For Bourdieu, it is an ‘obvious truth’ (Bourdieu 1991) that art is implicated in the reproduction of inequalities, and that the relationship between culture and power is such that taste creates social differences. Certain kinds of art can only be decoded, and appreciated by those who have been taught how to decode them (Bourdieu1984). The cultural capital of the working classes, and certain ethnic groups, is devalued and delegitimised.1
(Burke and McManus 2012, p. 21)
Shades of Noir was founded by Aisha Richards in 2009.
It was informed by Richards’s “Any Room at the Inn”, a scoping study that looked into the transitions of art and design graduates from higher education into the creative industries, particularly graduates of colour. However, she noticed that students of colour were increasing across higher education but she had not seen the same developments in the industry. She found it concerning – Where did they go?
Although an increasing number of students from black and minority ethnic (BME) backgrounds are choosing to study creative subjects 4, the large majority of staff employed to teach the subject remain mainly white.5 There also remain significant disparities in degree attainment for BME home students compared with home white students.6 This is an area which has been researched for over 15 years, but for which only recently have some concrete actions been taken. Stevenson (2012) offers a set of guiding principles and relevant examples for improving BME retention and attainment across the disciplines that could be adapted to art and design contexts.7
The Shades of Noir site is a very useful resource, it can be accessed by staff and students to enhance their work. Richards decided that it would be a social justice platform that both shared and created content to support and inform. The site, built upon student involvement, seems key within equality and diversity work, moving towards more partnership and collaborative approach within learning and teaching.
The articles allow readers to become familiar with the equality and diversity data around admissions / retention and achievement within the university, disseminating them in visual form for discussion, action planning around and changing pedagogic practices. It could be used in our teaching to not only expose and inform, but create a sense of urgency and importance, championing work that addressing issues raised or from students from diverse backgrounds. It could create opportunities for students and staff to meet and discuss equality issues within all the practices and processes of the institution and take forward with external partners within the architecture and construction industries.
‘A pedagogy of social justice education: social identity, theory and intersectionality’, Hahn Tapper (2013)
‘anti-oppression education, diversity education, and multicultural education‘ 9
(Cochran-Smith 2004; Sleeter and Grant 2007).
Article explores theoretical and practical understanding of social justice education through an examination of a US-based intergroup educational organisation running ‘conflict transformation’ programs since 2005. Utilising in-depth interviews and surveys completed by administrators, educators, and student participants of the organisation’s programs. Analysing a case example of social justice education that integrates Freirean thought, social identity theory, intersectionality, and experiential education, including empowerment and responsibility education. Pedagogical goal to empower participants to engage in social justice activism.
Engaging students in feedback about their learning that is not only linked to the NSS is also essential. Creating visual artefacts to express the university learning experience is very powerful and can be used in further staff development and induction activities.
Practitioners and theoreticians in the fields of conflict resolution, conflict transformation, education, and service-learning have begun using the term social justice education and intercommunal dialogue in increased numbers (Enns and Sinacore 2005; Zajda, Majhanovich, and Rust 2006; Adams, Bell, and Griffin 2007; Furlong and Cartmel 2009; Adams et al. 2010; Cipolle 2010; Zajda 2010; Sensoy and DiAngelo 2011).
Without integrating elements of social justice education into models aimed at reducing, managing, and resolving conflict between groups, programs will fail; dis- cord between groups will inevitably continue despite practitioners’ best efforts. best way to ensure conflicts do not reemerge is to confront and reshape the conflicts’ root causes—critique programs that are based in conflict resolution that do not use social justice educational methods (Redekop 2002; Fisher et al. 2007). Anti-oppression education, diversity education, and multicultural education (Cochran-Smith 2004; Sleeter and Grant 2007).
Social justice education, explicitly recognizes the disparities in societal opportunities, resources, and long-term outcomes among marginalized groups (Shakman et al. 2007, 7).
Case study example, of a social justice pedagogy approach, is explored to deepen our understanding of social justice education, investigating how it manifests in terms of ideology and application. The organisation’s pedagogy is based on five education pillars: Paulo Freire’s approach to education and social justice, social identity theory, intersectionality, experiential education including empowerment and responsibility education.
education is the key to enacting social justice. education provides venues for students to achieve freedom, both intellectual and physical—the “indispensable condition for the quest for human completion” (Freire 2006, 47) (Freire 2006)
“It is impossible to think of education without thinking of power . . . the question . . . is not to get power, but to reinvent power” (cited in Evans, Evans, and Kennedy 1987, 226).
education either domesti- cates or liberates students and teachers (Rozas 2007)
education plays a major role in perpetuating the status quo, power needs to be chal- lenged and transformed (Freire and Faundez 1989).
Classroom dynamics, students’ identities need to be taken into account in all educational settings. They should not be approached as if everyone in the classroom, including the teacher, is starting from the same place in terms of social status and identity Pedagogy of the Oppressed (2006), teacher’s social identities play as much of a role in a classroom environment as anything else. education fails its students because, among other reasons, it does not take into account their realities, their “situation in the world,” especially in terms of social status (Freire 2006, 96). Instead, it ignores this critical element of teaching in an effort to impart or impose “knowledge” on them (Freire 2006, 94).
ideal educational experience exists between a teacher and students rather than emanating from a teacher to students. A teacher needs to create experiences with, and not for, students, integrating their experiences and voices into the educational experience itself (Freire 2006). Teachers’ and students’ identities are thus tied to one another in an interlocked relationship (Rozas 2007).
To transform it, Freire suggests an educational structure whereby both teachers and students engage in habitual, critical reflection, a model that takes into account their identities “Authentic thinking, thinking that is concerned about reality, does not take place in ivory tower isolation, but only in communication. If it is true that thought has meaning only when generated by action upon the world, the subordination of students to teachers becomes impossible” (Freire 2006, 77)
Teachers should be guiding not leading, removing the top-down, dictatorial manner, by not trying to impart an ideologically-based set of information onto students, instead have students teach one another about social identities and intergroup dynamics using critical thought.
Social Identity Theory and Intergroup Encounters
contact hypothesis (Allport 1954), theory, ‘if individuals identifying with particular groups in conflict interact with one another in a positively structured environment, they have an opportunity to reevaluate their relations with one another such that one-time enemies can become acquaintances or even allies’. theory assumes that the primary reason groups have discord with one another is the negative perceptions each has of the other, something that can potentially be overcome through affirmative contact. They can deconstruct and even eliminate these negative stereotypes, removing conflict.
Robbers Cave experiment (Sherif et al. 1988) with teenage boys, unknown to each other, spilt into two groups were given a common chore that necessitated their cooperation, their relations improved dramatically. This led researchers to conclude that the contact hypothesis has the potential to lead groups in conflict to cooperate or even reconcile with one another (Billig 1976; Maoz 2000a). creating opportunities for intergroup cooperation and teamwork, they all have a shared humanity, they can focus on this common bond instead of their differences. contact hypothesis (Turner et al. 2007), participants are able to have personal interactions with one another that shatter their group conflicts (Allport 1954). model can reduce intergroup anxiety (Paolini et al. 2004), create positive shifts in in-group norms with respect to out-groups (Wright et al. 1997), and lead to a heightened ability to engage in self-reflection (Turner et al. 2007).
Reminded me of Obama – Former United States president Barack Obama has reminded everyone to think more of their commonalities than differences, in speaking out against the identity politics and social equality. The former US president said he still believes that certain core values still applied today such as the need to respect people regardless their appearance or faith.
More scholars have critiqued this theory than supported, criticism is that if the conditions of an intergroup encounter are not ideal—whether they are “unfavorable” (Amir 1969), or not constructive, can worsen relations. If encounter is superficial, at worst will leave the two groups in a state of poorer relations than before the contact took place, subordinateness reinforced (Amir 1969; Jackson 1993), for example verbal aggression becoming physical. To avoid, structure intergroup encounters so that they reflect, if not altogether exemplify, equality (Allport and Kramer 1946; Allport 1954; Maoz 2000b) i.e., equal numbers of students from the two groups, equal opportunities to offer ideas if the two groups are given an intergroup task. reality outside the room cannot be controlled, inequalities linked to participants’ social identities play a role within the confines of any intergroup trial, something that is impossible to regulate or ignore (Lieberson 1961). Social identity theory (Tajfel 1978, 1982; Tajfel and Turner 1979, 1986)
Missing from these interactions: an exploration of social identities (in contrast to individual identities), power relations, and the relationship between the two (Sonnenschein, Halabi, and Friedman 1998; Abu-Nimer 1999; Maoz 2000a, 2000b; Halabi 2004b). these reasons and more, this organization’s pedagogy is firmly rooted in social identity theory (SIT), not the contact hypothesis, intergroup encounters must be approached in and through students’ larger social identities. dynamics that exist between the communities “outside the room,”.
Social identity theory is a “grand” theory. Its core premise is that in many social situations people think of themselves and others as group members, rather than as unique individuals. The theory argues that social identity underpins intergroup behavior and sees this as qualita- tively distinct from interpersonal behavior. It delineates the circum- stances under which social identities are likely to become important, so that they become the primary determinant of social perceptions and social behaviors. The theory also specifies different strategies people employ to cope with a devalued social identity. Social identity theory is a truly social psychological theory, in that it focuses on social context as the key determinant of self-definition and behavior. People’s responses are thus understood in terms of subjective beliefs about dif- ferent groups and the relations between them, rather than material interdependencies and instrumental concerns, objective individual and group characteristics, or individual difference variables. After its initial formulation as a “theory of intergroup conflict” in the 1970s, the theory has undergone many expansions, refinements, and updates. (379) Ellemers and Haslam (2012).
Witness: unconscious bias – UCU – University and College Union
‘After years of anti-racist debates, policies, strategies and universities banging on about increasing their diversity, race equality charter marks….if it is still unconscious, then it it really is something worrying about what it will take for the unconscious to become conscious….what else do you have to do, say write about and present on for supposedly intelligent people who are educating the next generation of people…spearheading groundbreaking research to get any degree of consciousness‘
I sympathised with Josephine Kwhali’s frustration on what would it take for others to consciously recognise racism. She states she understood what racism was about when she ‘was four, and didn’t read a book on racism‘. Growing up in Northern Ireland at the end of the troubles, it was made clear to me what sectarianism was and I understood. We have an expression ‘even the dogs on the street know’. When I arrived in England I was shocked to discover amongst the many brilliant, bright, talented and wonderful people I encountered, even those who went to the best universities simply hadn’t thought about it. I realised, it’s because they simply haven’t, because they never had to do so. Her sentiments of unconscious being a get out clause are echoed by Shirley Anne Tate.
‘Retention and attainment in the disciplines: Art and Design’ Finnigan and Richards 2016.
The report was dense and I was unable to contain my analysis within 100 words. It considers the retention and attainment of students from diverse backgrounds within the subject discipline of Art and Design at university. It focuses on the data for the area and identifies key issues that need to be addressed.
report focuses on the subject discipline of Art and Design, referring and focusing Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) or Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) as ‘people of colour’.
The term ‘people of colour’, although it lacks some precise conceptual clarity, has a political connotation similar to the term “Black” in the British context; the term is used to protest against stigmatising people with pigmentation that is different from the pigmentation of the dominate groups. For this reason I favour the label ‘people of colour’. Race is a social construction, with significant social consequences. (Dhruvarajan 2000, p. 166)
Within the changing context of higher education, as a result of widening participation initiatives, a rise in international students, and changes to disability legislation, there is now an increasingly diverse student body. There is an expectation that all students will succeed to the best of their ability; however research shows students from diverse backgrounds participate, persist and attain in higher education (HE) at differing rates. This has been highlighted in a recent report from the Higher Education Academy (HEA) (Woodfield 2014)
For Bourdieu, it is an ‘obvious truth’ (Bourdieu, 1991) that art is implicated in the reproduction of inequalities, and that the relationship between culture and power is such that taste creates social differences. Certain kinds of art can only be decoded, and appreciated by those who have been taught how to decode them (Bourdieu, 1984). The cultural capital of the working classes, and certain ethnic groups, is devalued and delegitimised (Bourdieu, 1984). (Burke and Mcmanus 2012, p. 21) who access Art and Design in higher educationArt for a Few about admission practices within Art and Design institutions within the context of widening participation policy, addressing national and institutional concerns to create inclusive, equitable and anti-discriminatory practices in Art and Design admissions. Their findings show that, to some degree, the processes of selection that the admissions tutors engage in, draw on concepts of recognition and misrecognition, which are central to judgments about who has, and who does not have, ‘potential’ and ‘ability’:
Sabri (2015) discusses the exclusionary practices within the Art and Design subject area which can be observed at times in the Academy, and within the retention and attainment data, where, although there is a liberal sense of all-encompassing, tolerant, open, risk-taking and democratising spaces within the art studio, some students soon learn that these are not places for them.
Retention within the subject discipline is 94%, which is the average for the sector as a whole, but the number of students gaining lower or no award is 6%, which is higher than the sector average (4%).
Pedagogy within the Art and Design discipline of project-centred learning creates a sense of agency for students, which is linked to the individual direction of their studies (Orr, Yorke and Blair 2014). Through project-centred learning there is the opportunity for discovery based and experiential learning which, it could be argued, is linked to encouraging individual responses within the work created around personal identities.
Students see the studio as being concerned with divergent learning and self- direction and the opening up of possibilities. Therefore, it could be said that Art and Design already caters for difference and focuses on identity work. The students’ conception of the Art and Design pedagogy is one of co-production and co-construction.
Co-construction implies that the students and lecturers have equal stakes in the production of the student artwork, however … the students view themselves as the owners and producers of the work. (Orr, Yorke and Blair 2014, p. 41)
The report concludes that there is a need for a better understanding of how some groups of students experience different disciplines and how their background characteristics interact with a variety of disciplinary contexts to become more or less vulnerable to withdrawal and low attainment.
Attainment..‘upper’ degree’ (first or upper second), while in Art and Design it is 61%. 71% of students from SEC one and two achieved and upper degree compared with 65% of students from lower SEC three to nine. 31% of Black British Carribbean and Black British African students gain an upper degree in comparison to 64% of White students (Woodfield 2014, pp. 63-4).
Bhagat and O’Neill (2011a) discuss how the concept of cultural capital is pervasive in art education within widening participation ‘where the disciplines of Art and Design as ‘creative subjects’ see themselves focusing on ‘talent’ rather than privilege’ (Bhagat and O’Neil 2011a, p.20). They posit that this view needs to be problematised and critiqued and that it is important to understand,not only how class works as a barrier, but how socioeconomic privilege works to thicken and complicate the barriers of age, disability, gender, race and sexuality. (Bhagat and O’Neil 2011a, p. 21)
Art and Design is one of the disciplines with the highest percentages of students leaving with no award (6%) with a disproportionate difference between White students (6%) and Black student groups (Black British Caribbean 9%, Black or Black British African 13%, other Black backgrounds 10%).
The need for further raw data is required across a range of achievement levels to understand more, as we only have information on those who achieved upper degrees and those who leave without a degree. Another area where there is a noticeable difference in leavers without a degree is between part-time students (13%) and full-time students (6%)
It is hoped that this report will act as a catalyst for staff to make changes through being better informed about the possible underlying factors that exist with the subject area that may be an obstacle to achievement. They will need further information, could my pedagogical approach support this need and how?
Peekaboo We See You: Whiteness
This ToR aims to transcend blame, but instead to consider the history, development, and impact of the nuances of whiteness in the hope of developing understanding and most importantly opportunities to present ideas and experiences that may be a catalyst for transformative practices, which move whiteness from a normative construct of oppression into something else.
The terms of reference from SoN around Race
‘Whiteness is as elusive as it is persuasive; we know it is everywhere yet it seems to lie ‘elsewhere”. Moreton-Robinson, A (Ed.). (2004)
Social justice may not be able to have a real impact unless the construct of whiteness is able to be discussed, explored and considered. ‘Racism is based on the concept of whiteness- a powerful fiction enforced by power and violence. Whiteness is a constantly shifting boundary separating those who are entitled to have certain privileges from those whose exploitation and vulnerability to violence is justified by their not being white’ (Kivel, 1996 p.19)
‘White supremacy’ (Twine, 1998) ‘White fragility’ (DiAngelo, 2011) ‘White feminism’ (Mirza, 1997) ‘White privilege’ (McIntosh, 1988)
‘Whiteness,’ like ‘colour’ and ‘blackness’, are social constructs applied to human beings rather than veritable truths that have universal validity. The power of Whiteness, however, is manifested by the ways in which radicalised Whiteness becomes transformed into social, political, economic, and cultural behaviour. ‘White culture, norms and values infall these areas become normative natural. They become the standard against which all other groups, cultures, and individuals are measured and usually found to be inferior’ (Henry & Tator, 2006, pp. 46-47).
White privilege can be a daunting term for many who have not engaged with their own privileges. This, when paired with a distance from marginal experiences, is something believed can discouraged White people from critiquing their own place in society. This disconnect can be an uncomfortable barrier for those who wish to engage in processes of change surrounding discrimination, but don’t feel they know how to or that they share responsibilities with their ‘allies’. The ‘White academic’ must be prepared and has a responsibility to listen and learn from the allyship in their pedagogical approach, for self growth and to facilitate change. Encouraging students to critique their privileges and open up their understanding through a diversified curriculum taught by an intersectional team.
Student film ‘Room of Silence’ from Rhode Island School of Design
“The Room of Silence,” is a short documentary about race, identity and marginalisation at the Rhode Island School of Design. Based on interviews conducted by Eloise Sherrid (Brooklyn based filmmaker and producer) and the campus organisation Black Artists and Designers, this film contains well under a third of the stories collected in March 2016, and an unknown fraction of the stories belonging to students they didn’t have a chance to meet with.
This video is meant to serve as a discussion tool and testimony on behalf of the growing student activist movement on campus, and around the country. The video has been shown at faculty and departmental meetings, and its release online marks the next step in exposing these issues and fostering dialogue between students and school.
There are a lot of issues present in the extremely intersectional problem this video is attempting to tackle: issues that cannot and should not be simplified down and crammed into twenty minutes. We are asked as a viewer to please consider this the first entry in a necessary conversation.
- Burke, P. J. and McManus, J. (2009) Art for a Few: Exclusion and Misrecognition in Art and Design HE Admissions. National Arts Learning Network.
- https://shadesofnoir.org.uk/
- https://www.arts.ac.uk/people/aisha-richards#biography
- Richards, A., & Finnigan, T. (2015). Embedding Equality and Diversity in the Curriculum: An Art and Design Practitioner’s Guide. UAL & The Higher Education Academy Scotland.
- Equality Challenge Unit (2014a, p. 164) indicates that 95.3% of academic staff in art and design identify as white. For work on this, see the Black British Academics web page.
- Equality Challenge Unit (2014b, p. 147) illustrates a difference of 20% with regard to the obtaining of first/2:1 degrees (home white students: 73% vs. home BME students: 53%).
- Consider also the Higher Education Academy’s recent work on retention and attainment across the disciplines (Woodfield 2014).
- Hahn Tapper, A. J. (2013). A Pedagogy of Social Justice Education: Social Identity Theory, Intersectionality, and Empowerment. Conflict Resolution Quarterly, 30(4), Summer. doi: 10.1002/crq.21072
- Cochran-Smith, M. 2004. Walking the Road: Race, Diversity, and Social Justice in Teacher Education. New York: Teachers College Press. Sleeter, C. E., and C. Grant. 2007. Making Choices for Multi-Cultural Education: Five Approaches to Race, Class, and Gender. New York: Wiley.
- Kwhali Josephine (2016) Witness: unconscious bias, UCU – University and College Union,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6XDUGPoaFw
- Shirley Anne Tate | Whiteliness and institutional racism: Hiding behind unconscious bias, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lur3hjEHCsE
- ‘Retention and attainment in the disciplines: Art and Design’ Finnigan and Richards 2016. https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/knowledge-hub/retention-and-attainment-disciplines-art-and-design
- Peekaboo We See You: Whiteness https://issuu.com/shadesofnoir/docs/peekaboo_we_see_you_whiteness
- The Room of Silence, Student film by Eloise Sherrid, https://vimeo.com/161259012