Case study 3: Race

The “Witness Unconscious Bias” video calls out the idea of racism being an “unconscious bias” especially in the context of UK HE. Josephine Kwhali counters the idea of prejudice being unconscious as this gives people a get out of jail free card with regard to upholding structural inequality; they are let off the hook by saying they weren’t aware of the fact that they were doing it. This isn’t good enough, especially with the amount, of continual “efforts” to counter racism and increase diversity in UK HEIS. These initiatives are therefore either performative and/or there simply isn’t the will to actively engage with making change. As a side note, this reminded me of Reni Eddo Lodge’s 2014 blog post and precursor to her book Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race where she says

I can no longer engage with the gulf of an emotional disconnect that white people display when a person of colour articulates their experience. You can see their eyes shut down and harden. It’s like treacle is poured into their ears, blocking up their ear canals. It’s like they can no longer hear us.

Reni Eddo Lodge

In “I don’t hate people I just can’t stand white supremacy” (SoN pp. 116 – 117) Julie Wright talks about the weight of the white gaze, its perniciousness and endless judgement and how it can be impossible to respond to this gaze without receiving more recrimination, hostility and bias. She speaks about the way white people perceive black-only spaces as a form of “reverse racism”. Wright rightly states that reverse racism is a fallacy, and in my view it’s a case of white people again centering themselves in conversations about racism. Black only spaces allow black people to be themselves without fear or pressure of the white gaze. Wright states that when white people essentially have the world, in terms of the privilege they exact globally and the spaces they are afforded access to, black people need to have their own spaces.

The second piece from the SoN TOR (pp. 118 – 123), “Visible faces in white spaces”, is inspired by an exhibition by Rhian Spencer where he showcased the black staff of Camberwell. The SoN version expands this out to showing staff and students of colour and their work across the whole of UAL. This piece sort of unlocked my response to what Julie Wright says it feels like to be the only black person in the room or building. In my role at CSM technical, I’ve recently commissioned a photographer to take pictures of our technical spaces in use by staff and students. These images will be used on Moodle but also some of the public facing digital content accessed by prospective staff and students. Ensuring that these, like the SoN article, include the staff and students of colour at CSM is important because CSM is behind in having a more diverse workforce. Representation is part of trying to change that and in turn create inclusion.

Aisha Richards and Terry Finnigan’s research paper sparked some ideas for how I within my role I could move from representation to inclusion.This research report explores how art and design universities operate and how these practices create an unlevel playing field, meaning that not all students have the same opportunities to succeed and that students of colour and working class students are most at a disadvantage. Just one of the many stats this paper mentions:

It appears that socio-economic class (SEC) also impacts on students’ achievement of an upper degree. Overall, 71% of students from SEC one and two achieved and upper degree compared with 65% of students from lower SEC three to nine. In addition, there are some significant findings around attainment, and students from ethnically diverse backgrounds within Art and Design. 31% of Black British Carribbean and Black British African students gain an upper degree in comparison to 64% ofWhite students (Woodfield 2014, pp. 63-4). This is an attainment gap of 33%.” 

Retention and attainment in the disciplines: Art and Design, p.4

The paper also includes a number of case studies where interventions have been made in arts colleges to counteract retention and attainment gaps. While all were interesting a few in particular made me think of interventions I could make in my practice. 

“Case study 1: curriculum audit (Ravensbourne)” involved auditing the handbooks, briefs, and resources included in curricula. This auditing process included pedagogies of social justice but also universal design.  I’ve been particularly keen to explore how universal design approaches could benefit all students but particularly students whose first language isn’t English and neurodivergent students within the context of technical education. My thinking has thus far been to develop our blended learning offering so that there is a range of materials (ie instructional videos) for students to access as needed alongside the face to face teaching. I was therefore encouraged to see this approach acting as part of a framework of inclusive practice alongside social justice.

I then read on to Case study 4: collaborative learning (Plymouth College of Art). This project aimed to “Develop a community of filmmaking practitioners, and therefore develop students’ professional working practices.” (p.15). I really enjoyed reading this as it chimed with what was mentioned in the “Tell us about it” case study at UAL that found that “encouraging students to produce something that reflects their learning experience in Art and Design is transformational.” (p. 14). These case studies together made me think how working with students might be a way of developing CSM technical’s blended learning approach. This could involve identifying areas that students need support with (ie the instructional videos I mentioned in the last paragraph) and working with students to develop these, importantly via arts temps so that the students would be paid and gain professional and educational experience. In terms of creating and developing the content, this would be an opportunity with students of colour/working-class students in mind. Additionally, it would be important to make sure that the videos are representative in terms of the technicians and students featured and that they are aligned with areas of need (particularly students whose first language isn’t English and neurodivergent students) so that they would create more inclusive avenues of learning. 

These readings have therefore sparked some thoughts for inclusive projects I can research and act upon for the Action Research part of the PgCert and work as a learning technologist.

Readings

Eddo-Lodge, R. (2021). Why I’m no longer talking to white people about race. [online] Available at: https://renieddolodge.co.uk/why-im-no-longer-talking-to-white-people-about-race/ (Accessed: 19 June 2022).

Finnigan, T. and Richards, A., (2016) ‘Retention and attainment in the disciplines: art and design’. York: Higher Education Academy, Available at: https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/knowledge-hub/retention-and-attainment-disciplines-art-and-design
(Accessed: 19 June 2022).

Shades of Noir (2018) ‘Peekaboo We See You: Whiteness’. Available at https://issuu.com/shadesofnoir/docs/disabled_people (Accessed: 19 June 2023).

UCU – University and College Union (2016). Witness: unconscious bias. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6XDUGPoaFw. (Accessed: 19 June 2022).