Sponsoring and mentoring our global majority educators: Why leadership habits shape progression

HARROOP SANDHU, VICE PRESIDENT, CHARTERED COLLEGE OF TEACHING, UK; EDI CONSULTANT; LEADERSHIP COACH The research tells us time and time again that as global majority educators move through their careers, they are less likely to progress to leadership roles. Here are some stark statistics from the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER): Black teachers are 60 per cent less likely to be in senior leadership roles than white peers with similar experience Asian teachers make up nine per cent of the workforce but only four per cent of headteachers Ethnic minority teachers are more likely to reach middle leadership, but significantly less likely to advance from middle to senior leadership or headteacher roles Across England, 86 per cent of schools have an all-white senior leadership team, and 96 per cent of headteachers are white (Kotonya et al., 2025).   And it’s not due to a lack of ambition. The data tells us that, in fact, people from the global m