Unsettling Deficit Narratives: Race, Identity and Belonging in English Schools

Last week, the final report of the Francis Review was released, promising to address diversity in teaching, curriculum and assessment. The report is comprehensive, and it reinforces the principle that the national curriculum must reflect the diversity of modern Britain. Crucially, it says diversity in the curriculum is not an optional enhancement.

But the report is advisory, and we need evidence that the Department for Education will act on these recommendations.

Two days after reading the report, I attended the Belonging Effect (formerly Diverse Educators) one-day event and was inspired by all the presenters who demonstrated the breadth and depth of thinking and practical ways forward to address diversity and equity in education. If we are to enable more children to see themselves in the curriculum, we need the insights and expertise of these presenters and other activists to inform educational development at national and local levels. 

Curriculum diversity cannot be optional

The Francis Review suggests that subjects such as English must include “alternative” texts. Yet this is already possible within current policy. If take-up remains marginal, it is because diverse texts are treated as supplements. It is time to recognise that cultural capital goes beyond Shakespeare and Dickens, and that new texts contribute to building the cultural capital recognised and valued in a diverse Britain. 

As The Belonging Effect has noted, the report makes no mention of structural racism. This weakens the development of diversity and lacks a consideration of the impact of racism on students within the education system. 

My research: challenging deficit narratives

My research, Unsettling Deficit Narratives: Race, Identity and Belonging in English Schools, examines how everyday school practices—curriculum choices, behaviour systems and informal interactions—can reproduce structural racism in subtle but powerful ways. This aligns well with The Belonging Effect’s aims to ensure that everyone feels they truly belong in their place of learning. As they have stated, belonging is the moment when people stop trying to fit in and start being fully themselves.

The research aims to unsettle deficit assumptions that problematise racially minoritised students and frame their cultures as barriers to achievement. The study illuminates how everyday practices, relationships, and policies embody what Paul Warmington (2024) terms a ‘vanishingly small’ space for recognising racism in education, and how what Kalwant Bhopal (2024) defines as a ‘discourse of denial’ shapes teachers’ and leaders’ responses. The framing of education as a race-neutral, knowledge-rich approach endorses Eurocentric models and exclusionary practices. It marginalises attempts at anti-racism through curriculum reform, teacher development, or recognition of the social and cultural capital that racially minoritised students bring to the learning context. The research explored how educational institutions can value the skills, knowledge, and experiences of students from ethnically diverse and marginalised communities.

Students thrive when the curriculum sees them

There are individual teachers and school leaders who are open to change and to explore a more diverse curriculum. The students themselves thrive in settings that reflect their heritages and identities and demonstrate informed and critical approaches to knowledge, with a strong sense of Britain’s historical and contemporary global position. The institution of education, however, remains resistant in its policies, practices, and commitment to a knowledge-rich curriculum in both local and broader contexts. All of which points to the need for a stronger national direction to realise local potential in our schools.

The emphasis in education needs to shift from a deficit-based approach to one that values and builds upon students’ heritages and identities.  If there is a deficit, it is the deficit in the education offer, which fails to consider the context of the young person, their fluid and intersectional identities and the racialised aspect of their lives now and in their futures. As one teacher described, we “fit kids into schools, not us looking outward”. Similarly, the students eloquently articulated the issues of an education system that needs to be, “… not just looking at England but how other countries saw us.” This was not a call to reject British identity, but to enrich it—to see themselves as part of the fabric of what Britain is today: globally connected and ethnically diverse.

As a school leader told me, their previous school, a predominantly White British school had embarked on a decolonisation of the curriculum led by the head teacher, which “…really opened my eyes as to how our curriculum is not reflective of the world or our communities”. These words capture the crux of the issue. A diverse curriculum is not only for multicultural schools; it is essential for all schools in a globally connected country.

What needs to change

Belonging is when every student sees themselves reflected in the curriculum and feels engaged in and contributes to their learning. Some educators are already doing this work, and organisations like The Belonging Effect are leading the way. But without policy backing, progress will remain isolated to the passionate, not embedded in the system. Challenging structural racism also means changing curriculum content and delivery, and it is time for this to be acknowledged in our pedagogy. The Francis report may be advisory, but action must be taken, and there is not enough in the report to be clear how this will take place. Progressing a more diverse curriculum must be reflected in the accountability frameworks of education and school leaders. Our understandings of knowledge-rich education need to reflect the commitment to diversity and belonging. A curriculum adapted to our 21st-century world requires us to acknowledge that structural and institutional racism are features of our education system. We can move from a deficit model to engage students and foster a sense of belonging, and this deserves a national directive.