Race in the Arts & HE

SoN Website Review

Shades of Noir (SoN) is an independent program, created by Aisha Richards, that works towards achieving inclusive learning and social justice within higher education (HE) and the arts sector. The abundant body of work that SoN has produced and continues to create is dedicated to supporting marginalised groups and embodies social justice pedagogy to support curriculum design, teaching practices and institutional processes.

The SoN website itself contains a broad and diverse range of content around the art, design and communication disciplines to support students and staff. Because of its broad content, the website is a great reference resource that can be utilised by students across a multitude of art and design subject disciples. The resources are not just for students, however, as there are many published resources available for academic and support staff. For example, a recently published article entitled ‘Supporting Black, Asian Minority Ethnic (BAME) students during the COVID-19 Crisis’ provides a six point inclusive response plan to support students to the current Covid-19 pandemic. This is something I have referenced personally when considering student as UAL shifts to online-learning. It is refreshing to see that content on the site remains relevant and up-to-date to align with continued support of transformational cultures and practices across the HE sector.

There are a few resources which can be found on the SoN website which are of particular interest to me and which I can share with my student cohort (which is comprised of a fairly diverse student demographic). The first are the Terms of Reference (ToR) journals which explore concepts and social topics relevant to the development of inclusive practice. I would encourage my students to explore some of the articles within the ToR as I am sure many have had shared or similar experiences.

The second is the page which details the Safe Space Crits workshops. Particularly during the current Covid-19 climate, where we are forced to adapt to a new home-working environment, the new online Safe Space Crits format is particularly helpful and it is reassuring to know that students can still access these valuable sessions as a means of feedback and support in a safe and inclusive environment.

I would also encourage my students to explore the digitised Tell Us About It artefact database, but I would also consider arranging a student visit to explore the artefacts first-hand. As a contributor to this database myself, I think it is an important and influential tool which encourages discourse around diversity amongst the student body and encourages students to think about the ways in which this affects their learning experience.

As a teacher and facilitator of learning in HE, I myself will continue to read and reflect on the resources on the SoN site, particularly relevant to ‘education’ i.e. case studes, ToR Journals and Curriculum Support publications in order to refine my skills as an supporter of social justice and inclusive learning in HE.

Hahn Tapper Review: ‘A pedagogy of social justice education: social identity, theory and intersectionality’

I enjoyed reading the Hahn Tapper review of social justice education, most probably because it draws comparisons between different pedagogic approaches – the Social Identity Theory (and the Contact Theory (Allport, 1954), from which I am in agreement with aspects of both (the Social Identity Theory (SIT) Tajfel 1978, 1982; Tajfel and Turner 1979, 1986) in particular); this will certainly have influence on my future teaching style, particularly in group scenarios.

The first thing I learnt from reading this text was how instrumental identity is in influencing a student’s experience of education. It is necessary to consider the identities of both teacher and student, as the educational experience exists between these two stakeholders. From this text I have formed the opinion that any educational exchange in the HE learning environment should be collaborative and built upon a foundation of trust. When you then begin to explore the relationship between social identity and power (hence authority), we then become engaged in the SIT pedagogic model, where it is assumed that the exchanges between communities in larger society (outside of the learning environment) has influence on the dynamics between the groups during encounters.

The second thing I learnt was an example of how the pillars underpinning pedagogies of social justice education work and what the likely outcome could be when implemented effectively. Ultimately, a Freirean approach to social justice, like the example in this report, would ultimately expect to lead to responsibility and empowerment from the students. The framework in this example considers additional pillars to include an exploration of a) identity (social and individual), b) intersectionality and c) experiential study encounters respectively, each step layered and working in a clockwise motion.

One provocation I had about this report is whether a hybrid pedagogic model which incorporates aspects of both theories could be could be researched and developed, despite the conflicts presented in critical research on the Contact Theory in particular. Could aspects of this model be adopted, while the non-ideal outcome in a group encounter (physical violence) is avoided? I assume that so long as the framework of the SIT is the underpinning the Contact Theory led activities which forms a ‘hybrid’ pedagogic approach leading to a) provoked discussion and b) supported development of (habitual) critical thought and reflection, a blended approach might be successful.

Room of Silence

The short film ‘The Room of Silence’ is a film in which students are discussing their experience around race issues within the university learning environment. Some of the students talk about how they have been met with silence when their work, which addresses topics such as race, identity and sexuality, is presented because the students either don’t know how to talk about it, have no experience of it or they don’t want to talk about it.

One thing which shocked me from watching the video was the responses of some of the lecturers and professors. E.g. one teacher didn’t know what to say to a student when critiquing work based on race, while another student was called ‘exotic’ in an attempt to make a compliment. For me, the latter example in particular highlights the institutionalisation of racism within the education system.

This leads me to agree with a comment made in the video about the lack of ‘critical framework’, where pieces of work (which address some arguably uncomfortable issues) can be picked apart and analysed in a group setting. I believe that our role as teachers should be to help facilitate constructive, critical discussions around the topics that the students chose to address regardless of how uncomfortable they may be for others.

Another thing which saddened me about this video was teachers suggesting that a student work on simpler/less complex/less uncomfortable topics, based solely on the inability of the other students in the room being able to engage in the concepts relating to that piece of work. I do not feel that students should mute or censor the work they chose to produce because of a fear of offending or confusing others, particularly when the topics are real, relevant and relatable.

This video, for me, highlights importance of the Safe Space Crits sessions such as those available at UAL. Students in the video described feelings of being scared/sad/angry/isolated and made to feel as though their work or opinions are not valid. Creating a safe space for students to receive crits on their work is essential to help facilitate growth and learning in the classroom and when this is not available students start to censor their work or shy away from addressing such topics – this can only work to mask issues.

Another thing I took from this video is the importance of a diverse reading list and terms of reference for students to refer to ensure an inclusive learning environment and a culture of inclusion. I feel as though this is something that should be embedded within any course curriculum and suggests that work must begin at a senior level to address the issue for example via an inclusive teaching framework which incorporates social justice pedagogy which can be applied into the classroom setting.

I feel as though awareness of white privilege by both teachers and students is also an important influence on the experience of BAME students. This topic usually creates an uncomfortable environment, however awareness and acceptance of this is important to help facilitate in inclusive and safe learning environment for all. I would suggest that teachers and students watch the DiAngelo video on White Privilege which I feel discusses the topic in a clear and digestible manner, before discussing their thoughts.