Best Practice

Inclusion: Is your classroom a safe space?

Curriculum Diversity & Equality
How can we create equitable and inclusive classrooms for all students with a culture of psychological safety? For many of us, this will involve getting comfortable with being uncomfortable. Zahara Chowdhury offers her advice


I was very fortunate with my PGCE placement. While the workload and pressure haunted me, I felt incredibly safe in my classroom.

I felt seen and heard by every single student and I know they felt the same from me too. I trained at a school with more than 80% global majority students, and we all “belonged” in those classrooms and lessons.

In between lesson observations and droning on about exam rubric, my students would make me cry with laughter. There was a place and space for everyone.

Fast forward to my NQT year and I was given contrary advice: “Don’t smile until Christmas.” The classroom was my domain, I was told, and every student “should” do as I say.

As a new teacher, I forgot all about my PGCE experience and attempted to immerse myself in a different school culture. On reflection, my first couple of terms was the worst experience of my entire career.

I worked in a supportive team and yet I was still spending every other mentor meeting in floods of tears. I could not understand why I wasn’t “getting it”. Sleepless nights, Sunday sickness and the dread of facing every class meant something had to change.

Midweek, part-way through a lesson, I reintroduced myself to one specific (rather problematic) class. I spoke to them as my “authentic self” re-establishing my expectations as a teacher and the contract of respect between us. Somehow my entire experience transformed overnight (quite literally), making me a strong and safe teacher for my students and for myself too.


You can’t be what you can’t see

Last year, I spoke at an event hosted by the National Association of School-Based Teacher Trainers (NASBTT), discussing the importance of diversity and inclusion in teacher training and how creating safe spaces and cultivating a culture of belonging are the key to success for every student.

Diversity and inclusion are finally becoming a core focus in schools, but often this work is met with fear and uncertainty.

In 2021/22, 89.7% of the teaching workforce was white; 76% was female (DfE, 2023). However, 70% of those in leadership positions are female. In secondary schools, females make up 63% of the workforce but only 40% of headteachers (DfE, 2022).

Further, while 22.4% of the population identifies as belonging to an ethnic minority, this figure falls to 12.6% for classroom teachers, while this falls further still for secondary school leaders to 9%. Indeed, for every 20 White British teachers promoted to senior leadership, only 17 ethnic minority teachers would be similarly promoted. Global majority teaching staff are also working disproportionately in London and the West Midlands (DfE, 2022).

The DfE’s statistics report is stark: “Teachers from ethnic minority (including white minority) backgrounds were less likely to be promoted than white British teachers.” (DfE, 2022)

There is a clear need for diverse and authentic lived experiences in every school – the phrase “you can’t be what you can’t see” comes to mind.

And these are still only surface-level statistics. Given the disparity we see here regarding gender and ethnicity, representation and inclusion are also a “work in progress” for diverse socio-economic, religious, and LGBT+ students.

While the desire among schools and teachers is there, it can be difficult to know where to start when creating equitable and inclusive classrooms – especially if we are not surrounded by a diverse workforce.

Equally, there is some excellent DEI training and development available for teachers, but it is usually a CPD “add-on” and this is a problem in itself because a working understanding of DEI is intrinsic to creating equitable and inclusive classrooms.


Get comfortable being uncomfortable

An uncomfortable truth: we are all biased and we all have unconscious and conscious biases. Regardless of our classroom demographics, we can take steps to confront our biases and learn to overcome them so we can proactively create equitable and inclusive classroom spaces.

Of course, schools have a responsibility to follow the Public Sector Equality Duty, to protect and respect all staff and students as outlined in the Equality Act 2010, and equality and diversity also feature in the Ofsted’s Personal Development Framework.

But no matter how robust and brilliant policies are, actively learning about diversity and inclusion will build positive relationships and safe spaces for every student in the classroom.

A great starting point for all teachers is Harvard’s Project Implicit, which offers a range of implicit association tests, rooted in scientific knowledge, investigating stereotypes, hidden and unconscious biases that “influence perception, judgement, and action”. These tests help make the unconscious, conscious and can guide teachers.


Psychological safe spaces

Psychological safety is “a shared belief held by members of a team that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking” (Edmondson, 1999). We learn and perform best when we feel safe, present and confident; if we feel that we belong in an environment, we feel psychologically safe.

For a student in a classroom, this may feel or look like a space where students can ask questions and make mistakes no matter how big or small, without the fear of being humiliated or judged by their teacher or their peers. It is also a space where they are celebrated, seen, understood and most importantly, they are heard. There are several ways a teacher can create a culture of psychological safety for all students:


Instead of rules, create a class contract: Create a mutual contract of expectations, processes and routines that everyone in the classroom has a hand in. From how students enter the classroom to how they participate in lessons, spend a lesson talking to your classes and drawing up a joint class contract, which everyone understands and respects. This is a great way to get to know your classes and can be done with all age groups. It can also be displayed and written together so everyone has access to it.

Establish a culture of forgiveness, communication and respect: On the whole, students appreciate vulnerability – it is not a weakness. Make it clear that as their teacher, you want what is best for your students. The majority of the time you will “get it right”, but you are learning together and there may be topics or features of a lesson that don’t always go to plan. It is important that everyone agrees to treat each other with kindness, appreciate the differences in the classroom and professionally address conflict and disagreements with respect. It can help to reiterate this when you are teaching a topic or in a situation that makes you feel uncomfortable and uncertain.

Go for accountability, not zero tolerance: There are many behaviour policies and school cultures that adopt a zero tolerance policy. While zero tolerance is understandable when trying to protect all students, it is not practical and does not encourage a culture of psychological safety. It can be better to emphasise that any kind of bullying, discrimination and prejudice is unacceptable in the classroom and in order to reassure all students, explain how they will be held accountable for their actions. While an apology is part of the process, it is not the solution. For students to trust you and feel safe, it is important that they receive an apology but that they see the behaviour policy and process in action, too.

Diversity across the curriculum: Psychological safety can be achieved within the practice of teaching and learning. Taking a proactive approach to diversity in your lessons, ensuring there are a wide range of contextual resources, displays, books, quotes and more in your classroom can make the world of difference to your students. It can support diverse discussions, creative thinking and creative questioning too. It also encourages a culture of empathy and understanding, which can encourage students to have rich and empowering conversations in and outside of the classroom too (see below for a list of curriculum resources to support this work).


An ever-evolving classroom

Of course, there is so much more to unpack; students will need to work with teachers to understand and navigate psychological safety in the classroom. Equally, there will be times where a classroom feels (and needs to be) uncomfortable for students and teachers, sometimes because students are simply not in the mood for learning on a Friday, period 5, or because of a particular topic or issue addressed in a lesson.

The important thing to remember is that it is always possible to pull it back and establish a culture of psychological safety by developing trusting relationships and by using some of the suggestions above.

  • Zahara Chowdhury is equality, diversity and inclusion business partner at Buckinghamshire New University andfounder of the School Should Be blog and podcast. Find her on Twitter at @zaharachowdhur2


Curriculum resources

  • Diverse Educators: An excellent platform full of toolkits, blogs, training, and development to support DEI in education: www.diverseeducators.co.uk
  • Global Equality Collective: A DEI app for education, with a rich online library of resources: www.thegec.org
  • A Little Guide for Teachers: Diversity in schools: A brilliant pocketbook from Bennie Kara with practical guidance and advice on diversity, particularly useful for secondary schools (Sage, 2020): https://bit.ly/3W9Vvo4
  • Hidden Lessons: A candid, heart-warming and immersive account of Mehreen Baig’s experiences as a teacher of 10 years, working in a diverse school in London (Hodder & Stoughton, 2022): https://bit.ly/3Iebuf7
  • I Heard What you Said: An honest, transparent and hard-hitting account of Jeffrey Boakye’s experiences as a Black teacher in the UK school system (Picador, 2022): https://bit.ly/3Mudmmv

Further information