Key Voices #112 - Race, identity and School Leadership with Viv Grant and Colette Morris

This week we talk to Viv Grant, Founder of Integrity Coaching and Colette Morris, Headteacher at Christ Church Primary School. Viv has created a programme called Race, Identity and School Leadership and Christ Church Primary are participating in it.  Colette and her staff have been working with Viv to explore their own racial identities, bring about long-lasting change and impact whole school leadership, learning, policy and practice with regards to race equality.

 

We talk about:

• The history of work that has been going on in schools regarding race and how this conversation is now starting to broaden out and involve more schools
• The importance of understanding your own racial identity and how you view the world before rushing to antiracist “action”
• Why school leaders and their staff should become experts in the racial context of their schools and should seek to understand the conversations that take place both in school and outside school about race
• The need for teachers to understand and be comfortable in their own identities before they talk about race with pupils 
• How Colette has taken a whole school approach to addressing race and identity, and established specific “lines of enquiry” to work on 
• How vital it is to talk to pupils about their feelings about race
• How the Race, Identity and School Leadership programme balances academic thinking, discussion and co-creation 
• Both guests’ hopes for the future of this work 

 

You can find out more about the programme here