The Cambridge Dictionary (2024) defines racism as “policies, behaviours, rules, etc, that result in a continued unfair advantage to some people and unfair or harmful treatment of others based on race.” I believe this definition is pertinent to the Higher Education sector, where the unfair advantage has most notably manifested in the form of the attainment gap between white and students of colour. According to the UAL’s latest EDI report (UAL, 2022/2023), CSM has the highest attainment gap across UAL; it was -17% between white and B.A.M.E students in 2021/2022. This is made worse by the fact that only 23% of academic staff identify as B.A.M.E.
The TedxCroydon talk about Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion was insightful. Asif Sadiq argued that diversity training is often biased, built with stereotypes, and the opposite of inclusive (TedxCroydon, 2023). This is how I felt about UAL’s anti-racism workshop because it didn’t consider the spectrum of minority ethnic groups who also suffer the consequences of institutional racism. I agree with Sadiq when he says that education is delivered in a certain way and gives you a perspective, not the whole perspective. More often than not, that perspective is Eurocentric and drawn from dominant cultures. His point about diversity training focusing on the challenges and ignoring the successes of minority communities also resonated with me. In a talk I attended by disability advocate, Samantha Renke, she critiqued the medical model of disability and inspiration porn for causing a biased, negative portrayal of disability in society (Renke, 2024). Sadiq also argues that group and experiential learning are powerful tools for achieving diversity, which I have witnessed through my teaching practice as an object-based learning educator (TedxCroydon, 2023).
I found the Channel 4 video about white privilege quite hard to watch, mainly due to the fact the activity involved young children. I think the approach is effective in theory because it visually represents the widening of the divide between white and students of colour as more questions are asked. However, it was clear some students felt very uncomfortable and isolated, saying comments like “it’s unfair because none of us are white” (Channel 4, 2020). I think the activity would have been more effective and inclusive if there was one teacher of colour asking the questions and another checking in with students left behind.
Again, the positionality of the presenter for the Telegraph film about Advance HE’s impact on universities is problematic. It would have been more credible and impactful if it was led by a presenter of colour with lived experience of the “institutional racism” referenced by the co-chair of the Race Equality Governance Committee rather than a privileged white male professor who cannot understand or relate to the experience of the students he is interviewing (The Telegraph, 2022). I believe Advance HE has good intentions and that its Race Charter has potential to encourage anti-racist change across the sector, but it is likely to be superficial since it incentivises universities using an awards system. As Sadiq said in his talk (TedxCroydon, 2024), “true change is going beyond the boxes and really understanding that each and individual is part of that change.”
I commented on Yasi, Michelle, and Sid’s blog posts.
References
Bradbury, A., 2020. A critical race theory framework for education policy
analysis: The case of bilingual learners and assessment policy in
England. Race Ethnicity and Education, 23(2),
pp.241-260.
Cambridge Dictionary, Cambridge
Dictionary (2024) < RACISM |
English meaning – Cambridge Dictionary> [accessed 26 June 2024)
Channel 4. (2020) The School That Tried to End Racism. [Online}. Youtube. 30
June. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I3wJ7pJUjg
Garrett, R. (2024). Racism shapes careers: career trajectories and imagined
futures of racialised minority PhDs in UK higher education. Globalisation,
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Orr, J. (2022) Revealed: The charity
turning UK universities woke. The Telegraph [Online]. Youtube. 5 August.
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRM6vOPTjuU
Renke, Samantha. “Social Justice in Museums: advocacy, activism and
co-production”. Lecture to Social Justice in Museums Study Day, 18 June.
2024, Museum of London
Sadiq, A. (2023) Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. Learning how to get it
right. TEDx [Online}. Youtube. 2 March. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HR4wz1b54hw
UAL (2022). Equality,
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