As a former assistant principal at an inner-city secondary school in Bristol, Aisha Thomas has welcomed children from all walks of life into education and believes that they are the staple of a society where anti-racism can become second nature. Yet, she also believes that across society there is a significant lack of teachers of colour and, further still, very little support to help teachers from all backgrounds understand how to connect with - and teach - students of colour.
She has released a book, aptly titled 'Becoming an anti-racist educator' which she describes as not just a book for white people or even just for those working in the education sector, but rather for anyone and everyone as a means of looking inward and making an initial change into openness, understanding and appreciation for people who are different to ourselves. And she doesn't just mean race, the colour of our skin, or where we come from, but who we are in the different situations life finds us in - and how these change based on other influences such as who we're with, how these people have been brought up and how we want to be seen by them.
Aisha has created this book and the tools and tips inside, using a mixture of her own personal experiences and those around her. There are more than 22 individual lived-experience stories, meaning readers will also get to hear from students, parents, other educators - both those teaching now and those who have retired, both black and white.
