Education Podcast: Diversity, Inclusion & Afro Hair

Study Coach educational podcast looks at issues surrounding equality, diversity, inclusion in education. The podcast is presented by Morel Benard. 

The case of schoolgirl Ruby Williams and her afro hairstyle made national news in the UK. Ruby was a student at Urswick Secondary School, located in the London Borough of Hackney. Ruby’s ethnicity is black and white, what is referred to as mixed race. Ruby had chosen to wear her hair in what is known as an ‘afro’. An interesting point to mention about Hackney in London, is that roughly 40% of Hackney residents are identified as coming from black minority ethnic groups.  

According to media reports, dear Ruby was attending Urswick School and was told by teachers that her afro was against uniform policy. The school’s uniform policy said that: ‘afro style hair, including buns should be of reasonable size and length’. 

Teachers allegedly told Ruby that her afro could block other pupils from seeing the whiteboard. Ruby was repeatedly sent home from school because of wearing afro hair. I use the word ‘allegedly’ but I can let you know that Ruby’s parents did launch legal action against Urswick School for discrimination on the basis of race, and the 3 year legal battle was eventually settled out of Court. During the dispute Ruby missed a lot of lessons. The poor child said that being excluded from school due to her choice of hairstyle made her feel humiliated and stressed. Media reports says that a payout of £8,500 was awarded to Ruby. I actually think that the out of court payout should have been much more than £8,500 pounds. But that is just my little opinion.

I understand that the school has made some changes to its policy and says that hair should not impede the learning of students through excessive volume, hair should not significantly cover the eyes as it will affect learning. Ruby is now grown and no longer attending the school but I find the case to be of great interest, because from other media reports, other children have suffered a similar experience within UK school system. 

I don’t know what you think, but being excluded from school because of wearing your hair in an afro seems to me to be very unjust.  

The school policy states that the afro should be of reasonable size, from my understanding in order to comply with ‘reasonable’ size this would mean regularly cutting the afro hair. By the way the school policy does not dictate that children with non-afro hair will need to cut their straight hair. In other words the length of straight hair can be worn very long, it does not impede learning. The Afro hair (big/wide hair) will impede learning. What about children with broad shoulders, big stature, do they impede learning? 

Study Coach podcast looks at issues surrounding equality, diversity, inclusion in education. Do have a listen to episode 5: Education, Diversity, Inclusion & Afro Hair. The podcast can be found on most platforms including Apple, Spotify. Here is a buzz sprout rss link: 

https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/1855101.rss

Thanks for reading. 



You have been inspirational and empowering; I will miss you very much.
Natalie

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