Reflection…
Word count: 1581
This reflection considers the wider learning theory that underpins an inclusive approach for teaching practice. My intervention and focus was on attainment, in reference to the 33% disparity between white students gaining a higher degree compared with black and ethnic minority students in the UK (Finnegan & Richards, 2016). According to research, an inclusive curriculum would go some way towards helping erode the persisting attainment gap and redressing this injustice (Sabri, 2018). The reading material for this unit has enabled me to begin interrogating my own practice for bias, and to ascertain what, who and why certain things and people could be excluded by my approach.
I have worked as an associate lecturer (AL) at the LCF on BA HMU and BA FSP for five years. Each course has large student numbers, 60 on HMU and 90+ on FSP, and a diversity of learners. I am employed across a unit and prepare and deliver lectures on multiple subjects, co-deliver the class session and conduct group and one-to-one tutorials. I undertake formative assessments and mark projects, but not in generating the unit scheme of work. As someone who has an orientation towards developing our students’ contextual awareness, I have always felt a responsibility to create and deliver material that considers a variety of perspectives that chimes with my diverse range of students. As an AL, I do not receive staff appraisals and often do not know how or where to start to make changes and evolve beyond my own vantage point. This unit was important for my personal progress, and I feel I am ready to take the risk that bell hooks says is essential, to be “actively committed to the process of self-actualization” (hooks, p15), in the spirit of “renewing our minds”(hooks, p33) for the chance to transform myself, my teaching and my students’ experience.
Applying Critical race theory, Critical pedagogy and insight into issues around the gap in attainment helps me to better understand ideas of diversity, identity and inclusivity in higher education. I comprehend how the disparity is actually a social justice issue, and that structural racism and inequality are present throughout learning. As a white lecturer it was difficult for me to learn that white teaching staff often lack a criticality and curiosity for work that lies outside personal knowledge biases. A lack of perspective can cause black and ethnic minority students to feel undervalued, and this has a direct impact on attainment (Sabri, 2018, Hatton, 2016 & Finnegan and Richards, 2016). A hierarchy of knowledge and values is promoted and disseminated, leading to some students to feel they do not belong (Cowden & Singh, 2013 & Hatton, 2016). Critical race theory and Critical pedagogy make way for new perspectives that allows difference to influence and transform the discursive space. The first step towards realizing a direction for my intervention was an act of self-interrogation of my own practice. This would help me become a reflective and inclusive practitioner, allowing me to see where I can more effectively support students to explore their own identities through their work. This may prompt questions of race, gender, class, faith etc., create diverse forms of resistance, and disrupt, challenge and transform dominant “Acts of knowing” (Cowden & Singh, 2013).
Throughout this unit it has become clear this process requires not just the decolonising of teaching material, but a deeper scrutiny of my own white privilege and the universality of ‘Whiteliness’ more generally (Tate and Page, 2018 ). I think a process of self-reflection is something that all teaching staff could benefit from, and this inspired me to design an ‘Inclusive Teaching Action Design Plan’. The Action plan will take the form of an easily accessed interactive infographic document with key terms, links to definitions, further reading and relevant material. This plan would include key ideas relating to Inclusive teaching, strengthened with reading assembled from ITLHE Shades of Noir’s archived sources, which draws from a rich variety of perspectives conveyed with insight and empathy. The ITLHE sessions were revelatory in highlighting how embedded power structures create disadvantages for black and ethnic minority students in higher education. Throughout these sessions, it became clear many of those in attendance, including myself were not comprehensively engaging with diversity. In any environment where identity and diversity are central there must also be a focus on intersectionality, positionality and whiteness. My Design Plan connects these terms to specific reading and encourages a reflective approach to inclusion and can change the learning space for the benefit of the students. We can consider notions of social and cultural identity, power and privilege, and question what bearing these have on both students’ lives and our own. Another aspect of my intervention is an adapted version for students to introduce key terms, reading in a simple user-friendly manner. My intervention asks firstly that we identify where de-biasing strategies might be needed. Staff could then initiate a course of action to transform the learning environment to the benefit of students and teachers. John Smyth puts it best: “To get people to consider change you need to get them to think about it. In order to get them to think about it, you need to make it visible. Then interrupt it” (Smyth, p55). I think this intervention is an important one in helping promote self-reflection for other ALs like me with limited access to teaching guidance and furthermore supports students with their diversity competence. The feedback received about the intervention was that it was especially useful for new ALs and a good way for students to explore key terms. I argue that fractional staff could benefit from reconsidering their own pedagogues and challenge “…their own taken for granted assumptions” (Smyth, p 42).
As part of UAL’s Student Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Report 2020/21, the organisation has a target of increasing students from black, Asian and minority ethnic groups. UAL wants to develop an inclusive teaching methodology, to which its workforce can respond, and eliminate the attainment gap. (Sabri, 2018). My intervention can be an effective tool in addressing themes in UAL’s Anti-Racist Action Plan, asking staff to consider their viewpoints, bias and teaching practices, and how these may reproduce inequalities as well as privileges.
This unit has revealed my weaknesses, not just in terms of the material but also in teacher-student engagement. I believed I was discussing identity in an inclusive way, but this unit revealed a tendency to talk about the radicalised identity of whiteness in a tokenistic manner. I had not thoroughly interrogated how being white benefits me, and how this might influence my teaching, conceivably disadvantaging others. Black and ethnic minority students’ work is often judged against a status quo of whiteness that marginalises them as ‘other’ and negatively impacts their success. Deborah Gabriel declares that a lack of consciousness in both white staff and students is widespread and this leads to dominant knowledge bias that disadvantages. Creating a “practice of non-hierarchical difference”(Cowden & Singh, p 88) is therefore essential for an effective and intellectual recognition of others to take shape.
I had seen myself as standing in solidarity with my diverse student cohort, but concede that I am failing to provide them with a way of thinking and growing that is really revolutionary, empowering and “on the side of freedom” (Friere, p 80). Friere and hooks tell us that we need to engage in deep critical reflection, create teaching spaces that are safe and encourage openness and courage. According to hooks, “The engaged voice must never be fixed and absolute but always changing, always evolving in dialogue with a world beyond itself” (hooks, p11). Such insight inspired the direction of my intervention because it asks that we connect knowledge to power, and embrace a world beyond ourselves. Consequently, we can help marginalised students to deconstruct, challenge and ‘talk back’ to the prominent frameworks of knowledge, and to see the power of their own ‘epistemic privilege’ (Gabriel, 2017 & Cowden & Singh 2013). I believe my intervention could be a valuable support for staff if they are ready to be “self- actualized”, as hooks says, and inspire them to work towards decolonising both their teaching practice and themselves. My intervention creates an ethos for staff that asks for reflection and to critically question how their own racial and cultural identities coexist with the cultural make-up of the students and to recognize and respond to inequality.
Conclusion…
Through my participation in this unit I have gained greater insight into the urgent issues surrounding race and inequality. As an associate lecturer I am often on the margins of course discussions and planning, and can lack a sense of what my role entails. This unit has taught me that anything that involves the student experience is an issue I should engage with. I feel that when I return to work I will be able to participate with greater confidence and understanding, and have more to offer my team and students.
I have gained fresh insight into the practices of both teaching and learning by reflecting on diversity and social justice, and have a better understanding of how I can make a valuable contribution to the development of a more equal teaching and learning space. I have been encouraged to, through research and discussion, to deepen my self-awareness and critical consciousness. I am eager to put my learning into practice by developing my intervention, which I am confident can help build a culture of awareness, respect and value for everyone.
Bibliography…
Cowden, S and Singh, G. (2013) ‘Acts of Knowing : Critical pedagogy in, against and beyond the unversity’. New York : Bloomsbury Academic and Professional.
Finnegan. T and Richards A. (2016) ‘Retention and attainment in the disciplines: Art and Design’,Higher Education Academy, Available at: https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/knowledge-hub/retention-and-attainment-disciplines-art-and-design (Accessed: 20 December 2021)
Friere, P. (2000) ‘The Pedagogy of the Oppressed’. Rev.edn. New York: Bloombury Publishing Group.
Gabriel, D. (2017) ‘Overcoming Objectification and Dehumanization in Academia’, in T, S.A and Gabriel, D(ed). Inside the Ivory Tower: Narratives of Women of Colour Surviving and Thriving in British Academia. United Kingdom. IOE Press, pp.25-38.
Hatton, K. (2015) ‘Towards an INCLUSIVE ARTS EDUCATION’. United Kingdom. IOE Press
Hooks. B. (1994)‘Teaching to Transgress’. New York: Routledge.
Sabri. D. (2017) ‘UAL students’ engagement with industry and communities of practice, Year 4 report’. University of the Arts London. Unpublished.
Sabri. D. (2018) ‘UAL students’ engagement with industry and communities of practice, Year 4 report of a 4-year longitudinal study for University of the Arts London’. University of the Arts London. Unpublished.
Singh. G. (2020) ‘A NOTE FROM DR. GURNAM SINGH’. ToR Journal : Inclusive Practice : Alchemy-Transformation in Social Justice Teaching. pp. 38-40. Avaliable at: https://issuu.com/shadesofnoir/docs/inclusivepractice (Accessed: 10 December 2021).
Smyth, J. (2011) ‘CRITICAL PEDAGOGY FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE’. New York: Continuum.
Tate. S A. and Page, D. (2018) ‘Whiteliness and institutional racism: hiding behind (un)conscious bias’, Critical Philosophy of Race and Education, Vol:13(1), pp,141-155. Avaliable at: Doi.org/10.1080/17449642.2018.1428718 (Accessed: 01 December 2021).
UAL. (2018) ‘Equality, Diversity and Inclusion report 2018’. University of the Arts: Unpublished.
UAL. (2020) ‘Belonging in Higher Education: Interrogating Spaces’. July 2020. Avaliable at: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0XbeXoNM8dT8BCulnLQ07d. PODAST. (Accessed: 12August 2021).
UAL. (2021) ‘Anti-Racism Action Plan’. University of the Arts: Unpublished.