Inclusive Teaching and Learning in Higher Education: Race

Task 1
Look at the following resources and respond:
Visit the Shades of Noir (SoN) consider how you could use this resource in your
practice and answer the questions Write a min. 250 word reflection or no more
than 10 minute vlog.

How could you apply the resources to your own teaching practice?
The majority of the students I teach are from China, which obviously has its own racial and class tensions that I am beginning to understand more and more through my own research and through engaging with my students. I teach on MA Applied Imagination and we have one of the most diverse course teams in the University, both in practice and in terms of race. I am very conscious that when overseas students attend university in the UK, particularly London, these students are not only learning in a secondary language, they are also learning to navigate British colonial racism along with all the language we use to identify and fight against that racism. It is obvious that many of the students in our cohort really struggle with the differences in culture, including how we talk about race in the UK. If I were to plan a lesson around the Shades site, I think I would set up a safe space for my students to read through some articles or ToRs and openly discuss any terms they may be unfamiliar with or unclear on. Perhaps a translation or terminology creation exercise where we explore the language around race used in different cultures. After that I would discuss my positionality (mixed, Jewish, white-passing, disabled) and ask them to discuss theirs in relation to the ToRs they have read. I think this step is essential to fostering deeper understanding because it is very easy as a student reading an academic text to intellectualise a subject and forget to root your understanding of what you are learning within the context of lived experience. I personally do this a lot, so it would be a good exercise for me as well as my students.

How could you integrate the research/work your students do on this subject into
your teaching/professional practice?
I have to be honest and say that this question makes me a little uncomfortable, because there is a power imbalance between students and staff, the suggestion of “integrating” the work of a student into my own practice feels appropriative. Having said that, I think this very much depends on the work of the students. If the scenario is similar to the one I have outlined above, I would probably work on incorporating discussion of key terms around social justice and race within each session in a way which is accessible and gives the students a chance to feed back their own experiences if they wish to.

Can you cite examples? You will share your thoughts within your groups and
comment and share further resources you use in your own context.
We as a course team have had many discussions around the racism our students have encountered since Covid and how we can provide support for them in a way which is sensitive and maintains healthy boundaries. Too often as academics we assume what our students do and don’t know which can cause harm. I think it is important to arm students, particularly when they come from a different culture, with resources that provide them with context for their experiences in terms of the historical systemic racism in the UK. I think the University should do more to be transparent with overseas students of colour regarding the racism they may encounter attending University here. This is particularly relevant now that quarantine the Black Lives Matter protests are forcing people to pay attention to the catastrophic consequences of white supremacy, racism and anti-blackness worldwide. As a result I deliberately try to introduce resources and discussion around intersectionality during every tutorial I conduct, and I encourage students to examine and challenge their own perspectives around race, gender and sexuality.

Task 2
Read Hahn Tapper (2013) ‘A pedagogy of social justice education: social
identity, theory and intersectionality’, Pp. 411- 417 (and see diagram on
p.426) this can be found in the blog PDF within moodle. Discuss two things you
learnt from the text. And one question/provocation you have about the text.
Write a min. 100 word reflection or no more than 5 minute vlog.

“Although this is not necessarily a problem—the
heterogeneity surrounding an idea can potentially add great depth to its
meaning—when a term is used without simultaneously offering a definition, its meaning can become inconsistent or even superficial.”

The quote above really stuck out to me, I often think about this in terms of the dictionary definition of racism as “prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against a person or people on the basis of their membership of a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority or marginalized.” vs the social justice definition “The individual, cultural, and institutional beliefs and discrimination that systematically oppress  people of color (Blacks, Latino/as, Native Americans, and Asians).” (National Conference for Community and Justice website) The former being the definition which is frequently weoponised by people displaying white fragility so that they cannot be held accountable and who also make claims towards “reverse racism” (which makes 0 sense since the reverse of racism is anti-racism).

Relating this to Tapper’s discussion of different conflict resolution methodologies in the text Contact Hypothesis (exposure to an opposing group in a positive way can cause toxic ideas about the group to dissipate over time due to cognitive dissonance) and Social Identity Theory (SIT), “SIT posits that intergroup encounters must be approached in and through students’ larger social identities.” I saw some distinct parallels between the two. In both cases the former allows for little introspection or challenge to behaviour and does not take into account the lived experiences of the people involved, whereas the latter provides much needed context and nuance for the situation at hand. I do find it strange that so far on this course there have been no active workshops around conflict resolution, particularly pertaining to highly charged topics such as race, religion and disability. Again the assumptions made by an academic body – namely that we all empathise and manage conflicts in a way which is healthy- can cause harm to both staff and students and needs addressing.

Task 3
Watch the student film ‘Room of Silence’ from Rhode Island School of Design
https://vimeo.com/161259012. Write a min. 100 word reflection or no more than
5 minute vlog

Watching this I felt completely frustrated and angry, there is so much to unpack. I was lucky enough to have academics of colour teaching me when I was at university at Middlesex, and at the time I naively assumed that every Fine Art course was similar – since the arts are so liberal. It was only after speaking to friends who graduated from other universities that I was made aware of the lack of representation of BPOC academics across all teaching levels. Obviously this is a disgrace – for multiple reasons. The thought that these students have paid for an education which they are essentially not receiving because of the lack of knowledge and racism of the faculty is infuriating. Experiences like mine, where students of colour are supported by staff of colour and the reading and references are wide-ranging and attempting to be inclusive, are obviously unicorn-like in their rarity. What stuck out to me the most is the emotional labour the students in the video all had to perform. It is clear that managing their own emotions and expectations as well as those of their fellow students and their teachers is exhausting and will affect their work, but when it comes to assessment these factors are obviously never considered and they are clearly contributing to attainment gaps between white and BIPOC students.

Task 4
Review ‘Retention and attainment in the disciplines: Art and Design’ Finnigan
and Richards 2016. Discuss two things you learnt from the text. And one
question/provocation you have about the text. Write a min. 100 word reflection
or no more than 5 minute vlog

Reading this report I was immediately struck by two points, the concept of “talent over privilege” and the idea that students are encouraged to “take risks” but desire certainty and safety from tutors. For me, the concept of talent itself is tricky, and very coded by the overwhelming concept of the white, cis-het male genius artist archetype. If we extend that further, of course it is easy to be a “genius” and feel safe to take risks with your work if you have privilege and are in the majority. If you have precedent and an entire canon and cultural model to support your behaviour and work you would think nothing of “shaking things up”. However, students of colour may come from backgrounds where they are already taking a significant risk by going to art school in the first place, rather than a career which is deemed as being more “solid” e.g. doctor, lawyer, engineer etc. The flip side of this is that because of racism, when students of colour do take risks with their work they are often penalized for it as seen in the “The Room of Silence” film, their tutors do not know how to effectively critique the themes in their work or are deliberately obtuse when challenged about their lack of knowledge and racist teaching practices. In both cases the lack of awareness in the faculty and the policies of the university as a whole is a serious issue which HE institutions seem to only want to address or combat on a surface level.