessed topromote meaningful multiculturalism in schools.

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5. Promoting the importance of improving high-quality learning and teaching as a way of addressingdisadvantage

Headteachers of schools with varied multi-ethnicpopulations implemented strategies to monitor or trackthe performance of different ethnic groups. This was seenas a way of assisting the school in identifyingachievement patterns and then planning and applyingappropriate interventions. There did not appear, however,to be formal strategies in place to track shifts (positive ornegative) in attitudes to racism and other destructiveattitudes.

The headteachers accentuated the importance ofteaching and learning in their schools and expressedconcern for infusing culture into the curriculum. Theyencouraged staff to structure curricular experiences thatreflected cultural diversity and countered racism andother forms of discrimination. However, reflections ofethnic diversity, as recognised by the headteachers,tended to be restricted to humanities subjects, such as artand drama, and there seemed little directacknowledgement of the influence of culture on learningstyles. The headteachers linked the balance of staff andstudent profiles to building a more diverse approach tothe curriculum, but progress often seemed blocked bymore pragmatic policy pressures.

Of the priorities identified, and the strategiesimplemented, the efforts to address ethnic diversity inthe classroom generally and in particular in learning,showed that little direct account was taken of ethnicdiversity in terms of teaching and learning in mostclassrooms.

6. Consciously constructing and nurturing aninclusive school culture

In pulling together the priorities, the headteachers soughtto build and foster an inclusive school culture – one thatreflected the ethnic and cultural diversity of the broaderschool community. Such a culture has been defined inthe US as one in which ‘students from diverse racial,ethnic, and social groups believe that they are heard andare valued and experience respect, belonging andencouragement.’ (Parks, 1999, p.11). The headteachers inthis study in many ways mirrored this belief, while thevalues and strategies touched upon for each of the otherpriorities helped to form the components of the inclusiveschool model they pursued. To build and sustain aninclusive culture, the headteachers vigorously promotedthe participation and representation of the range ofactors, from students to teachers to parents tocommunity groups. They established structures for thisinvolvement, for example, through student councils,professional development days, prefect systems andcommunity-linked groups. In this endeavour, theheadteachers once again attempted to parallel the ethnicmake-up of the student body.

While recognising that differences within as well asbetween ethnic groups was a key leadership issue, theheadteachers nurtured the inclusivity of theirorganisations’ cultures through celebrating ethnicdiversity as reflected in student projects and otheroutputs. They also consciously sought to build the self-esteem of staff, students and others associated with theschool. The culture-building acknowledged theinseparability of bureaucratic or structural linkages fromthose of a cultural nature. The headteachers


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implemented supportive and influential structures andsystems, such as clear policies against racism (which theyensured were understood). They established committeesto promote inclusion and monitor change initiatives.Showing disrespect to people on ethnic or other groundswas frowned upon and carried definite consequences.Resource allocation was also considered an importantstrategy to build a focused and inclusive culture. Both thelevel of resources devoted to multicultural activities andthe distribution of resources in support of a multiculturalcurriculum can provide a benchmark for the school’sseriousness with regard to multiculturalism.

Headteachers saw building inclusive school cultures thatreflected the values of multiculturalism as a keyresponsibility. As illustrated in the above priorities, theyacknowledged that culture is partly built and influencedthrough their actions in modelling and demonstratingtheir own values in interacting with others, makingappropriate public pronouncements, establishingsupportive reward and discipline systems, and valuingstudents from all races and ethnicities. Banks (1993, p.17)refers to ‘an empowering school culture’, where alearning environment is created in which students fromdiverse racial, ethnic and social groups believe that theyare heard, valued and that they experience respect,belonging and encouragement.

For all of the strategies, the headteachers rejected a one-size-fits all framework – they continually returned to theuniqueness of their environment (Henze, 2000). Whileclaiming considerable progress in their schools, theyacknowledged that not everything was working, that bothpersonal and institutionalised racism remainedwidespread and that academic underachievement

continued to plague their schools. These and othertensions disrupted their priorities and associatedstrategies but, in the process, may serve as sparks tofurther positive avenues for their leadership.

The headteachers’ priorities and strategies seemed tomatch quite closely with what Lindsey, Robins & Terrell(1999) call ‘culturally proficient leadership’. The authorsdefine five essential elements of cultural proficiency andthen describe the principals’ responsibility within theseelements. In outline these elements are (p.54):

■ Value diversity: The articulation of a culturallyproficient vision for the school

■ Access culture: Assessment of the culture/s of theschool

■ Manage the dynamic of difference: The provision oftraining and support systems for conflict resolution

■ Institutionalise cultural knowledge: Model andmonitor school-wide and classroom practices

■ Adapt to diversity: Access and change currentpractices where appropriate

Notwithstanding the dedication and proficiency of theheadteachers involved, they continued to face significantand often complex challenges.

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Leadership challenges

The challenges discussed in this section cutacross the priorities and strategies. This reflectsthe reality of school life which can rarely beneatly categorised. At least four majorchallenges emerged from the study:

■ the challenge of seeing more than ethnicity

■ the challenge of using culture to improvelearning and teaching

■ the challenge of parallel staffing

■ the challenge of professional leadershiplearning

1. The challenge of seeing more than ethnicity

One of the major challenges for headteachers in schoolswith significant numbers of minority ethnic students is theapparently paradoxical issue of encouraging staff andothers to build understanding of the values, beliefs andunderpinnings of ethnic cultures in order to addresslearning and social justice issues while, at the same time,helping others to realise that other contextual factors arealso vital when building school and community capacity.

Headteachers in the study had to fight the assumptionthat ethnicity on its own was at the root of alldisadvantage, and that if this was addressed, the schoolwould automatically become more successful. While thereis no doubting the relationship between ethnicity andsocial disadvantage, other factors also play a major roleand impact on students and the school. For example, SES,geographical location and history, local politics and thestability of the school population all have powerful effectson the students’ and schools’ success. One notableexample of this, as explained by one leader, was thatwithin and outside the school white students arecategorised in terms of SES or social class, while non-whitestudents are categorised only in terms of their ethnicity.This discounts the fact that economic and classdistinctions are as broad within as between ethnic groups.It can also give the false impression that all members ofan easily identifiable ethnic group hold the same values,beliefs and predilections, or that ethnic homogeneityrequires less active leadership and understanding. Thishas implications for leadership and staff management, asone African-American teacher in the US stated about hiscolleagues: “Teachers here think I know everything aboutblack children, but I never grew up in the city and never



experienced the difficulties these students have had […]Yet, the teachers expect me to have access to every Blackstudent, and I find that really troubling.” (cited inMabokela and Madsen, 2003, p.104). The challenge ofparallel staffing is discussed in more detail below.Another example of contextual influence in some settingsis the transience of certain groups (for example asylumseekers). This is often accompanied by disturbances ininter-ethnic hierarchies, which can destabilise the schoolcommunity and even increase conflict within the schooland the wider community.

A related challenge is that many schools are faced withcatering for not one or even two, but for a multitude ofdifferent ethnic groups. Given that diverse groups canhold vastly different values and expectations, this cancreate blockages to building a school where social justiceis not only addressed, but is also seen to be addressed,for all. Given the energy, time and openness needed toexplore and understand any group (not to mentionindividual students), this is a huge task and can distractfrom the academic job teachers have. Understandingdiverse ethnic groups can also be fraught withmisunderstanding in that it can lead to dangerousovergeneralisation about specific racial groups and thedifferences between them. The challenge again is to buildawareness that just as many differences may exist withinas between different ethnic groups. As can be seen clearlyin the Singaporean context, groups within groups canlook very different, depending on multiple contextualfactors, including their history, politics and socio-economic profile (Walker & Dimmock, 2002a).A word of caution is necessary here. Although thechallenge to see through and beyond ethnicity needs tobe addressed, it is important that this does notovershadow the fact that huge gaps in achievement

continue to exist between minority ethnic and majority-ethnic students, regardless of other factors. CitingGillborn & Mirza (2000, p.64), Gardner (2001, p.45)reminds us:

“A child’s social class is an influential factor ineducational achievement and although since the1980s the gap in attainment between the highestand lowest social classes has widened and isevident within ethnic groups, certain minorityethnic groups continue to underachieve evenwhen class is taken into account.”

All headteachers are charged with building firm linkswith the broader community, and recognising that theirstudents’ communities are important, even when thesecommunities do not geographically surround theirschools. There is no one best way of connecting with thecommunity and headteachers are continually challengedby how to balance personal and organisational resourcesin pursuit of this connection, especially when they faceobstacles such as language and differing work patterns.This challenge can be accentuated in some contextsbecause of the imposition of preferential boundary areas,where, as a consequence of parental choice, the schools’and students’ immediate communities are geographicallydisconnected.

Structural inequities and inequalities such as thoseassociated with gender, ethnicity and class present amajor challenge to creating inclusive cultures. The goal isto build understanding of, and respect for, ethnicity andculture across all facets of school life and alsosimultaneously to ensure that schools are not constructedpurely in terms of ethnicity or ethnic homogeneity.

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2. The challenge of using culture to improve learningand teaching

“School administrators and teachers should notonly capitalise on students’ inherent characteristicsand tendencies to improve student learning butalso use the opportunity to expand personalexpectations and behaviours.” Escobar-Ortloff & Ortloff, 2003, p.256

Another important challenge facing headteachers is howto make the curriculum, and particularly learning andteaching, more sensitive and responsive to ethnic orcultural background. This study found that culture, moreoften than not, was left at the classroom door, and thatthe influence of culture on learning and teaching wasdownplayed, sometimes because of the demands ofcentral assessment requirements. This tension betweenlocal context and policy was accentuated (if not driven)by the limited extent to which the formal curriculumreflected ethnic diversity. One challenge then is to findways to expand awareness of the place of culture inlearning and teaching, while also addressing the moreinstrumental approaches demanded by commonaccountability mechanisms. A continued concentrationon the latter may lead to neglected opportunities toinfuse culture into the curriculum and which may, inturn, impact negatively on student engagement,achievement and outcomes.

Given the continued gap in academic achievementbetween majority ethnic and most minority ethnicstudents, culture-bound approaches to teaching andlearning must be challenged (Dimmock, 2000). Cooper &

Jordan (2003) note (when discussing male African-American students) that minority ethnic students can bebetter served educationally when traditional notions ofteaching and learning are re-conceptualised. It isaxiomatic that different cognitive strategies used bystudents for learning have implications for teachers intheir choice of teaching strategies and for leaders inpromoting good learning cultures and practices inschools. The nurturing of learning is part of instructionalleadership. Since the cognitive processes and technicalskills involved in learning vary across cultures, this shouldbe reflected in different interpretations of learning-centred leadership. Moreover, conceptions of the goodstudent and the good teacher also vary cross-culturally.According to Watkins (2002), a good student in a countrysuch as Australia, regardless of ethnicity, is seen as onewho pays attention to the teacher and does what he orshe is told. In China, however, this is the expectation ofall students, with the result that teachers can focus moreon academic and social matters. Likewise, students seethe good teacher in countries such as New Zealand asone who raises students’ interest and uses an array ofeffective teaching methods. In contrast, the perception ofan effective teacher held by students in Hong Kong tendsto centre on warm, caring, friendly relations combinedwith deep subject knowledge and an ability to model astrong set of morals – all within a hierarchical structure(Walker, 2004). Notions of what constitutes effective groupwork and questioning also differ between many UK andChinese students.

Drawing on his rich experience as a principal of a multi-ethnic school in the US, Adcock (1997) expresses hispragmatic view of why the challenge of understandingculture in teaching and learning is so vital. He states:



“Effective learning in a multicultural settingdepends on ‘comprehensible input’ – that is thelevel at which the teacher can make contentunderstandable to the learner. This can be done ina number of ways which include using thestudent’s native language, using visual supportssuch as gestures, pictures, maps etc to enrich whatis being said.” Adcock, 1997, p.3

Another dimension of this challenge is for headteachersto find ways to support staff when the demands forinclusion and for improved results in public examinationsappear opposed. Staying true to personal values whenthey may threaten your job security, and convincingothers to do the same, is certainly a test of anyone’svalues. To help teachers meet these sometimescontradictory forces, headteachers can work to provide ameaningful professional learning programme in theschool that helps teachers understand the influence ofculture and ethnicity on learning and teaching and learnhow to design appropriate programmes and pedagogiesto take advantage of this.

An example of culture-sensitive teaching strategies isprovided by Rothstein-Fisch, Greenfield & Trumbull(1999). These authors describe the problems faced bymany teachers in the US who have Latino children fromCentral and South America in their classes. Theseimmigrant children bring collectivist values with them toschool, making it invaluable for their teachers tounderstand the ramifications of collectivism in anotherwise individualist society. Collectivism emphasisesthe interdependence of family members, with childrentaught, above all, to be helpful to others and to

contribute to the success and welfare of the group towhich they belong, beginning with the family. Evenknowledge of the physical world is placed within a socialcontext. In reality, North American, Australian and UKschools tend to foster individualism, viewing the child asan individual who needs to develop independence andvalue individual achievement. While collectivismemphasises the social context of learning and knowledge,individualism emphasises information disengaged fromits social context. As Rothstein-Fisch et al (1999, p. 64)comment: ‘When collectivistic students encounterindividualistic schools, conflicts that are based on hiddenvalues and assumptions can occur’. They go on toillustrate how children from collectivist cultures canmisinterpret the teacher’s expectations when askedquestions. They also show how teachers can incorporatemore collectivist values by allowing children to do tasksin pairs and groups, and by allowing the children to introduce elements of their social life andbackground into science lessons. They conclude:

“When teachers understand and respect thecollectivist values of immigrant Latino children,the opportunities for culturally informed learningbecome limitless. Our examples in classroommanagement, reading, math, and sciencedemonstrate that educators can design instructionresponsive to diverse groups that does notundermine home-based cultural values.” Rothstein-Fisch et al, p.66

The headteacher’s task is to help teachers, regardless ofethnicity, to realise that their own practices are cultural inorigin rather than there being only one right way to do

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things. This is important; research in the US has foundthat teachers often modify their pedagogical practices inresponse to cultural difference (Mabokela & Madsen,2003). Headteachers can encourage teachers to explorethese cultural differences as opportunities to expand theirknowledge of learning styles and their repertoire ofteaching techniques, classroom management andcurriculum tailoring, just as they encourage them to getinto their communities to understand more general valuesand traditions. As Cunningham & Cordeiro (2000, p.105)note: ‘Teachers who accept cultural pluralism constantlyask themselves how to help students respect andappreciate cultural diversity in the classroom, school andsociety’.

3. The challenge of parallel staffing

One of the headteachers’ major priorities is to develop astaff profile that matches the student profile. This isindeed a challenge, but it is not as simple as equalisingthe ethnic profile of staff. Before discussing some of theissues around this priority, it should be noted that it isimportant to have suitable numbers of teachers with thesame ethnic origins as the students (Blair, Bourne &Coffin, 1998). However, research in the US has shown thattoken representation of minorities tends to highlight theirvisibility within the organisation, and this can beproblematic. Citing Kanter (1977), Cose (1993) andAnderson (1999), Mabokela and Madsen (2003) explainthat this can lead to the marginalisation of minorityworkers. Their comments may also hold credence fortailoring approaches to learning and teaching:

“This [the presence of minority workers] results in apolarization where the minority worker threatensthe commonality of the group and is made to feellike an outsider. Thus, majority workers creategroup solidarity by emphasising those culturalelements that they share in contrast to those of theminority person […] Because of these heightenedboundaries minorities are forced into pre-existinggeneralizations, which results in them beingentrapped in a role within the organization.Because of role entrapment, minorities have tocope with status levelling and stereotypical roleinduction.” Mabokela & Madsen, 2003, p.92

In their own study of African-American teachers, Mabokelaand Madsen (2003) found that boundary heighteninginfluenced their interaction with European-Americanteachers in terms of differences in pedagogical andmanagement strategies, debunking negative stereotypesheld about children of colour and negotiating insider-outsider status. In terms of the last item, the minorityethnic teachers ‘were seen as insiders who providedinsights about students of colour’, but, on the other hand,‘were treated as outsiders whose narrowly defined African-American expertise resulted in their being isolated andunable to attain informal social power’ (Mabokela andMadsen, 2003, p.102). Based on the lessons of suchexperience, the trick for headteachers is not only to hiremore minority ethnic teachers, but to make sure thatthose who are already employed feel valued for more thanjust their cultural knowledge and connection. Theheadteachers in this study seemed well aware of thischallenge.



Based on the above discussion, three further associatedissues challenge headteachers of schools with largenumbers of minority ethnic students. The first challengeis for headteachers to develop school cultures whereindividuality, especially for minority ethnic teachers, is asvalued as their association with a particular ethnic group.The second, again recognised by the headteachers in thisstudy, is not just how to hire minority ethnic teachers,but also how to help minority ethnic educators preparefor formal leadership positions within the school andbroader education system. The third and perhaps mostdifficult is the challenge of deciding whether effectivenessas a teacher or membership of a certain ethnic group, ismore important for a school. Cooper & Jordon (2003,p.391) claim that ‘though an effective teacher of anyracial background is more preferable for Black malestudents than an ineffective teacher of African-Americandescent […], the advantage of the latter in terms ofsuccessful role modelling, use of shared knowledge and,sometimes, shared social experiences, may hold greatpotential for raising success rates’. However, as the sameauthors point out, this is complicated further by the factthat most black male teachers are, by definition, middleclass. So the challenge is in no way as straightforward asachieving cultural synchronisation – progress in matchingethnic mixes between teachers and students may wellrest more on teacher and leader preparationprogrammes, and affirmative in-school professionallearning opportunities.

Challenges of parallel staffing are further complicated insome settings, such as in the UK, where there iscontinuing difficulty in recruiting teachers to urbanschools, which tend to enrol greater numbers of minorityethnic students. This often makes recruiting staff of

almost any ilk difficult, much less staff representative ofthe student population, an issue which is exploredfurther in Part II.

4. The challenge of professional leadership learning

Growe, Schmersahl, Perry & Henry (2002) state that whileUS principals are under increasing pressure to developempowering school cultures that create learningenvironments that support students regardless of ethnicbackground or social class, they are being inadequatelyprepared for the job. The same must be said for schoolleaders the world over. The challenge for headteachers inthe UK and beyond, and the systems that propose tosupport them, is how to improve both pre- and ongoinglearning opportunities to improve their work in schools.

A number of authors in different countries have drawnattention to the shortfalls of learning opportunities forleading and managing multicultural schools (eg Newton,2001; Collarbone, 2001). Comments generally relate tothe generic, cross-phase nature of the training, withinsufficient regard paid to specific school context, as wellas the unquestioned assumptions of the leadershipmodels and theories that underpin such programmes. Asscholars such as Hallinger & Kantamara (2002) andWalker & Dimmock (2002b) have noted, the developmentof leadership theory for diversity may require newparadigms and ways of thinking. The leadership learningsituation in the US is a case in point. In an incisivecritique of the US licence schemes for school principals,Hess (2003) draws attention to the weakness of overlygeneric programmes, stating that the emphasis should beplaced instead on having the right leader for the right

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situation, rather than a particular type of leader for allsituations. Hess states: ‘There is legitimate concern thatleaders should be sensitive to the cultural needs of theorganizations they lead. However, administrativepreparation today devotes little or no attention to suchconsiderations’ (p.9). As a consequence, there are majorbarriers to diversity, partly due to a lack of recruitment ofschool leaders from diverse ethnic and culturalbackgrounds, and partly due to a lack of adequatesupport and professional development in multiculturalleadership for serving principals.

Leadership development in Singapore has for some timeattempted to recognise cultural sensitivity and the linkbetween school capacity and broader multicultural policy.Recent developments in continental Europe haveincluded the Intercultural Education Project initiated bythe Dutch government in 1994 (Leeman, 2003). Over afour-year period, the outcomes of this programme drewattention to direct leadership strategies that can be takento manage diversity, including a revision of thecurriculum and teaching strategies to reflect the needs ofa multicultural student population. However, attentionwas also drawn to equally important indirect approachesdesigned to promote a positive school climate andculture, including the creation of a safe and democraticschool environment, opportunities for inter-ethniccontact and co-operative learning groups, and a clearrepudiation of bullying or any form of discrimination(Dimmock & Walker, in press).

Ideas and strategies generated internationally mayprovide useful insights for facing the challenge of creatinga professional learning framework for leaders ofmulticultural schools. Those developed to date appear to

have considerable legitimacy, not only because they areresearch based, but also because they draw on theinsights of experienced and highly successful school-leader practitioners. In line with present thinking in theUK, recent international approaches decry prescriptivesolutions to complex problems and emphasise theimportance of school context and the necessity forprofessional dialogue, support and networking.

The challenge to improve learning for teachers andleaders in multicultural schools is not only a systemresponsibility, but one which must also be addressed byheadteachers and their staff. This appears to be borneout by major movements in the US, and to a lesser extentAustralia (Su, Gamage & Mininberg, 2003). The bottomline may well be that if headteachers do not demandchanges in present opportunities, and express what theseshould entail, it is unlikely that the challenge will be met.

The challenges noted in this section only touch thesurface of the issues that leaders of multi-ethnic schoolsface. They are, however, important challenges and reflectthe complexity of their jobs.


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Conclusion

Despite facing considerable and often convolutedchallenges, the headteachers involved in the studyapproached their jobs in a positive and proactivemanner.

■ Their actions were firmly grounded in strong personalvalues focused on social justice issues such as racismand inter-ethnic tension.

■ They saw a strong link between the socialdisadvantage associated with ethnicity, and believedissues such as racism and academic achievement wereintractably interrelated.

■ Based on their values and propensity toward action,the headteachers shared a core set of at least sixpriorities. These targeted the inculcation of a set ofvalues and beliefs, involving members of minorityethnic groups in the school in a multitude of waysand building an inclusive school culture.

■ The priorities were put into operation by a wide-ranging collection of formal positional and informalstrategies and tactics. These varied betweenheadteachers, depending on the ethnic and othercontexts of their school communities. Within schools,however, strategies were generally coherent, andavoided what Henze (2000) calls a ‘hodgepodge ofunrelated approaches’ and aimed to meld activitiesinto a total effect that exceeded the sum of its parts.

■ Despite the concerted attempts to addressdisadvantage and its influence on schools, theheadteachers faced, and indeed continue to face, anarray of intricate challenges that can shift and changeform depending on the availability of humanresources, demands of government policy and a rangeof social factors. Among the more intractablechallenges are how to understand and then addressthe influence of culture on learning. Tailoringcurriculum and teaching approaches to the needs ofthe students is a major hurdle that needs to beovercome. Another challenge is acquiring the learningopportunities needed to drive success in multi-ethnicschools.

Each headteacher stressed that there is no simple recipefor successfully leading a multi-ethnic school, and thateach must operate in a different context, one which mayeither support or hamper the development of theschool’s achievements and more positive race relations.The headteachers worked in circumstances which bothexcited and frustrated them. Their aim was to advancethe school and redress the disadvantage associated withethnicity and class, and, in the process, improve the lotand place of their students in an uncertain future.

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Introduction

The investigation reported here in Part II aimed to:

■ elicit the perspectives held by leadership teammembers (including headteachers and deputyheadteachers), teachers, students, parents and localcommunity members of issues related to ethnicityand culture in schools with substantial numbers ofminority ethnic students

■ clarify how school leaders relate to their multi-ethniccommunities, and to identify good practice in thatregard

■ draw implications and make recommendations forthe improvement of the leadership of multi-ethnicschools and their communities

Leading multi-ethnic schools: identifying theleadership contribution

This research has sought to establish common features ofsuccessful school leadership in multi-ethnic schools. In sodoing, it recognises the complexity of this analysis. Manyof the approaches to leadership displayed byheadteachers in the case study schools have a genericapplication across all schools, and reflect the findings ofmany studies of school leadership. However, in thespecific application of these approaches to the context ofmulti-ethnic schools, it was possible to identify importantinstances in which school leaders conducted theirleadership in distinctive ways. The broad headings withinwhich these factors featured are identified in Figure 1.These approaches are detailed below. In some respects,these differences reflected the personal histories andapproaches of individual school leaders, while in otherrespects, they appeared to be shaped crucially by themicro-context of individual schools.


Part II: School CommunityPerspectives and their Leadership ImplicationsProfessor Clive Dimmock, Dr Howard Stevenson, Brenda Bignold, Dr Saeeda Shah, David MiddlewoodCentre for Educational Leadership and Management, University of Leicester


Articulating and implementing values

A defining feature of all the school leaders in the casestudy schools was the extent to which they articulatedtheir own leadership in terms of their personal valuesand beliefs – a point made strongly in Part I of thisreport. That is why this factor is placed at the centre ofFigure 1. These values were clearly articulated andstrongly grounded in a commitment to principles ofequality and social justice. Within this broad valuesagenda, there were often appreciable differences ofemphasis and nuance between school leaders, and therewere certainly significant differences in their views onhow these values may be applied in a school context.However, a common theme that emerged was that beingthe headteacher of a multi-ethnic school provided anopportunity to challenge wider structural inequalities insociety. Whilst recognising all the constraints imposed by

factors external to the school, these headteachers weredriven by a belief that schools can make a difference, andthat they have a duty to make a difference for thosedisadvantaged by wider inequalities.

The formulation and development of these values wasclearly personal to individual headteachers. However, acommon feature of these school leaders was the extent towhich they clearly reflected on both the development oftheir personal values and the application of these valueswithin the context of their schools. Values were rarelyimplicit, for either the individual or the organisation, butwere always explicit. One practical way in which thismight be demonstrated was in the form of an explicitreference to ethnic diversity in the school’s missionstatement. Whilst such statements are always vulnerableto the charge that they are bland and irrelevant, the casestudy schools provided several examples of how such

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Figure 1. Values-driven leadership

Creating inclusiveorganisational

cultures

Recruiting, nuturing and developing staff

Focusing onteaching and

learning

Mobilising thecommunity

Strong personalisedarticulation andimplementation

of values


statements were specifically used to inform practicalschool activity. Not least, there were explicit linksbetween the school’s statement of values and aspirationsand the content and priorities of the school improvementplan. In these schools, the commitment to ethnicdiversity was no after-thought: it was central to the corepurpose of the school.

Interview evidence provided by students emphasised theimportance of these values. Concepts of fairness, justice,respect and equal treatment were keenly felt by students.Students were acutely aware of the implications of thesevalues for multi-ethnic schools, and they valued thecommitment of the school to principles of fairness,equality and justice. For the students, it was importantthat these values permeated the ethos of the organisationand were translated into their lived experience of being alearner in the school.

School leaders were supported in their aims by thedevelopment of the inclusion agenda within nationaleducational policy. Inevitably, this agenda wasinterpreted differently by different school leaders, andheadteacher participants were by no means uncritical ofaspects of this agenda. However, the inclusion agendahas clearly opened up possibilities for promoting issuesassociated with ethnic diversity, and a feature of theschool leaders in the case study schools was the extent towhich they were able to capitalise on this agenda andalign it with their own priorities for progress. In thesecases, school leaders did not simply follow policy, butactively shaped it, so there was a powerful synergybetween internal and external priorities in the pursuit ofpromoting inclusive multi-ethnic schools.

“When I arrived it was an ethos of control and Iwanted to turn it into an ethos of respect andequality of opportunity. I think whatever systemsand structures you have, the key way that you dothat is by leading by example, and making it clearthat you are what you preach. You put into actionways of working which are based on yourfundamental principles of human beings – that iswhy I am a head, and that is what I have tried todo while I’ve been here.” Headteacher in interview

Creating inclusive organisational cultures

The interdependent nature of school leadership isillustrated by the link between leaders’ personal valuesand the commitment to creating inclusive organisationalcultures within the school. Booth et al (2000, p.9) identifythe need to create ‘a secure, accepting, collaborating,stimulating community in which everyone is valued, asthe foundation for the highest achievements of allstudents.’ School leaders in the case study schools placedstrong emphasis on the creation of such cultures andclearly prioritised these over systems and structureswhich, in contrast, were perceived as facilitators tosupport the development of such an organisationalculture.

The existence of structural inequalities, such as thoseassociated with ethnicity, gender and class, present amajor challenge to inclusive organisational cultures.Where inequalities exist and create barriers to the equalrepresentation and participation of the whole school



community, it is necessary to develop appropriate policyresponses. Apparently neutral, one-size-fits-all approachesare inadequate to meet the challenge. At best, they leaveinequalities unaffected, and at worst they reproduce andcompound them. Differential responses were required tosecure equitable outcomes. School leaders in the casestudy schools were committed to ensuring that all aspectsof school life reflected the ethnic diversity of the school’slocal community. This required measures that tackled thetwin, and related, issues of representation andparticipation.

It is possible to identify three levels at which suchinclusive cultures might be considered to operate –students, staff and the wider community. Staff andcommunity issues are discussed later in this report.Student issues are the focus of this section. A feature ofmany of the case study schools in the project was thehigh level of student participation in all aspects of schoollife. Genuinely effective student councils were common,as were other forms of more traditional studentinvolvement, such as head girls and head boys and theuse of prefects. In these cases, efforts were made toensure the ethnic profile of these bodies and positionsreflected the ethnic profile of the school population.However, in some of the case study schools, studentparticipation went far beyond what is described above.For example, students represented the school on localcommunity action groups. In another case, a teacher-training day on underachievement and ethnicity involvedstudents from various ethnic backgrounds being involvedwith teachers in planning and running the training.Where this was the case, students enthused that theircontribution was both sought and valued.

A key element in the creation of organisational cultures,for students, staff and the wider community, was thecapacity for schools to demonstrate that ethnic diversitywas valued, and indeed celebrated. Research from thecase study schools provided a host of examples of howthis was achieved – from the celebration of students’work, through the physical presentation of the school’senvironment to the reorganisation of the school day toaccommodate religious festivals. However, it is importantto recognise that there were significant differences inapproach between the case study schools, and thespecific context of each school had a substantial impacton school leaders’ room for manoeuvre. For example,schools with a large majority of Muslim students found iteasy to change the timing of the school day significantlyduring the month of Ramadan – a measure identified ashugely supportive, and much appreciated, by the localcommunity. In contrast, in schools where different ethnicgroups were more balanced, school leaders found it moredifficult to adopt such measures.

Finally, whilst organisational culture was central, it wasclear that culture was buttressed by appropriate systemsand structures. For example, clear policies existed fordealing with racism. These were widely understood andstudents trusted them. Similarly, some schools supportedtheir inclusion agenda with working parties orcommittees that were specifically tasked with promotinginclusion and monitoring the effectiveness of policies andinitiatives. In some cases, these groups included governorand student representation.

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Focusing on teaching and learning

In their different ways, all the case study schoolsdemonstrated how they had prioritised improving thequality of teaching and learning. The provision of high-quality teaching that engaged students and promotedachievement was seen as an essential precondition toachieving wider objectives in the school. This emphasison high-quality teaching and student achievementaccorded with evidence from interviews with students.When asked what they valued most about the school, acommon response was to identify good teachers whowere effective subject teachers, and who deliveredinteresting lessons and responded sympathetically tostudents’ needs.

The research also sought to explore the extent to whichthe curriculum itself reflected the cultural context of theschool, both in terms of curriculum content (whatstudents learn) and curriculum processes (how studentslearn). In all the case study schools, examples wereprovided of how different subjects reflected and valuedcultural diversity and sought to prevent racism. Oftenthese examples were to be found in similar curriculumareas – religious education, art and drama for example.However, examples of how the curriculum reflectedethnic diversity outside these subject areas tended to beconspicuous by their absence. For example, there wasoften considerable discussion about learning styles, withlittle awareness of how these might reflect ethnicdiversity, a point which has been discussed earlier in Part I.

In all the case study schools, a high priority was placedon supporting language acquisition by students, and this

often appeared to be the dominant feature of curriculumdevelopment in the case study schools.

It is worth noting that students’ expectations that ethnicdiversity would be reflected in the formal subjectcurriculum appeared to be low. Many of the studentparticipants were in examination years and their focuswas on achieving their target results in publicexaminations. Their attitude to studies had become quiteinstrumental. Students expressed surprise when asked iftheir maths lessons in any way reflected a multi-ethnicperspective – “maths is just numbers, isn’t it?”. Oneteacher of South-Asian heritage indicated that studentsexpected to ‘’leave their culture outside the door” whenthey entered their classroom. Whilst they may wantlessons to reflect their ethnic identity, they did not expectthat they actually would receive such lessons. Theresearch indicated that the extent to which the formalcurriculum reflected ethnic diversity was limited. This wasnot necessarily seen as problematic by participants,neither staff nor students, but it may suggest thatopportunities are being missed to reflect fully the culturalcontext of the school, which in turn may impact onstudent outcomes in terms of engagement andachievement. Given concerns regarding the apparentunderachievement of students from specific ethnicbackgrounds, this may be a key issue.

The encouragement of minority ethnic teachers was oneobvious strategy used by schools to develop a moreethnically diverse approach to the curriculum. Whilst thiswas almost certainly an important development for anumber of reasons, there was little evidence that this, ofitself, generated a distinctive approach to curriculumdelivery. The combination of league tables, centralised



inspection arrangements and the national curriculumexerts a powerful influence on curriculum delivery thatmay militate against innovation and creativity generally,and specifically in terms of reflecting ethnic diversity.Certainly, this research suggests that even in schoolswhere at a whole-school level ethnic diversity wasrecognised and celebrated, often in dynamic andcolourful ways, there was little evidence that these issuespenetrated the majority of classrooms.

The importance of monitoring student performance byethnicity was identified as a key issue in some of the casestudy schools. In some instances, where the school profilereflected the dominance of a single ethnic group, this wasless of an issue. The very small numbers of students fromother ethnic groups made it difficult to draw meaningfulcomparisons from the data. In these instances, theemphasis was on the use of data to support individualtarget-setting. In schools that were more ethnicallydiverse, monitoring by different ethnic groups was a keytool for identifying appropriate intervention strategies. Inone school, there was evidence of highly sophisticatedmonitoring by ethnicity that sought to monitorachievement in relation to the linguistic background ofstudents. In this school, the headteacher investedconsiderable resources, supported by personalcommitment, in using monitoring by ethnicity of studentperformance to identify appropriate strategies forintervention. Where patterns of underachievement wereidentified, the school was prepared to follow throughwith specific strategies focused on particular ethnicgroups. In this case, the school provided examples ofspecific initiatives it had developed to supportBangladeshi and African-Caribbean students in responseto data generated by its own monitoring by ethnicity.

Recruiting, nurturing and developing staff

A feature of the case study schools that was common toall those in the project was the high emphasis placed byschool leaders on the recruitment and development ofstaff. This was presented as a key priority for the schoolleadership and one that assumed correspondingimportance in terms of the allocation of organisationalresources and the personal commitment of the schoolleader. Human resource priorities broadly fell within two,complementary areas, both of which were identified asproblematic. First was the need to recruit and retainhigh-quality staff at all levels of the organisation. Secondwas the commitment to develop a staff profile thatbroadly reflected the ethnic profile of the localcommunity and the student population in the school. Allof the case study schools struggled to develop a staffprofile that reflected its local community and problems ofunder-representation increased at higher levels within theorganisational hierarchy. This is in part illustrated by thefact that all of the headteachers in this study were white.

Recruiting and retaining staff was problematic for all thereasons relating to national teacher shortages that arealready well documented. However, within the case studyschools, these problems were often compounded by theurban and challenging context within which multi-ethnicschools are often located. For obvious demographicreasons, multi-ethnic schools are largely located in urbanareas and experience many of the social deprivationfactors that are characteristic of schools in such localities.These are demanding places to work, and schools inthese areas generally find it more difficult both to recruitand retain staff. In the case study schools, school leadershad to work hard to recruit and retain high-quality staffsuccessfully.

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Developing a staff profile that broadly reflected theethnic profile of the local community and the studentpopulation was a high priority for headteachers in thecase study schools. The need to provide positive rolemodels was an important objective. However, nationalstaff shortages in the education sector were considered tobe more acute amongst staff from minority ethnicbackgrounds, and this in turn impacted on the ability torecruit and subsequently retain such staff. Studentsidentified several reasons why they considered itimportant for their school to have an ethnicallyrepresentative staff profile. First, they valued the rolemodels provided; second, they valued staff whom theyfelt understood their cultural background; third, andmost importantly, they argued that the ethnicity profile ofthe staff was a visible and genuine indication of theschool’s commitment to equality issues.

Promoting an equalities agenda for staffing was a majorpriority for the school leaders in the case study schools.Careful consideration was given to how difficulties mightbe overcome, and it was possible to identify a number ofstrategies that had met with some success in these areas.

Headteachers indicated a commitment to recruiting staffwho were themselves committed to working in a multi-ethnic environment. In some cases, staff suitability wasassessed within the selection process with specificinterview questions focused on ethnicity issues. In othercases, headteachers relied on presenting the school as itis. As one headteacher aptly stated: “We’re absolutelyupfront about what sort of school we are and what westand for – if you don’t like it, you won’t come here. Buteveryone knows what they are coming to.”

A common approach to tackling problems of recruitment,and more specifically the recruitment of staff fromminority ethnic communities, was to adopt a longerterm, ‘grow your own’ approach. Many of the schoolsreported that the increase in non-teaching staff in recentyears had increased the profile of staff from minorityethnic backgrounds within the school. These staff aremore likely to be drawn from the immediate localcommunity than is the case with teachers. A feature ofleaders in the case study schools was the way in whichthey nurtured these members of staff, often with a long-term aim of supporting them in acquiring qualifiedteacher status. There was a clear recognition that therewere no quick fixes to this problem, but rather awillingness to take a longer term perspective to supportand invest in staff development. In this sense, schoolleaders had a crucial role to play in talent-spotting.

Retention strategies were equally, if not more, important.It is possible to identify two approaches that appeared tobe common, albeit in different forms, across the casestudy schools. These approaches are not discrete, butinterdependent. First was a commitment to staff support.School leaders valued the work of their staff, and theyshowed it. They took an interest in what staff were doingand they took time to acknowledge their contribution.This was not restricted to an interest in teachers, butrelated to all staff, from those working directly withstudents in the classrooms, to those involved in supportroles. Staff felt recognised and valued. They also feltengaged and involved. A feature of the inclusiveorganisational cultures identified previously was the wayin which school leaders involved staff in decision-makingprocesses. The prevailing organisational culture wascollective and collaborative. Staff were provided with



genuine opportunities to be involved, and to worktogether. Specific attention was also paid to valuing thecontribution of staff from minority ethnic backgrounds.Responding sensitively to the needs of staff from minorityethnic backgrounds was highly valued by those staff weinterviewed. Regrettably, some minority ethnic staff hadnot always experienced such a positive approach inprevious posts and reported that this had impacted ontheir career decisions to move schools.

The second approach was to focus on staff development.The case study schools were dynamic places to work in,and school leaders had seized opportunities both todevelop staff directly and to provide opportunities thatindirectly developed individuals’ career trajectories.Retention was in part achieved by ensuring that careerswere moving forward. This was not serendipitous, but waspart of a wider strategy to provide career opportunities,not simply to develop staff effectiveness, but to ensurethat good staff wanted to continue to work within theorganisation. In some cases, it was clear that positiveaction was taken to develop the careers of minorityethnic staff within the school, and again, the willingnessto do this often reflected the personal values andpriorities of the school leader.

All of these approaches required commitment, planningand resourcing. The commitment was often over andabove that which might be sufficient in many otherschools, especially those located in less challenginglocalities. In these urban schools, staff, as with students,required nurturing. This is about recognising that schoolsin urban contexts present more challenges, andexperience greater pressures, than schools where thelevels of deprivation are less significant. Leading staff in

such circumstances is correspondingly more challenging.For school leaders, creating schools in which staff want towork, and continue to work, requires carefulconsideration.

Mobilising the community

All of the case study schools had strong links with theirstudents’ communities, while recognising that the schoolcommunity and their students’ communities were notnecessarily synonymous (in some cases the impact ofpreference area boundaries, or the consequences ofparental choice decisions, resulted in schools and theirimmediate local communities being disconnected).Creating strong links with the community was a highpriority for all the schools and perceived as essential.Each school leader had devoted substantial resources,both in terms of their own time and commitment and interms of the school’s wider resources, to developingeffective links with the community. A feature of theseschools was that this was not seen as a luxury or a bolt-on, but central to the core activity of the school. Workingbeyond the school was a prerequisite if the students wereto achieve within the school. Despite this commonemphasis on community links, it is important torecognise that there was no one best way to developthese links. A powerful message that emerged time andagain was that school communities are unique to eachschool. There are significant differences between ethnicgroups, and there are significant differences within ethnicgroups. A particular ethnic group, in a particular location,will have its own context shaped by a number of factors,including its history, its politics and its socio-economicprofile. Individual school leaders needed to develop their

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school’s links with their own community, and thisrequired them to learn to lead within the context of thecommunity in which they were working.

General features of community contacts that werehighlighted by the research were:

■ detailed knowledge of individual children and theirpersonal circumstances outside of the school.Understanding what is happening, or has happened,in the lives of individual children outside of schoolwas seen as crucial to promoting achievement withinschool. Understanding students’ cultural heritage wasone feature of this information-building.

■ strong parental links. A high priority was placed oncontact with individual parents. A number of barriersmight exist to such contact (language issues, localworking patterns, lack of safe transport options), andin the case study schools, in different ways,considerable efforts were undertaken to overcomethese difficulties. An obvious example is the high levelof outreach work in which school staff visited parentsin places, and at times, that minimised the problemsidentified above.

■ links with community groups. A feature of manyethnic groups is that they retain a more collectivistculture with a strong network of local organisationsand self-help groups. These groups were seen as apowerful resource in terms of articulating communityconcerns and aspirations and working with suchgroups was a common strategy adopted by schoolleaders.

Whilst much of this work was undertaken by senior staffin the school, or those with a designated community-linkrole, it was clear that for each headteacher in the casestudy schools, the issue of their personal participation indeveloping community links was crucial. School leadersdemonstrated their commitment to their communities bybeing seen working in, and with, their communities. Inthese schools ‘walking the job’ was not restricted toclassrooms and corridors, but extended to wherever itwas necessary to develop links with the widercommunity.

As indicated, much of this work was underpinned by thecrucial role played by staff with a community-link role.These individuals did not simply support more effectivecommunication, but could often provide the mostdetailed knowledge about aspects of the communitiesrepresented in the preference area. In some cases, thisrole had a connection to particular funding streams. Forinstance, increasingly, aspects of this work were taken onby learning mentors funded through the Excellence inCities initiative (although not all the case study schoolscould access this source of funding). Certainly these roleswere seen as pivotal. However, as they were not part ofthe mainstream activity of classroom teaching, it waspotentially easy for them to be marginalised. Schoolleaders had a clear vision about how the activities ofthese individuals could be brought from the margins tothe mainstream of the school’s work. This was notperipheral activity, but central to the school’s mission.



In summary, these schools did not see their commitmentto their students stopping either at the school gate, or atthe end of the school day – these boundaries of time andspace were considered largely artificial. This support forstudents derived from the personal values andconvictions of the school leader and other staff.

“I think the staff realise we’re an extended school.School is such a limited part of students’ life. Icould never take the view - and there are heads inthe town I know, and there are heads who havebeen here who take the view - that once the childleaves the boundary of the school they’re not theirresponsibility. I can never subscribe to that. Icannot take that attitude.” Headteacher in interview

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Values-driven leadership, within and beyond the school

It is worth emphasising yet again how leaders in the casestudy schools were motivated strongly by their ownpersonal convictions and values. There was often apassionate commitment to use education as a means ofchallenging inequalities and promoting values of fairness,respect and justice. In the case study schools, theseheadteachers lived these values and modelled them.They were able to inspire and motivate others throughtheir own practices. As such, they secured high levels ofcommitment from across the school community.However, a crucial factor in the leadership of multi-ethnicschools is that any conception of the school communitycould not be restricted to within the organisation, butmust look beyond it. School leaders in these schools werepassionate about making connections between the schooland the wider community – parents, communityrepresentatives and local residents. In these schools, thiswas no added luxury, but absolutely central to what theschools were about, and what they were trying toachieve. Figure 2 illustrates three domains within whichschool leadership functions – the individual classroom,the whole school and the wider community. A feature ofmulti-ethnic schools is the absolute need for theheadteacher to function across all these domains. To thisextent, boundaries between the school and its widercommunity were seen as artificial. In the case studyschools, these boundaries were not sharply defined, butrather they were porous, appropriately represented by thebroken lines in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Leadership within, and beyond, the school

However, it is important to recognise that each individualschool’s community context was unique, and this in turnshaped the leadership response of headteachers.


Wider community • Wider co

mm

unity

•

Whole

school • Whole

scho

ol•Individual

classroom•

Wid

erco

mmunity • Wider comm

unity

•W

hole

school • Whole school


The importance of the school’s micro-context

A key proposition of this study is the need to recognisethat the context of each school is unique. Although it ispossible to identify largely common leadershipapproaches across the case study schools, it is equallyimportant to recognise where there were distinctdifferences. Such differences were often shaped by the

micro-context of individual schools. Within theconstraints of this small-scale research, it is possible toidentify a number of factors that appeared to exert asignificant influence on what school leaders did, and howthey did it. These factors reflect the way in which schoolcontext is shaped by both community and marketinfluences. These are not discrete, unconnected concepts;rather, they are intimately connected in the way theydefine the school’s context.

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COMMUNITY MARKET

SCHOOL

Ethnicityprofile

Socio-economicprofile

Communitycohesion

Open/closedmarket

League tablepositioning

Parentalperception

Figure 3. The micro-context of the multi-ethnic school


The community context

It is important to assert that there is no identikit ‘multi-ethnic school’. Each school has its own community, madeup of a unique configuration of different ethnic groupswith their own history and cultural traditions in theirlocality. Schools with a similar proportion of studentsfrom a particular minority ethnic background are nomore likely to be the same than two schools that are verylargely all-white are likely to be the same. In the casestudy schools, the headteachers emphasised the need tolocate their leadership approach within the uniquecontext of their own school. It was certainly the case thatdifferent ethnic groups presented different issues. Forexample, the central importance of faith to some ethnicgroups was highlighted as a major issue following theevents of September 11 2001 and the invasion of Iraq.However, it was also important to recognise thedifferences within, as well as between, ethnic groups.Recognising and responding to these differences was akey issue for the leadership of the school as it sought todevelop community links. This research did not seek toestablish different experiences of achievement, exclusionand discrimination between ethnic groups, but there issubstantial research that provides evidence of this.

It has already been indicated that many multi-ethnicschools are urban schools, a fact that highlights theimportant interplay between factors of ethnicity andsocial class. Throughout this study, interview respondentsdefined white students in class terms – ‘white workingclass’ and ‘white middle class’ – but students fromminority ethnic backgrounds were never labelled in termsof social class descriptors. To re-emphasise a point madein Part I, the research highlights the need to take account

of the socio-economic profile of the school, and the wayin which issues of social class and ethnicity connect. Thecomplex way in which structural inequalities in societysuch as racism and poverty combine are crucial todefining school context. Some ethnic groups, in somecommunities, clearly experience disadvantage both moreacutely, and in more complex forms, than other ethnicgroups. This inevitably shapes an approach to leadershipthat is underpinned by a deep philosophical commitmentto equality and social justice.

These issues appeared to be further complicated in thosecommunities where the local population was moretransient. Disadvantaged communities tend to becharacterised by more fluid population movements, andmore recently this fluidity has been influenced by thearrival into some areas of increased numbers of asylumseekers and refugees. The extent to which schoolpopulations could be considered stable or turbulent didappear to be a decisive factor in shaping school context.Increased turbulence clearly presented specific challengesas local inter-ethnic hierarchies were often destabilised,and resulting conflicts within the wider community thenemerged within the school.



The market context

The promotion of policies associated with parental choicehas also decisively shaped the context within whichschools function, and these factors were influential, indifferent ways, in shaping the leadership approach ofheadteachers in the case study schools. In a technicalsense, all markets faced by schools may be consideredopen, since the regulations relating to school admissionsare largely national in character. However, if levels ofmarket competition may be judged by the amount ofstudent movement between preference areas (oftenreferred to as catchment areas), then it is possible todistinguish between those schools that operate in a moreclosed market (ie having relatively little movement into,or out of, the preference area), and those that might bedescribed as more open (ie with higher levels of cross-preference area movements).

Some case study schools enjoyed a relatively closedmarket position. These schools tended to be academicallysuccessful, in relatively settled communities and in localeducation authorities (LEAs) with few surplus places. Inother cases, markets were clearly much more open, withparental preferences exerting a significant influence onstudent populations. Where this was the case, ethnicitywas often a factor in shaping parental choices. For oneschool, a significant part of the white communitydeliberately opted for an alternative school that wasconsidered locally to be the ‘white school’. This resultedin the case study school becoming effectively mono-ethnic. The consequence of this was that the school’sdesire to be genuinely multi-ethnic was thwarted, whilstits ability to reflect, and work with, its local communitywas also diminished as many white students in the local

community walked past it to go to another school. In thisinstance, the case study school enjoyed considerableacademic success. However, for some in the community,parental choices based on ethnicity were more importantin determining school-choice decisions than criteriarelating to academic performance or other criteria. Thisexample highlights the impact of market context oncommunity cohesion.

In other case study schools, the link between marketcontext and league table position was more complex. Inone case study school, decisions by largely white parentsto opt for schools outside the preference area, based atleast in part on issues of ethnicity, deprived the school ofsome of its potentially higher achieving students. Thisthen impacted on overall levels of academicachievement, which further undermined parentalconfidence. In this case, the market context offered adifferent challenge to the school leadership from thatdescribed above – how to maintain the very strongcommitment to inclusiveness and at the same timeimprove pupil performance in public examinations –both for the students themselves and in order to ensureorganisational survival.

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Developing successful multi-ethnic schools:identifying strategies

Research from across the five case study schoolsidentified a number of strategies adopted by schoolleaders and their colleagues that appeared to havecommon threads, although in the context of individualschools these could be played out and applied in amultiplicity of ways. It is important to identify andrecognise these common threads, and in this section keystrategies deployed in the case study schools areidentified and discussed. However, this can be nopanacea list of quick-fix solutions. This research hashighlighted the need to locate studies of multi-ethnicschools within their specific micro-context, and thereforeany discussion of strategies must be prefaced by the needto apply these within the specific conditions of individualschools.

■ Share the core values: fairness, justice andequality

Clear values, shared within the organisation, provide theglue that bind organisations together. A commoncharacteristic of school leaders in the case study schoolswas that their values were explicit and clearly articulated.People talked about values. They had a commonlanguage for discussing values and they understood thelink between personal values and the school’s mission.Values and aspirations were presented in a way thatmade them accessible and able to be internalised bystudents and the wider community alike. This is not toassert glibly that values were universally shared – they

were not. Schools are messy, complex organisations andsearching for a school with commonly shared values isharder than hunting the unicorn. However, in the casestudy schools, the organisation’s values were recognisedand discussed. These schools were not driven entirely byexternal agendas; rather, they created the space todiscuss what mattered most to them – the students andtheir lived experience of the school. These valuesprovided a clear and widely understood framework forthe school community, and where individuals steppedoutside of that values framework, for example byengaging in racist behaviour, they knew they would bechallenged.

Within the context of a multi-ethnic school, with all itsattendant diversities, a clear commitment to thecelebration of diversity is essential. Student and parentparticipants placed considerable value on the importanceof acknowledging and celebrating ethnic diversity. Thiswas not a case of wanting special treatment, but ratherequal treatment, based on the recognition of difference.Equal treatment did not therefore mean the sametreatment. Ethnic diversity was seen as a virtue to bedeveloped, not a problem to be suppressed.

School leaders placed a premium on values over theestablishment of systems and structures. However,systems and structures were far from irrelevant. Schoolleaders created effective systems and structures,supported through resourcing, that gave practicalexpression to the organisation’s values. For example, thedeployment of staff, or the allocation of staffingresponsibilities, ensured that issues of equality wereaccorded a high priority. In other cases, the establishmentof committees or working parties, often involving



governors and students, ensured that issues of ethnicequality were constantly being driven forward and theirprogress monitored.

■ Develop inclusive organisational cultures

Perhaps one of the clearest expressions of how the valuesin the case study schools were reflected in the livedexperience of those studying and working within theorganisation was in the development of inclusiveorganisational cultures. In the case study schools,significant commitment and resources were allocated tomaximising the participation and engagement of thewhole school community. This functioned at three levels– students, staff and the wider community.

Engaging students was seen as crucial. This was in partabout engagement in the learning process – directly inthe classroom, but also beyond the classroom. Studentparticipation was valued and encouraged, and steps weretaken to ensure that participation in all aspects of schoollife reflected the ethnic balance within the school. In thecase study schools, monitoring by ethnicity went beyondthe analysis of academic achievement and included amuch broader picture of young people’s experience ofschool. Ethnic differences can create significant barriersto engagement, and challenging these barriers needs tobe a key priority.

Considerable attention was devoted to creating anenvironment in which it was possible to be inclusive. Atone level, this involved attention to the physicalenvironment. Several case study schools used the physicalenvironment to demonstrate how ethnic diversity was

valued within the school, and this was a feature of bothindividual classrooms and communal areas within theschool. Bright, vibrant wall displays not only enhancedthe environment generally, but sent a clear signal to allabout the values and commitments of the schools.

However, the environment also embraced less tangibleissues, of which the most notable was safety and security.Racism presents a very specific and real threat to thosefrom minority ethnic groups. This was perceived as apotential issue both within the school, and for schoolstudents in the wider community. In all of the case studyschools, student participants reported only isolatedexamples of racist behaviour. These schools had clearpolicies for tackling racism that were widely known andwell understood. Students were confident that racism wastaken seriously and dealt with accordingly. More difficultto deal with was the possibility of students experiencingracist activity in the immediate vicinity of the school, anissue that was more of a problem for some schools thanothers. In these cases, the school took very seriously theconcerns of students and their parents and wereprepared to take measures to ensure safe travel to andfrom school. Close liaison with related agencies (the LEA,racial equality councils, housing departments and thepolice) was also a feature of these schools.

■ Focus on the learning

Much of the research on school improvement has focusedon the centrality of the classroom as the starting point ofyoung people’s experience of school. This was reflected inthe experience of the case study schools, in which a highpriority was placed on continually seeking to improve the

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learning and teaching experience, and trying to ensurethat the curriculum met the needs of the studentcommunity. Students in the case study schools valued theethnic diversity within the school community and valuedthe way in which this was reflected in the curriculum. Theneed to ensure that the curriculum adequately reflectedthe ethnic groups represented in the schools was a clearpriority in some subject areas and teachers workedcreatively to develop schemes of work that made use ofstudents’ own experience. In several of the case studyschools, there was considerable work being undertaken toincrease teachers’ and students’ understanding of theimportance of learning styles. This may further supportthe development of a curriculum that reflects culturaland ethnic diversity by recognising the link betweenlearning styles and cultural difference.

The national curriculum, and the pressures of a leaguetable culture, were seen as a constraint on developingcurriculum provision that reflected the ethnic diversitywithin the school. However, some teachers identified awillingness to take risks in terms of this issue, and therole of the school leader in supporting this wasconsidered important. The introduction of the RaceRelations (Amendment) Act 2000, with its requirement todevelop a curriculum that makes a positive contributionto tackling racism, provides a welcome counterweight tothese pressures.

Although much of the discussion about the curriculumfocused on individual subject areas, this too wasrecognised as being too limiting, and one headteacherwas much happier to refer to the curriculum as“everything children experience here”. In this way, everyaspect of school life became an opportunity to

demonstrate to young people the value base that mightbe considered appropriate for life in a multi-ethnicsociety.

Monitoring by ethnicity was a high priority in the casestudy schools. Considerable resources were devoted tothis activity, and in some cases the degree of detailgenerated went far beyond that expected in nationalguidelines. This data allowed the identification ofpatterns of achievement, and possibleunderachievement, in quite sophisticated detail, and wasthen used to inform policy responses at subject andcurriculum area and at whole-school levels.

■ Develop the staff

It may seem axiomatic to argue that recruiting andretaining high-quality staff are central to the success ofany organisation, and in this sense the case study schoolswere no different from any other school. However, giventhe challenging nature of the environments in whichthese schools were often located, ensuring therecruitment and retention of such staff was moredifficult. Headteachers had to work hard to ensure thattheir schools could overcome negative stereotypes ofurban schools. This was partly done by being successfuland celebrating successes. Celebrating the benefits ofethnic diversity was often a key feature of the way aschool presented itself. This in turn ensured that jobapplicants were aware of the school’s ethos andsympathetic to its values and objectives.

Retaining staff required a strong commitment to thenurturing and development of individuals and teams.



School leaders took an interest in their staff, valued theircontributions and celebrated their successes. Strongteams were deliberately developed to provide a robustsource of support to individuals, and to develop thecapacity within the wider organisation. Attention waspaid to individuals’ career development, andopportunities were provided to access professionaldevelopment and to offer career developmentopportunities within the school. In all of these respects,there was rarely a sense of hierarchy. Staff throughout theorganisation felt they were part of a wider team, and thattheir contribution and their ideas were valued.

A high priority in the case study schools was to develop astaff profile that reflected the ethnic profile of the localcommunity. This was a considerable challenge. A widevariety of strategies were used to support this, rangingfrom consideration of where job advertisements wereplaced, through to long-term commitments to supportnon-teaching staff in acquiring qualified teacher status.Non-teaching staff were more likely to be drawn from theimmediate locality, and therefore to better reflect theethnic profile of the student population. Long-terminvestment in such staff was seen as crucial in terms ofboth practice and principle.

■ Look beyond the school

Strong links between the school, parents and the widercommunity were absolutely central to what these schoolswere seeking to achieve. Headteachers committedsubstantial resources in terms of their own energy andcommitment to establishing links with communityrepresentatives, local faith leaders and the wider

community. This not only built up headteachers’ personalunderstanding of the context from which their studentswere drawn, but also signalled strongly that the schoolsvalued their local communities.

Schools also invested significant amounts oforganisational resources to building and sustainingschool-community links. This was often facilitated byexternal funding, but these initiatives were also financedfrom the school’s general budget and this resourcing wasnot seen as an easy target when budgets were tight.There was widespread recognition that a range of culturalfactors could militate against parental and communityinvolvement in the school, and in these cases schoolstook steps to minimise such barriers. The use ofcommunity languages and the timing of school events totake account of local working patterns or religiousfestivals were just some of the ways in which schoolsresponded flexibly to their local communities. However,there was a recognition that internal changes could onlygo so far in overcoming the barriers to participation thatexisted, and therefore considerable emphasis was placedon the school going to parents, rather than expectingparents to come to the school. Here the part of staff witha community-link role was pivotal. In these schools,community-link staff were both encouraged and valued.They were given space to take initiatives and were madeto feel they were central, not peripheral, to the school’smission.

Working with parents often extended well beyondensuring that they were informed of their child’sprogress; rather, the school actively sought to engageparents in supporting the learning process.

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Appendix 1: research design

This research was conducted in five case study schools,drawn from a range of LEAs in England, namely,Birmingham, Bradford, City of Leicester, the LondonBorough of Hounslow and Northamptonshire. These LEAswere identified for their geographical spread, and for theethnic profiles they represented. Schools in this studywere identified as having a ‘substantial number’ ofstudents from minority ethnic backgrounds. There was noattempt to define ‘substantial’ in terms of a giventhreshold, but rather the intention was to ensure that thesample of schools reflected a diverse range of ethnicprofiles. Within the sample of case study schools, theproportion of students from minority ethnic backgroundsranged from 21 per cent to 95 per cent.

In the first instance, participating LEAs were contactedand asked to identify schools with a substantialproportion of minority ethnic students, and where theschool leadership was considered to be of high quality.Working from the list of schools identified by theparticipating LEAs, the researchers chose one school fromeach LEA. The choice was determined by the desire toreflect overall a wide range of school contexts –principally in terms of ethnic profile, but also in terms ofother factors, such as academic performance in publicexaminations. It is important to reiterate at this pointthat this study focuses on effective leadership in multi-ethnic schools, rather than effective schools per se. It isthe conclusion of this research that effective leadership insuch schools can be demonstrated in a wide range ofcontexts, and for reasons presented in the main body ofthis report, there can be important contextual reasonswhy effective leadership may not necessarily correspond

with narrow definitions of school effectiveness that isquantified, for example, in terms of pupil performancedata. Indeed, this research suggests that such definitionsof effectiveness are too narrow, and often unhelpful,when applied to the context of many multi-ethnicschools.

Within each case study school, detailed research wasundertaken based largely on semi-structured interviewsand supported by an analysis of school documentationand relevant contextual statistical data relating to theethnic composition of the school and related material. Ineach school, interviews were conducted with thefollowing individuals:

■ headteacher

■ deputy headteacher (generally with specificresponsibility for multi-ethnic issues and inclusion)

■ teacher (with middle leader responsibilities)

■ teacher (with no additional responsibilities)

■ member of non-teaching staff

■ member of staff with responsibility for communityliaison and links

■ community representative (parents or schoolgovernors)

■ students

Most interviews were with individuals, but interviewswith parents and students were often in a focus-groupformat. Interviews were recorded and then analysed toidentify common themes and issues.



Following data analysis, emerging themes and issueswere identified and these were further discussed with areference group of practitioner teachers andheadteachers, LEA officers and representatives from theteacher professional associations and the researchfunders. Research results were also reported to a seminarof post-16 students in order to further debate keypropositions that had emerged from the research, and totest these from a student perspective.

Throughout, this process was supported by a literaturereview that provided a framework for exploring issues ofeffective leadership generally, and leadership withinmulti-ethnic schools in particular.

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References

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