Introduction

Schools are the places where more than often people that belong to different ethnic
backgrounds come together in close contact, often for the first time. Schools that are found on
the countryside or rural sides of a country are found to be more open spaced here there is more
ethnic diversity. Here there are discourses of identity for BME groups which stands for Black
and Ethnic Minority. The current research study aims to explain the unhappiness of white culture
regarding the racism flourishing in such spaces. Although racism has been acknowledged by
many, but the discourse is denied at the rural and local level. This paper will serve the purpose of
exploring how the primary school setups in areas where there is a white majority, deals with
bullying based on racism with the black and other ethnic minorities.
Critical Incident Analysis
There has been researching in the United Kingdom which has helped the researchers
understand how the discourses of racism are taken into account in a society which has a white
majority in the rural areas (Myers and Bhopal, 2017). They describe racism in their different
forms varying from harassment of low level such calling names to bully of a more serious nature
such as physical attacks, graffiti, and damaging one’s property. It could also get to some very
serious points where the bully can petrol bombing on the victim. In 1993 a black teenager, by the
name of Stephen Lawrence, was murdered in the southeastern part of London (Smith, 1997).
This matter led to a public inquiry. The inquiry gave its remarks to the police department that
was involved in the case, the Metropolitan Police was racist institutionally. When the inquiry
report of Stephen Lawrence was published, it increased awareness among the masses about the
negative effects borne by racism and the strong need for different institutions to implement such
policies which can help counter the issue of racism.
In recent history, after the announcement of Brexit by the United Kingdom, the cases of
racism have been reportedly increased along with racist incidents and hate crime across the
different regions of the United Kingdom (Myers and Bhopal, 2017). The incidents that have
occurred are mostly of such nature that they were random and were mostly directed at those
people who are generally perceived as not British. A great number of teachers have reportedly
seen children of non-British origin be have experienced racist incidents in the classrooms which
is perhaps the most worrying thing for the policymakers. Police have reported that during the
campaign of Brexit, the rate of incidents in schools and hate crimes have increased by a rate of
89% (Myers and Bhopal, 2017).
This is a very serious issue and call from many people have come in order to lure the
government and authorities to do more. There is a strong need for teachers in order to equip them
with the technique and ways to deal with such situations at school and also educate the children
to such a level that Britain has a heritage of many cultural and there is no room for racism in a
place like Britain (Cole, 2017). A survey conducted on teachers teaching at different schools in
different has revealed that there is lacking support, training, and confidence in the teachers
regarding this area. The teachers from whom data was collected for the mentioned research
survey have shown an overwhelming agreement regarding adding anti-racist learning material
into the curriculum of the children in school (Cole, 2017).
A great body of literature could be found on the issue of white supremacy and the
devaluation of dual language learners and their families. On migrant youth in Britain, there is a
history of English only impositions. It is a critique of practices as well as policies that serve and
label two groups of students who are frequently marginalized. They are students with some kind
of disabilities and students with dual languages, such as students with some other mother tongue
learning English. These things are masked as a social good but they are causing great disruptions
in the migrant population as they cause difficulties to the dual language learners (Aveling, 2007).
The English only campaigns met a set back by the reinstitutionalization of 2001 through the
policy of No Child Left Behind. Researchers have highlighted that white racial privilege is
causing trauma to the students from migrant families based on their color or language (Aveling,
2007). It should be noted that English dominance at the schools is actually a process of
racializing which mostly undermines the potential of the student and their success. It is more
obvious in the case of those students who are labeled as long-term English learners. Harman,
(2010) has argued that there are both undocumented and documented Chicanas which show the
hegemony of the English language in schools like California Public School. It shows that such
schools institutionalize racist nativism. The institutions make sure that native and white people
have the supremacy and that their hegemonic power prevails. Harman (2010) has said that
natives have shown microaggression regarding the immigrant children, children are shamed on
their languages even though they have been granted immigration by the government and even
though they have been living in the united stated for decades now. This degradation is mostly
done to those students who natively speak Spanish and English is their second language. Along
with this degradation for the Latino students, another degradation is the fact they there are
classes for dual language children who are not allowed to be a part of the specialized classes that
are only meant for the native white English-speaking majority (Harman, 2010).
Pilkington (1999) is of view that while in history cultural deprivation and intellectual
inferiority were prominent theories which were utilized to maintain the racial inequity at schools,
nowadays, individual assessment of underachievement are used as tools for regulating the status
quo. Aveling (2007) identified that prominent rhetoric usually blamed students and their families
of color for the deprivation of academic prosperity, encouraging the behavior shift as the solution
(e.g., asking parent to read more in front of their kids; for the purpose of growth of mindset),
instead than giving suggestions to change policies and structures that results in systematic failure
of students of Color. Putting blame on societies of Color for inequality of education at an
individual stage hinders the responsibility of institution, so giving a rationale to study the
concept of the race yet stopping the concrete evaluation of racism (Pilkington, 1999).
As the practice of privatization has been elevated in the K-12 schools during the past
several years, so have an increase in racial disparities. During recent years, neoliberal-driven
policies have been documented by an emerging education research body that aggravate what the
racism communities and racialization of Color experience in K-12 education via issues such as
divestment from the public education, charter school development, school choice, and testing
(Eslea and Mukhtar, 2000). Through the assessment of policy of latest reforms of federal
education such as Race to the Top and No Child Left Behind, it is argued by Cole (2011) that
standardized, high-stakes testing policies elevate racism through centering the achievements
without any structural evaluation, which he termed as “Meritocracy 2.0.” Labeled as the
narrative of accountability for getting equality of races in schools, practices of corporate-driven
testing confirms racial hierarchies of the success of student (Cole, 2011). Harman (2010) via
interviews with parents of kindergarten students, and Aveling (2007), in a case study related to
prominent White charter school, argue that policies are selected by the school, that mostly adopt
a colorblind stance, benefits affluent and White parents and increase segregation.
Two major studies, by using an ethnographic case study and research, and critical
analysis of race discourse of meeting notes of school board, community forum based transcripts,
and newspaper articles, highlights that how closures of schools negatively and disproportionately
impact urban Black neighbors of working class. It was explained by a parent belonging from
community forum, “if you are closing a school, it means you are killing the humanity” (Eslea
and Mukhtar, 2000). Schools act as important community extensions, it was argued by authors
that school leaders who are driven by the mandates of neoliberal theory give less attention to the
needs and voice of the community, that results in increasing the inequity of education (Eslea and
Mukhtar, 2000).
One more important theme originates from the past literature was the demonstration of
colorblind racism in different schools. Although there were many efforts to equate
colorblindness to a good equity level, conceptual and qualitative studies shows how much silence
was maintained around race and legitimate racism, so developing hostile climate of racism for
students of color and also for teachers of Color (Pilkington, 1999).
Leadership Approaches to Address Racism in Primary Schools
There are many insights in the literature about leadership about the leadership role of a
principle in the development and transformation of a school. Researchers have proposed a
number of different styles and models of leadership; however, it needs to be understood that
these distinct styles of leadership do no give a good representation of the school leadership
(Leithwood and Steinbach, 2003). Therefore, a single kind of leadership style cannot be
successful in any setting there thus is a need for more than one at a time. Although one needs to
study the underlying assumptions of all the leadership styles in order to better understand the role
of a principal in the development and transformation of schools (Young and Laible, 2000). This
will serve the purpose of exploring the style of leadership used by principles in a multicultural
approach. The four kinds of leadership that will be studied are transformational leadership,
transactional leadership, social justice or critical leadership and values led to contingency
leadership. According to the earlier discussion, transactional and transformational leadership are
more related to diversity management and the last two; values led contingency leadership and
social justice leadership are relevant to critical transformation, equity, and social justice (Young
and Laible, 2000).
According to researchers, transactional leadership will help a principle run the school in a
smooth manner. It also helps in making sure the maintenance of the system as well as setting
clear and achievable goals. Transactional leadership is applied by those individuals who believe
in the emphasis on issues related to administration and also take good care of the needs of those
people who are working under that individual (Ryan, 2006). This system is also known as
leadership by bartering because the leader takes care of the needs of the followers in return for
the work done by them. Transformational leadership, on the other hand, views the principle of a
school as that leader who works actively in order to transform and shape the culture of a school
by developing a vision shared by all the stakeholders in terms of autonomy, the pursuit of goals
and respect for all. Zembylas and Jasonos (2010) called it leadership by building. The value led
to contingency leadership believes that leadership in a system is based on values as well as
guided by it. In their research Zembylas and Jasonos (2010) found that honesty, equality, respect,
and other related values; moral values, are the ones that guide a leader and make the core of
leadership. These values make an educational leader great and thus it develops a shared vision.
Social justice and critical leadership tell that a significant contribution can be made by the
leaders of schools when it comes to the transformation of the organization of a school as well as
its social context (Troyna and Carrington, 2011). It is different from the approach of
transformational leadership because that is more concerned about the role of leadership in social
issues and tacking social inequalities.
As per the research of Cole (2011) to remove the predictability of gaps in achievements a
leader must possess certain skills. Along with that, the leader must also possess the knowledge
and the will to use them in order to uproot the factors that contribute to radical predictability of
the gaps in achievement. These qualities are the ones that are often overlooked. Leaders in
schools must examine such practices that make the students isolated from others because of their
color, cast, and creed etc (Cole, 2011). Leaders often need to create support as well as pressures
which are necessary to sustain in order to develop knowledge, will, and skills. Almost all of the
forms or styles of leadership are aimed at sustainable change and efficient use of resources in
order to do so. Transformation in the sector of education must start with those leaders who
always expect high outcomes from the students (Cole, 2011). It is not possible for a human being
to be an exceptional performer throughout the whole educational journey. Any member of the
faculty, school administration or district administration shall never justify the failure of a student
of color as normal.
One of the complacencies is the rationalization of such matters because there is a
persistent and pervasive history behind it. There could be other reasons such as poverty.
Therefore, a misconception should not be made that such people do not value education (Cole,
2011). They do value education but there could be some reasons which put education below in
their priority list. Leaders must work to change the attitude of people towards the failure of poor
students. They should work on their attitudes and beliefs too. If leaders want to move to such a
climate where there are achievements and high expectations for all students, then they must give
more focus to the instructions and assessment that prove to effective for all of the students
instead of some (Cole, 2011). Goals should be set for improvement and then actual improvement
should be measured against those set goals and objectives. Leaders must also create an
opportunity for dialogue for the community and staff where policies, systems, and practices used
in the education system will be discussed. Leaders must also work with the community member
and personnel of the school in order for them to understand the radical disparity status quo which
is referred to as professional capacity (Gillborn, 2008).
Practical Implications
Deep in to the deficit thinking, any visible racism gets reduced by the colorblindness to
the activities of some ignorant people (Brooks, 2012). This paved way for systemic process of
racism (e.g., student surveillance, curriculum, and tracking) to be ignored as detail for racial
inequality and individual-based rationales are replacing it, such as students of Color
are intellectually deficient, behaviorally challenged, and lazy (Brooks, 2012).
It was notices by Brooks (2012) that discussion related to racism in education really
position it being an independent variable. As suggested by this observation, we must analyze and
take into account how race is interlinked with educational outcomes and other variables.
Adopting these steps can result in expansion of educational research and address the criticism
that it states as obvious. What we must do to deal with the social construct of racism? It was
argued by Brooks, Knaus and Chang (2015) to theorize race and also there exist proof that
research in education field might be shifting towards this realization, and the practicing leaders
are looking for ways to know what they ought to do to keep this phenomenon of race on the
table. Furthermore, principals are located in the uncertain state of requiring to be critical
regarding the prevailing system but also need to get some level of success inside this.
Practitioners are required to initially establish a working understanding of societal, institutional,
and individual racism. Recognizing these terms along with understanding differences between
them will assist aspiring leaders, leaders and those who are giving them training can address
White privilege and subsystems residing inside education that function on different levels to
benefit Whites and make Blacks as subordinates along with those who belong from different
racial minority groups. Along with this, principals, despite their race, are striving to explore race
and the concept of racism must be consider seriously to complete the racial autobiography,
which can assist them in recognizing their specific racial identity. This method is rally helpful for
individuals in identifying their particular beliefs regarding race, and also provide in depth insight
into their growth in form of an anti-racist leader.
Once leaders become capable to know more about their own selves, they might get
potential to elect and conduct an equity audit of their institute or school with their staff and
faculty for assessing and addressing inequities in their schools which are based on
socioeconomic status, disability, race, or other factors (Gunter, 2009). Leaders must have
expectations to explore achievement gaps with the help of race, higher referrals of Latino and
Black males to special type of education, and giving those students to inexperienced teachers
who are confronting more problems in academics. Such leader must use frameworks that will
find out inequities and race to begin focusing on all such issues prevailing inside their buildings.
Whereas it may be decided by principals to call all experts at some focus point of time, most of
the starting work could be perform in form of teams that are managed by teachers who are
properly committed to handle these problems (Gunter, 2009).
Conclusion
This essay offers the outstanding way to lead teachers’ team in the primary level school
for the purpose of gaining goal of quality education. Different kinds of leadership approaches
have been discussed in detail along with explaining ways in which they are contributing to
effective leadership. This particular explanation is in accordance of racism, a phenomena that is
used in the study as the critical incident. This essay incorporates the explanation of how these
leadership approaches can be utilized for handling the matter of racism that is robustly expanding
in the primary level schools in the UK. Some of the practical measures are also discussed to
facilitate the leaders in combating such situations in the education system.
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