A programme created by De Montfort University’s Stephen Lawrence Research Centre (SLRC) to promote racial literacy in schools will be discussed at the biggest teacher’s union conference in the UK.
The National Education Union (NEU), the largest of its kind in Europe with more than 465,000 members, is holding its annual conference in Brighton from Monday 30 March.
On the agenda will be a motion calling for ‘stronger accountability and sanctions for racist incidents in schools’.
Within that motion there is a call for the conference to instruct the NEU executive to ‘work with the Stephen Lawrence Research Centre and other partners to promote racial literacy training for all educators.
The recognition of the work of SLRC at one of the largest education unions in Europe is testament to the importance and continued relevance of Teaching to Transform.
It involves SLRC researchers Dr Camille London-Miyo and Dr Fatima Rajina going into schools to help staff develop their knowledge about how racism affects their students and introducing effective strategies to recognise, respond to and counter it.
The motion for the national event was initially put forward in 2025 at the NEU’s Black Educators’ Conference, and Dr London-Miyo, who has more than thirty years of experience in inner city schools, from classroom teacher to senior leader.
As a result, Dr London-Miyo will address the NEU conference in Brighton and contribute to debates highlighting the experiences of educators who have been on the Teaching to Transform journey, to raise the profile of the work at the SLRC.
Dr London-Miyo said: “The importance of ensuring that we continue to listen to the teaching profession, particularly those educators from minoritised communities, is the only way that as a society we will be able to embrace the principles of transformative education to achieve equity and social justice for all.
More than 200 schools across Leicester and Leicestershire have been involved in the Teaching to Transform programme since its inception at the SLRC in 2019.
There are also more than 300 students who have been enrolled as Stephen Lawrence Ambassadors. They hold regular meetings with teaching staff to encourage anti-racist work within the school and the community.
The SLRC has an ambition to scale-up the Teaching to Transform programme – and its associated research – so that all schools in England undergo racial literacy training as an integral part of teacher education and continuing professional development.
The motion at the NEU national conference is seen as another step towards realising that goal.
Five years of research showing how Teaching to Transform has brought about a radical change in schools has already been taken to the House of Lords, for an event sponsored by former DMU chancellor Baroness Doreen Lawrence.
The capacity audience at the event in November included Lords, Ladies, MPs, national lobby groups, researchers, representatives from the Department for Education and education charities.
Dr London-Miyo delivered a keynote outlining the importance of Teaching to Transform with supporting statements from colleague Dr Rajina, as well as the DMU Vice-Chancellor Professor Katie Laird and DMU’s Pro Vice-Chancellor for Social Justice, Professor Kasim Sheikh.
The SLRC was officially opened by Baroness Doreen Lawrence in 2019. It drives forward conversations that shape and influence how we think about race and social justice.
The SLRC honours the enduring legacy of Stephen Lawrence’s life and his family’s ongoing pursuit of justice – since his murder by racists in 1993 - by asking new questions, debating critical issues, raising awareness and advocating to bring about positive change.
Posted on Monday 30 March 2026