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Calls for racial literacy in education are growing louder across the UK (see for example Rabiger, 2025). Many agree that teachers must be ‘racially literate’ to practise safely and equitably; but what does that mean in contemporary classrooms? At its core, racial literacy is the ability to recognise how racism operates, respond to it in practice, and work actively to dismantle its effects.

In the UK, Twine (2004) introduced the term ‘racial literacy’ through research with interracial households, describing the strategies families use to prepare children to navigate racism. More recently, Joseph-Salisbury (2020) reframed racial literacy as a professional competency, emphasising that teachers must develop the knowledge, confidence and skills to act against racism in their professional practice.

In Wales, this principle is built into Diversity and Anti-Racist Professional Learning (DARPL), the national programme, which positions racial literacy as essential to anti-racist professional learning (Haughton & Palmer, 2024). DARPL is an effective interrupter, working with schools to shift hearts and minds, and embed new practices.

In the US, Dr Sealey-Ruiz (2023) developed the Archaeology of Self framework, which positions teachers as disrupters in racial literacy development alongside their learners. Top-down mandates to include Black, Asian and minority ethnic history in the Curriculum for Wales have further amplified the need for racial literacy. Teachers must recognise how racial inequality manifests, and develop the skills to connect their local curriculum with the wider world.

‘Teachers must recognise how racial inequality manifests, and develop the skills to connect their local curriculum with the wider world.’

Although racial literacy between teacher and learner is the goal, it must begin with teachers themselves. Teachers first need to understand racial inequality and how to break the cycle. The following infographic illustrates the components of racial literacy development:

Although rooted in Wales, the infographic addresses a wider international need: shifting the debate from aspiration to practice, from the language of ‘should’ to sustained reconstruction. The amber and green bands of the pyramid emphasise that this work is iterative and cyclical. Viewed through a critical pedagogy lens (Lamsal, 2024), they invite us to question how teaching and curriculum sustain or disrupt inequality – an approach that challenges assumptions and centres learners’ experiences.

This is a shift from asking why teachers need racial literacy, towards clarifying what it takes to practise it. Historical literacy as required in the curriculum cannot be reached without reconstruction and critiquing the legacy Eurocentric curriculum. It recognises that this is not easy and requires self-care and caring for the community to sustain this work. In other words, we already know why racial literacy matters. The challenge now is to describe and model how it is done – in schools, in teacher education and in professional learning.

In Wales, this work is intertwined with the national vision of an . Racial literacy is not an optional extra: it is as fundamental to safeguarding as child protection. If teachers are not racially literate, they cannot protect learners from harm or support cohesion and belonging.

Racial literacy is not a one-off training or a tick-box exercise. It requires the sustained practice of interruption, reconstruction and reflection, supported by self- and community care. It is not an isolated topic but a praxis: a way of exploring pedagogy critically and engaging with intersectional themes such as race, gender, sexuality, class and disability. It underpins an inclusive curriculum that begins with accurate historical literacy and positions the teacher as a continual learner through critical humility. This intersectional lens is crucial, as racial inequality does not operate in isolation from other systems of oppression.

Through racial literacy, educators learn not only to sustain conversations about race but also to recognise the institutional ways in which inequality affects marginalised groups. This dual focus, combining critical pedagogy with structural awareness, is what shifts it from aspiration to practice. To practise racial literacy is to commit to ongoing interruption, reconstruction and reflection: a praxis that transforms education from aspiration into action.

References

Haughton, C., & Palmer, K. (2024, May 24). Diversity and Anti-Racist Professional Learning (DARPL): Establishing anti-racist education through the lens of cynefin. ½¿É«µ¼º½ Blog.

Joseph-Salisbury, R. (2020). Race and racism in English secondary schools. Runnymede Trust.

Lamsal, H. L. (2024). Critical pedagogy in addressing social inequality and promoting social justice in education. Advances, 5(3).

Martin, L. (2025). Racial literacy in action: A guide for sustained practice. Cardiff Metropolitan University.

Rabiger, P. (2025, August 8). Teachers need to be racially literate to practise safely in our nation’s schools. ½¿É«µ¼º½ Blog. /blog/teachers-need-to-be-racially-literate-to-practise-safely-in-our-nations-schools

Sealey-Ruiz, Y. (2023). Archeology of self: Six components of racial literacy development. In H. R. Milner IV & K. Lomotey (Eds.), Handbook of urban education (2nd ed., pp. 281–295). Routledge.

Twine, F. W. (2004). A white side of Black Britain: The concept of racial literacy. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 27(6), 878–907.