Breaking barriers or building walls? Reflecting on structural inequities in educational leadership

DEEPAK VERMA, LECTURER, WEST MIDLANDS, UK Throughout my career in further education, state schools and grammar schools, I have become increasingly aware of the ways in which equity, diversity and leadership intersect in everyday professional life. My experiences of navigating progression processes and observing how opportunities are distributed have revealed how unconscious bias and structural inequities continue to shape educational institutions. This reflection examines how the work of Bhopal (2018), Miller (2016) and Johnson (2020), supported by wider literature, helps to illuminate these patterns and their implications for the students that we teach. The paradox of diversity and leadership Education in England often presents itself as a champion of social mobility, and many institutional strategies emphasise inclusion and representation. Yet, as Bhopal (2018) argues, structural privilege still influences who is regarded as a suitable leader. Across the settings where I have work