Raising achievement of black Caribbean pupils: good practice for developing leadership capacity and workforce diversity in schools

ABSTRACT

This research aims to examine the success factors behind raising the achievement of Black Caribbean pupils with focus on leadership and work force diversity factors. Drawing on case studies and focus group methodological approaches of research the study findings identified a number of success factors including the strong leadership of the Headteacher, effective use of a diverse multi-ethnic workforce, valuing and celebrating cultural diversity, providing an inclusive curriculum that adds to gives pride in being Black Caribbean. What is particularly special about the case study schools is that the leadership of the schools are strong on equality and diversity issues and there are also plenty of opportunities for teachers and school staff to celebrate cultural diversity and reflect on the achievement of Black Caribbean pupils. Overall the study suggests that Black Caribbean pupils do well in multicultural schools with a strong school leadership on diversity and equality issues. Policy implications for developing leadership capacity and workforce diversity are discussed in the final section.

KEYWORDS:

• Diversity
• leadership
• black Caribbean
• multicultural schools
• raising achievement

Acknowledgements

This article is based on a paper presented to the Annual Conference of British Educational Research Association, University of Leeds, September 2016. The source of this article is a research project ‘What works in raising achievement of Black Caribbean pupils in schools.’ We acknowledge that all quotations or extracts in this paper are produced with kind permission of the authors listed in the references.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.