Our RTG was privileged to welcome Professor Ann Lopez from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto to the School of Education in March to support our work on Leading Anti-Racism. Professor Lopez spent a week with School of Education staff and Glasgow City Council, Scottish Government and other University partners, leading professional learning and challenging our thinking and practice as anti-racist educators. A summary of the formal events of the week follows:

Building Racial Literacy: Shifting the Profession in Scotland
Workshop session with Alison Mitchell (ELP), Professor Dennis Francis (CLIP), Dr Khadija Mohammed (UWS) and Mélina Valdelièvre (Education Scotland).

Researching Anti-Racist Leadership
Discussion with editors and authors of the new Leadership Scholarship and Praxis in Education (LSPE) around a special journal issue focussing on Leading Anti-Racism in Schools.

Decolonising Educational Leadership Development
Discussion with ELP Leadership Development team and Into Headship Programme Lead from the University of Stirling.

Leading Anti-Racism in Schools
Session with aspirant Headteachers in cohort ten of the national Into Headship programme.

An Audience with Professor Ann Lopez: Decolonising Educational Leadership
Chaired by Marie McQuade (U of G Education Leadership and Policy lead) with invited representatives from the Scottish Government, partner universities and the General Teaching Council for Scotland. 

Decolonising Educator Professional Learning: Implications for Research
Round Table discussion with Centre for Transformative Change in Schools (CenTCS) Fellows and representatives from the Centre for Teaching Excellence (CfTE). Chaired by CenTCS directors, Professor Aileen Kennedy and Professor Brianna Kennedy.

Building Racial Literacy in Teacher Education seminar
Becoming a Teacher Educator (BaTE) seminar with representatives from Initial Teacher Education and Educational Leadership.
Participants focussed on the article below in preparation for this seminar.
Responsibilities of White Teacher Candidates and Teacher Educators in Developing Racial Literacy. Multicultural Perspectives, 20(4), 240–246. https://doi.org/10.1080/15210960.2018.1527156

Diversity in Educational Leadership: A Local Authority Approach
Meeting with Dr Douglas Hutchison (Executive Director of Education Services, Glasgow City Council), Quality Improvement Officers and Middle Leaders on the Minority Ethnic Leadership Support pathways.

Leading Anti-Racism (LAR) Cohort One: Decolonising Educational Leadership
Seminar with 60 participants on LAR Cohort 1: school leaders, local authority leaders and University ITE leaders in the same learning space.

School Experience: Young People’s Perspectives of Racism
Hosted by Drumchapel High School, a morning with anti-racism staff leads and representatives from anti-racism clubs across secondary schools in the city of Glasgow.

The formal programme engendered deep reflection, insight, provocations and challenge to progress anti-racism and decolonisation across our programmes and through our partnerships with schools. The informal interactions and conversation across the week were also inspiring. Our relationship with OISE and specifically its Centre for Leadership and Diversity (CLD), of which Professor Lopez is Director, has been strengthened and we look forward to visiting Toronto in October 2025, for the CLD annual international conference.

We thank RTG leads across the School of Education for their support of the visit and, as always, we are grateful to Professional Services colleagues Amy Sutherland and Susan White for their impeccable organisation.

First published: 30 April 2025

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