Few teachers are aware that equalities legislation applies to their school’s policies on hair, despite high-profile court cases affecting black students who have been penalised or excluded for their hairstyles, a survey has found.
More than three-quarters of teachers had not received any training on how the 2010 Equality Act applies to school uniform and appearance policies, according to a poll of 500 teachers in a report for the World Afro Day campaign and Shift Insight consultancy.
Just 12% said they had received equality and diversity training that included policies on hair.
But 42% of those surveyed said their school’s uniform and appearance policies had “no potential to discriminate” and a further 30% said they thought there was only a low potential. In contrast, just 8% said the policies had a high or very high potential to discriminate.
Michelle De Leon, the founder of World Afro Day, said traditional policies on hair were “clearly outdated” and failed to take into account the diversity of students.
“Schools need uniform policies but this is the 21st century – they need to recognise that there are different hair types, and that to treat them all the same is discriminatory,” De Leon said.
“Hair is part of a person’s identity. If schools understood that skin and hair are part of the same package they wouldn’t treat hair as something different. These are children’s bodies we are talking about.”
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “Our experience is that teachers and leaders are hugely focused on promoting diversity, equality and inclusion, and will welcome the insights provided by this excellent report.
“The more we can do to raise awareness about the potential for afro hair discrimination the better, and ASCL is committed to working with World Afro Day to this end.”
The report presented teachers with a real-life example of an 11-year-old boy who was refused entry to a Catholic secondary school in London because his hair was in cornrows braids. The boy took the school to the high court and won on the basis of “indirect racial discrimination”.
When presented with the scenario, 71% said it was a case of discrimination, while the remainder said it was not or weren’t sure.
Jane Powell, the managing director of Shift Insight, said the findings highlighted a “gap in understanding” among teachers and educators.
In 2020 a schoolgirl won £8,500 in an out-of-court settlement against a secondary school in east London after she was repeatedly sent home because of her hair. The school’s written uniform policy stated that “afro-style hair must be of reasonable size and length”. After the legal action the policy was removed.
Since 2020 schools in the UK have been able to sign up to the Halo Code, which pledges to end discrimination against black hairstyles.