The footballer Troy Deeney is launching an impassioned plea for more widespread teaching of black, Asian and minority ethnic experiences by schools in England, to help combat racism and give children “a balanced and inclusive understanding” of Britain.
In an open letter to the education secretary, Nadhim Zahawi, Deeney said he had been frustrated by the lack of progress on tackling racism in the two years since the killing of George Floyd in the US, saying that “an eerie quiet” had ended public debate.
The Birmingham City striker said he was still receiving “vile racist abuse on social media and, at times, in public,” and with three children in the education system he felt an urgent need for schools to include black, Asian and minority ethnic experiences in their curriculum.
“I have seen more and more how important it is for my children to be able to see themselves represented in what they are being taught, and learn about the contribution and background of people who look like them,” Deeney said. “The importance of education at an early age to inform identity and combat racist beliefs and stereotypes cannot be understated.”
Deeney’s letter follows the success of Marcus Rashford, the England and Manchester United forward, in changing government policy. In 2020 and 2021, Rashford’s public interventions and a groundswell of support led to the government reversing its decision not to provide food for children eligible for free school meals during the school holidays in the midst of the Covid pandemic.
Deeney, who signed for Birmingham City this season after playing almost 400 games for Watford, is launching an online petition. He has commissioned research by the polling company YouGov into teachers’ attitudes to rebut claims that the national curriculum in England already contains ample black and minority ethnic representation.
The survey of 1,000 secondary and primary school teachers, carried out this month, found that only 12% felt empowered to teach “optional” black-related topics such as colonialism, migration and identity ahead of competing optional topics, while 75% said they were not aware that resources to teach cultural diversity across the curriculum were available.
It found that 54% of teachers believed the school system or national curriculum has a racial bias, rising to 93% among minority ethnic teachers.
“My only experience of black history or black culture was through the food or music I experienced at home, whilst at school I felt detached. Not only was I not taught about positive role models who looked like me, I was even told by one teacher that I’d be dead by the time I was 25,” Deeney said.
He was excluded from school at the age of 15 and left without any qualifications. Later, as a professional footballer, he studied and passed GCSEs in English, maths and science.
“As my mum always says to me, you can’t understand where you’re going if you don’t understand where you’ve come from. Whether it’s too late for my generation, we need to lay a pathway for longer-lasting change for our kids as I believe the current system is failing children from ethnic minorities,” Deeney said.
Denney’s call was backed by Lavinya Stennett, founder of The Black Curriculum which promotes a wider range of Black content to be taught in schools. “The students and the teachers are asking for our work, and it’s the time to listen and mandate,” Stennett said.
In response, a Department for Education spokesperson said the current curriculum offers pupils the opportunity to study significant figures from black and ethnic minority backgrounds and the contributions they have made to the nation.
“Schools play a crucial role in helping young people understand the world around them and their place within it. We continue to be informed by the work of committed individuals and groups when it comes to supporting the teaching of black and minority ethnic history,” the spokesperson said.