FEATURE: DIVERSITY IN THE CLASSROOM
‘As a black woman in the classroom, I was a rarity’ – why diversity matters to me
ultimately, to be seen.
The second was a woman named Ms Sule, my science teacher. She was a tall woman with a formidable presence and fantastic style. When she arrived at our school unexpectedly in the middle of a uncharacteristically mundane half- term, it was clear that she was not there to be liked by her students. She had a firm, unrepentant grip on each of her classes and, as a result, I did not expect - or intend - to like her. Then, one day, as I was walking to school, she drove past me on the hill that I lived on. She wound down the window and called to
me. “Joy, would you like a lift?” I
n our final feature this month we are delighted to hear from Joy Mbwake, Head of English and Assistant Headteacher at Lilian Baylis Technology College, who looks at the importance of having diverse role models in the classroom.
The first teachers to treat me with unreserved love and kindness during my time at school were black women. The first woman was my head of year, Ms Powell, a woman who championed me, seemingly without reason. She gave me opportunities to lead, to express myself and,
Even at the time, this was rather unorthodox. Still, I tentatively agreed and we spoke in the five minute journey to school.
This became somewhat of a regular occurrence; if she happened to see me on my way to school, she would offer me a lift. It became known around school and people began to think I was her daughter - a rumour I did not immediately reject. She was stylish, funny and incredibly warm; being her ‘school daughter’ became a badge of honour that I wore with great pride.
Ms Sule’s small but mighty act of kindness left an indelible mark on me which remains to this day.
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I never had the opportunity to ask either Ms Powell or Ms Sule what caused them to treat me with such kindness but, perhaps, this is a consequence of representation. This is what happens when people who look like you are in positions of power and authority: they see themselves in you and offer you a world that otherwise would be inaccessible, one filled with empathy, understanding and opportunities. The significance of my race did not intrude upon me until I left the safe haven that secondary school had become. The naivety that childhood offers so many of us dissipated abruptly as I began to traverse institutions that were far better than the one I had started in. In such places, I was deemed a minority - a term, up until then, I had been unfamiliar with. It had never before been used to define me. It did not matter how high my grades were or how hard I worked, I was consistently predicted lower grades than my white counterparts. This was how I was violently introduced to who I was, what I was and how the world perceived me.
The love and care I had experienced by those two women was nowhere to be found in these establishments. Instead, I was met with the reality that my father had been right all along: I had to work harder than everyone else just to be seen as equal.
These experiences began, in hindsight, the April 2023
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