Our Book
Representation Matters:
Becoming an anti-racist educator is the essential book for teachers looking to promote diversity and inclusion in their school and create positive, lasting change for staff and pupils.
In this crucial book, our founder Aisha Thomas demonstrates how race shapes the experiences of Black, Asian and minority ethnic teachers and pupils in the UK education system, and why representation is fundamental in every school. Using real-life stories from teachers and pupils, this book offers practical, concrete strategies and resources to drive change and promote an anti-racist approach to education.
Key Achievements
#1 Best Seller on Amazon (Educational Strategies & Policies) within 24 hours of its launch
Exeter University added Representation Matters to its curriculum
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Covering a range of important topics, including intersectionality, decolonising the curriculum, unconscious bias and microaggressions, Representation Matters equips all teachers and school leaders with everything they need to understand the impact of race in education.
What will you find inside?
Invaluable practical strategies and resources
Stimulating activities, self-reflective questions and discussion
Crucial learning points after every chapter
Real life stories from over 20 teachers and pupils
Discover how to create a powerful action plan to:
Diversity the curriculum
Challenge incidents of racism
Explore identity and culture in tutor time and PHSE
Interpret the Equality Act 2010
A look inside the book:
Lived Experiences
“Seeing yourself represented – your struggle, your experiences – creates a safe, inclusive space where, for once, you’re being seen. Throughout Checking Out Me History, as John Agard’s Creole permeated the English Classroom, my dialect and culture were being shown.”
Shaheim Minzie, GCSE Student
“Not only did my experiences of racism shape me as an educator, but they also led me into the teaching profession - hopeful that I could be part of the drive for positive change as well as the visible representation that I longed to see as a young, impressionable Black female student.”
Bianca Williams, Dep. Director of Sixth Form
“If nothing changes, we will foster another generation ignorant to the complexities of racism, and the empowerment of diversity. We will fail if future generations cannot see their full potential.”
Jivan Ward, Secondary English Teacher
“The first time I encountered a Black teacher was when I was 17. He was a Black man. Without him, I am unsure that I would have completed my year of study, and therefore the rest of my journey would have been very different.”
Samara Cameron, Sen Class Teacher
Explore more real life stories like this in the book
“Aisha draws on her own experiences as a teacher, parent, and leading anti-racism advocate to ask us all to critically reflect upon what representation means in our own practice, and why representation really matters.
A must-read for educators everywhere, through reflective activities and case studies, Aisha‘s experiences guide us throughout, offering us loving, practical, and considered suggestions to help develop anti-racist and social justice-led practice in our own educational spaces.”
Malcolm Richard, Senior lecturer in Initial Teacher Education, UWE/ University of Exeter PhD in Education
Amazon Reviews
The Book Launch
“Your book launch was amazing. It was so amazing to be there and see it – Black joy and energy and everything!”
— Chantelle
“Wicked. You spoke powerfully at the book launch.”
— Amy
“Tonight was an opportunity to honour those who paved the way”
— Aisha Thomas, Author
“It was a thoroughly enjoyable event. The girls were really inspired by it and it was good for Jemima to see a young family member living and achieving their dreams”
— Attendee
“What a book launch – that was a first”
— Gary
Find out more
Book Launch
Join Aisha and some of the book’s contributors discuss the importance of representation and why the book is so important.
BBC Points West: About the Book
Aisha Thomas shared the book Representation Matters on BBC news. Alongside her, former student Shaheim Minzie who featured and wrote for the book, shared his thoughts on why Representation Matters in education.