Research School Network: The power of a conversation with: Domini Choudhury This series of blogs follows professional conversations with a range of voices that can be recognised within our schools.

Domini is an Evidence Advocate (EA) for Somerset Research School. In this longer read, Domini responds to questions about how she’s used a range of evidence to influence her own leadership development, particularly in the field of equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI).

What is your leadership experience/​background?

I have been a senior leader of a number of secondary schools in Bristol for the last 17 years. I also spent many years providing school improvement support to different senior leadership teams across one of the largest multi-academy trusts in the South West. Prior to my leadership roles in Bristol, I was a Head of English and Literacy Coordinator in two different schools in London, and also a part-time Local Authority Advisor for the London Borough of Southwark, providing leadership support to a number of English departments in schools across the borough. 

Throughout my career, I have led on every area of school improvement from teaching & learning through to inclusion and behaviour. I have supported numerous schools to significantly improve their outcomes and in recent years, I have become a trustee of the BAMEed Network and an Anti-Racism Educator. I have worked with schools, local authorities and trust leaders up and down the country to develop and support organisations in their understanding of how racial equity issues show up in the education sector and how to begin their anti-racism journey as an organisation.

Why is EDI an important aspect of your leadership philosophy?

Young people with multiple barriers are still frequently disadvantaged by our education system, yet I know from personal experience how life-changing a good education can be if you are from a disadvantaged background. I grew up experiencing multiple disadvantages as the child of working-class immigrants, speaking English as an additional language (EAL). I lived in a town where we were the only non-white family, having to teach my parents how to improve their English, rather than receiving help from them with my homework. They had a very limited understanding of how the British education system worked and as parents who worked multiple jobs, experienced the pressure of clashing cultural expectations. They found it difficult to provide me with the Western notion of ​‘cultural capital’, and we experienced significant racial trauma as a family. Despite all of these challenges, I attended a school where teachers cared for me and the education provided was good; it changed my life and that of my parents, allowing our family to achieve significant social mobility in just one generation.

When I started teaching, I found that children with similar backgrounds to mine were drawn to me and that I could also have the same impact for them and their families; that I could inspire them to believe in themselves and what they could achieve no matter the challenges of their upbringing. I came to understand how important it was for young people to see people that look and sound like them, and had experienced similar challenges growing up, being represented at all levels of leadership in every industry, including amongst their teachers and school leaders. As I progressed in my career, I came to understand that it wasn’t just young people who needed to see this but also the adults around them who worked with them: the teachers and other school staff. As I increasingly moved towards an inclusive educational philosophy, I developed a greater understanding of special educational needs and disabilities. I eventually came to accept my own identity as a disabled woman of colour and I found huge power in openly sharing these identity labels with students and staff who were all-too-often missing these representations. I have used my lived experiences to regularly teach students about acceptance, empathy and inclusion as part of their personal development, encouraging them to always strive for a kinder, understanding and more equitable society. I regularly tell them that they are the future leaders of this world and will determine the type of society that they and future generations will live in.

Being explicit about teaching young people and school staff about issues around EDI is never more important than now, as political rhetoric and social discourse across the world has become more divisive than ever. Young people are continually exposed to this, often from dubious online sources so it is very important that we create safe environments in schools to be able to talk about these issues with students in an informed way, rather than avoiding these difficult conversations out of fear of getting it wrong.

Can you share examples of when your school leadership has been informed by evidence?

I was extremely fortunate to participate in a two-year Future Leaders programme delivered by Ambition Institute back in 2015. It was two years of the best evidence-based professional development that a leader could ever wish for, requiring participants to undertake extensive academic reading in-between our many residential sessions and to evidence the impact of our own work throughout the programme. It gave me an appreciation of utilising research to be deliberate and efficient about the work that we choose to do, and how powerful this is in influencing others to go with you on the journey. This became the foundational philosophy of my leadership practice thereafter.

Thus, most of the leadership work that I do around EDI makes use of local, regional and national datasets and academic research on race. I will use statistical evidence in professional development sessions with staff on data relating to suspensions and exclusions, comparing the school’s data with local, regional and national data. I will then utilise academic research to suggest reasons for the disparity seen in the data; for example, research in to unconscious bias, teacher labelling, school policies etc. If I am developing a specific approach with staff such as restorative practice or trauma-informed strategies, I will also make use of psychological research evidence in the training. Examples include sharing with staff an understanding of how the brain responds to trauma, how early attachments are formed and the potential impact in later life.

Where do you look for guidance to support you in your leadership role?

As well as DfE publications and guidance, I have made extensive use of the EEF toolkits and reports throughout my leadership career. The most recent example includes using the EEF’s Improving Behaviour in Schools Guidance Report, alongside the published work of Dr Kevin Rowland MBE (Senior Educational Psychologist), Dr Barry S Parsonson (Child Psychologist for the U.S. Department of Education) and others, in order to work with middle and senior leaders to co-construct a school’s new Behaviour Intervention Strategy Bank. This will provide teachers and leaders with a range of tools to build relationships, embed routines, implement common SEND strategies, redirect low-level behaviour, and reconnect, repair and restore relationships.

In my work on racial equity and anti-racism, I make use of the valuable research by the Centre for Race, Education and Decoloniality (CRED) at Leeds Beckett University, as well as other leading universities in race work such as the University of Bristol, University of West England and King’s College, London. I am now an Associate Researcher for the University of Bristol, investigating the challenges of retaining global majority teachers in the UK education sector. I am also involving my current school in groundbreaking longitudinal research with King’s College, London on the issue of colourism amongst young people in the UK.

Do you have any evidence-backed advice for colleagues who are new to leadership roles in schools?

In my early days as a senior leader in education, I found that the academic research into change management theory (often coming from the business management sector) was really helpful for me to consolidate my understanding of how to shift culture and create organisational change as a leader. The work of John P. Kotter was particularly revolutionary for me, as well as Dr Spencer Johnson and Jim Collins.

With regards to specifically shifting the culture of teaching and learning, I found the work of Geoff Petty, strongly influenced by Professor John Hattie, to be really useful as well as that of John Tomsett.

Most teachers and education leaders know of the EEF and its renowned Teaching and Learning Toolkit; however, I would say that this is just the tip of the iceberg in relation to the resources that the EEF offers. As well as guidance reports covering Science, Literacy, Maths and much more, my most-used resource from the EEF is A School’s Guide to Implementation and, specifically, the editable implementation plan template. I have used this repeatedly throughout my leadership career, to implement significant changes to school policies, strategies and approaches.

Please get in touch if you would like to share your own personal insights into Evidence-informed leadership & teaching practice.

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