Month: July 2022

Social Identity and Intersectionality workshop for 1st year students 

July 2022

My positionality  

As a mixed-race half English, half Indian woman who grew up in an all-white family I am particularly interested in intersectionality. I have been the recipient of racism and conversely, I have benefitted from white privilege due to the Whiteliness conferred on me by my upbringing. Watching Shirley Anne Tate speak about conscious bias helped me confront this duality in my positionality.  I understood that I have been guilty of (un)conscious bias because I absorbed a world view based on a white dominant narrative. 

The learnings that I’ve gained on IPU have helped me pick out these contrasting strands in my identity and focus on how my professional positionality and the intersectionality of my racial identity connects to that of my students.  My desire to advocate for students of colour connects to this learning and as a staff member of colour I see how important this intersectional representation is. 

I am Year One lead on BA Photojournalism and Documentary Photography and my artefact is designed specifically for first year students. There are many complex, intersectional social identities that present themselves in first years on this course; a high percentage have disabilities ranging from dyslexia to ADHD. 

“Within the area of disability, the discipline has higher numbers of students with a declared disability, a specific learning disability: dyslexic students represent 11% of the cohort, higher than the sector average, which is 4%.” 

(Finnigan and Richards, 2016) 

There is a majority of British female, white students from middle class backgrounds. This majority sits alongside smaller groups of Chinese international students, Black and Asian British students and European students. Many of the students openly present as LGBTQ+, other students may be at the beginning of a journey towards embracing new identities. My artefact is designed to open conversations around intersectionality and allow students who come from groups that are minoritised or marginalised to be represented, acknowledged and supported. My aim is to help students acknowledge their different and shared social identities and facilitate discussions about representation, working towards creating a shared community amongst a diverse group of students and to create a supportive environment where shared social identities are acknowledged, and individuals are encouraged to flourish.  

“The teacher is of course an artist but being an artist does not mean that he or she can make the profile, can shape the students. What an educator does in teaching is to make it possible for the students to become themselves.” (Freire, 1972) 

The retention, progression and attainment gap amongst BME students also feeds into why it’s important to create interventions that support minority and socially disadvantaged groups. The Student Equality Diversity Inclusion report 2021 contains some shocking statistics – just 32% of first year home undergraduates are from BME groups. Attainment rates at LCC in 2019/20 were 90.7% White and 73.4% BME. 

Evolution of artefact 

The initial idea came from an exercise set by Terry Finnegan in the first seminar session. In it, we were asked to assign perceived intersectional identities to people from looking at their portraits. Many students, myself included, found this extremely uncomfortable, however I understood the merit in how it made us confront the idea of conscious or unconscious bias and expanded our view of people’s social identities and where intersection might play a role. Whilst this exercise is not appropriate for first year students, it led me to thinking about how I could create an opportunity for students to get to know each and find other students from their own social groups. 

A resource that informed my thinking on this subject was Tapper, A (2013) A Pedagogy of Social Justice Education: Social Identity Theory, Intersectionality, and Empowerment.  

{…} Freire explains the role that identity plays in the shaping and implementation of education. One of his most important arguments is that students’ identities need to be taken into account in all educational settings. They should not be approached as if everyone in the classroom, including the teacher, is starting from the same place in terms of social status and identity. Although virtually no one discounts the central role that teachers play in a given classroom, Freire extends this point, expounding on how a teacher’s social identities play as much of a role in a classroom environment as anything else. {…} A teacher needs to create experiences with, and not for, students, integrating their experiences and voices into the educational experience itself (Freire 2006).  (Tapper 2013) 

The artefact has gone through several iterations, I began by designing a workshop where, in pairs, students take each other’s portraits and then have a conversation where they share their background, they are then asked to fill in questions about each other’s social identities based on that interaction.  After receiving feedback from Danielle, I reworked it so that students fill in the questions themselves and I added more general ice-breaker questions so that student had more options in what details they choose to reveal. I added a final element where the students talk about the importance of representation in relation to choosing a course rep based on the intersectional identities present in the group. 

I then ran the idea by a group of first year students whose feedback has led to the progression of the artefact into an expanded brief.  The three students that I spoke with self-identify as: 

Student A – female, black, British, gay 

Student B – male, Chinese-born, now living in Canada  

Student C – male, black, American 

We talked about whether first year students in Block 1 would feel comfortable about sharing personal details with a group of peers that there were still getting to know. 

Student C: “I feel it will equally make some people feel comfortable and equally make other people feel uncomfortable to start talking about themselves to that extent to a group of new people, but I feel like it could also be a solid possibility for them to make friends and kind of start to feel more like they know each other.” 

They were also keen to see the impact of sharing personal information being fed into tutors sharing visual and theoretical references that linked to their identities.  

Student A: “If they know it’s for a reason, if they know they are going to get certain support that might help (them share personal details).” 

They all talked enthusiastically about the ice-breaker sessions they’d taken part in during the Intro To unit and how they would like to have done more of them.  

They then talked about how showing their own work in relation to questions of identity would not only feel more comfortable but would connect the conversation to their practice.  

Student B: “I think the workshop should be a long-term workshop and shouldn’t just be about portrait, I think using their own pictures that students have taken through their lifetime … People sharing their pictures that they took and explaining to all the other students you know, find the connection … People just sharing their work and sharing their life, I think it’s more comfortable, for me personally.” 

From this discussion I’ve expanded the scope of the artefact to include: 

  • Initial conversations exploring social identity will be done using Mentimeter. Students will share their positionality around race, gender, sexuality and disability in Word Clouds. The cohort can then see the different identities that sit within their cohort whilst remaining anonymous. This will take place during Intro To.
  • Ice breaker and community building exercises will take place throughout the Intro To unit.  
  • Over a series of scaffolded sessions with accompanying briefs students will be invited to make personal work as a route into exploring and sharing their identities. 
  • The discussion about Course Reps will come at the end of these sessions. 
  • The final output will be a student-led exhibition 

Conclusion 

Talking to my first-year students about these issues revealed some important learnings around their understanding of representation and identity.  Students of colour seek each other out and when seminar groups are made they want to be put together.  They want to represent themselves through their work and be given opportunities to explore their identity within the curriculum. They need to be given visual references that reflect their diverse identities, and they want help early on in Block 1 in forming communities and getting to know each other.  

For me personally, this unit has given me access to theories ranging from Critical Race Theory, Whiteliness and Social Justice Education with which to understand my positionality and the struggles that students of colour and students with disabilities face. My intrinsic drive towards creating an inclusive classroom now has a framework based on key theoretical texts. I believe that active interventions need to be worked into the curriculum to affect change.  

On a less positive note, I’ve been shocked by the white fragility that has been displayed by some colleagues who have felt challenged by this unit. This, along with case studies shared in seminar pre-tasks, has been a wake-up call to me to not assume that we are all on the same page, fighting the same fight.  

Bibliography 

Finnigan, T, Richards, A. (2016) ‘Retention and attainment in the disciplines: Art and Design’. [Online] Available at: https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/assets.creode.advancehe-document-manager/documents/hea/private/ug_retention_and_attainment_in_art_and_design2_1568037344.pdf [Accessed June 2022] 

Eddo-Lodge, R. (2017) Why I’m no longer talking to white people about race. Bloomsbury Publishing 

Suka-Bill, Z and Clay, S. (Undated), AEM Toolbox, University of the Arts London. Available at: https://www.arts.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/201935/Teaching-for-Retention-PDF-489KB.pdf (Accessed March 2022) 

Freire, P. (1972), Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York, Herder and Herder 

Burke, P, McManus J. (2011) Art for a few: exclusions and misrecognitions in higher education admissions practices, Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 32:5, 699-712, DOI: 10.1080/01596306.2011.620753 

Richards, A, Finnigan, T (2015) Embedding equality and diversity in the curriculum: an art and design practitioner’s guide [Online] Available at: https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/knowledge-hub/embedding-equality-and-diversity-curriculum-discipline-specific-guides [Accessed July 2022] 

Tapper, A (2013) A Pedagogy of Social Justice Education: Social Identity Theory, Intersectionality, and Empowerment. [Online] Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/264611824_A_Pedagogy_of_Social_Justice_Education_Social_Identity_Theory_Intersectionality_and_Empowerment [Accessed on: 16/07/22] 

Tate, S (2018) Whiteliness and institutional racism: Hiding behind (un)conscious bias. [Online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lur3hjEHCsE [Accessed on: 12/07/22] 

University of the Arts London – Teaching for retention. [Online] Available at: https://www.arts.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0024/144474/190206_EDI-Report-2018.pdf [Accessed on 20/07/22] 

University of the Arts London (2021) Student Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Report. [Online] Available at: https://www.arts.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0014/306014/Student-Equality-Diversity-and-Inclusion-Report-2021-310121.pdf [Accessed on 20/07/22] 

Blog task 3 – Race

  1. Shades of Noir

The Demelza Woodbridge article is an example of a resource I would direct students to. I can see a lot of value in students hearing from alumni who have had similar experiences to them and who have gone on to be successful.

The main resource that I think is a wonderful idea is the Tell Us About It Archive. It not only showcases a range of incredible creative designs, but it tells important stories from students of colour around their experiences at UAL. I would love to know more this archive. What does the award entail? What is the brief that students are given? How would students apply for an award? Where are the physical artefacts kept?

(Note: I found all this information in ‘Retention and attainment in the disciplines: Art and Design’ Finnigan and Richards 2016.)

Unfortunately, the viewer that we see the artefacts in has some design elements that prevented me from being able to fully interact with each project. The Accessibility Menu tab covers the beginning of the sentence that describes the artefact, and some artefacts need magnifying to see what they are, but the magnifying tool doesn’t let you move around the page. This is a real shame and I wonder if there are plans to change this.

Another very useful resource is the Diigo Database. The section I was interested in was Photography and I can see that this could be a fantastic research tool for students studying on BAPJD.

I had heard of Safe Space Crits but didn’t know a lot about them, so it was useful to read in more detail about them and to be able to direct students as appropriate.

Overall, this is a resource that I will share with all my students as part of the Year 1, block 1, Intro To unit.

2. A Pedagogy of Social Justice Education Social Identity Theory, Intersectionality, and Empowerment

This article was very useful to read as it goes deeply into Social Identity Theory (SIT) which my artefact is going to be based on.

I read the whole article and was particularly interested in how much freedom they give the students within the discussion group. There is a facilitator present, but the students are encouraged to take their conversations in whatever directions naturally occur in the classroom:

“They do not try to impart an ideologically-based set of information onto their students. Rather, their primary goal is to have students teach one another about social identities and intergroup dynamics using critical thought.” Tapper (2013)

I find this empowering however I do wonder what happens if the conversation becomes side-tracked or stuck? Or is this accepted as a valid part of the process?

The article gives a very clear explanation of what SIT is:

“SIT maintains that human beings are social by virtue of their relationships with one another, an existence embedded within a vast web of networks that are constructed based on identity-based associations. Everyone to one degree or another, is a member of a multitude of social groups that are shaped in relation to ethnicity, gender, nationality, religion, socioeconomic class, and other categories.” Tapper (2013)

There was a lot of interesting discussion around different approaches to social justice education – from Contact Hypothesis to Group Process. I appreciated how the writers took the time to explain and layout the reasoning behind these pedagogies and then moved on to why they have chosen not to work in this way.

The section on Intersectionality and Intergroup Encounters explained how intersectionality is enacted within these complex social groups:

“Intersectionality posits that oppression in one place is intricately linked to oppression everywhere else.” Tapper (2013)

“The false binary trap that members of groups in conflict are either innocent or guilty is all too common in intergroup work (Sonnenschein et al. 1998; Zembylas 2008). In contrast, this organization’s approach emphasizes that all groups, to various degrees, are victims and perpetrators, innocent and guilty. All of us play active and passive roles in the structures of oppression in which we live (Scheff and Retzinger 1991; Sonnenschein et al. 1998; Tryfonas 2000; Berlak 2004; Zembylas 2008).” Tapper (2013)

This article gave me lots to think about in addressing social identity in the classroom. It helped me shape my own ideas about why this is a relevant and important issue to acknowledge and how I might share this with students. I will be drawing on this article and the wider reading in my reflective essay.

One question I was left with after reading the article, was who is the program aimed at? Obviously one answer is Palestinian and Jewish young adults. But I was interested in knowing more – how do they end up on the course? What is the aim of the participants in taking part in the course? Where are they selected from? What social groups do they belong to? Are they already in Higher Education? Are these students from privileged, high socio-economic backgrounds? Is there provision for students who might not be able to pay for flights for the experiential field trips? I felt that this information was missing in my understanding of the program.

3. “Witness Unconscious Bias” video

My big takeaway from this video which follows on from the Shirley Anne Tate talk that we watched last week is that conscious change is possible. As Josephine Kwhali says in this clip, wryly, at the end of the film:

https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxXWFX3VjyHr2CR4cfkybhVU-kjHCwz_u4

I find this to be very true from my own experience. I worked at Reuters News Agency for 20 years from 1998 and it was a very white, middle-class world for a long time. When change did happen towards embracing diversity it was white, middle-class women who were allowed into management roles first. Followed by middle class people of colour who lived in Europe and United States. I feel that Josephine Kwhali makes a very powerful, relevant point here and it ties into the idea that Reni Eddo Lodge writes about that feminism is White Feminism and has no concerns with the intersectional experience of women of colour.

Reference:

Reni Eddo-Lodge. 2017. Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People about Race

4. Retention and attainment in the disciplines: Art and Design

I found lots of relevant and important pieces of information in this paper. The shocking data around recruitment and progression of BME students confirms much of what I’ve already learned from reading other resources such as the Student Survey. The high number of students with disabilities who study Art and Design was a new piece of data to me but is very much backed up by my own experiences teaching on BAPJD, particularly in the latest first year cohort where I have many students with ISA’s in place. I was struck by the low attainment rates of students from SEC three to nine. What does this mean for students who are BME and also from lower socio-economic groups? This intersectional group is particularly vulnerable. I have many students who fit into these two groups and I see how they struggle – often working long hours on jobs outside of college, often with challenging homelives. These students need support, often they may be unable to attend classes for very good reasons and they need tutors who will try to get to know them and take the time to understand the difficulties they are facing.

This data presents a huge challenge and we as educators need to address this and think about how we can actively provide support for low-attaining students from minority backgrounds. Maybe there is the option a kind of ISA-type extension or additional tutorials or specialist support that needs to be put in place.

I was interested to read in the section on Art and Design Pedagogies about the friction between giving students space to take risks and explore their creativity, with how that freedom can be perceived by first years as a very challenging space. This again is something I see a lot in first years and can be a real barrier to them settling in to HE, this quote sums it up very well.

I wasn’t expecting to be left to do projects completely on your own. I was expecting more guidance with it being first year and I didn’t know what kind of work they were looking for. (Yorke and Vaughn 2012, p. 24)

The quote below reflects my own experience:

So, students in their first year of study are constantly looking for certainty and reassurance, while staff are encouraging ambiguity and risk taking and expecting a tacit knowledge of how the subject is delivered. They rely on their tutors for guidance and for evaluation of the quality of their work. (Richards and Finnegan, 2016, p. 7)

Our students are all unique, and they learn in different ways. The challenge that I find is to get to know each student quickly enough to adapt crits, feedback and expectations to their individual needs. This is a process that, without active intervention, takes time. By the end of the first year, I feel I know most of my students pretty well. But for many students who withdrew after Block 1, it’s too late. It comes back to curriculum design and unit assessments, we need to ensure that there is a structure there that students can work to, and that there is room for other students to stretch their creative wings.

The last part of this paper that I want to touch on was 4.5. Art and Design Teachers:

The percentage of staff of colour at present is very small at 3.6% (See Appendix A) and does not in any way reflect the student cohort. These staff bring a positive experience to diverse students on course in the form of role models. (Richards and Finnegan, 2016, p. 9)

Again, I wholeheartedly agree with this statement and can corroborate through my own experience. We recently hired a new AL, who is a young black artist with a very exciting and relevant personal practice. She was hugely popular with the students particularly in the one-to-one’s tutorials. However, it was not just the students of colour who responded positively to her. She was received with enthusiasm across the entire, mainly white and female cohort. And I believe that this AL is an aspirational figure not just due to her race but because she is young and exciting and represents something that the students can aspire to. Having her on the staff team, along with a new young Muslim AL doing amazing work has been a huge benefit to students and staff. The students see someone who is representative of themselves in a few years time, someone who is succeeding in their field and they can imagine leaving university and having that career.

5. Terms of reference from SoN around Race


I have chosen to respond to the article ‘Shedding Whiteness’ written and illustrated by Jon Straker, Macalester College.

I chose this article because it reflects my own experience of growing up Indian in a white family in a white community with zero Indian representation around me. I have two sisters who are both lighter skinned than me, but we all share the surname Singh, so even their light skin did not protect them from being ‘othered’ by the curious and ignorant people around us in Yorkshire in the ‘70s.

My Indian father had left us and gone back to India when I was two years old, leaving us with our white mother who was too busy being a single parent of 3 small children to even try and deal with our Asian identity. Like Jon Straker I wrapped myself in a white shell. When a friend’s father told me I had a lovely tan and asked me if I’d just come back from holiday I lied and said yes. I still don’t know to this day if this was a genuine comment or a passive agressive racism. In primary school when they put on a musical play of Rapunzel, the white girl with the long blonde hair who couldn’t sing was cast for the lead role. I was made to stand in the wings where no one could see me and sing her part for her. They called me ‘Echo’.

Despite these childhood experiences I count myself as someone who benefits from White Privilege. The racism that I experienced in my childhood changed when I became a teenager and young adult when being mixed-race but presenting in a very unchallenging white manner was just exotic enough to be cool. Looking back this is very uncomfortable, but there is no doubt that compared to the experience of my black colleagues, friends, and students, I’ve experienced very little discrimination. My career suffered more from me being a woman than from being half Asian. Because my skin colour is light, by hair is straight and my habits, mannerisms, accent and cultural refences are all overwhelmingly white, I have been accepted into a world of white privilege.

I wonder if I had grown up half-English in an Indian family how different that might have been. Would I have experienced the same White Privilege if I’d grown up watching Bollywood and eating dahl with chapatis rather than watching Grange Hill and eating sausages and chips? If my mother picked me up from school wearing a sari rather than jeans and a jumper what additional discrimination would that have brought on me? It’s an interesting question to reflect on.

My response to this issue of SON is perhaps not what’s been asked of me for this blog, but it has provided a very valuable moment for me to reflect on my mixed race ethnicity in the context of this unit.