In my teaching context at UAL, I could, fortunately, not be under the naive illusion that academia is post-racial (Wong et al. 2021). This is firstly due to my personal experiences over 5 years as an associate lecturer, and secondly, due to the Spatial Practices programme where I teach and the PgCert course where I study openly recognising UAL’s shortcomings in racial justice.
Rhianna Garret’s article on the career trajectories and imagined futures of racialised minority PhD students in UK higher education (Garrett 2024), and professor Shirley Anne Tate’s TEDx talk on BPOC attainment gap (Tate 2018) each sketch out issues that I also recognise from my experience at UAL. Garrett’s article draws on interviews conducted with BPoC PhD students, who identify issues such as universities making ‘poster children’ out of their BPoC students and members of staff, predominantly white spaces, and colonial structures that shape individualistic practices (Garrett 2024). In her talk, Shirley Anne Tate talks about her own positive experience in receiving higher education where her teachers were recognising her as a person and nurtured her, whilst highlighting that 30 years on, the institutions’ ‘cold climate’ hasn’t changed, there is a growing BPoC attainment gap, and overall, institutional racism is still everpresent. These examples are directly reflected in my teaching context.
Having taken part in the undergraduate interview process at Central Saint Martins, UAL in 2021 and 2022, I was positively taken by UAL’s contextual admission policies, and I found the web-based training for challenging my own biases very useful. Both of these things are also a part of UAL Anti-racism action plan from 2021 (UAL 2021). However, it isn’t hard to agree with most authors of the provided resources that as the impact of such measures like training and simple diversification of student and teacher body aren’t showing meaningful improvement in attainment and career opportunities (see Garrett 2024, Sadiq 2023, Tate 2018, Wong et al. 2021) we must do more, i.e. intervene more meaningfully. Asif Sadiq concludes his TEDx talk with a list of possible solutions, from which I find the following directly and immediately applicable to my teaching context at the Spatial Practices programme at CSM: localising knowledge production, i.e. creating opportunities for sharing experiences in our direct learning communities, rather than relying on corporate structures; experiential learning, i.e. creating teaching briefs that take people out of their comfort zones and engaging them in experiences that include multiple perspectives (of their peers); encouraging self-lead learning, while opening up space for group learning (Sadiq 2023). Sadiq’s solution-based talk stood in great contrast to James Orr’s damning report on institutional anti-racism strategies where he offered no critical perspective or possible solutions other than essentially regressing to an openly unjust learning environment under the guise of meritocracy (Orr 2022).
Finally, the materials left me with some open-ended personal questions. Am I acting as a bystander (Wong et al. 2021) in my teaching context, and if so, is that an manifestation of white fragility (Amanpour & Co. 2020)? My area of expertise – architecture – is failing to meaningfully strive for inclusivity, so can we consider this to be one of the reasons why it is losing its social relevance? What is the relationship between localising (Sadiq 2023) and eurocentrism (e.g. Tate 2018)? The last question rooting from my two very different teaching contexts: one in my native Estonia, which has been subjected to Russian imperialism and where academics’ credibility seems always on a lesser standing than in Western Europe, and the other in London, with its globalism and imperialist history.
Bibliography:
Amanpour & Co. (2020) Excerpt from Robin DiAngelo’s 2018 interview with Michel Martin about White Fragility [Online]. Youtube.
Garrett, R. (2024). Racism shapes careers: career trajectories and imagined futures of racialised minority PhDs in UK higher education. Globalisation, Societies and Education, pp.1–15.
Orr, J. (2022) Revealed: The charity turning UK universities woke. The Telegraph [Online]. Youtube. 5 August.
Sadiq, A. (2023) Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. Learning how to get it right. TEDx [Online]. Youtube. 2 March.
Tate, S.A. (2018) Tackling the ‘BPOC’ Attainment Gap in UK Universities [Online]. Youtube. TEDx/Re:Act, Royal School of Speech & Drama. October.
UAL (2021) Anti-Racism Action Plan Summary. Arts.ac.uk [Online].
Wong, B., Elmorally, R., Copsey-Blake, M., Highwood, E. & Singarayer, J. (2021) Is race still relevant? Student perceptions and experiences of racism in higher education. Cambridge Journal of Education, 51(3), pp359-375.