One of the supplementary readings from Workshop 1 (Social Justice & Education) that has been key in my perception of structural racism within the UK university structures and superficial attempts to address it, is Disaggregating the Black Student experience (Broadhead, 2022). It brought into view the inefficiency of developing a range of policies under the UK Equality Act 2010 that placed legal responsibilities on universities to prevent discrimination through varied compulsory staff awareness and development training programmes adhered to the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) agenda. In my experience completing antiracism e-learning modules or attending antiracism workshops to evidence that my teaching practice is aligned with the social objective of the UAL Performance, Review and Appraisal (PRA) process (Inclusion of an EDI anti-racism objective is mandatory) doesn`t address structural racism in any meaningful way. Broadhead sees this approach as tokenistic and touches upon the complexity of the UK university structures in terms of the lack of diversity and poor representation in anti-racism educational leadership to drive change forward.
What makes this argument coherent is the obvious; the ironic perversity of denying the involvement of those with lived experience in driving changes is in itself racism. Broadhead brings into a discussion South African-born professor Randall Whittaker, pro-vice-chancellor at Leeds Arts University and board member of AdvanceHE to offer his view on the reasons why previous policies have failed to close participation, non-continuation and awarding gaps between black and white students. He also argues for the disaggregation of the homogenous classification of different ethnic groups such as BAME (black, Asian and minority ethnic) and BME (black and minority ethnic) in data collection to unmask educational inequality.
Whittaker being one of the few senior managers from a minority ethnic background in the UK university context reflects on the importance of lived experience and empathy in higher education policy development and decision making. He recalls his own journey growing up during apartheid in South Africa as a creative overcoming many obstacles before schools were open to people of colour and led him to university so he could leave South Africa to pursue opportunities abroad. Whittaker epitomises how leadership structures need people with lived experience of belonging to marginalised social groups because they bring knowledge, insight and motivation to make changes. When students can relate to you and understand that you have some idea of their experience I think you are able to help them (Whittaker, 2022).
Students come to university with a unique set of experiences and cultural/spiritual nuances, which will ultimately impact on their perception of the university as an institution along with its staff, practices and norms (Singh, 2011). The arts in the UK have been influenced by the canon of western arts for centuries excluding a variety of cultural practices and perspectives inhibiting therefore progress to really explore indigenous arts and creativity (Whittaker, 2022). Students’ sense of belonging at the institution is threatened by exclusionary practices, which in turn contributes to a reluctance to stay and finish their courses (Singh, 2011). Whittaker calls for strategies to disrupt conventional art pedagogies and curricula that have been prevalent in the arts since the 1950s highlighting that academic teaching staff should be supported to develop arts pedagogies suitable for now.
To instigate change the assumption that the HE institutions and those who work in them are less disposed to discriminate should be challenged; there is a clear role here for leadership and management in empowering staff to be active in addressing their own assumptions, practices, fears and biases. Students should also be challenged to think from a cultural capital point of view as the outcome of an arts education is often seen to be the finished work rather than the critical, reflective learning that it has been undertaken in producing that work (Broadhead, 2022).
Both Broadhead and Whittaker argue that the conservatism of arts education needs to be recognised and critically analysed, rather than assuming the sector is inevitably innovative and inclusive. Within my teaching context it is pertinent this assumption to be challenged in order to make changes in my own academic practice and facilitate learning spaces that are more inclusive. The prospect of progressing into the PgCert Inclusive Practices unit necessitates recognition that racist structures underpin all institutions, and that it is the responsibility of everyone to combat this in their own professional context and life practices (Inclusive Practices unit brief, 2024).
References:
Broadhead, S. (2022) Disaggregating the Black Student Experience, Access and Widening Participation in Arts Higher Education: Practice and Research, Springer International Publishing, pp 51–68. Available from: ProQuest Ebook Central
Brown, A. D. (2022) Identities in and around organizations: Towards an identity work perspective. Human Relations 75 (7), pp. 1205-1237
Singh, G. (2011) A synthesis of research evidence: Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) Students’ Participation in Higher Education: Improving Retention and Success. Available at: EvidenceNet, Available at: https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/knowledge-hub/black-and-minority-ethnic-bme-students-participation-higher-education-improving
Further References/Reading:
Freire P. (1970) Pedagogy of the Oppressed. London: Penguin Random House UK
Savage P. (2023) The New Life: Mozambican Art Students in the USSR, and the Aesthetic Epistemologies of Anti-Colonial Solidarity. Art History Volume 45, Issue 5: Red Networks: Post war Art Exchange, pp 928-1150. Available at: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1467-8365.12692