Tackling racism through developing culturally sustaining practice: Aotearoa|New Zealand
By Sarah Finn, 22 October 2025
Fellow’s Profile
Fellow’s Profile
Improving Anti-Racism Practice in Schools
Helping UK schools to develop anti-racist practice through study in New Zealand
2024
I am currently a primary school teacher in Newport, South Wales. My Fellowship will be investigating educational practices in New Zealand, centring around the Unteach Racism programme which is delivered by their General Teaching Council. I will be looking at barriers and enablers to converting policy into practice in New Zealand educational settings and what can be learnt for a UK context, with a particular focus on Wales�s ambition to be an anti-racist nation by 2030.
Throughout my career, I have worked at a school which has prioritised decolonising our curriculum and ensuring our school is anti-racist. I passionately believe that everybody deserves an equality of education and opportunities. With studies showing uneven and sometimes inadequate approaches to interpersonal pupil-on-pupil racism within schools, and 49% of young Black people feeling racism was their biggest barrier to success at school, I was curious to what other localities were doing to address challenges within their own education system.
Through my Fellowship, I hope to find new ways to approach the issue of racism through the UK education system.
All Reports are copyright © the author. The moral right of the author has been asserted. The views and opinions expressed by any Fellow are those of the Fellow and not of the Churchill Fellowship or its partners, which have no responsibility or liability for any part of them.
All Reports are copyright © the author. The moral right of the author has been asserted. The views and opinions expressed by any Fellow are those of the Fellow and not of the Churchill Fellowship or its partners, which have no responsibility or liability for any part of them.