Despite the ongoing policy commitment to diversification of the teaching workforce (DfE, 2018a), a gap persists between the proportion of students and teachers from minority ethnic groups in England. Figures from 2019 show that 85.6% of all teachers and 65.4% of pupils are currently from a White British background; in comparison, 78.5% of the working age population of England were recorded as White British in the 2011 census (UK Government, 2020). Efforts to recruit new teachers from minority ethnic groups are important but these alone will not solve shortages. Nationally, retention is lower for minority ethnic teachers than for White British teachers (DfE, 2018b). Teachers from minority ethnic groups also experience unique problems linked to racial inequality and racism in their careers (Haque & Elliott, 2017). Yet, there has been little empirical investigation of how the ethnic character of the English teaching workforce has changed over time, where minority ethnic teachers tend to be employed, and what happens to these teachers once they are employed that causes lower retention
