Advancing equity in Scotland: Developing race-cognisant policy in teacher education

Abstract

In Scotland, recent years have seen a national declaration across Higher and Further Education acknowledging the existence of racism in education and the development of various policies designed to challenge racism and promote racial diversity. This has particularly been the case in the field of teacher education policy where we have seen the publication of Teaching in a Diverse Scotland (2018) and subsequent annual targets for recruitment and retention of Black and Minority Ethnic teachers, the establishment of a national programme of professional learning to build educators’ racial literacy, and the publication of The National Anti-Racism Framework for Initial Teacher Education (2023). However, the ‘success’ or otherwise of these polices has not yet been established across the system. This article, therefore, seeks to bring together the evaluations of individual race-cognisant policies in teacher education to date, and to synthesise them, drawing on McConnell's (2010) three strands of policy analysis. Based on this analysis, the article concludes with some future-gazing as we move towards Scottish Parliament elections in 2026, and the likelihood that the long-dominant Scottish National Party will face a serious challenge.