Note to reader*
- I grew up in a post-colonial India, with a high amount of generational trauma passed down to me through the stories of my ancestors; their experiences of colonialism and racist practices in the former British Empire. I was taught to have pride in who I am and not be put down on account of my race; something my ancestors have faced. My existence is (at times) defined by a delicate balance between the anger I feel on behalf of my ancestors and the moral confusion that stems from now being a resident of the United Kingdom.
- The student whose experience is mentioned in the blog post has given me permission to include it in this writing. No names have been mentioned.
“Diversity is about bringing different perspectives, different lived experiences together and respecting our differences and then working towards better goals”
-Asif Sadiq
Analysis:
Race is not only a very relevant conversation (Wong et al., 2021) in Higher Education (HE) but should also be at its forefront. As a former (BAME) student and now a lecturer in the UK, I engage in this dialogue through my personal experience (being part of the system) and the context I have gained through academic literature.
There is a political divide that frames conversations around Critical Race Theory vs viewpoints that may be considered as oppositional; consider Professor James Orr (2022). Something that is often lost in this segregation is that diversity is about embracing diverse perspectives (Sadiq, 2023) through conversation. Hypervisibility of racialised subjects (Garett,2024) amongst other issues, can work against this and create barriers towards conversation. Sadiq (2023) talked about how he cannot speak on behalf of all Muslims. This encapsulates the individual nature of how race affects people’s lives and careers.
Sadiq (2023) further talks about this idea of narratives, highlighting versions of events and providing an interesting lens to examine anti-racist discourses. This allows us to question the bias of not only the narrative itself but also who it’s being told by and to what end? Systemic inequities, especially those rooted in policy are not always visible to the naked eye and usually guiled in some way to appear neutral and/or meritocratic (Bradbury, 2020). This is evident in the way James Orr (2020) and his colleagues use statistics to claim that race is no longer relevant and further, in the testimonies of the ‘naïve’ or the ‘bystander’ (Wong et al., 2021), as (sometimes) even BAME students may fall into the trap of either trivialising their own experience or buying into this idea that race is not relevant in HE.
Reflection:
We need to have a much more nuanced conversation about race. It takes me back to a conversation I had with a former MA (BAME) student at UAL. The student wanted to do a project on their connection with their culture through exploring (in their words), “the motif of Sikh women’s hair as a context through which to decolonise visual lexicon and broaden the scope of hair in art. The project explored the 1984 riots in India (Dheer, 2018) and how Sikh women’s hair contains this dichotomy of grief and tragedy, as well as pride in their religion.” The project was supported by a white tutor, who drew on predominantly euro-centric literature to support the student, without making an effort to establish a middle ground by learning more about the student’s culture. The student felt like they were being fit into a mould as opposed to being helped find their voice. I wonder if and how I could have also contributed to these kinds of situations in the past, especially with a large international student body.
There is a clear need for decolonisation in how we think about anti-racism in arts education, through the references we use as well as in a more direct sense; having diversity within the staff body. This ties back to Garrett (2024) and how race based inequities affect not only the student population but also the numbers of students making their way to academic careers. Here, diversity is not just about representation but about representation actively creating a situation where BAME students can be supported better.
References:
- Dheer, G. (2018) ‘1984: “His hair was cut so he could live”’, Deccan Herald, 1 November. Available at: https://www.deccanherald.com/india/our-eyes-welled-my-brother-s-700931.html (Accessed: 18 June 2024).
- Bradbury, A. (2020) A critical race theory framework for education policy analysis: The case of bilingual learners and assessment policy in England. Race Ethnicity and Education, 23(2), 241-260.
- Channel 4. (2020) The School That Tried to End Racism. [Online}. Youtube. 30 June. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I3wJ7pJUjg
- Wong, B., Elmorally, R., Copsey-Blake, M., Highwood, E., & Singarayer, J. (2021). Is race still relevant? Student perceptions and experiences of racism in higher education. Cambridge Journal of Education, 51(3), 359-375.
- Orr, J. (2022) Revealed: The charity turning UK universities woke. The Telegraph [Online]. Youtube. 5 August. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRM6vOPTjuU
- Sadiq, A. (2023) Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. Learning how to get it right. TEDx [Online}. Youtube. 2 March. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HR4wz1b54hw
- Garrett, R. (2024) Racism shapes careers: career trajectories and imagined futures of racialised minority PhDs in UK higher education. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 1-15.
Hi Ravin,
I greatly appreciate your post and the personal reflections you shared.
I believe the discussions you bring up are vital for understanding how to foster more inclusive and supportive environments for all students, especially those whose stories and cultural perspectives may not align with dominant narratives. Your call for nuanced conversations about race and decolonisation really resonate. I agree that consideration into how we can actively contribute to creating educational spaces where every student feels valued and empowered to explore their identities without compromise is so important. The conversation with the student that you shared has me reflecting on my own teaching practice and how I can best support students. It brings me back to Asif Sadiq’s mention about self-led learning and how we all have a responsibility to seek knowledge – or as he said ‘we can own the journey of learning’. So valuable! It also has me questioning how UAL as a whole can contribute to this learning and support staff to better support students.
Thanks again for your thoughts and always happy to chat further.
Amy
Hi Amy,
Thanks for your wonderful comment and sharing reflections. I agree – it would be great to have more opportunities to share this kind of learning. I think the PG Cert has proved to be really valuable space for this and I’m quite interested to continue exploring these conversations and finding/co-creating platforms for them even after we have completed the PG Cert. As always, thanks again and happy to keep chatting further.
Best,
Ravin
Hi Ravin,
A very eloquent and succinct blog post! I wish I had this skill that you always do so well!
Thank you so much for your reflections, I think you did such a good job of summing up a really nuanced topic. In particular I thought your sentence “This encapsulates the individual nature of how race affects people’s lives and careers” was such an apt one.
I also really appreciated the generosity of your reflections, and the inclusion of the MA student’s experience at UAL. Their comment about how they felt like they were being “fit into a mould” due to the white tutors eurocentric reference points and inability to meet the student at a middle ground in particular felt very impactful.
It reminded me of the case study told to us during the first workshop by a fellow PGCERT-er, who mentioned how he had also had experiences with a student who felt the lack of references their tutor had for their project made them feel like they were getting a disparity in experience to their peers due to the cultural content of their project. Rather than focus on less relevant eurocentric references, that tutor had taken the path of not giving the student references at all, and instead focused on discussing practicalities of the project.
As you say, true diversity is not just about representation in the room but also the equality of experience for all of those in the room. As tutors it does feel like an important responsibility to try to ensure such students do not feel isolated or unsupported. This topic of the unintentional oppression that can come from purely eurocentric references (or lack of references at all), is a really important one.
Tutors cannot be expected to be experts in all areas and will always have their own specialisms, but it feels vital that tutors be able to draw on as wide a range of references as possible to support an international body of students more equally. This also obviously points to the deep need for a diverse academic staff body, to be able to have a wider/more diverse range of specialisms available within courses.
This conversation is definitely making me examine my own teaching practice – as an illustration tutor I’m very aware that my key reference points are almost entirely Western illustrators or illustrators based in Europe or America, and I know little about how the illustration market functions in non-Western countries. It also makes me think about even the diversity of sites I use for reference for students. For example (before the algorithm and engagement issues) I would often discuss the value of a Twitter and Instagram presence for illustration students – when I am also aware a lot of our students instead use WeChat, but I’ve so far not personally looked into ways it can support illustration careers.
Thanks again Ravin for your thoughtful post!
Hi Peony,
Thank you so much for your reflections and comments on my blog. Thank you for your kind words as well. I resonate with everything you have mentioned. It’s really great to hear your thoughts around how we might start to decolonise the curriculum on the granular level – for example, looking at social media and other places students may find inspiration and reference points for their work. I think this is so important as it boils down to the everyday experience of what decolonisation can look like.
Thank you so much once again – and I would be delighted to keep this conversation going!
Best,
Ravin
Hey Ravin,
I thought your post on race was excellent. Thank you for sharing your personal story, reflection and academic experience. I appreciate your transparency and well-written overview of the resources as you linked them.
I agree that there is still work to be done in educational institutions, and there needs to be decolonization approaches that ensure that all students feel seen and supported. I had similar thoughts about the importance of diversity in education, which is not just about having different people in the room, but about truly respecting and valuing people’s unique perspectives, cultures and identities.
Thank you for sharing that student’s experience. We indeed need to make sure we include and increase the number of diversified references in our teaching practice. As staff, including myself, we should continue to grow and learn by adding more diverse resources to our teaching. We should also continue to try our best to understand our students’ cultural backgrounds. This brings us to what Asif Sadiq challenges us to do – to continue to educate ourselves as educators, as we have a responsibility to our students.