Race: Please don’t make me read the Telegraph

‘A Critical Race Theory Framework for Education Policy Analysis: The Case of Bilingual Learners and Assessment Policy in England’

This paper considers how critical race theory may be used to form policies, focusing on early years assessments as a case study. The text proposes the following questions to re-orient education policy:

• How do white people gain?
• How is white dominance prioritised?
• How does this maintain white dominance?

I found this case study to be an interesting insight into the exact ways politics shape education. It lists how changing Labour/Co-alition/Conservative governments and world events shifted policy focus – often in a tokenistic way. (Think: education responses to the murder of George Floyd.) The way education in the UK is spoken about paints a sad picture: there is a need to ‘fight for legitimacy’ (Gillborn, 2005). I imagine educators scrabbling for resources and good favour. It feels especially pertinent with an election in just under two weeks.

This approach works under the assumption that white people are benefiting, there is no need to prove it, and so re-focuses policy analysis onto how. This feels positive and actionable, although, and this might be a little cynical of me, I wonder if we will ever ‘prove’ the concept of white privilege ‘enough’ to those who most benefit from it.

‘Racism Shapes Careers: Career Trajectories and Imagined Futures of Racialised Minority PhDs in UK Higher Education’

This study examines how the trajectories and ‘imagined futures’ of racialised minority PhD students are affected by their intersectional identities and experiences of university. It speaks of the ‘triple burden’ faced by some students: race, gender, and class. The policy recommendations are:

• Mentoring
• Policies that engage with intersectional identities
• Decolonising the academic space
• Celebrating diversity and culture
• Platforming transgressive voices

I was particularly interested in the intersection of race and disability discussed in this study. They talk about BAME scholars having to navigate the world of ‘whitening neurodiversity’, students in the study discuss how their race almost seems to ‘outweigh’ their disability. This is certainly something that rings true to my experiences, and I can imagine the myriad of ways this intersection can play out negatively.

‘Professionalism’ and whiteness are connected, and again I see how this can be compounded if you are also disabled. It’s a wall I bump up against fairly frequently, I can be unfiltered and unable to read social cues (knowing when it is my turn to talk). I have left jobs previously where I found the toll of navigating a neurotypical playground too heavy. There are similarities I think to the implicit understanding of social etiquette and interpersonal skills, and the feeling of being the only non-white person in the room. I think of this line from Adrienne Rich’s poem, referenced by bell hooks in Teaching to Transgress, The Burning of Paper Instead of Children:

this is the oppressors language

yet I need it to talk to you

You’re playing a game and they forgot to tell you the rules. This is where mentoring can be so useful, I have a person in my life (a woman, half-Asian and half-white) who I consider a mentor of sorts. It’s invaluable.

Imagination! The study considers the potency of imagination to be parallel with the imagination of race itself. We imagined this world, so we can imagine a better one. I love this.

Asif Sadiq on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Reading the comments on this video did make my blood boil, but the video itself is very… sensible? There is a recurring theme that we have seen many times this unit: visibility. Sadiq says…

How can I become something I can’t see?

He also describes a time a woman said he had ‘done very well all things considered’ which he found confronting – he had a very positive upbringing. It shows how ‘imagined futures’ can be limited by unconscious bias, the assumption that because someone is Asian that they must have struggled. I think this assumption coming from a white person is particularly jarring, nobody likes to feel pitied.

One thing I would like to take away from this video and further implement is learning through stories and shared experiences. This can be part of building a more positive imagined future.

The charity turning UK universities woke!!! omg!!!

I slightly resent having to watch this.

According to This White Man, Richard Orr, Advance HE apparently represents ‘a vision of the future that vast swathes of the British public would reject completely’. Like yeah, Britain’s racist. That’s the issue.

Unfunny, unserious, unintelligent. Ends with the usual Telegraph bit: Britain used to be great, but now it’s not. It must be all of these well-educated young people who have ruined it. Couldn’t have been us what done it.

The School That Tried to End Racism

They made the kids do a privilege walk! Looking at the comments again, it’s interesting how much resentment the commenters are transferring on to the kids. I didn’t see any resentment, just acknowledgement and sadness. No one blamed the little white boy for being white! Henry at the end makes an interesting comment: ‘The questions… didn’t favour some people.’ And I love that, Henry says, let’s imagine a future where it’s possible to ask different questions.

References

Bradbury, Alice. ‘A Critical Race Theory Framework for Education Policy Analysis: The Case of Bilingual Learners and Assessment Policy in England’. Race Ethnicity and Education 23, no. 2 (3 March 2020): 241–60. https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2019.1599338.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. Learning How to Get It Right | Asif Sadiq | TEDxCroydon, 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HR4wz1b54hw.

Garrett, Rhianna. ‘Racism Shapes Careers: Career Trajectories and Imagined Futures of Racialised Minority PhDs in UK Higher Education’. Globalisation, Societies and Education 0, no. 0 (2024): 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/14767724.2024.2307886.

Heartbreaking Moment When Kids Learn About White Privilege | The School That Tried to End Racism, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I3wJ7pJUjg.

hooks, bell. Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. New York London: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, 1994.

Imagination GIF – Find & Share on GIPHY. Accessed 21 June 2024. https://giphy.com/gifs/imagination-BQUITFiYVtNte.

Poetry Society of America. ‘The Burning of Paper Instead of Children’. Accessed 21 June 2024. https://poetrysociety.org/poems/the-burning-of-paper-instead-of-children.

Revealed: The Charity Turning UK Universities Woke, 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRM6vOPTjuU.