Dismantling Race in Higher Education Racism, Whiteness and Decolonising the Academy: Racism, Whiteness and Decolonising the Academy
Abstract
This book reveals the roots of structural racism that limit social mobility and equality within Britain for Black and ethnicised students and academics in its inherently white Higher Education institutions. It brings together both established and emerging scholars in the fields of Race and Education to explore what institutional racism in British Higher Education looks like in colour-blind 'post-race' times, when racism is deemed to be ‘off the political agenda’. Keeping pace with our rapidly changing global universities, this edited collection asks difficult and challenging questions, including why black academics leave the system; why the curriculum is still white; how elite universities reproduce race privilege; and how Black, Muslim and Gypsy traveller students are disadvantaged and excluded.
The book also discusses why British racial equality legislation has failed to address racism, and explores what the Black student movement is doing about this. As the authors powerfully argue, it is only by dismantling the invisible architecture of post-colonial white privilege that the 21st century struggle for a truly decolonised academy can begin. This collection will be essential reading for students and academics working in the fields of Education, Sociology, and Race.
... Understanding how power works enables us to see how traditional models of widening participation are problematic with established-outsider figurations rarely changing and established whiteness remaining as the 'civilising process' to be achieved. Widening participation, focusing on the enrolment and retention of more GRT students, is unlikely to improve experiences unless fundamental changes occur within the higher education academy; including engagement with counter narratives which aim to dismantle established university whiteness which positions groups as outsiders and privileges particular bodies, knowledge, pedagogy, cultural capital, and cultural wealth (Warikoo 2016;Arday and Mirza 2018;Yosso 2005). It is important, therefore, that as part of decolonising universities, which focuses on taking a critical approach to the reproduction of power and oppression, that universities authentically and reflexively explore how their formal and hidden curricula as well as institutional responses support racialised and outsider societal controlling images and stereotypes that are directed towards GRT communities. ...
... However, whilst universities are very apt at proudly emphasising their social justice credentials this does not often translate into meaningful action. There are numerous critiques of university responses to anti-racism (Gillborn 2006) defined by Ahmed (2012) as 'speech-acts' as well as responses to decolonisation which highlight how the 'decolonising education' agenda has been mis-recognized, by universities, diverting attention away from an analysis of power structures, which focus on de-centring whiteness, to become superficial university responses which instead uphold established whiteness (Tuck and Yang 2012; Arday and Mirza 2018). ...
This qualitative study explored the university experiences of 13 students from Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller (GRT) communities in England and Scotland. Using conceptual tools, informed by the work of Bourdieu, such as racialised habitus and racialised cultural capital, as well as Elias’s work on established-outsider figurations we show that GRT students are ‘racialised’ outsiders in university established white habitus, with students experiencing the devaluing of their cultural capital including anti-Gypsy and anti-Roma rhetoric within university settings. Moreover, a destabilised habitus was evident, for some, who experienced ‘cultural dissonance’ between community and university expectations as well as feelings of ‘not being good enough’. This was compounded by the racialised controlling images they encountered, resulting in hyper-vigilance about the sharing of their ethnic identity. For some, this led to painfully ‘fragmented selves’ which was exacerbated by a lack of support from universities and invisibility within institutional established white habitus.
... One of the hotspots where inequality thrives is the Academy, which has long been associated with structural racism (e.g. Arday & Mirza, 2018;Pennant, 2022) . Black students experience greater mental health problems and difficulties transitioning into the Academy (Arday, 2020), having navigated a schooling system with a 'whitewashed curriculum' (Dowling & Flintoff, 2015), disproportionate rates of exclusions (Timpson, 2019) and anti-Black racism (YMCA, 2020). ...
... The effects of these show anti-Black racism is fluid and relentless (Gillborn, 2018), reflected in attainment and outcomes of young Black students at key educational stages including school (Department for Education [UK], 2021) and university (Universities UK, 2019). Among Black staff, institutional racism yields different but equally immobilising effects, such as higher numbers of precarious contracts (UCU, 2020), lower retention rates (EHRC, 2019) and restrictions to development and progression (Arday & Mirza, 2018). As Bowden and Buie (2021) note, the way these manifest are often covert and insidious: ...
The permanence of systemic racism in the UK and USA means that Black people are disadvantaged in myriad ways, including within the Academy. While the disproportionate impact of COVID-19, alongside the Black Lives Matter movement, has increased awareness of the challenges faced by Black communities, these issues remain, both in and beyond higher education. Furthermore, there is still a paucity of research individualising the experiences of Black people, who are often homogenised with other ethnic minority groups. This paper explores the impact of COVID-19 on UK and US Black students and academic staff, utilising a critical race theory (CRT) framework. Analysis revealed that Black students and staff experienced COVID-19 against the backdrop of racism as a “pandemic within a pandemic” (Laurencin and Walker, Cell Systems 11:9–10, 2020), including racial (re)traumatisation, loneliness and isolation. Other themes included precarious employment and exploitation. Recommendations are offered for penetrative interventions that can support Black students and staff in the wake of strained race relations neglecting their adverse experiences and a global pandemic.
... The general consensus among HEPs and education scholars is the existence of a direct causal connection between a White and Eurocentric curricula and lower levels of grade outcomes and gaps in awards for students of colour (Arday and Mirza 2018). In turn, racial inclusion work in HE has thus far, largely translated into a growing number of attempts to disrupt and pluralise curricula in a university wide (Bhambra, Gebrial, and Nişancıoğlu 2018;Peters 2018) or a subject specific sense (Meghji 2021 andMoncreieffe 2020); or focused on creating a more inclusive experience of belonging for minority ethnic students in HE (This also raises important questions with regards to the extent to which HEPs can meaningfully disrupt the structural and systemic process which marginalise people of colour, via relatively 'quick fixes' such as pluralising taught content, without the implementation of policies designed to address the violences of imperialism, modernity and capitalism that manifest within the academe. ...
... While at the same time, they marginalise other forms of knowingalbeit in varying ways. This situation has a profound impact on who and which students the academe directly relates to, works for, advantages and excludes in its processes, procedures and, according to Arday and Mirza (2018), the award outcomes and gaps between students of colour and their White peers. ...
Relatively little critical attention has been given specifically to ‘assessments’ and related processes in relation to race and racial inequalities in UK HEPs. Consequently, we know relatively little with regards to rather routine questions, such as: What are the assessment experiences of BAME students? To what extent is BAME student inclusion intrinsic to specific assessment types or connected to wider pedagogical practice? Or to the ways in which wider social and cultural factors intersect, influence and may contribute to the experiences (and performances) of different BAME-heritage students in particular forms of assessment? Drawing on (focus-group) interview-data of 44 BAME and White undergraduate students, findings illustrate how institutional- and cultural-processes which (dis)advantage students from different minority-ethnic backgrounds are deeply imbedded within assessment. They also sketch-out how these processes work to prioritise and marginalise specific racialised currencies, which are clustered unevenly in certain communities.
... This article is concerned with experiences of marginalised transitions and high rates of noncompletion amongst financial aid-funded Black working class students in South African HE and related contexts. Despite the proliferation of diversity and inclusion policies and initiatives, the strong global and national level policy commitments have yet to translate to equitable and just educational realities for traditionally marginalised communities [1,2]. Even as working class students gain increased access to HE, social inequality in patterns of access and attainment has been "maximally and effectively maintained" [3]. ...
... As marginalised transitions and experiences of HE continue to facilitate a revolving door of exclusion for the working class [9], dominant narratives and representations that inform teaching, learning and assessment practices remain anchored to flawed notions of HE institutions as progressively transforming, fair, equal opportunity, colourblind and generally well-meaning spaces [10]. Many amongst us remain reluctant to recognise "race as a legitimate object of scrutiny, either in scholarship or policy" and universities' role in reproducing and legitimating racial inequity [1]. In downplaying the exclusionary intersection of race and class in students' educational transitions, advocates of meritocratic theories of the achievement gap, in settler colonial states like South Africa, stand to preserve "a legacy of racial privilege" [8] and serve to "dismiss and mute the realities of people of colour" in educational institutions [10]. ...
Against a backdrop of dominant deficit, victim-blaming and class/colourblind theories of unequal educational transitions and higher education outcomes, this article analyses thematically in-depth narrative interviews with Black working class “dropouts” in South African higher education to explore how this group of former students narrate and make sense of their educational journeys and how their accounts could strengthen efforts to achieve just and equitable experiences and outcomes for students from all walks of life. Their narrative accounts reveal that, (a) in their marginalised educational transitions, despite disrupted and sometimes traumatic formative years (lows), their transformative habitus and community cultural wealth enables them to find highs in nadir moments; (b) their educational pathways are paved with unlikely steppingstones and improvising agents of transformation who overcome the odds of under-resourced schooling experiences; (c) despite policymakers’ best intentions, student financial aid moderates but does not ameliorate the perils of being Black and working class in higher education; (d) as pushed dropouts, they are victims of a class and colourblind criminalisation of failure that naturalises injustice in already unjust educational contexts. This study illuminates the transformative and social justice potential in analysing narrative accounts of those who often disappear from higher education without a trace.
... Tom's agreement suggests that she 2 recognises and may have had similar experiences. Thus, for some, life on campus is compared to a fight for survival (Arday & Mirza, 2018). ...
Twenty-four percent of Black and minority ethnic students in the UK report facing racial harassment at university, and one in twenty leave their studies due to this. But how do those who remain negotiate a hostile climate and what can we learn from their strategies? In our focus groups conducted with 16 Black students at a predominantly white institution, we found a sophisticated awareness of multiple strategies, and awareness of the social and psychological consequences of each. Our reflective thematic analysis focuses on three of these strategies: First, the experience and expression of two versions of the self, depending on context and audience; second, performing a strategic whiteness both for personal and collective motives; and third, accentuating and embracing Blackness. Our analysis highlights how these strategies were adopted, encouraged, and discarded over time as well as the tensions between strategies; for instance, when the performance of whiteness is received as ‘inauthentic’ by other Black students. Importantly, our research troubles the notion that there are positive and negative strategies and instead emphasises the complex relational processes at play. Thus, rather than emphasising ‘fitting in’, institutions should endeavour to support the range of strategies used by marginalised students who remind us that it is not that straightforward.
... Moreover, inequality when considering students for a specific programme and how race influences this decision is still prevalent in universities [13]. Therefore, reflective teaching in higher education employs strategies for mitigating negative effects on students [14]. ...
This paper addresses the attainment gap in academic performance for students of Minoritised and non-minoritised ethnicity, studying Discrete Mathematics, an undergraduate university level module, whereby an investigation of the effect of an intervention in one of the assessments is undertaken and statistically analysed. The attainment gap faced by the students of the UK higher education sector is concerning and between students of minoritised ethnic background and their counterparts, there is a sizeable achievement disparity in the education system. These groups' divergent academic performance is referred to as the attainment, and socioeconomic 12 disadvantage, cultural hurdles, and institutional bias have all acted as a setback for the students from Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic communities. However, there are obstacles to putting this strategy into practise, such as the need for suitable pedagogical techniques and assistance for students from different ethnic circumstances. Creating inclusive teaching methods in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects that consider the linguistic and cultural diversity of the student is necessary to address these hindrances. Higher educational institutions can contribute to reducing the achievement gap for minoritised ethnic groups and fostering greater equity and social mobility by encouraging the teaching and study of modules in a responsive manner. Continuous analysis and study on the discrepancies faced by the students at their institutions should be performed to reduce this gap whilst promoting diversity. Moreover, a comparison over two academic years relative to the overall academic performance of students, considering the minoritised ethnic cohort, is accomplished so as to measure the approach's validity. The results from the performance ratio, t-test, hypothesis testing, effect size, chi-squared test, categorical variable analysis and the Cronbach alpha measure, all feed into and confirm the reliability of the study hence validating the positive impact of the intervention.
... In our re-examination, it became clear that faculty are not getting the support, preparation, or training needed to effectively educate and mentor students from underrepresented backgrounds. The faculty also receive little support to learn how to participate in and guide discussions about how the historical and contemporary practices in their disciplines are rooted in racial and gender exclusions (Arday & Mirza, 2018;Cronin et al., 2021;Miriti, 2019;y Muhs et al., 2012). Similarly, our findings also suggest that it is important for students with race, class, and/or gender privileges to gain a better understanding of how opportunities are structured by race and class in K-12 schools and in colleges; to gain skills to work effectively in diverse learning environments; and to intervene when they witness acts of discrimination. ...
This study examines data from a participatory research action study on the experiences of underrepresented students in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields at a small liberal arts college in the United States. Our analysis aims to move away from the framework that students needed to be taught how to cope with and overcome the challenges they faced in their STEM experiences, including racism and sexism. Instead, we propose a stronger focus on how to end racist, sexist, and other forms of discrimination. We draw on the concept of “cultural humility” as a concrete framework that professors, departments, and institutions can use to approach their work of changing practices, policies, and systems. Results discuss specific strategies that educators and institutions can use to promote a cultural humility framework as one way to create anti-oppressive and equitable classrooms, departments, and institutions.
... At the assessment level, for example during OSCEs, there is a risk of unconscious bias and stereotype activation, as explored by Yeates et al. (2017) using an experimental research method. At the institutional level, there is now wide recognition, as highlighted in many reports (EHRC 2019; Universities UK 2019), that toxic cultures and structural barriers play a crucial role (Arday and Mirza 2018). This is further confirmed internationally. ...
Background: Discrimination, racism, harassment, stereotyping, and bullying are a significant issue for medical students as they create a hostile environment with detrimental effect on student wellbeing and educational experience. Findings suggest that though prevalent, reporting of these experiences is rare and perceived as ineffective. Objectives: This scoping review aims to map the trends, types, and nature of discrimination, harassment, bullying, stereotyping, intimidation, and racism reports in undergraduate medical education in the UK since 2010 and to determine areas of focus for undertaking full systematic reviews in the future. Method: A search was conducted using the MEDLINE, AHMED, CINHL, and EMBASE electronic databases from 2010 up to February 2022 in English. Only primary research papers (e.g., cohort studies, cross-sectional studies, and case series) that report the words/phrases discrimination (including gender and racial), harassment (including verbal, sexual, academic, and physical), bullying, stereotype, intimidation, and racism within medical education in the UK after 2010, following the Equity Act 2010, were eligible for inclusion. Results: Five relevant articles relating to discrimination, harassment, bullying, stereotyping, intimidation, and racism in medical schools in the UK were included. Three themes were identified across these studies. Conclusions: The data suggest that there is a high prevalence rate of discrimination, harassment, and stereotyping being experienced by ethnic minority undergraduate medical students in the UK. There is underreporting due to perceived and structural barriers. The identified studies suggest that less progress has been made in these areas.
... The writers in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland combined represent a further 10.0%, and a handful of writers are resident abroad (the latter have been excluded from our analysis here). At the time of our directive, MO did not ask panellists for information on their sexual or ethnic identification (although some people refer to these)an important omission given the relevance of ethnicity in the experience of the pandemic, and more generally in light of attempts to decolonise and diversify sociological research (Mirza and Arday, 2018). 2 Handling and analysing MO data is widely recognised as challenging (Pollen, 2013). ...
The COVID-19 pandemic has foregrounded the significance of time to everyday life, as the routines, pace, and speed of social relations were widely reconfigured. This article uses rhythm as an object and tool of inquiry to make sense of spatio-temporal change. We analyse the Mass Observation (MO) directive we co-commissioned on ‘COVID-19 and Time’, where volunteer writers reflect on whether and how time was made, experienced, and imagined differently during the early stages of the pandemic in the UK. We draw on Henri Lefebvre and Catherine Régulier's ‘rhythmanalysis’, taking up their theorisation of rhythm as linear and cyclical and their concepts of arrhythmia (discordant rhythms) and eurhythmia (harmonious rhythms). Our analysis highlights how MO writers articulate (a) the ruptures to their everyday rhythms across time and space, (b) their experience of ‘blurred’ or ‘merged’ time as everyday rhythms are dissolved and the pace of time is intensified or slowed, and (c) the remaking of rhythms through new practices or devices and attunements to nature. We show how rhythm enables a consideration of the spatio-temporal textures of everyday life, including their unevenness, variation, and difference. The article thus contributes to and expands recent scholarship on the social life of time, rhythm and rhythmanalysis, everyday life, and MO.
... In these studies, students of African and/or Caribbean descent form a distinct subgroup within the wider group of minoritised students. Their experiences point to drop-out due to unmet expectations, financial and family difficulties, institutional factors, and feelings of isolation, hostility and lack of belonging (Arday & Mirza, 2018). ...
AUTHORS MIKE MIMIRINIS ANNITA VENTOURIS ELINA WRIGHT
ABOUT BERA - The British Educational Research Association (BERA) is the leading authority on educational research in the UK, supporting and representing the community of scholars, practitioners and everyone engaged in and with educational research both nationally and internationally.
VARIATION IN BL ACK STUDENTS’ CONCEPTIONS OF ACADEMIC SUPPORT: A PHENOMENOGRAPHIC STUDY
The report summarises the results of a phenomenographic study on undergraduate, Black students’ conceptions of academic support. A cohort of 20 students from various disciplines within a single higher education institution participated in semi-structured interviews exploring their experiences of academic support. The study identified four qualitatively different ways in which Black students conceived of academic support. Academic support was understood in terms of a) helping university students; b) ensuring student understanding of the object of learning; c) organising measures to improve student understanding and performance; and d) organising conditions for enhancing learning, wellbeing, equality and inclusion in the academic environment. The results highlight that renewed focus is required on how curriculum design, teaching methods and assessment may affect how Black students succeed in their studies.Equality, personal and social wellbeing, and respect for every student as part of the university community are discerned as intrinsic to progress, development and success. These aspects therefore should be areas of attention for higher education institutions if equitable outcomes are to be achieved for all students.
... When she was interviewed in a national newspaper for an article on this subject, a senior, well-established member of staff (who has been called out by his own students for having made ableist remarks) was given the first and last word. In the battlefield of science equity, well-established senior white academics hold the high ground (Arday & Mirza, 2018;Royal Society, 2018;Williams et al., 2019). ...
... These recent developments have thrown into relief the stakes that are involved in a continuous, antiracist teaching and research practice within the UK Higher Education and other sectors. It is important not to get side-tracked by what is increasingly emerging as a fabricated culture war instigated by the UK government and serving the purpose of fuelling endless circular debates, employing straw man arguments and thus delaying the implementation of antiracist and decolonial policies and practices which have been identified as necessary by several studies in recent years (Bhambra et al. 2018;Arday and Mirza 2018). ...
Was bedeutet die Forderung nach einer »Dekolonisierung der Universität« für die deutschsprachige Theaterwissenschaft? Wie könnte eine post- oder dekoloniale Theaterwissenschaft aussehen? Und welche institutionellen und methodologischen Veränderungen sind nötig, um intersektionale Analysen von Race, Class, Gender und Sexuality strukturell zu verankern? Ausgehend von ihren Erfahrungen in Lehre, Forschung und Theaterpraxis gehen die Beitragenden des Bandes diesen Fragen nach und liefern dabei vielfältige Anregungen für alle, die ihre Curricula, Seminar- und Probenräume von kolonialen Spuren befreien wollen.
... For example, in the United States, the Black Lives Matters movement has been as active and relevant at college as it has been in the broader society (White, 2016). Certainly institutional discrimination, racism, privilege, and bias continue to prevail on campuses (Arday & Mirza, 2018;Ash et al., 2020). ...
There is ample evidence that that the world is increasingly becoming more multiculturally
diverse. Globally, many college campuses are also very diverse. Sometimes, such diversity contributes to intergroup tensions and conflicts. While some conflict is inherent in any organization, proper prevention and management strategies can reduce it. Many universities purport to uphold the values of inclusion and acceptance of diversity yet may not be doing enough to ensure they “walk the talk.” This paper explores the following question: How can the fields of peace and conflict studies and social psychology come together to offer practical solutions? Multidisciplinary collaboration between these fields will likely contribute concrete empirically based suggestions that may lead to greater intercultural collaboration and competencies on campuses which could reduce intergroup tensions and conflicts and improve interpersonal relationships. Both fields can offer empirically-backed solutions that can be applied to this complex issue; for example, intercultural collaboration has been demonstrated to be effective at reducing intergroup tensions and improving intergroup attitudes. Evidence based programing could be relevant for university administrators, student affairs staff, faculty, counseling centers, student clubs, and students themselves. Program implementation would likely be in alignment with universities’ values and have long term payoffs for both the institutions and their constituents. Future research is encouraged and directions suggested.
Originally published here: https://www.pcrconference.org/pcrc2020-proceedings.html
... constructed in a tangle of stratifications, exclusions, privileges and assumptions' (Warmington, 2018, vi-vii). Responding to these issues such scholars from across the globe (e.g., R. A. Shahjahan et al., 2021;Andreotti et al., 2015;Arday & Mirza, 2018;Mamdani, 2016) point towards educational change through practices of widening participation, decolonizing curriculum, and antiracist academic leadership that draws inspiration from existing social justice movements and spaces of contestation. ...
... The school's collaboration with the associative network related to the Roma people, which constitutes a valuable link between families and educational centres (Alexiadou, 2019;O'Hanlon, 2010;Simić et al., 2019), as well as the cultural knowledge of the teaching staff and management team about the ethnic group and its inclusion in the contents of the school, are also both essential protective factors in this first dimension (Botija et al., 2017;Ferrández-Ferrer et al., 2019;García Fernández, 2017;Peters, 2018). This makes Roma pupils feel recognised and respected and gives greater meaning to their participation and continuity in the different school stages (Carrasco and Poblet, 2019;O'Hanlon, 2010). ...
The situation of oppression and discrimination of Roma people is a fact that can be observed in many research studies. This is in conjunction with segregation and unequal educational conditions for Roma students, which do not seem to improve despite economic investment and specific intervention programmes. We understand that these situations are ever-present and structural in our society and that they segregate and exclude and become cultural, social and educational barriers for Roma students to successfully continue their academic careers until they reach university. The aim of this study was to understand the views of Roma students at a university in the south of Spain regarding the factors that had enabled them to overcome the initial difficulties they had faced during primary and secondary education, and which had acted as protective factors against educational exclusion. We have included quantitative data through the use of questionnaires, and qualitative data through the use of interviews. The results suggest that these factors are diverse, intersecting and are not mutually exclusive. Family and teacher support and the presence of a non-segregated environment, as well as personal motivation and self-awareness, are key factors. A relevant finding has been the flexibility of cultural reference models that have allowed them to navigate the exclusionary structures of the school.
The upheavals caused by the COVID-19 pandemic continue to affect the lives of faculty across the globe. Inasmuch as the pandemic brought profound levels of anxiety, loss, and turmoil, it also created an opportunity to address ineffective and unjust policies in academia. For Black women academics, reflections on the pandemic do not linger on the realignment, reinvention, and reinvigoration of their professional lives because alignment, invention, and invigoration as fully accepted peers in the academy have never existed for them. Instead, the opportunity now is for Black women faculty to step into a space that has never been fully accessible to them as professionals. The pandemic provided an opportunity to recognize pervasive and systemic inequalities for minoritized individuals and communities that have always been reflected in the academy and to create an environment of inclusion and empowerment for everyone. Reimagining academia as an inclusive environment means intentionally challenging racial stereotypes and promoting spaces where Black women faculty feel included and connected.
Purpose
The purpose of this study was to examine the experiences of faculty of color (FOC) in communication sciences and disorders (CSD) with a specific emphasis on mentoring or being mentored during doctoral training and as faculty. FOC experience a number of unique obstacles to achieve success in higher education, often as a result of engaging in predominantly white spaces at the university or broader professional levels. Mentoring is a commonly recommended strategy for the recruitment and retention of FOC; however, little is known about the mentoring experiences of FOC in CSD.
Method
Sixteen FOC, primarily women in tenure-track positions, provided 46- to 60-min semistructured interviews related to their experiences in academia. Interviews were transcribed, and for the purposes of this study, comments related to mentoring were identified and coded. A narrative thematic analysis was used to generate themes and subthemes evident in the interviews.
Results
Six themes emerged from the data analysis: types of mentoring, cultural dynamics of mentoring, institutional support, motivation, ineffective mentoring, and effective mentoring. While participants chose to emphasize different aspects of their experiences as FOC, the importance of mentoring was notable and there were marked similarities in their experiences with mentoring.
Conclusions
The data in this study indicated that mentoring plays an important role in shaping one's career success and trajectory in the discipline and the academy. A number of conclusions and recommendations were drawn from the experiences shared by the FOC. Recommendations include creating an environment to talk about mentoring, formally developing mentoring programs, and providing support and structure to guide mentoring relationships.
This case study presents the importance of the student voice to decolonise the curriculum at a British university. The aim is to emphasise the increasing necessity and urgency for student input to the wider decolonisation process as a means to foster equality. It has been argued by some scholars that decolonisation of the curriculum in higher education institutions (HEIs) is closely connected to the racial awarding gap and the student voice plays an integral role regarding future decisions about pedagogy. The Student Voice: Decolonising the curriculum project did not ask Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME) students to spend time helping the university to decolonise the curriculum, rather it sought input from students who are experiencing the current curriculum. The process of decolonisation is often underestimated and not acted upon due to a lack of time. However, it is important as often the racial awarding gap reflects pedagogical practices which exclude BAME students. Student input to pedagogical decisions is an important step towards inclusivity. Critical conversations and co-produced resources such as websites can all contribute to an institution better equipped to deliver pedagogical practice contributing to narrowing the racial awarding gap and the wider aim to decolonise the curriculum.
This article offers sociological reflections on race and neurodiversity in UK higher education (UKHE). Using dialogical knowledge production and collaborative autoethnography, the authors discuss their lived experiences of navigating the politics of neurodiversity and neurotypical hegemony in UKHE as Black sociologists. The central argument explores how race and neurotypical hegemony overexposes Black neurodiverse scholars to a particular and pervasive form of double jeopardy. The authors’ reflexive accounts show how, as Black scholars, they must often negotiate the operation of race alongside the hegemonic practices of the white western academy. In this way, they grapple with racism and ableism in the context of value, meritocracy and elitism. The authors contend that drawing on the politics of neurodiversity in conjunction with Black subjectivities can generate routes into exposing and dismantling neurotypical hegemony. A key motive for discussing their own experiences as neurodivergent scholars in UKHE is that existing research and anecdotal reflections point to a pattern of general whitening of how we understand neurodiversity in academia. The authors indulge their personal, political and academic commitment to this subject as they contend that as Black neurodivergent sociologists, we’ll see things they’ll never see.
The author adopts a racialized lens to a generalizable framework of graduate recruitment and selection to explore race and employability. The generalizable framework highlights the inter-relatedness of work-readiness, graduate identity, and signaling at the individual (miso) level, with Tracey Yosso's conceptualization of community cultural wealth and Julia Evett's framing of ‘organizational professionalism at the institutional (meso) level. The adoption of a racialized lens to the generalizable framework enables the author to explain how structural and systemic racism within graduate and recruitment processes operates. Racism in graduate recruitment and selection is evidenced by longstanding inequitable outcomes for racially minoritized graduates. The chapter concludes with recommendations to enable colleagues to engage in compassionate action to mitigate racism in graduate recruitment and selection praxis and recognize institutional responsibility for change.
This essay offers reflective learning on how researchers in the Western science tradition connect to bodies of knowledge created and held outside that tradition. It begins with endogenous growth theory, which explains the unique role of knowledge as an input into economic production. The essay describes how Western science addresses the problem of validating and accessing knowledge, by hosting an expanding corpus of peer-reviewed publications. This academic knowledge does not contain all current knowledge. The essay therefore draws on the authors’ experience in four large research programmes to consider business knowledge and mātauranga Māori. It reflects on agency, tikanga [right behaviour], global conversations about Indigenous knowledge, and decolonising research. The essay finishes with models of knowledge engagement in the interface between western Science and mātauranga Māori that support the mana and integrity of diverse knowledge streams.
Low completion rates amongst students from Black working-class backgrounds remain a persistent challenge to post-apartheid university transformation in South Africa. Notions of universities as colour-blind, meritocratic, and post-racial have developed around a deficit and victim-blaming majoritarian narrative that individualises educational under-achievement, blaming victims and downplaying the complicity of universities in reproducing inequity. This article analyses the narratives of a group of Black working-class students, and academics on their in-depth experiences of educational success and failure in post-apartheid South African universities. Counter-storytelling is employed to foreground and promote the voice and lived experiences of those who often go unheard; and to highlight their narratives as valuable and critical in understanding persistent inequity in higher education. This article looks beyond the fixation on what students from marginalised communities are perceived to lack to reassert a place for institutional context in studying their experiences, to minimise the de-contextualisation of such experiences; and to illuminate areas of universities’ complicity in reproducing untenable educational experiences and outcomes for those already in the margins. Participants’ counter-stories are presented to deepen our understanding and theorisation of Black working-class students’ lived experiences in a manner that enriches the work of researchers, policy makers and practitioners.
The news media have become increasingly important in modern information societies as they represent individual’s main source of political knowledge. They embody power structures which enable the (re)production of certain discourses that can influence public opinion. Given the rise in populist radical right parties and anti-immigrant attitudes in Europe in the past decade, this project sought to analyse the portrayal of foreign nationals in Swiss tabloid newspapers, given that anti-immigrant attitudes remain severely under researched in Switzerland. Aiming to understand the influence of the news media on public opinion is essential in Switzerland because of its political system of direct democracy. Critical discourse analysis was conducted on 67 tabloid news articles published up to two months before the popular vote on the deportation initiative in November 2010, to establish if a correlation was present between negative portrayals of foreign nationals and restrictive immigration policy. The analysis uncovered that foreign nationals were portrayed through the divisive, exclusionary, racist, and xenophobic discourse of over-foreignisation , which has been employed by populist radical right parties in Switzerland since the 1960s. The discourse of over-foreignisation was constructed through a threat narrative, the European Union as an inferior and oppressive force, and specific linguistic tools.
Academia in the UK is diminished by a lack of representation of academics from Black (African-Caribbean), Asian and South-East Asian communities. Based on data for 2019–20, only 18 per cent of academic staff at universities in the UK were from global-majority communities. This article will propose positive actions to promote greater representation and leadership opportunities, with a specific focus on Black (African-Caribbean) academics and professional staff. It will underline the importance of solidarity and collective voice to effect change, informed by the lived experience of Black staff thriving and surviving within the White spaces of UK universities. By emphasising the value of the lived experience, the article will conclude that equal representation of colleagues from Black (African-Caribbean) communities is essential not only to support student experience but also to recognise the knowledge, skills and human rights of Black (African-Caribbean), Asian and South-East Asian students and staff.
Decolonising work in Higher Education (HE) has become increasingly mainstreamed. One issue is the relationship between such work and that of equality, diversity and inclusivity (EDI), or the potential reduction and co-option of decolonising for EDI purposes. This article discusses the characterisations of, and drivers for, decolonising inside UK HE, and then situates this against one, institution-wide programme of work. This programme sought to investigate how staff and students have understood the concept of decolonising, and to evaluate the limits of this work. Analysing surveys and interviews using a grounded theory approach suggested a moderate or limited view of decolonising work, and supports concerns that decolonising is losing its radical edge. Echoing work on the possibilities for epistemic and racial justice from inside capitalist institutions infused with the logics of coloniality, the argument questions whether it is possible to know the University otherwise.
The Capabilities Approach and the movement to Decolonise the Curriculum contain powerful intellectual and practical possibilities for changing the way societies conceive of education and its purpose. The former presents a bold set of educational aims offering an alternative to market-driven human capital approaches. The latter seeks to undo the legacy of colonialism that still echoes through classrooms across the world. Yet, despite potential affinities, little work exists exploring the compatibility of their respective theoretical commitments. This article argues that, behind the label Decolonise the Curriculum, lies a spectrum of approaches that, at their polar ends, risk becoming counterproductive in the search for educational justice. Articulating a version of Decolonising the Curriculum that avoids these pitfalls can be achieved through the theoretical insights of the Capabilities Approach and, in particular, the writings of its architects, Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum.
This article presents an evidence-based case study of a co-creation research project aimed to build and improve a sense of belonging and community through co-created activities, events, and campaigns. Various activities brought together both students and staff across a post-92 university in the North of England. The co-created project gathered empirical data to explore how belonging and community were experienced by students, evaluated the impact of the co-created events and campaigns for students, and highlighted key areas for the university to further develop. These included recommendations for how the university supports students to feel a sense of belonging, the efficacy of its Race Equality Charter action plan addressing differential outcomes, the learning and teaching approach around using co-creation, embedding equity and social justice within both curriculum and student support services, improved communication systems with students, and ensuring the concept of belonging is at the forefront of student experience. The article concludes by highlighting the intrinsic connection to retention, progression, and success for students with feeling a sense belonging in higher education and describes how co-creation can be used for social justice and equity activism to bring about positive changes to benefit a whole university community.
This article contributes to the growing literature on researcher reflexivity by broaching the often-ignored issue of religious positionalities within political science, as well as speaking to the methodological implications of researching religion more broadly. We present and compare two autoethnographic case studies of research on politico-religious conflict in Vietnam and Lebanon, exploring how a researcher’s religiosity presents unique fieldwork challenges, opportunities and insights. We then discuss the ambivalence faced by religious researchers within the highly secularised academic environment, thus blurring the artificial dichotomy between ‘the field’ and the academy. Our reflections centre around three findings: (1) the importance of taking an intersectional approach which neither essentialises nor ignores religious aspects of positionality, whilst also being sensitive to spatial and temporal shifts in how they interact with a researcher’s gender, ethnicity, class and other identifiers; (2) the opportunities and perils of a researcher’s apparent religious common ground with participants (or lack thereof) in building rapport and negotiating a degree of insider status; and (3) the similarities and differences between suspicions of religious partialism during fieldwork and within academia.
Leadership positions within post-secondary institutions (PSIs) remain elusive to women generally, and to Black, Indigenous, and other racially minoritized women in particular. In this paper, we argue that pathways to leadership, particularly for non-traditional, non-normative and critical approaches that can come from the differently situated epistemic positioning of Black, Indigenous, and other racially minoritized women, are important as beginning steps towards progressively dismantling standardized Eurocentric, androcentric, and corporatized academic workplace cultures. This type of reform is essential preliminary work in the process toward greater equity and inclusivity in academic institutions. Note then that we are writing of a significant amount of substantive change needed to enact crucial initial reform, in tandem with, and beyond which we should continuously push for more radical transformation (Dryden 2022; Patel 2021). As such, we propose initiatives that universities can take to address some of the common gendered, racialized, and class-related exclusions and inequities evident in academic workplaces. This is in acknowledgement that academic institutions, having demonstrated a predilection for the co-optative and performative, are barely able to reform meaningfully, let alone engage the “transformation” and “decolonization” with which reform is often confused and erroneously conflated. Grounded within institutional research, we detail the commitments required from governing bodies, the changes necessary in academic decision-making spaces, the need for timely and transparent data collection infrastructure, and other institutional changes required to enhance the recruitment, hiring, and retention of Black, Indigenous, and other racially minoritized faculty and academic leaders. Together, these practices constitute preliminary reform necessary to create opportunity for more meaningful practices of inclusion.
Minority ethnic students are well represented in undergraduate and postgraduate taught study, but over a sustained period, representation in postgraduate research (PGR) study has been significantly lower. Various barriers to participation in PGR study have been suggested, however, it is not clear if these barriers are similar across different hierarchies of higher education institution within the UK. Our study explored specifically the perceived barriers that may exist towards PGR study for minority ethnic students at a post-1992 university. Our findings showed that one third of minority ethnic students did not learn about PGR study. To gain more insight into PGR study, minority ethnic students would approach academic staff. The perceived key barriers to participation in PGR study were associated with understanding the application process and feeling if they would not be selected by a research-intensive university. To address these barriers, the solutions that were proposed where to have PGR role models which can provide mentorship on the application process and highlight the career benefits of conducting PGR study. Our findings provide vital insight into key challenges faced by minority ethnic students at a post-1992 university and help identify approaches which can be implemented to address these barriers.
Decolonisation of the curriculum in higher education is a radical, transformative process of change that interrogates the enduring Eurocentric and racist narratives surrounding the production of academic ‘knowledge’. Our key argument is that it is essential for students of politics to understand the authorities and hierarchies exerted through quantitative data. In this article, we show that (1) quantitative methods and data literacy can be an explicit tool in the endeavour to challenge structures of oppression, and (2) there is a need to apply decolonial principles to the teaching of quantitative methods, prioritising the historical contextualisation and anti-racist critique of the ways in which statistics amplify existing micro and macro power relations. To explain how this can be done, we begin with a commentary on the ‘state of decolonisation’ in higher education, its relevance to the subdisciplines of politics, and its application to quantitative teaching in the United Kingdom. We then suggest some guiding principles for a decolonial approach to quantitative methods teaching and present substantive examples from political sociology, international political economy, and international development. These suggestions and examples show how a decolonial lens advances critical and emancipatory thinking in undergraduate students of politics when it is used with quantitative methods.
This article centers undergraduate criminology students’ concerns regarding their overwhelmingly white¹ criminology curriculum. Situated at a UK university, this research draws upon focus groups and interviews with students and outlines three findings. Firstly, teaching on “race” and racism rarely arises. When it does, it focuses on “watershed moments” which are explored within singular sessions. Secondly, the white curriculum reinforces white, male and Western theoretical standpoints as the archetype, leading to feelings of disconnection. Thirdly, seminar discussions result in silence or racist viewpoints being shared, with these not adequately managed by lecturers. White students do not see themselves as part of a broader racialized structure, whilst some racialized students remain silent to enhance connection with their white classmates or to protect themselves from racism. This article acts as an urgent call for criminologists to reflect upon their current pedagogical choices and to begin embedding “race” and racism in the criminology curriculum.
With this chapter, the author sheds light on the experiences of a Black woman hired to create, administer, and manage the day-to-day needs of diversity offices at two small, white private liberal arts universities. The chapter will include insights on the very racism and implicit bias the author experienced, reported, and helped diminish. The chapter also describes the seemingly impossible task of managing change and transformation on private institutions rooted in white supremacist traditions and built upon a history of exclusion. To do this, the author shares personal narratives from colleagues collected via online surveys. The author describes the personal angst experienced while collecting, reporting, and managing the many micro-aggressions, experiences with racism, transphobia, and other reported biases. The author considers the mental gymnastics necessary to serve the needs of the institution and attempt to protect personal integrity and sanity.
The special issue (SI) TVET race and ethnicity in the global south and north closes with a critical review of debates that address race/ethnicity and TVET’. These debates focus on the crisis of care, decolonisation and whiteness as well as the manner in which we conceptualise TVET. The paper was developed in response to the special issue but also by wider debates about race, ethnicity and TVET. In a short review paper, such as this it is only feasible to signal and touch on a number of debates that could contribute towards re-thinking TVET and its wider social purposes.
Building on the recent intensified calls to decolonise the curriculum in higher education in the UK and beyond, and on my modest initiatives amongst some colleagues, this paper explores the impact of the dominant Eurocentric curriculum on minoritised ethnic students, and their perspectives of our decolonising initiatives, with the aim of refining them. To do so, I exercise ‘affective awareness’, and ‘decolonial reflexivity’, working with my discomforts whilst engaging with 10 minoritised ethnic students in criminology purposively selected to participate in semi-structured interviews after completing self-administered questionnaires. Based on the findings of this work, I argue that for ‘decolonising the curriculum’ beyond the box-ticking exercise, it should involve more than broadening the canon and revising reading lists. It should engage in an uncomfortable unpacking of asymmetrical power relationships and a shift in the practices of knowledge production, in ways that include the students’ perspective more closely.
This book is a product of my own doctoral journey, which began in 2014. My decision to apply for a PhD was simply a result of happenstance; I was unhappy in my job and was motivated by a love of research which I had rediscovered in my part-time degree. I had started a master’s in social science research methods whilst working full-time in a related field, and had begun undertaking qualitative research exploring the career experiences of senior women academics. Whilst this research was interesting, I became conscious that the experiences of women further down what has been called the ‘leaky pipeline’ (Barinaga, 1993), were likely to determine whether or not they became senior academics, or academics at all.
Presenting the results from a mixed methods case-study, this paper draws together insight from the fields of ‘BME attainment’ and ‘student transition’ to explore how differential levels of degree attainment might be experienced within the context of a higher tariff university in England. Across a five-year period (2010/11–2014/2015) it compares the levels of degree attainment between UK-domiciled White and Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) students in relation to prior attainment, qualification type, and socioeconomic group (POLAR 3). A range of qualitative data then outlines a series of dynamic factors that can, when compounded, serve to constrain BME students’ capability to negotiate their way through very particular university landscapes. These include: academic expectation and preparedness; the pedagogic terrain; pastoral engagement and sense of belonging finance; and, the lived experience of diversity and ‘othering’. The paper argues that attainment gaps should not be viewed in terms of an individual deficit that needs to be ‘fixed’ or ‘filled’. Instead, greater attention needs to be directed toward enhancing the capacity of higher tariff universities to respond positively to the needs of a changing demographic.
This chapter explores student experiences of a study abroad course designed and run by Black and Pacific Islander faculty to support Pacific Islander and Afrocentric learning, identity development, and respect for decolonial perspectives of heritage. Often at predominantly white institutions (PWIs) of higher education, study abroad trips enroll mainly white students and are led by white faculty from a Eurocentric perspective, especially in athletics-led programs. This study abroad case study flipped that model on its head. From constructing the syllabus and learning objectives, to highlighting an Afrocentric-Indigenous pedagogical framework for learning on site in Papeete, French Polynesia, the trip empowered collegiate athletes to validate their culture and heritage from indigenous perspectives. The author seeks to explicate the pedagogical structure, student experiences, as well as faculty and staff’s role in the importance of centering Pacific Islander and Black experiences. Through this chapter, the author implores faculty and staff at large PWIs to change the nature of study abroad to honor indigenous cultures and support the development of Black and Pacific Islander collegiate athletes toward empowerment of culture and heritage.
This critical autoethnography is an account of my experiences as a woman of color (WoC) academic at a predominantly White institution in the times of COVID‐19 and the consequential turn to online teaching and learning. It reflects on how the pandemic has exacerbated my experiences of discrimination, marginalization, isolation, and the struggles to find a balance between my personal and professional identities. Guided by intersectionality, the article explores the ways in which multiple forms of inequality are perpetuated within academia through my own lived experiences. It also explores the ways in which I, as a WoC and an early career academic (ECA), learned to navigate the intersections of gender, race, ethnicity, and motherhood amid the pandemic. In writing this article, my hope is to adjoin the voices of WoC in British Academia calling for an urgently needed open dialog with those in positions of power.
In this paper, we discuss a student–staff partnership project to diversify and decolonise the Higher Education curriculum at the University of Brighton, UK. The Inclusive Practice Partnership Scheme was launched in November 2020, and now in its second year, recruits 64 undergraduate students to co-develop the curriculum within each of the eight Schools across the University. The Scheme is unique in the sector in its focus on undergraduate student experience as the catalyst for a review of curriculum, supporting the development of this work across a wide range of subject areas. It uses the expertise of academic developers to guide and facilitate the work, developing an institutional approach with localised strategies and outcomes, and establishing effective partnership working relationships with academic staff to change perceptions about the relevance and importance of curriculum reparation in all disciplinary areas. The Scheme is a key part of University strategy that aims to address differential outcomes for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic students and is supported through the Access and Participation Plan and Race Equality Charter Action Plan.
This chapter introduces a Foucauldian travel guide to our routes through the literature of autism and childhood. It revisits the whistle-stop tour of the terrains of autism and childhood in Chap. 1, and instead recognises the discursive powers embedded within this route around autism and childhood. It introduces notions of biopower in research about lives labelled autistic and interrogates how these discourses have come to be socially, politically and culturally through the history of autism, childhood and family life. It introduces Rose’s (1999) work on neuro-governance as a technology of the self and considers how such governance has been put to work through powerful discourses of neuroscientism.
Business scholars are choosing to teach in line with their integrity. Critical and creative pedagogies disrupt the hegemony of neoliberal capitalism and empower students to transform the oppressive systems that shape organisations and society. With growing racial, ethnic, religious, class, gender, sexual, neuro, and bodily diversity on campuses, justice-oriented teaching has the potential to co-create inclusive spaces where all students feel recognised. In this opinion piece, I reflect on why educating for freedom is increasingly necessary and why educators guided by critical and creative pedagogies need to take care of themselves.
This summary outlines the main findings of this study into the teaching-research nexus in
Humanities and Social Science (HSS) disciplines in UK Higher Education. It indicates the issues in the relationship between teaching and research in UK higher education made apparent by analysis of trends in contracting academic work as well as providing insights into the implications these trends have on practice, according to perceptions from senior academics in 12 universities. The universities, categorised as having strengths in teaching or research or both, are in England, Scotland and Wales.
This report builds on findings from the initial study conducted in 2018, which demonstrated that the enactment of the nexus is subject to competing demands at systemic and institutional level and that the type of university is a factor in the way the nexus emerges in academic practice.
The main findings of this study are:
● while contract numbers in the sector have increased between 2012/13 and 2019/20, and
the vast majority still combine teaching and research, there has been a stagnation in the
growth of these combined (TR) contracts since 2015/16
● there has been a notable increase in the number of teaching-only contracts in the sector and HSS since 2015/16
● HSS has become slightly more diverse, with an increase in numbers of staff who are women, who identify as being from ethnic minorities or, in gender terms, identify as ‘other or
unknown’
● in HSS, staff on teaching-only contracts are more likely to be women
● in HSS, the increase of staff from ethnic minorities is small in relation to total staff and the
growth has been notable in teaching-only contracts
● there are signs of a decrease in fixed-term contracts in HSS
● the rise in teaching-only contracts indicates a 4-year trend to employ increasing numbers of permanent teaching-only academics, introducing concerns about the possibility for those
staff to progress onto teaching and research contracts; this will disadvantage women and
ethnic minorities on teaching-only contracts and exacerbate historical sectoral inequalities
● continuation of the trend in employing permanent teaching-only staff will make the nexus
more difficult to enact by some academics and endanger the likelihood of the nexus to be
embodied in an holistic academic
● additionally, senior academics with an overview of HSS in their institution tended to perceive teaching and research as needing to be broadly balanced across departments,
faculties/schools and the wider institution rather than in the practices of individual
academics
● the sector is perceived to be operating in relation to changing sectoral financial and political policy demands and some perceive that HSS may be particularly vulnerable to these
demands
● the early impacts of COVID-19 are perceived differently in different kinds of universities,
with only the research-strong universities reporting an increase in research output and a
turn towards internationalisation of their research, broadly in line with the recent
government research funding agenda.
This report aims to understand some of the challenges and resistance towards decolonialising initiatives in the Faculty of Environment at the University of Leeds. We used an online anonymous survey in May/June 2022 to collect responses from all staff (including academic related and professional staff) from the faculty. In total, we received over 100 responses from the four schools within the faculty: School of Earth and Environment, School of Geography, School of Food Science and Nutrition and Institute for Transport Studies, which are collated and analysed in this report. Among our findings, there are various challenges faced by staff in the face of decolonising their research, teaching and/or job. The majority thought it did apply to their teaching, research or role and that it was their responsibility to engage in wider conversations and practices on decolonisation. Challenges appear to be in not knowing where to start, and not having resources, including time and finances. There was moderate agreement that there was a ‘fear of getting it wrong.’ Anxieties around challenging power structures and bringing up the subject of decolonisation had lower agreement rates, suggesting once bottlenecks of resources (including time) are addressed, staff would be willing to challenge existing power structures and engage in decolonisation conversations to a greater extent. Responses to our survey reflected resistance from staff which ranged from decolonisation not being applicable to the person’s field, feeling offended we were questioning scientific methods to lacking time for these initiatives. Though a majority agreed that decolonisation was relevant to their teaching, research, or job role. At a structural level, participants expressed how the burden to decolonise seems to fall on those most involved in teaching, particularly those on fixed-term contracts and lower paid staff members. Respondents also showed hesitation towards these initiatives as they thought they could be perceived as tick box and tokenistic exercises on behalf of the university. Others raised the issue of the university wanting to apply a blanket one size fits across the institution without considering multiple variables such as the nature of the discipline, module, type of research and most importantly power dynamics around gender, race, immigration status, class, type of employment, etc. We found there is an urgent need to recognise and address the various levels of resistance to decolonising the university from staff. We present recommendations at the institutional, faculty, school, and individual level towards decolonisation. The findings and recommendations we present are non-exhaustive. As similar issues are present across Higher Education, we suggest the report is relevant to both other faculties and institutions.
Many institutions have found the strength to name racism and seek space for curriculum and other systemic changes. We argue this is happening against a backdrop of curriculum, regulatory and policy changes in education, and particularly initial teacher education and training (ITE/T), which are de‐racialised. We propose that a ‘pocket of possibility’ lies within such divergences, and present research leading to the creation of an anti‐racism framework for ITE/T to support action against this emergent landscape. The paper documents each aspect of the research and snapshots of the findings of a global literature review of anti‐racism in initial teacher education, which demonstrated the need for an embedded approach to anti‐racism, informed by critical understandings of whiteness and racism. We share some of the complexities, obstacles, and effective anti‐racism practices revealed in the review. The findings of the review led to the creation and analysis of a survey for ITE/T providers in England, which provided encouraging evidence of useful practice alongside needs of the profession. We conclude with a statement of intent and hope to maximise of the minimum entitlement of the Core Content Framework (CCF) by a purposeful undoing of the perpetual de‐racialisation of education.
Education is a key driver of intergenerational mobility, yet previous research has suggested that there are large socio-economic and ethnic gaps in higher education participation, including amongst the most selective institutions. Prior attainment has been found to be an important reason why some young people are more likely to go to university than others, but it is less clear which stage of education has the greatest impact on HE participation. This is vital from a policy perspective, as it provides insight into the best time to intervene to raise participation. This report uses linked individual-level administrative data from schools in England and universities in the UK to document the relationships between socio-economic status, ethnicity and HE participation, and explore what drives these relationships.
The book is the first in the UK to examine the contention that the higher education system is institutionally racist. It explores the sector as a whole and one HEI in particular.
A large body of research has been conducted both on the social stratification of education at the general level and on the educational attainments of ethnic minority groups in the UK. The former has established the increasing fluidity in the class-education association, without paying much attention to ethnicity, whilst the latter has shown reinvigorated aspirations by the second generation without fine-grained analyses. This paper adds to this literature by examining the relationship between family class, ethno-generational status and educational attainment for various 1st, 1.5, 2nd, 2.5, 3rd and 4th generations in contemporary UK society. Using data from Understanding Society, we study the educational attainment of different ethno-generational groups. Our analysis shows high educational selectivity among the earlier generations, a disruptive process for the 1.5 generation, high second-generation achievement, and a ‘convergence toward the mean’ for later generations. Parental class generally operates in a similar way for the ethno-generational groups and for the majority population, yet some minority ethnic groups of salariat origins do not benefit from parental advantages as easily. An ‘elite, middle and lower’ structure manifests itself in the intergenerational transmission of advantage in educational attainment. This paper thus reveals new features of class-ethno relations hitherto unavailable in UK research.
Using data from the Managing Cultural Diversity Survey 2010 and the Ethnic Minority British Election Study 2010, we explore the activity and employment outcomes of majority and minority individuals in the UK, and examine their association with a variety of ethnic embeddedness measures. We do not find that white British respondents living in areas of high deprivation and diversity experience lower levels of economic activity or bad jobs. Deprivation rather than minority embeddedness stands out as the factor that serves to compound both majority and minority disadvantage. In the case of minorities, embeddedness does have some negative effects, although these are greatly attenuated once one takes into account the level of area deprivation.
Objectives
Explore trainee doctors’ experiences of postgraduate training and perceptions of fairness in relation to ethnicity and country of primary medical qualification.
Design
Qualitative semistructured focus group and interview study.
Setting
Postgraduate training in England (London, Yorkshire and Humber, Kent Surrey and Sussex) and Wales.
Participants
137 participants (96 trainees, 41 trainers) were purposively sampled from a framework comprising: doctors from all stages of training in general practice, medicine, obstetrics and gynaecology, psychiatry, radiology, surgery or foundation, in 4 geographical areas, from white and black and minority ethnic (BME) backgrounds, who qualified in the UK and abroad.
Results
Most trainees described difficult experiences, but BME UK graduates (UKGs) and international medical graduates (IMGs) could face additional difficulties that affected their learning and performance. Relationships with senior doctors were crucial to learning but bias was perceived to make these relationships more problematic for BME UKGs and IMGs. IMGs also had to deal with cultural differences and lack of trust from seniors, often looking to IMG peers for support instead. Workplace-based assessment and recruitment were considered vulnerable to bias whereas examinations were typically considered more rigorous. In a system where success in recruitment and assessments determines where in the country you can get a job, and where work–life balance is often poor, UK BME and international graduates in our sample were more likely to face separation from family and support outside of work, and reported more stress, anxiety or burnout that hindered their learning and performance. A culture in which difficulties are a sign of weakness made seeking support and additional training stigmatising.
Conclusions
BME UKGs and IMGs can face additional difficulties in training which may impede learning and performance. Non-stigmatising interventions should focus on trainee–trainer relationships at work and organisational changes to improve trainees’ ability to seek social support outside work.
This article addresses how critical race theory can inform a critical race methodology in education. The authors challenge the intercentricity of racism with other forms of subordination and exposes deficit-informed research that silences and distorts epistemologies of people of color. Although social scientists tell stories under the guise of “objective” research, these stories actually uphold deficit, racialized notions about people of color. For the authors, a critical race methodology provides a tool to “counter” deficit storytelling. Specifically, a critical race methodology offers space to conduct and present research grounded in the experiences and knowledge of people of color. As they describe how they compose counter-stories, the authors discuss how the stories can be used as theoretical, methodological, and pedagogical tools to challenge racism, sexism, and classism and work toward social justice.
This article asks whether standard accounts of class reproduction apply among migrants and their descendants as among the majority group, whether there is a process of assimilation across generations toward the overall (British) pattern of class reproduction, whether the trends over time in absolute and relative mobility among the majority population are mirrored among migrants and their descendants, and whether trends in class reproduction are mirrored in trends in ethnic stratification. Using national representative surveys covering four decades, the authors find a major generational shift, with the first generation experiencing a notable social decline but the second generation having a clear advancement. Relative mobility rates among migrants and their descendants are close to those of the majority group and exhibit similar trends over time. Ethnic stratification also appears to be slowly declining, although the persistence of unemployment among the second generation qualifies the optimistic story of ethnic socioeconomic assimilation.
The main objective of this paper is to provide a comprehensive description of the economic outcomes and performance of Britain's immigrant communities today and over the last two decades. We distinguish between males and females and, where possible and meaningful, between immigrants of different origins. Our comparison group is white British-born individuals. Our data source is the British Labour Force Survey. We first provide descriptive information on the composition of immigrants in Britain, and how this has changed over time, their socio-economic characteristics, their industry allocation and their labour market outcomes. We then investigate various labour market performance indicators (labour force participation, employment, wages and self-employment) for immigrants of different origins, and compare them with British-born whites of the same age, region and other background characteristics. We find that over the last 20 years, Britain's immigrant population has changed in origin composition and has dramatically improved in skill composition - not dissimilar from the trend in the British-born population. We find substantial differences in economic outcomes between white and ethnic minority immigrants. Within these groups, immigrants of different origins differ considerably with respect to their education and age structure, their regional distribution and their sector choice. In general, white immigrants are more successful in Britain, although there are differences between groups of different origins. The investigation shows that immigrants from some ethnic minority groups, and in particular females, are particularly disadvantaged, with Pakistanis and Bangladeshis at the lower end of this scale.
Why and how do those from black and minority ethnic communities continue to be marginalised? Despite claims that we now live in a post-racial society, race continues to disadvantage those from black and minority ethnic backgrounds. Kalwant Bhopal explores how neoliberal policy making has increased rather than decreased discrimination faced by those from non-white backgrounds. She also shows how certain types of whiteness are not privileged; Gypsies and Travellers, for example, remain marginalised and disadvantaged in society. Drawing on topical debates and supported by empirical data, this important book examines the impact of race on wider issues of inequality and difference in society.
This article draws on an analysis of the narratives of teachers, policy-makers and young Muslim working-class women to explore how schools worked towards producing the model neoliberal middle-class female student. In two urban case-study schools, teaching staff encouraged the girls to actively challenge their culture through discourses grounded in western post-feminist ideals of female ‘empowerment’. The production of the compliant ‘model Muslim female student’ appeared to be a response to the heroic western need to ‘save’ the young women from backward cultural and religious practices. While this approach had many positive and liberating effects for the young women, it ironically produced forms of post-feminist ‘gender friendly’ self-regulation. The article concludes with a black feminist intersectional analysis of race, religion, gender, sexuality and class in the context of British multiculturalism and rising Islamophobia, exploring the contradictions of gendered social justice discourses that do not fully embrace ‘difference’ in educational spaces.
In the five years since the first edition of Injustice there have been devastating increases in poverty, hunger and destitution in the UK. Globally, the richest 1% have never held a greater share of world wealth, while the share of most of the other 99% has fallen in the last five years, with more and more people in debt, especially the young. Economic inequalities will persist and continue to grow for as long as we tolerate the injustices which underpin them. This fully rewritten and updated edition revisits Dorling’s claim that Beveridge’s five social evils are being replaced by five new tenets of injustice: elitism is efficient; exclusion is necessary; prejudice is natural; greed is good and despair is inevitable. By showing these beliefs are unfounded, Dorling offers hope of a more equal society. We are living in the most remarkable and dangerous times. With every year that passes it is more evident that Injustice is essential reading for anyone concerned with social justice and wants to do something about it.
Muslim students in schools continue to be implicated in the British state’s counter-terrorism agenda. With government policies ‘monitoring’, ergo ‘assisting’ young Muslims in schools by preventing their possible radicalization, the entire Muslim community, from children to adults, have become ‘suspects’. However, misunderstanding and ignorance about the Muslim identity already existed before 7/7. The chapter presents biographical accounts of Muslim women who reflect on their schooling experiences before and after 7/7, suggesting how racism and ignorance about the troubled ‘Paki’ was already prevalent in schools, which has now taken the guise of the dangerous ‘would-be’ terrorist. While participant experiences vary based on school demographics, their narratives are nonetheless instrumental in highlighting the limitations of a security policy that incites greater anxiety about the Muslim student.
The promotion and progression of black and minority ethnic academics and teachers in England has been the subject of much debate. Although several theories have been put forward, racial equality has stood out as a major contributing factor. The experiences of black and minority ethnic academics and teachers in England are similar in terms of aspirations, and their experience of organisations also points to similar patterns of exclusions. This integrated study provides thick data from qualitative interviews with academics and teachers, theorised through the lens of whiteness theory and social identity theory, of their experience of promotion and progression, how they feel organisations respond to them and how they, in turn, are responding to promotion and progression challenges. There was a shared view amongst the participants that, for black and minority ethnic academics and teachers to progress in England, they need ‘white sanction’ – a form of endorsement from white colleagues that in itself has an enabling power.
Three stereotypical figures have come to represent the 'war on terror'-the 'dangerous' Muslim man, the 'imperilled' Muslim woman, and the 'civilized' European. Casting Out explores the use of these characterizations in the creation of the myth of the family of democratic Western nations obliged to use political, military, and legal force to defend itself against a menacing third world population. It argues that this myth is promoted to justify the expulsion of Muslims from the political community, a process that takes the form of stigmatization, surveillance, incarceration, torture, and bombing. In this timely and controversial work, Sherene H. Razack looks at contemporary legal and social responses to Muslims in the West and places them in historical context. She explains how 'race thinking,' a structure of thought that divides up the world between the deserving and undeserving according to racial descent, accustoms us to the idea that the suspension of rights for racialized groups is warranted in the interests of national security. She discusses many examples of the institution and implementation of exclusionary and coercive practices, including the mistreatment of security detainees, the regulation of Muslim populations in the name of protecting Muslim women, and prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib. She explores how the denial of a common bond between European people and those of different origins has given rise to the proliferation of literal and figurative 'camps,' places or bodies where liberties are suspended and the rule of law does not apply. Combining rich theoretical perspectives and extensive research, Casting Out makes a major contribution to contemporary debates on race and the 'war on terror' and their implications in areas such as law, politics, cultural studies, feminist and gender studies, and race relations.