My initial thoughts centred around self-designed research project, democratised method of research? 1:1 supervision? In-person sessions? Knowledge production and presentation in the working world of all our organisational, disciplinary knowledges? Literature as something which mobilises our thinking and action? Much about doing? Decolonising our references and citations, how social justice is not just part of the action but also about the reading? Social justice an integral component in ARP? Observation work in class, reiterative design / research? Growing work on inclusive participatory action research, culminating in a presentation of our research? Presenting to peers is part of the ARP ethos?
“The purpose of all research is to generate new knowledge. Action research generates a special kind of knowledge. Action research has always been understood as people taking action to improve their personal and social situations. Some see its potential for promoting a more productive and peaceful world order (Heron 1998; Heron and Reason 2001). A strong new theme is emerging about how action researchers can find more democratic ways of working for sustainable organizational development (McNiff and Whitehead 2000). Educational action research is coming to be seen as a methodology for real-world social change.” ‘All You Need To Know About Action Research’.
– McNiff and Whitehead on ARP, change and democracy 1
ARP asks me what it is to be a researcher, my researcher identity, my researcher self, which writers and literatures are composing me and my researcher viewpoints and engagements.
230705 Introduction – ARP asks me what it is to be a researcher, my researcher identity, my researcher self, which writers and literatures are composing me and my researcher viewpoints and engagements. We need to note and notice these movements. We don’t have to use our artefact, we can start completely anew.
Cohort Effects and Risk Mitigation
My initial thoughts turn to concerns of honesty, reflecting Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, whatever you study you also change. The observer effect is the fact that observing a situation or phenomenon necessarily changes it. However I am consoled in the conversation noting ‘We look at the ethics of care for the researcher and who we are researching for participants – think of care rather than risk’Dr Rachel Marsden. Sometimes the risk of harm is when we don’t do something.
“It was as if their souls were slipping messages to me, giving me hints on how I might reach them – telling me where they were hiding, where they were hurting, and, most important, what ideas they needed to take the next step in their development” 2 (p. 22) Chris Bache on classroom energy questioning the “paradigm of the private mind”.
Mitigation could be exercised by researching the mood of the cohort, ask them to set the criteria, idea of not know what direction to go in and making it as it happens. Like previous exercises expressing my own positionally, “how am I feeling and how they react to my emotion”, this could be critical to how you are effecting/affecting the world in my intervention as a researcher. “Good teaching cannot be reduced to technique; good teaching comes from the identity and integrity of the teacher…..We teach who we are ” 3.
I can no longer utilise my ‘Studio Book’ artefact, due to personal circumstances I had to alter my teaching pattern and switch from teaching final year Stage 3 to Stage 1, where I would not have a fixed student cohort for the academic year.
My initial thoughts came from my our concerns from my own positionally and research from my artefact:
Is the era of the elderly white male in Architecture finally over? ‘Everyone is white, mainly male too,’ said one survey respondent. ‘Those that teach are 95 per cent white too’. How can we generate the new counter norm?
Create an interactive map – local architect hero project close to the student Students and tutors can offer examples to explore Where are they born are where do they feel they come from culturally A Design Charrette to question manifesto and assessments Creative a new form of Review or Crit responding to students cultural Utilise padlets for review
For reference Design Charrettes are used in the practice of architecture, it is an intensive, hands-on workshop that brings people from different disciplines and backgrounds together with members of the community to explore design options for a particular area. It differs from a traditional community consultation process in that it is design based.
Creative Research Methods
Helen Kara. (2017). Creative research methods. National Centre for Research Methods online learning resource. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpnexrLZBT4&t=14s
Pillars of reserArts-based research – Research using technology – Mixed methods research – Transformative research frameworks (feminist, participatory and activist research) – Indigenous methodologies
“People often think that arts-based research equals the visual arts…so are the performative arts such as the arts of theatre and dance and song, comedy even, and the written arts so fiction, poetry, playwriting, screenwriting and music is included…crossover with research using technology so video and film….storytelling; in a sense all research is made up of stories. Stories are how we learn as human beings……Numbers tell stories just as much as words do, and researchers need to write stories around the numbers, the words, the images, that they collect and interpret“. 4
Architects Journal hosts design day in Peckham. Six architecture firms and six lighting designers joined forces last week to ‘make Peckham even better’ during a day-long design event at Will Alsop’s Stirling Prize-winning Peckham Library 5. Could my Cohort draw their responses to difficult research questions?
Arts-based Research Methods
Conscious of interacting with Stage 1 students, new to university, new to London and new to architecture, being overwhelmed, levity in the sight of quite difficult questions could be most appropriate form as a catalyst interaction. How could this manifest?
Poetry, fiction, comic, film, make out of lego, drawing, audio story telling, card exercising, items to sort, game to stimulate discussion, cards, prompt decks, digital mapping tools. UAL provides access to Miro, Mural, Padlet, MindView, Inspiration, Xmind 6.
It can be too easy to become locked into a mindset, we discuss how these interactions could open up different lines of thinking around the data collected, data poetry could be an option.
We discussed an example of Vanessa Bailey, population health nurse, Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust. Her ARP research was utilised back into professional practice, ‘Reimagining mental healthcare by looking through an intersectional lens’ 7. Highlighting that anti-discriminatory practices are needed in healthcare to avoid perpetuating the disadvantage, stigma and health inequality experienced by already marginalised groups. Intersectionality is a vital tool in this, as it considers overlapping social identities and experiences that can cause discrimination and marginalisation. A bespoke intersectionality workshop for mental health practitioners used a case study and frame of reference exercise to encourage reflection and embed learning.
Could such a process be utilised to question Architectural Education?
The Way Ahead outlines RIBA’s new Education and Professional Development Framework. The framework signifies a new direction for architectural education and continuing professional development, with a greater emphasis on health and life safety, the climate emergency and professional ethics. 8
Bibliography
McNiff, J., & Whitehead, A. (2011). All You Need to Know About Action Research. A. Jack Whitehead (Contributor).
Bache, C. M. (2008). The Living Classroom: Teaching and Collective Consciousness. Suny Series in Transpersonal and Humanistic Psychology
Palmer, P. J. (2017). The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher’s Life
Bailey V (2023) Reimagining mental healthcare by looking through an intersectional lens. Nursing Times [online]; 119: 6.
Jones, A., Charlton, W., Carmichael, L., Dobson, A., Gloster, D., & Watson, N. (2020). The Way Ahead: An Introduction to the New RIBA Education and Professional Development Framework and an Overview of Its Key Components. Royal Institute of British Architects. ISBN 9781914124402. https://www.architecture.com/knowledge-and-resources/resources-landing-page/the-way-ahead
A few thoughts about next steps, ready for the upcoming the formative assessment:
· I’d encourage you to start to bring a bit of your positionality in at this stage. What does the studio book mean to you?
· I would also encourage you to bring in one or two references to a theory or concept which has informed your thinking. Are you drawing on Paolo Freire? Universal Design for Learning? Intersectionality? Critical Race Theory? Something else entirely? Bringing this in will help to situate your idea in the broader context.
· You may be able to capitalise on being so on top of things by getting some student feedback. This can be feedback on a ‘work in progress’ and doesn’t need to be feedback on the final artefact/resource.
Questionnaire issued to the students in the studio to review the ‘value’ of the book, feedback could be returned anonymously
300 words max artefact outline + bibliography via Moodle_230530 – Feedback
Addressing feedback
Already provided some brief feedback on your first draft too – thanks for responding to those questions in your submission.
You have presented your course’s ‘Studio Book’, which you explain is produced by studio students and designed to promote inclusive learning within the cohort. You explain that you want staff, student or colleagues to consider “the diverse origins of the cohort and how they could be underrepresented in Architectural education”. To support your proposal, you include sources which highlight issues of representation in architecture in relation to race, gender and social class.
This is an interesting proposition, which links well to your course’s learning outcomes while also having the potential to encourage both students and colleagues to think more about diversity within your discipline. As you have shared, there is potential to create an external facing resource/open source document, as well as fostering an opportunity for the cohort to learn more about one another’s backgrounds.
You may wish to make your positionality within the development and/or teaching of the ‘Studio Book’ clearer. It would be helpful to understand more about your role in the delivery of the ‘Studio Book’, and how your positionality informs the choices you have made, and will continue to make. It would also be interesting to hear how you might support students themselves to consider their position within their discipline, acknowledging that conversations about race, gender, social class, religion and sexuality can give rise to challenging discussion which need to be handled sensitively.
You’ve begun to think about how you may evaluate and critique the implications, success and impact of the artefact, which is great. It would be helpful to hear more about what the success measures and desired outcomes are for this artefact in the longer term too – I acknowledge that you won’t have this information by the time you submit your reflective piece, but it would nonetheless be helpful to understand how you may evaluate the impact in the longer term.
Some questions/provocations
· How may your own positionality shape or influence the development of the artefact? What might you need to consider in terms of your personal power and biases in developing and delivering this content? (See Ortiz et al, 2018, attached)
How will you evaluate and critique the success and impact of this artefact, immediately and long-term? (See Creative Evaluation Toolkit)
· How might you role model inclusive practices within the teaching and creative of the ‘Studio Book’ itself? What do you need to keep in mind to ensure the ‘Studio Book’, and the teaching that supports it, is inclusive and accessible? (See UAL’s Disability Inclusion Toolkit on Canvas)
Tutorial 230621
Positionality
Your position and identity – What it is you wish to bring forward – What are you bringing to do it
What are your influences – You as an individual are lost in this
Bring partially deaf – made me reflect on what students to disclose as professionals we choose what not to disclose, how can we expect students to do so
Being inclusive may mean not meaning to disclose – Reflection in the studio book
Lack of diversity of from my educational background – God & Ulster – Bringing with on juniors educators and onto an equal contract basis
Inclusion
Deaf – Opensource – Share beyond the students
Assessment
What does success mean? – What seeds are we sowing and how they might grow
What the aspiration – refer back to it, cite, influence future practice
How does it evolve – what next?
They could take it on as a torrent, share and critique beyond the boundaries of CSM
Share the indesign template for others to manipulate and alter
Generating a life of its own
Peer-to-peer presentations 230711
Peer to Peer reviews and discussions, what does success mean?
The Presentations
‘work in progress’ illustrations of what you have done or plan to do, regarding the artefact purpose, opportunities and developments.
These will take place in twos/threes at a convenient time over the next week.
The presentations will take the following format:
● 3 minutes presentation
● 3 minutes of feedback
● Each person will provide at 1 comment or suggestion and 1 question to the person presenting their idea
Feedback & Reflections
Derek Wiafe, Anna Nagele,
changing employment profiles – returning students to act as inspiration for others – intersectionality where I am from workshop – http://www.georgeellalyon.com/where.html – tell me the story of your given name, share a secret, tell 2 truths and 1 lie – start with a poem and record their reaction – understanding for the audience they are designing for – a feeling from the exercise – former students address gaps in the book for the next years -manifesto response –
Tutorial 230712
1500 word reflective statement on the artefact
Different avenues – I am forgoing this avenue and why, I could have explored this I am focusing on this
Address the learning outcomes
Cross reference yourself from previous blogposts if you have explained this in previous blogs
An introduction and reflection on Radiacal Dharma by Rev. Angel Kyodo Williams, Lama Hod Ownes with Jasmine Syedullah PhD.
Buddhism in relation to liberation and queerness.
“It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love each other and support each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains.” Assata Shakur, Assata: An Autobiography and refrain of the Black Lives Matter
Higher Power: Religion, Faith, Spirituality & Belief – Religion, faith, spirituality & belief is an embedded part of human psychology that gives insight into individuals thought processes and often experiences. According to a blog post by Dr Greg on patheos.com, the terms are commonly used interchangeably but can differ in meaning depending on the context or even the conversation taking place. However, what isn’t interchangeable are individuals experiences in relation to these practices whether it’s within the practices community or the perceptions from those outside of those communities looking in. https://shadesofnoir.org.uk/journals/higher-power-religion-faith-spirituality-belief/
Notes & Reflections
How does this relate to your understanding of faith/ religion in the context of inclusiveness?
racism and privilege prevent our collective awakening, urge a compassionate response to the systemic, state-sanctioned violence and oppression that has persisted against black people since the slave era
Radical Dharma demonstrates how social transformation and personal, spiritual liberation must be articulated and inextricably linked.
how teachings that transcend color, class, and caste are hindered by discrimination and the dynamics of power, shame, and ignorance
beyond a demand for the equality and inclusion of diverse populations to advancing a new dharma that deconstructs rather than amplifies systems of suffering and prepares us to weigh the shortcomings not only of our own minds but also of our communities
rests on radical honesty, a common ground where we can drop our need for perfection and propriety and speak as souls
society where profit rules, people’s value is determined by the color of their skin, and many voices—including queer voices— are silenced, Radical Dharma recasts the concepts of engaged spirituality, social transformation, inclusiveness, and healing.’
criticisms of Lama Rod’s, with which I agree, is that many sanghas have become severely compromised by capitalism and need to provide a consumer oriented Buddhism. The result is too heavy a focus on selling classes and not offending sangha members which dilutes the authenticity of Buddhist practice. On the other hand, you need money to run a sangha, so where is the balance? Reminding me of the Christian megachurches that require and/or ask for donations but are also a business in itself.
How does this impact your practice?
The tiptoeing around race and other forms of difference as if in fear of waking a sleeping lion is one of the most subtly toxic attributes of whiteness in our culture right now.” – Jasmine Syedullah
“Race is the ultimate delusion in that it both does and does not exist in reality.” Rev. Angel Kyodo Williams sensei identifies the problem and highlights the conflicting viewpoints
Lama Rod, describes radical Dharma, within this context as having the bravery to have dharma talks and meditation practices that will focus on topics that make participants feel uncomfortable and learn how to deal with their suffering.
“Love is the wish for myself and others to be happy. Love transcends our need to control the recipient of love. I love not because I need something in return. I love not because I want to be loved back, but because I see and understand love as being an expression of the spaciousness I experience when I am challenging my egoic fixation by thinking about the welfare of others. I go where I am loved. I go where I am allowed to express love. In loving, I have no expectations.”-Lama Rod Owens
Spirituality / faith / religion can be a way of practicing freedom, and community and it can also mean taking agency over a practice(s). Faith doesn’t come into my practice in my work with students, I facilitate what they want to do, and is not focusing so much on their concepts, but more on their physical process, so it doesn’t come into it at all. Even if they are making deeply religious work, which can sometimes happen, I am usually only commenting on the very visual references and aesthetics.
TASK 3 – Whiteliness and Institutional Racism.
Shirley Anne Tate | Whiteliness and institutional racism: Hiding behind unconscious bias hirley Anne Tate is a Professor of Race and Education at Leeds Beckett University (first appointment of its kind in the UK) and Honorary Professor at Nelson Mandela University in the Chair for Critical Studies in Higher Education Transformation. The Seminar Series is called “Ukutshintshwa kweendlela/[Re] Directions” and is organized by the Chair for Critical Studies in Higher Education Transformation (CriSHET) at the Nelson Mandela University, South Africa
Notes & Reflections
Whiteness is a location of structural advantage, of race privilege. Second, it is a ‘standpoint,’ a place from which White people look at ourselves, at others, and at society. Third, ‘Whiteness’ refers to a set of cultural practices that are usually unmarked and unnamed. (Frankenburg, 1993, p.1, Diangelo, 2018, pp 101)
Unconscious bias happens by our brains making incredibly quick judgements and assessments of people and situations without us realising. Our biases are influenced by our background, cultural environment and personal experiences. We may not even be aware of these views and opinions, or be aware of their full impact and implications (Equality Challenge Unit, 2017)
This presentation speaks against this point of view by arguing that bias is not unconscious but instead is linked to Charles Mills’ (1997) ‘Racial Contract’ and its ‘epistemologies of ignorance’. These epistemologies of ignorance emerge from what the ECU’s calls ‘our background, cultural environment and personal experience.’ As such asserting that racism stems from ‘unconscious bias’ diminishes white supremacy and maintains white innocence as a will to forget institutional racism. In equality and diversity training ‘unconscious bias’ has become a technology of institutional surveillance; it has become a simulation attempting to move beyond a racialized reality to where ‘we all know better’ because we have been trained to participate in a ‘post-racial’ (Goldberg, 2015) hyper-reality. I therefore argue that it is through decolonizing ‘unconscious bias’, ‘white fragility’ and ‘self-forgiveness’ that we can begin to see hidden institutional whiteliness at the base of such bias.
Fed up of unconscious bias to cover up the erasure of egregious and containing institutional racism in my and other institutions
University funding its own watchdog that looks at its diversity and inclusion policies and gives them advice, one of the pieces of advice has been unconscious bias. If we deal with unconscious bias, everything will be alright. We should send people on unconscious bias training.
Bias is very conscious and linked to Charles Mills racial contract and it’s epistemologies of ignorance….these emerge from our background, our cultural environment and personal experience…we can’t keep saying that unconscious bias stems from just that you know because what it does then it makes us not think about white supremacy at all and maintains white innocence and white fragility.
“white supremacy” I do not mean to allude only to the self-conscious racism of white supremacist hate groups. I refer instead to a political, economic, and cultural system in which whites overwhelmingly control power and material resources, conscious and unconscious ideas of white superiority and entitlement are widespread, and relations of white dominance and non- white subordination are daily reenacted across a broad array of institutions and social settings.’ (Ansley 1997: 592, Gillborn 2005)
White Fragility. ‘White fragility, a concept that came out of my on-going experience leading discussions on race, racism, white privilege and white supremacy with primarily white audiences. It became clear over time that white people have extremely low thresholds for enduring any discomfort associated with challenges to our racial worldviews. We can manage the first round of challenge by ending the discussion through platitudes – usually something that starts with “People just need to…” or “Race doesn’t really have any meaning to me” or “Everybody’s racist”– but scratch any further on that surface and we fall apart.’ (Diangelo, 2018, pp 101)
How does this relate to your understanding of whiteness and white fragility? Department is mandated to do the UAL unconscious bias training module
What steps do you feel you can take to implement change? Western knowledge bias in education
Cooper and Thesen’s chapter IN Cooper, B., & Morrell, R. (Eds.). (2014). Africa-centred knowledges: Crossing fields and worlds. Boydell & Brewer Ltd.
TASK 4 – Critical Race Theory
What Is Critical Race Theory?
CRT uses storytelling and counter-storytelling to give voice to the traditionally marginalised in society whose truth is often interpreted through a white lens.
CRT scholars consider whiteness the normative position against which all other experiences are judged.
‘We appreciate its meaning is from the position of the oppressed because it does not come with the will to distort that which defines meaning from the oppressor’
(Leonardo, 2013:600)
Why Was It Created?
“A new powerful ideology has emerged to defend the contemporary racial order: the ideology of color-blind racism” (Bonilla-Silva, 2014:73)
To question societal structures and policies that reinforce inequities for people of colour whilst privileging opportunities and maintaining the status quo for white people. This can be seen in the form of colour-blind approaches that sees consistent underachievement of some minority students in the compulsory and post compulsory education system a high percentage of black prisoners in the prison system.
A Guardian report (Ramesh, 2010), found black offenders were 44% more likely than white offenders to be sentenced to prison for driving offences, 38% more likely to be imprisoned for public disorder or possession of a weapon and 27% more likely for drugs possession. Overall black prisoners account for the largest number of minority ethnic prisoners (49%).
Flexibility Of CRT.
‘Intersectionality means the examination of race, sex, class, national origin, and sexual orientation, and how their combination plays out in various settings.’ Delgado et al (2001)
Intersectionality within CRT points to the multidimensional of oppressions and acknowledges that race alone does not always account for disempowerment.
How Can This Be Applied?
“This systemic reality works against building a diverse and inclusive higher education environment because it supports the embedded hierarchical racist paradigms that currently exist in our society. Diversity tends to be more visible within divisions of students affairs, although the power of the institution tends to be centralized within academic affairs where there is less representation of women and people of color”. Patton et al (2007)
Most of our academic resources on philosophies and theories around race are based on North American studies and experiences which can differ quite a bit from British society and won’t address issues relevant to the UK origin of diversity, culture and other minorities and whitenesses. Far-fetched to say is a way of looking to other cultures thought the lenses of a colonial high ground and not focus on the issues on our doorstep? Why I’m no longer talking to white people about race’ really helpful in learning more about racism in the UK. Akala’s book Natives as well. David Gillborn, Heidi Mirza, Nicola Rollock and Shirley Ann Tate are all UK based. Linking to the flexibility of CRT, DisCrit (Disability Critical Race Studies) – like CRT in general it takes an intersectional approach and is well worth a read is this is relevant to your artefacts. libsearch.arts.ac.uk/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=1486680&query_desc=kw%2Cwrdl%3A%20discrit
Universities across the UK are offering seminars discussing ‘people of colour’ being ‘systemically discriminated against’. seminars about how to discuss the effect of “white privilege” on black and minority ethnic groups in their higher education classes.
seminars examine topics such as identifying “whiteness” in society and higher education, while looking at how universities can create a “culturally responsive curriculum and teaching practices”.
In the NUS Black Students Campaign National Students Survey, it was found that, ’42 per cent did not believe their curriculum reflected issues of diversity, equality and discrimination.’ In addition, it found that, ’34 per cent stated they felt unable to bring their perspective as a Black [BME] student to lectures and tutor meetings. A running theme through both the survey and focus group data was a frustration that courses were designed and taught by non-Black teachers, and often did not take into account diverse backgrounds and views’. As a result, the NUS proposed a set of recommendations, including the notion that, ‘institutions must strive to minimise Euro-centric bias in curriculum design, content and delivery and to establish mechanisms to ensure this happens. Universities Scotland has published an excellent example of why and how this can be done in their race equality toolkit, Embedding Race Equality into the Curriculum’. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dscx4h2l-Pk
session in October last year at The University of Bristol, with the Black and Minority Ethnic Staff Advisory Group, which was called Walking on the White Side of the Street. “white privilege as a structural phenomenon that impacts upon housing, education, health, and employment such that People of Colour are systemically discriminated against”, according to the event’s description.
Monculturalism is normalised in the curriculum that people don’t even notice it
There are some, black and disabled academics who have all contributed but they’re not in the general discourse because the majority of academia with a few exceptions is based on status and how often somebody is referenced of course historically institutions even forward thinking as UCL perpetuate the ideas of certain people that have been there for the longest must have the strongest claim academic privilege
Ethnocentric curriculum
UK’s leading race equality think tanks, RunnyMede Trust, revealed in 2015 only 85 of 15,905 professors in the country’s academia were black. only 15 black academics in the British university system were working in senior management roles.
2016 UPP report said black students were 1.5 times more likely to drop out of higher education than white and Asian students in the UK. 10.3 per cent of black students dropped out of university.
University and College Union study also claimed high levels of discrimination in colleges and universities following a report in 2016.
A survey of more 631 black union members working in the higher education system revealed 90 per cent of black staff members reported facing barriers to promotion.
In 2014, a campaign titled Why is My Curriculum White started at the University College of London attempted to highlight the lack of diversity in the UK education system.
I dream things that never were and say, why not.—Robert F. Kennedy
In order to get beyond racism, we must first take account of race.There is no other way.—Justice Harry Blackmun
The critical race theory (CRT) movement is a collection of activists and scholars interested in studying and transform- ing the relationship among race, racism, and power. The movement considers many of the same issues that conven- tional civil rights and ethnic studies discourses take up, but places them in a broader perspective that includes econom- ics, history, context, group- and self-interest, and even feel- ings and the unconscious. Unlike traditional civil rights, which embraces incrementalism and step-by-step progress, critical race theory questions the very foundations of the lib- eral order, including equality theory, legal reasoning, En- lightenment rationalism, and neutral principles of constitu- tional law. Although CRT began as a movement in the law, it has rapidly spread beyond that discipline. Today, many in the field of education consider themselves critical race theorists who use CRT’s ideas to understand issues of school disci- pline and hierarchy, tracking, controversies over curriculum and history, and IQ and achievement testing.
Noam Chomsky discusses CRT
‘Critical Race Theory. What Is Critical Race Theory, does anybody know? Critical Race Theory is a slogan invented by the right wing and the person who invented it Christopher Rufo has been very open and frank, he says we just use this as a way to refer to everything we hate. If you want to know what Critical Race Theory actually is, it’s a small academic discipline, which suggests, which investigates systematic elements of racism in American education. They certainly exist, its never reached the schools. The schools wouldn’t even know what it is. This is invented by the right wing exactly as Rufo stated, to everything we hate and want to destroy, like teaching American history, teaching gender issues, we hate that so we’ll call it Critical Race Theory. It’s a small academic discipline that no one every hear of until it was picked up primarily by Rufo and expanded by the Republican echo chamber to be some major attack’.
Actions appear to be conscious – Lecturer should not loose their job but require staff training – Not a safe place for black students. And the student still has to attend class with this tutor. Fear of reprisal from complaining
What advice would you have provided the student?
Care, support by collecting evidence – Let students know they have been heard – Letting them know they can leave the room and can report the event, sooner the better – Advise students to make a formal complaint – Ask for their money back for the module. Public exposure? see instagram.com/ualtruth
What policy may respond to this case study?
Complaints policy, Equality act, UAL Anti-racism action plan
What pledges would we propose to change my pedagogical approach?
For each reading list, include one abstract/text written in a language other than English.
Working with colleagues to develop resources to support International students to know how disability support works, and that it’s available to them.
Check my resources are diverse and equal time spent on diverse resources.
Don’t shy away from difficult conversations about racism, ‘call out’ racism and provide firmer sanctions for using racist language or behaviour.
Be an ally, supportive and gain knowledge for the student and they know and they feel it… but from UAL, considering their bold claim to tackle social justice …. it needs to be recognised officially with policies and real channel so that the students ( and sometimes staff) know it is officially accept not to accept discrimination.
Bias is very conscious and linked to Charles Mills racial contract and it’s epistemologies of ignorance….these emerge from our background, our cultural environment and personal experience…we can’t keep saying that unconscious bias stems from just that you know because what it does then it makes us not think about white supremacy at all and maintains white innocence and white fragility
Dwell on the uneasy feelings and uneasy practice caused by white racism, and challenge comments and practices that might get overlooked or self-forgiven by Unconscious Bias category
There’s a reason these “quieter voices” exist in the group. I have had many conversations with other students and a lot of us feel a disparity between conversations online, and in person. That a lot can be lost online, and this increases the anxiety or fear of talking in online spaces, especially in the context of quite sensitive topics. I wonder if what feels like a push for the “quiet ones” to engage verbally is the best way to engineer a space for discussion, or if it creates more anxiety and tension. – Agree with the sentiment shared here.
TASK 2 – Key Terms.
In your own words please define as many of the following terms in up to 30 minutes. Please do not use a search engine or dictionary to explore these words, we really want you to reflect on what you already know, which words are easy and which words are challenging to define.
Which key terms did you find challenging and why? Topics discussed Intersectionality – Diaspora – Politically BlackDiaspora can be helpful how a person can intersect with a group, a classroom can be a community. Politically Black – 70/80s people in northern Ireland who felt oppressed identified as being Politically Black. History of White People by Nell Painter really helped me to understand whiteness. White Fragility almost feels reductive in that it gives a free pass in a way to white people not to make changes and address racial injustice because you’re too “fragile”. Positionality versus identity.
Walter Mignolo – ideas on complexity journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0263276409349275 Decolonial Thinking – modern ideals, such as progress and development; modern institutions, such as the nation-State; and modern conceptions of knowledge and subjectivity, such as the liberal arts and sciences and the sovereign self, have come into being with colonialism as a background and an implication
Ideas on intersectionality and working definition – analogy of standing at a traffic intersection and having to deal with multiple streams of traffic. ntersectionality like a quantum system. Identity elements (race, gender, class, etc.) are like particles in an atom. They coexist and interact to shape the whole, much like quantum superposition where a system is in multiple states at once. olour mixing as it related to intersectionality – adding colours (identities/experiences) together to get something qualitatively different. Healing, spirituality and intersectionality kvadratinterwoven.com/emma-kunz-art-in-the-spiritual-realm
Positionality refers to the social and political context that creates your identity, such as in terms of race race, class, gender, sexuality and ability status [and language background].It includes how we identify and views our perspective and possible biases of society as well as how others see us. (CohenMiller and Brown, 2022 p.244)
TASK 3 – Case study Race/ Gender
Inclusive Practice: Alchemy – Transformation in Social Justice Teaching.https://shadesofnoir.org.uk/journals/inclusive-practice/ – pp 147-150
What did you take from the case study?
What appeared as a person attempting to atone and learn from a racial or racist teaching exercise / lesson.
Can you highlight any parallels between the case study and the first session on this unit or in your engagements with students and or peers?
Not with the first session, personally I found that to be a misjudged and patronising exercise. Guessing Akala’s religion, attitudes etc based on an image was at best for me silly. However, others had a different reaction. The students who have experienced racism and then were asked to take part in the racist exercise spoke out and I felt it was my place to give them their space to do so, listen and learn.
How many key terms can you name and identify as being present within this case study?
Institutional Racism – Politically Black – White Fragility – Privilege – Racism
What would you have done in this situation? You choose which role
I hope I would have spoken out, but I cannot know until placed in that position.
TASK 4 – Not All Disabilities Are Visible
Not all disabilities are visible. | The Horizontals | TEDxBrum Being logical is having the ability to understand ourselves so well that we know the things we won’t do, and won’t feel guilty about not doing them. Hear from The Horizontals about what invisible disabilities can teach us all about how we work and live together. Horizontal is an ongoing piece of artistic research lead by artist Suriya Aisha. Horizontal investigates the relationship between invisible disabilities, capitalism and all the awkward bits in between. The project was inspired by Suriya’s own experience of living with rare brain condition Chiari Malformation Type 1. THE HORIZONTALS are a group of women and non-binary people who live with invisible health conditions and seek to raise awareness through open conversations, artistic experiments and most importantly sharing pots of hummus.
Notes & Reflections
What do you take from this video?
The effects of those suffering from invisible disability. preconceptions of laziness among my student body. er tone addressing her non apologetic behaviour stems from being made to feel small/marginalised because of her invisible condition
How has this impacted your understanding of disability and the relationship with the first blog/vlog?
That at times it can be invisible and those suffer discrimination in addition to the effects caused by their physical difficulties.
How has or could this resource be used in your context personally or professionally?
To not pre judge my students and to include / promote elements / design that improve accessibility.
Gender is complicated, respect is simple. Not a preference or choice, ask which pronouns they use. Even within support progressive structures / movements racism or marginalisation can occur. Faith evolving, reflects social change. Religion is overlooked as we try to separate our private life from institutions. Introduction yourself and pronouns. Reduce assessment stress, Assessment Patterns: a review of the possible consequences (moving away from high stakes, end-of-process assessment): blogs.kcl.ac.uk/aflkings/files/2019/08/ESCAPE-AssessmentPatterns-ProgrammeView.pdf
How has this shaped your understanding of the term intersectionality, or not?
I think so, multiple social or personal identities can be marginalise or removed in conventional even progressive systems, introduced me to the concept of wicked problems, which was fascinating in terms of understanding my place in positive change. Horst Rittel’s strategies on addressing ‘wicked problems’ can give some advice on how to feel less overwhelmed or paralysed when faced by a problem that seems too complex to solve individually. Horst Rittel –sympoetic.net/Managing_Complexity/complexity_files/1973%20Rittel%20and%20Webber%20Wicked%20Problems.pdf Commoning is primary to human life: the commons are shared spaces of social coexistence
Intersectionality is the interconnected nature of social categorizations, such as race and class and gender as they apply to a given individual or group, creating overlapping and independent systems of discrimination or disadvantages’ (CohenMiller and Boivin, p.224)
How does this task inform your practises, learning and ways in which you assess or make judgements?
To ensure, as much as possible all identities are listened to and are represented, no singular identity owns a progressive movement.
While white feminists emphasise the problems of patriarchy or capitalism black women stress a triple oppression. All black people are subordinated by racial oppression, women are subordinated by sexual domination, black women are subordinated by both as well as class
Ethnicity: the fourth burden of black women – political action Olivia Foster-CarterView all authors and affiliations
‘Children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) are disproportionately likely to be excluded from school; they account for almost two-thirds of all exclusions.’ (Good Schools Guide, 2021) https://www.goodschoolsguide.co.uk/special-educational-needs/your-rights/school-exclusions
Pedagogies of Social Diversity and Difference in Art & Design.
TASK 1. Positionality
Positionality is the social and political context that creates your identity in terms of race, class, gender, sexuality, and ability status. Positionality also describes how your identity influences, and potentially biases, your understanding of and outlook on the world.
Getting Personal: Reflexivity, Positionality, and Feminist Research https://atrium.lib.uoguelph.ca/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10214/1811/18-England.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
Getting Personal: Reflexivity, Positionality, and Feminist Research – Kim V. L. England 1994. The Professional Geographer 46 (1), 80-9.1Appropriating the Voices of “Others”; Or When Reflexivity Is Not Enough – dialogism means that the researcher is a visible and integral part of the research setting. Indeed, research is never complete “until it includes an understanding of the active role of the analyst‟s self which is exercised throughout the research process” (S. J. Smith, 1988, 18; also see Evans, 1988; Pile, 1991)
Produced a 300 word positionality statement about myself, it included both personal and professional contexts. The statement was shared only with the course team.
Notes & Reflections
A useful framing for identity is how do I see myself, how do others see me, how would I like to be seen? Hard to put myself into lots of boxes, difficult not to be honest but it was hard to be professional as it become very emotional. The difference between identity and positionality is an eye-opening. I’m aware of where society marginalises me – and where some of my privileges are – I often find it hard to discuss this with people who have never considered their priviledges – its like we are speaking different languages. Thinking about our positionality can help us to address: How can I do my work better? There’s often a mismatch between my internal identity and my external presentation – misassumptions but also privileges. Interesting in relation to context – your position changes according to the group you’re in…this became clear when writing my statement. I found the process a continuation of a normality of perception I’ve experienced from my background. You can be an outsider within your own identity. There are decisions about “outing” oneself. It can help to think of identity in [social/educational/cultural/political] context. Identity which I thought negative can be a strong positive element in positionality. Identities are dynamic, unstable inflected. Positional Dysmorphia – feel there’s no need for my voice in the world as a cis/white/hetero/middle class/etc male. Terms (migrant, immigrant, expatriate ) are racialised.
The educator must engage in critical thinking with the students in the quest for mutual humanization. They must be partners with the students in their relations with them. (Freire 1970)
Banking Concept Of Education. – Previous colonial education model, a didactic approach, unequal relationship, unviable relationship, less opportunity from interaction from students, a more horizontal approach is required
• the teacher teaches and the students are taught;
• the teacher knows everything and the students know nothing;
• the teacher thinks and the students are thought about;
• the teacher talks and the students listen — meekly;
• the teacher disciplines and the students are disciplined;
• the teacher chooses and enforces his/her/their choice, and the students comply;
• the teacher acts and the students have the illusion of acting through the action of the teacher;(Freire 1970)
Banking Concept Of Education.
• the teacher chooses the program content, and the students (who were not consulted) adapt to it;
• the teacher confuses the authority of knowledge with his/her/their own professional authority, which he/she/they sets in opposition to the freedom of the students;
• the teacher is the Subject of the learning process, while the pupils are mere objects. (Freire 1970)
Our Need for Change.
The theoretical framework of critical pedagogy (Friere 1970) is grounded in the concept of social justice. Students and educators engage in dialogue and discuss their views in order to generate systemic change where culture and cultural capital can positively be present within everything we do.
The Pedagogy Of Ambiguity In Art And Design.
We need to support students transition from the safety of the concrete and the expected to the ambiguous and contingent in a way that feels safe…
There is a need to re-conceptualise induction into a series of participatory encounters through the whole journey of education…There is a need to develop meta-cultural sensitivity amongst both students and tutors….(Drew 2008)
Cultural Capital.
• Certain kinds of art can only be decoded, and appreciated by those who have been taught how to decode them.
• The cultural capital of the working classes, and certain ethnic groups, is devalued and de-legitimated
• Dominant groups make inequalities seem just, and natural, through notions of meritocracy – the idea that economic and educational ‘rewards’ are the natural result of ability and hard work, resulting in the misrecognition of the effects of class as the causes of class (Bourdieu 1984). Extracts from Burke & McManus (2009)
Social Justice.
• Equal justice in all aspects of society
• People having equal rights and opportunities
• ‘Education must be a force for opportunity and social justice, not for the entrenchment of privilege’ (David 2011)
Notes & Reflections
Similar to education in the 70s and 80s in uk, ‘sage on the stage’ teaching method where a professor imparts knowledge by lecturing to their class. tone in speaking to students has changed, growing to have less ego with students, gives me the confidence to say “I don’t really know” if I don’t know something. it’s very freeing to be able to say to students “I don’t know…what do you think?” Research Free Democratic Schools and he Montessori /Stainer” minus the religious element education models. Teacher-centred versus student centred. We do still offer didactic approaches such as mass lectures. “The aim of education – in fact the aim of life- is to work joyfully and to find happiness.” Summerhill (1960)
Equality Act 2010.
Anti discrimination legislation. The Equality Act 2010 requires us to think of certain identities as ‘protected characteristics’. To comply with the Act, we must demonstrate how we have eliminated discrimination, advance equality of opportunity and fostered good relations between those who share protected characteristics and those who do not. This is called ‘due regard’ and essentially means to: Remove/ minimise disadvantage – Identify & meet specific needs – Encourage Participation – Tackle prejudice & promote understanding
Protected Characteristics:
Age | Disability | Race | Gender Reassignment | Sex | Maternity and Pregnancy (Caring Responsibilities) | Marriage and Civil Partnership | Religion or Belief | Sexual Orientation
Missing – Limitations, doesn’t talk about best practice, Language (The Irish language (Irish: Gaeilge) is, since 2022, an official language in Northern Ireland), Class, Political Views, Immigration status, non religious status, Single or Widower, Parental status, adoption, Mental Health
TASK 3. Intersectionality.
Intersectionality is a noun
1. The interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender as they apply to a given individual or group, regarded as creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage i.e. “through an awareness of intersectionality, we can better acknowledge and ground the differences among us”
2. Intersectionality is also a theoretical framework for understanding how aspects of a person’s social and political identities combine to create unique modes of discrimination and privilege. Intersectionality identifies advantages and disadvantages that are felt by people due to a combination of factors.
Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color. Author(s): Kimberle Crenshaw Source: Stanford Law Review, Vol. 43, No. 6 (Jul., 1991), pp. 1241-1299 Published by: Stanford Law Review Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1229039 . https://is.muni.cz/el/fss/jaro2016/SPR470/um/62039368/Crenshaw_1991.pdf
TASK 4. B. A Case Study: It Started with the Teacher. Page 158-160 https://shadesofnoir.org.uk/journals/inclusive-practice/
• What do you take from the case study assigned?
• How would you have dealt with it?
• Do you know if there is an institutional policy to refer to for this scenario?
Notes & Reflections
I thought it was shocking how long it took to be ‘resolved’. Case Study B – failure of management, to address issues in a sensitive, pertinent and immediate manner, allowing for escalation. Exacerbates the original incident and effects caused from it. This raised the question for me about training for educators, as with many others, I have not received any formal training in education, in particular managerial and or personnel processes within a diverse cohort. This does not excuse the failures presented in this case study. It points to some real structural issues, students not even knowing where to go to for help …At the MA it is very sad as it can happen often and it does require a lot of (of correct) extra work to make sure it does not happen to student to be ignored, even if not racially abused. If at the BA diversity is higher between students, at the MA level is quite clear the social economic and racial structure is more heavy… so even if some student are not racially abused they still suffer by lack of interaction. In my Ma often there was just one student. Lack of interaction (dialogue) can lead to awarding gaps. We need to ask why some students are not pushed, critiqued, engaged with. Incident was so overtly racist but none of the students felt able to say something directly at the time. Shows how powerful the teacher is over the students, how socially difficult it is to call this out. What is/is not permissible needs to be negotiated with others.
● Review UAL’s Staff data via the Data Dashboard. – https://dashboards.arts.ac.uk/dashboard/ActiveDashboards/DashboardPage.aspx?dashboardid=4b74c409-e287-42ed-b75e-c9ba5e38c6d5&dashcontextid=637831282984491780&resetFilt=true
● Make notes of 3 – 5 observations that you feel are significant and consider how these impact your professional practice.
● You may wish to also refer to relevant data within your blogging tasks for the future.
Notes & Reflections
pay gaps in race, gender, disability, religion teaching staff not totally representative of student body BAME 16.5% (33% of students identify as BAME) LGBQ+ 9.2% (21% students), attainment gaps (Awarding gaps are also persistent (there is a danger they are normalised and accepted)), staff health questionnaires around health and disability. The question of proportional representation doesn’t necessarily address power within the structure. Is being in the room enough to change the balance of power? Certain groups will still be a minority.
General
Introduction to the Unit: The Inclusive Teaching and Learning Unit. – Shades of Noir: Journals ref: https://shadesofnoir.org.uk/journals/inclusive-practice/
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.
Shades of Noir is an independent programme that supports curriculum design, accessible knowledge, and pedagogies of social justice through representation.
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).
The Core Pillars of the Organisation’s (US-based intergroup edu- cational) Pedagogy of Social Justice Education. A visual representation of the diverse components that make up this pedagogical form of social justice education, including three of the pillars. Each one is layered on another, beginning with A and moving in a clockwise manner. 8
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.
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).
Josephine Kwhali discusses ‘unconscious bias’. Part of the UCU black members’ standing committee oral history project:
‘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.
Shirley Anne Tate | Whiteliness and institutional racism: Hiding behind unconscious bias
‘Retention and attainment in the disciplines: Art and Design’ Finnigan and Richards 2016.
percentage of students studying Art and Design at university is 5.8%…it is in the top five subject choices…majority of the students are of a traditional age; 79% with only 22% mature. (The sector average as a whole is 40% mature students.) 64% of students are women and 36% men….report states that there is a considerable amount of missing data on reported ethnicity 76% White, 2% Black British Caribbean, 2% Black British African, 2% Asian British Indian, and 1% Asian British Pakistani. 4% identifying as from another ethnicity and 12% not known. The overall conclusions are that it is predominately populated by white students. disability: dyslexic students represent 11% of the cohort, higher than the sector average, which is 4%. The mode of study is predominantly full-time at 93%, and the majority of the students are from the UK (89%). – 12
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
Many terms I had not encountered before such as ‘caste‘, any class or group from society sharing common cultural features.
‘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)
ECU (2016) Equality in higher education statistical report 2016
‘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).
How can the white voice be utilised for the purpose of challenging racial discrimination within education?
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.
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
Religious background in the Northern Ireland Troubles, I left the fundamental faith, however I am still interested in the philosophical and cultural traditions, for example as discussed in De Botton’s Religion for Atheists. I’m not found of the term atheist, too absolutist.
Religion in Britain: Challenges for Higher Education
The Leadership Foundation, a UK-based membership organisation, provides leadership development programs, events, and resources for leaders in higher education they commissioned a pair of papers from Tariq Modood and Craig Calhoun. Addressing aspects of religion in contemporary Britain, raising questions about what is considered public and what private, and the need to consider this in the public institutions of higher education.
Paper 1: ‘We don’t do God’? the changing nature of public religion
By Professor Tariq Modood
Modood’s paper examines the evolving relationship between public religion and secularism in Britain, highlighting changes giving religion a new public character. Exploring the controversies associated with these changes and argues for institutional accommodation to be extended. The paper aims to provide a contextual framework for discussing the role of religion in British higher education. Prompting questions about the ways in which universities may be failing to live up to their aspirations to be a public good, foster equality and inclusivity.
Multiculturalism
‘not just anti-discrimination, sameness of treatment and toleration of ‘difference’, but respect for difference; not equal rights despite differences but equality as the accommodation of difference in the public space, which therefore comes to be shared rather than dominated by the majority’1
Since 1960s emerged a new conception of equality, the abandonment of the pretence of ‘difference-blindness’ and allowing others, the marginalised minorities, to also be visible and explicitly accommodated in the public sphere. It was interesting to read integrating all groups and remaking national citizenship to create a sense of belonging has been met with controversy, as it requires ‘enforcing uniformity of treatment and eliminating discrimination on grounds such as religious affiliation’.
However, there is good evidence that multiculturalist policies are not being reversed 2, and that there could be said to exist a ‘multiculturalist sensibility’3: minorities need to be included without having to assimilate.
Paper 2: Religion, the public sphere and higher education
By Professor Craig Calhoun
Religion and dissent in universities
Free speech is an important value for universities, and the idea that it is threatened creates concern. It is commonly forgotten that religion figures not only in the history of suppression of dissent, but as one of the most important bases for such dissent, pushing forward free speech doctrines. Today, there is anxiety that some religious leaders preach intolerance. This is deepened when crowds or hecklers protest speakers or prevent them from being heard. At the same time, there is also worry that banning such speakers and others deemed ‘extremist’ is itself a betrayal of commitments to free speech.1
Fear of extremism is a major and distorting issue, presented as neutral , groups however are disproportionately targeted and recognise this, such as Muslims. Government policies such as PREVENT and 2015 legislation expanded its reach and academic responsibilities under it – raise fears of public complicity in religious intolerance 4. Repression not aimed at religion, targeted at political violence and ‘extremism’, it doesn’t eliminate the difficulty. The religious and the secular are not neatly separate.
Gender and sexuality can be exacerbated by religious intolerance, associated with defence of the traditional family identities. Conversations regarding ‘non-binary’ sexual and gender identities is growing on universities campuses. Liberating for some, it is unsettling for some students. Some religions in the pursuit of social justice can be supportive to minorities.
Religion as a public good
In universities, the creation of successfully integrative academic communities means encouraging abundant activities that cross religious boundaries. If universities accept too much tacit segregation of students into subcultures, they reduce the learning they offer and the contribution they make to the larger society.
In the contest of the public sphere, Modood stresses that religion is a public and not only a private good. Unlike French tradition of laïcité and America’s secular separation, ‘a necessary dimension of secularism’5, in Britain it contributes to public policy and is visibly Christian.
Public engagement with religion in universities in a pluralist society, could promote ‘strong public values for all citizens’6. Keeping religion out of the public sphere, mostly due to a ‘decline in the clarity with which the positive public values of the republican and socialist traditions are embraced and promoted’7 could lead to segregation. Particularly ethnic minority groups, some defined by religion.
An argument is made to suggest ‘shared public communication and open interaction are better’, but as we have seen with many religious conflicts, lack of mutual recognition (sexuality, gender) or legitimacy (free speech), how can a successful and productive dialogue be achieved to create public good?
The Reith Lectures – Subject for 2016 series: Identity ‘What makes us who we are, our country, our colour, our religion, our culture, is it none or all of these things?’
Kwame Anthony Appiah – Mistaken Identities ‘Creed’
‘The heart of religion is animism, the belief in spiritual agency’ Primitive Culture Book by Edward Burnett Tylor
‘Your sense of self is shaped by your family, but also my affiliations that spread out from there, nationality, gender, class, race and religion. Nowadays we talk of these affiliations as identity…moving from personal to social in recent history’
Philosopher and cultural theorist Kwame Anthony Appiah, who writes on ethics, culture and cosmopolitanism, argues that when considering religion we overestimate the importance of scripture and underestimate the importance of practice in religion.
His parents marriage, 1953, made headlines, the first public interracial society wedding, an inspiration for the film Guess who’s coming to dinner 9 and his own made social history after marrying his longterm partner, days after same sex marriage was legalised in New York 10. Born in UK, living back and forth in Ghana, boarding school then Cambridge, teaching at Yale, Harvard and now Professor at New York university, he’s crossed many boundaries, qualified to opine on the nature of identity.
Discussing the idea that religious faith is based around unchanging and unchangeable holy scriptures, but practice has been quite as important as religious writings. Religious texts are contradictory and have been interpreted in different ways at different times, for example on the position of women and men in Islam. Arguing that fundamentalists are a particularly extreme example of this mistaken scriptural determinism. The evolution of practice maintains the existence of the religion, for example it was unthinkable to have female ministers or rabbis at the start of the last century. Countries with religious identities can be more progressive, for example Rwanda and the more secular America with female political representation. To survive texts must be reinterpreted, be modest about ‘truth’, ‘history of faith is the history of doubt’.
‘Everybody in the world agrees, that most people in the world have incorrect religious beliefs’
Kwame Anthony Appiah
How do we unite through contrasting knowing certain ‘truths’? Arguing against a fundamentalist approach to scripture and focusing on changing practice. Perhaps.
On a side, UAL’s Grayson Perry asked ‘Religious identities, wonder if atheists and secular people have a hole, I wonder what kind of things fill that hole where they do not have religious beliefs?
‘Belief doesn’t have to be central in religion, you could take up the community side or doings….. I’m skeptical of the hole’. Couldn’t agree more.
Religion, faith, spirituality & belief is an embedded part of human psychology that gives insight into individuals thought processes and often experiences. According to a blog post by Dr Greg on patheos.com, the terms are commonly used interchangeably but can differ in meaning depending on the context or even the conversation taking place. However, what isn’t interchangeable are individuals experiences in relation to these practices whether it’s within the practices community or the perceptions from those outside of those communities looking in.
Othering: The proportion of the population who identify in NatCen’s British Social Attitudes survey as having no religion, referred to as “nones”, reached 48.5% in 2014, outnumbering the 43.8% who define themselves as Christian – Anglicans, Catholics, and other denominations. According to National Geographic, a lack of religious affiliation has profound effects on how people think about death, how they teach their kids, and even how they vote. (News.nationalgeographic.com, 2017) 12.
With the changes to the demographics on those believing in a faith or religion, what impact could this have. From the key questions section I was interested to explore ‘1. Does Religion, faith, spirituality increase or decrease creativity?’ and ‘9.How does atheism relate to the creative arts?’ I turned to the interview with Ayham Jabr, a Surreal Collage Artist, Video Editor, Videographer and a Graphic Designer for insight.
Faith and its affects or not or art and creativity.
Ayham Jabr does not believe it neither decreases or increases creativity, that all faiths are all ‘based on fiction and fear’. I was curious on how it affects his work’”God created man in his own image”13 …the evolution theory shatters all religions claiming that God created us in human shape from the beginning’. As hes says religions are becoming more ‘fractured and outcasted’ will it become more radical as in 1500 years ago, I think as he states it depends on the geographical region.
Shades of Noir ‘The Little Book of Big Case Studies’ – Faith
The case study centered on a female student of Iranian origin who was muslim. Her tutor in the first week disclosed she was an atheist and that god was a ‘manmade construct’ 14. I found this irksome, a betrayal of trust and questioned what or why was this discussed in the first week? As a result, other students felt she was being oppressed due to her attire and misconstrued her work. The piece highlights the 2010 Equality Act requiring universities not to discriminate against religious groups. The document poses the pertinent question of how to create safe spaces for students in class, offering helpful guidance around the ideas of ‘open discussion, ground rules (with students involvement)’ and allowing students to asses, themselves, what are ‘safe spaces’. Food for thought.
Kymlicka, W. (2012). Multiculturalism: Success, Failure, and the Future. Washington, DC: Migration Policy Institute.
Kivisto, P. (2012). We Really are all Multiculturalists Now. The Sociological Quarterly 53(1): 1–24.
Pew Foundation (2011). Muslim–Western Tensions Persist Common Concerns About Islamic Extremism. 21 July 2011. www.pewglobal.org/2011/07/21/muslim-western-tensions-persist [accessed 15 May 2015].
Taylor, C. (2007). A Secular Age. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Modood, T. (2015). ‘We Don’t Do God’? The Changing Nature of Public Religion. London: Leadership Foundation for Higher Education.
Rosanvallon, P. (2011). Society of Equals. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Kramer, S. (Director). (1967). Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner [Motion Picture]. Columbia Pictures.
The Marriage Equality Act 2011
Ramamurthy, A. (Ed.). (2015). Shades of Noir Higher Power: Religion, Faith, Spirituality & Belief. Shades of Noir.
News.nationalgeographic.com. (2017). The World’s Newest Major Religion: No Religion. Available at: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/04/160422- atheism-agnostic-secular-nones-rising-religion/ [Accessed 6 Sep. 2017].
The Holy Bible: King James Version. (1611). Genesis 1:27.
Smith, J. (2017). Shades of Noir Case Study ‘The Little Book of Big Case Studies’ – Faith. In Shades of Noir (Ed.), The Little Book of Big Case Studies (pp. 23-32). Publisher. https://issuu.com/shadesofnoir/docs/shades_of_noir_case_study_-faith
My hearing aids, prescribed to me when I was 32 years old, which I am reluctant to wear. How can I expect others to share their experience with disability when I hide my own impairments?
UAL Disability Service Webpages
‘We can change buildings, and courses, and attitudes’ 1,
Great sentiment, how?
A monochrome web page with a lack of contrasting colours, images or sounds, with text small in places (size 11 or 12). It does not do justice to the range of services provided by UAL (more than I presumed) to support the student cohort. A 2minute video ‘The Social Model of Disability at UAL’, contains voices, presumably from students with disabilities, sharing their experience at UAL to a background of interlocking (or not) graphics. It is unclear, they do not show anyone, it does not state if they are actors recordings. You cannot visit the page link to where the video has been uploaded (e.g. Youtube) and you cannot enlarge the screen.
‘Each and every one of us is different – but it can feel like the world expects us all to be the same’ 2, not surprising, sadly given the lack of visibility and inclusivity here.
Film by Christine Sun Kim
Hosted by Vimeo, you must sign up for an account before watching. ‘Sound vibrations are visceral and internal in contrast to sign language’ 3, having 2 hearing aids, permanent tinnitus and poor signing skills, I was immediately captivated and inspired. Kim, who is deaf, discusses how sound is often perceived as something that is exclusive to hearing people, but she argues that everyone experiences sound in their own way. Through a series of performances, Kim demonstrates how she interacts with sound and music, using her body, technology, and other tools to create and feel vibrations and rhythms. Ultimately, the video celebrates the richness and diversity of sound as a medium that can be experienced and enjoyed by all. ‘Let’s listen with our eyes not just our ears. That would be the ideal’, agreed.
#DisabilityTooWhite article/interview with Vilissa Thompson
Disability activist and blogger Vilissa Thompson, started discussions in the disability community utilising the hashtag regarding the media visibility and representation of disabled people of colour. She says she is ‘disheartened that a lot of African American organizations do not talk about disability’, or if they do, it is not in ‘our voices. They talk about it in the way of the medical model of disability. 4 [Our] experience is as important to the black experience as every other part of blackness’ 5.
This generated controversy as she highlights the lack of representation in popular media, such as tv or film, and if included the parts are played by non disabled actors. A perfectible reasonable observation and interpretation.
‘There is a lack of representation and diversity within the disability community from the organizations that are supposed to empower us as individuals…there is a lack of diversity in those voices and those stories.’ The article from 2016 and since we had the Oscar winning CODA (no deaf / disability POC representation) and in my option the superior Oscar nominated Sound of metal staring Riz Ahmed (not deaf in real life). There is still a lot more room for representation of disabled people of colour in the media to be more present, to demystify what it means to be of colour and disabled.
‘Deaf Accessibility for Spoonies: Lessons from Touring Eve and Mary Are HavingCoffee’ by Khairani Barokka
‘Pain hides in plain sight.’
A sentiment I’ve rarely contemplated and taken for granted.
Khairani Barokka’s discusses her experience of touring the theatre production “Eve and Mary are Having Coffee” while managing chronic illness and chronic pain. Exploring the intersections between deafness and chronic illness, she highlights the unique challenges that arise when creating accessible theatre for audiences with multiple disabilities. Through her experience, she emphasises the importance of considering the needs of all audience members, and creating accessible spaces that allow for full participation and enjoyment for everyone.
‘I’d made sure to enforce rules on Eve and Mary Are Having Coffee: it would be D/deafand hearing-impaired accessible, and only performed in wheelchair-accessible venues.The script was put on a Google Document, and the shortened link given to D/deaf orhearing-impaired audience members, who were asked to identify themselves beforehand,and were given iPads or iPhones with which to read the poetry. In Vienna, the URL wasprojected onto a wall, which meant anyone who saw it inside the gallery – or indeedoutside it, as I performed in a window space facing onto the street – could read the script.’6
The article provides insights and lessons for practitioners in the field of applied theatre and performance, encouraging them and me to prioritise accessibility and inclusivity in their and my own work.
Terms of Reference Journal from Shades of Noir (SoN) around Disability
How do we define disability?
‘…[the] social model of disability [and] its limitations are more severe than have been recognised […]’ – Samaha (2007) in What Good Is the Social Model of Disability?
The journal asks how do we define disability, they have evolved through frameworks, highlighting the Social Model it states we must understand the difference between ‘impairment and disability’ 7.
‘impairment’ defines the individual features of body or mind, ‘disability’, on the other hand, describes the impact that the physical environment creates in exclusion, discrimination and oppression of the body (Sandal & Auslander, 2005). 8
Proposing a new Radical Model
Developed in the 1970s it remains the dominant framework in Anglo-American disability studies. it does not account for the ‘dual needs of people with learning disabilities in that it presupposes a solely outward imposition from wider society; secondly, it does not consider impairments that are directly linked to social circumstances such as (economic) poverty or malnutrition (Shakespeare, 2006); and finally, some have begun to highlight the failure of the model to account for the wider intersectionality within the experience of (disabled) people of colour.’ The article highlights that the intersection of race and disability remains a particularly neglected area. I am curious how we can build new models?
Terms of reference from SoN around Mental Health
There are over a 100 ‘Key Terms’ 9 in relation to mental health, I must confess, not all I have heard before and I have little direct or indirect experience with many. Education is not only for our cohorts, we must strive for continuous improvement through reflective practice. Understanding and normalising the language associated with mental health is the first step.
Anxiety
I focused on this article as it is a term that has increased from a dialogue with my students in the past 6 years. The article explains what anxiety is and how it affects us both emotionally and physically. It emphasises that feeling anxious from time to time is normal, especially in stressful situations. However, if the feelings of anxiety become strong and persistent, it may develop into a mental health problem. They provide examples of situations that can trigger anxiety and how it can affect our daily lives.
‘You might find that you’re worrying all the time, perhaps about things that are a regular part of everyday life, or about things that aren’t likely to happen – or even worrying about worrying’
Familiar dialogue experienced from some of our students in the past,
It’s important, as educators, to recognise the signs of anxiety and seek support if it starts to impact our student’s ability to function in their daily lives. Overall, the article provides helpful information and resources for individuals who may be experiencing anxiety.
Deafness – increasing?
Language learning company Preply recently determined that 50 percent of Americans used subtitles and closed captions the vast majority of the time they watch content 11. Could it be increased hearing impairment (overexposed headphone use perhaps?) or could it be muddled dialogue, modern speaker design or are people simply more used to using subtitles? In either case will it make it easier for those with sensory impairments to get alternative access to information, such as BSL interpretation? I hope so.
Confronting my own hidden declining hearing impairment by attending Deaf Architecture Front Lecture at RIBA, 6 June 2023. DAF will make a huge difference to the Deaf community by creating a bridge to architecture, aiming to remove the barriers that have been in place for many years preventing Deaf people from engaging with architectural practice 10. Inspiring and liberating, I wore my aids and took some sign lessons, how can I incorporate this exposure and learning into my teaching and practice?
Khairani Barokka (Okka) (2017) Deaf-accessibility for spoonies: lessons from touring Eve and Mary Are Having Coffee while chronically ill, Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance, 22:3, 387-392, DOI: 10.1080/13569783.2017.1324778
Bruce Macfarlane & Lesley Gourlay (2009) The reflection game: enacting the penitent self, Teaching in Higher Education, 14:4, 455-459, DOI: 10.1080/13562510903050244 https://moodle.arts.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/1079889/mod_resource/content/1/Macfarlane Gourlay 2009.pdf
Belonging in Higher Education – https://interrogatingspaces.buzzsprout.com/683798/4671476-belonging-in-higher-education – Dr. Terrell Strayhorn is Professor of Urban Education in the Evelyn Reid Syphax School of Education at Virginia Union University, where he also serves as Associate Provost and Director of the SEF Center for the Study of HBCUs. Author of 10 books and 200+ scholarly publications, Strayhorn is an internationally-recognized expert on the social psychological determinants of student success.
Ambrose, S. A., Bridges, M. W., DiPietro, M., Lovett, M. C., & Norman, M. K. (2010). How Learning Works: Eight Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching. John Wiley & Sons.
hooks, b. (2000) Preface and Introduction. In All About Love. New York: HarperCollins, pp. ix – xxix. [e-book in library] https://moodle.arts.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/1049061/mod_resource/content/4/All About Love.pdf
Hooper-Greenhill, E. (2002). Museums and the Interpretation of Visual Culture. Routledge.
Taylor, J.C. (1975). Looking at Pictures: An Introduction to Art for Young People. Boston: Beacon Press. The quote was later cited in a paper by Paul J. Silvia, “What is Interesting? Exploring the Appraisal Structure of Interest” published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General in 2005.
D’Olimpio, L. (2019) ‘Ethics Explainer: Ethics of Care’. The Ethics Centre [Online]. 16 May. Available at: https://ethics.org.au/ethics-explainer-ethics-of-care/ (Accessed: 15 November 2022).
(Jisc2022 –our emphasis) JiscPrinciples of good assessment andfeedbackhttps://www.jisc.ac.uk/guides/principles-of-good-assessment-and-feedback
Winstone, N. and Carless, D. (2020) Designing Effective Feedback Processes in Higher Education. Routledge.
Bennett, J. (2010). Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things. Duke University Press.
Mason, J. (2002). Researching Your Own Practice: The Discipline of Noticing. Routledge.
Geilen & van Hausden (2011) A Plea for Communalist Teaching: Summary
Moon, J. A. (2000). Reflection in Learning and Professional Development: Theory and Practice. Taylor & Francis Group.
Kher, N., Molstad, S., & Donahue, P. (1999). The Effects of Humor in a College Teaching-Learning Environment. Journal of Educational Psychology, 91(1), 1-15. doi: 10.1037/0022-0663.91.1.1.
My tutor commented on my blog posts, describing how they ‘entice the reader with reading and raising the question, but then it then it stops’. This succinctly reflected my own frustrations, we discussed about the difficulty of tackling wide ranging and encompassing issues in only 250 words, skimming only the surface.
Here is an attempt to delve further into the issues discussed, adding some form of conclusion, what did I take from each as a teacher and what’s the outcome?
£ducation Value(s)
James Wisdom’s discussion on ‘The Context of Higher Education’ shed light on the financial benefits of studying a degree, not just for students but for the economy as well. Despite the fact that UK citizens can earn 37% more in the future with a higher education degree, the financial incentives are not reflected in the study of the Creative Arts. Furthermore, negative viewpoints currently impacting the university sector have led the UK Government to focus more on supporting Further Education than Higher Education. Mr. Wisdom’s thought-provoking question of whether student satisfaction surveys truly measure the quality of teaching has left us pondering. Finally, his melancholic future Higher Education predictions leave us hoping that he was incorrect in his assessment. The economics and commercialisation justification of education, though necessary to discuss, left me feeling irksome. No wonder my students are increasingly focused on attainment, education as a purchase.
Pedagogy_______Position?
The group discussions delved into the possibility of encouraging radical change within a dominant structure such as a university. The debate centered around the values of teaching in a commercialised environment and the need for social and environmental justice. Many felt that the rhetoric of inclusivity presented by UAL was not matched by the reality of insecure contracts, and the conversation evolved into a discussion about capitalism and radical change. The initial energy I felt regarding the discussion soon gave way to thoughts of how could this change happen, its beyond the physical realms of our institution. What do our students think about such radical change?
COHORT-RISK-OUTCOME
The first cohort session highlighted the importance of teaching with integrity and promoting ethical behaviour among students. We discussed the need to encourage risk-taking and experimentation, while avoiding turning learning activities into performative tasks. Exploring approaches to designing and planning for learning across different levels and teaching modes. Thinking about how to re-write my briefs, the session underscored the need to balance the development of project themes and physical outcomes with the communication of ideas to improve students’ work for assessment.
OBJECTive?Learning?Fun?
Through the exploration of Object Based Learning (OBL), I questioned the inclusivity of this student-centered approach and how it can be used as a universal teaching tool across different subjects. I proposed using play as a way to transcend cultural and subject boundaries, allowing for a more interactive and inclusive learning experience. Ultimately, my aims were to develop observational skills, visual literacy, design awareness, team working, and drawing skills through the use of OBL. I did not fully succeed, play should be a catalyst and not the outcome.
More COMPASSIONate?
Compassion in education means noticing and responding to social and physical distress in others with the commitment to reduce or prevent it. This also applies to assessment and feedback practices, which should be reimagined for a social justice-oriented, relational, and compassionate approach. Compassionate feedback requires honesty, precision, and sensitivity to the unique needs and experiences of each individual. By acknowledging our own limitations and biases, we can respond with compassion, create a safe and supportive environment for our students, and instil change.
That’s Entertainment
It is important for me as an educator to expose students to a variety of teaching styles and perspectives, to hopefully develop a more nuanced and inclusive view of the world, while still fulfilling my duty to care for the whole person, not just their academic achievement. Passion does not only come from teachers, but also the students inner desires and the subject matter, perhaps more time should be focused on exposing both to them.
