#005 – The Life Pedagogic: Marva Rollins

This month we are pleased to be joined by Marva Rollins OBE as she talks us through her Life Pedagogic.

Marva Rollins has been a prominent leader in education for three decades. She came to teaching later than many, rising to become the first black headteacher in the London borough of Newham. Leading in one of the most deprived and diverse communities in the country, she drew on her own experiences and traumas as a ‘left behind’ child in The Caribbean to support her pupils.

An outspoken voice on issues related to race, education and equality, Marva Rollins was included in the Evening Standard’s 2009 list of ‘100 most important Londoners’ and in The Metro’s 2011 list of ’50 Black Heroes’.

In a wide-ranging conversation, Baz and Marva discuss:

• The challenges and traumas of arriving in the UK as a first-generation immigrant in the 1960s, including the implicit and explicit racism of the English educational system of the time
• How community work and social activism give individuals the skills, experiences, and confidence to pursue teaching as a career
• The challenges of training and practising as one of the few black teachers in the workforce and the challenges of rising into leadership
• How the English education system can become actively antiracist and resolve the recruitment and retention issues with BAME teachers.