Structural and Cultural Barriers to Ethnic Minority Leadership in UK and Canadian Educational Institutions

Abstract

Despite decades of policy attention to equality, diversity, and inclusion, ethnic minorities remain persistently underrepresented in senior leadership positions across educational institutions in the United Kingdom and Canada. This paper develops a critical conceptual analysis of the structural and cultural forces that sustain this leadership gap. Drawing on interdisciplinary scholarship in educational leadership, organisational sociology, and critical race studies, the paper argues that underrepresentation cannot be explained solely through individual deficits or pipeline shortages. Instead, it reflects the interaction of institutional practices, cultural norms of leadership legitimacy, and historically embedded power relations that continue to privilege whiteness as the unspoken standard of authority. Synthesising evidence from leadership research, policy analyses, and comparative education studies, the paper advances a multi-level framework that explains how recruitment systems, promotion criteria, informal networks, and leadership cultures jointly reproduce exclusion, even within institutions that publicly endorse equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) principles. The contribution of the paper lies in reframing ethnic minority underrepresentation as a systemic governance problem rather than a diversity compliance issue. The analysis concludes by identifying implications for leadership theory and institutional reform, arguing that meaningful progress requires a shift from representational metrics to structural transformation.