Ted talk video “Witness Unconscious Bias”

I know that this is my White Fragility and a bit of ignorance talking but I was really saddened by the notion that Josephine Kwhali knew what racism was at the age of 4. How racism permeates through the different stages of life in subtle and not so subtle ways which means that a little girl understands that she is being treated differently from her peers because of the colour of her skin.

The only racism I had to think about growing up in Germany was the Nazi racism we were taught about at school spanning several years, illuminating history from many different angles and even speaking to concentration camp survivors. 

I think it’s super important how this part of history is critically discussed and made a big topic at German schools. We were taught that for things to never get this bad again we need to know that it happened and understand how it came about, but I think this probably polarised my view on what counts as racism.

This kind of historic learning seems in stark contrast to how British colonial history is only just now being woven into the British school curricula. When I took the Life in the UK test in 2016 to become a British citizen, there was little to learn about that part of history and there was a petition signed by over 180 historians in 2020 to change the required knowledge for the test. (Abraham, I. et al. (2020)).

Coming back to (un)conscious bias I don’t remember when I became conscious of my biases and privileges but it was not until way into adulthood. As a White person there was no need to identify as ‘White’ as it was the norm where I grew up. You just are. People just love you for who you are. And those that dislike you dislike you for your personality, not your race.

I can’t just switch off my racial bias but I am getting better at recognising and questioning it.

Hahn Tapper (2013) ‘A pedagogy of social justice education: social identity, theory and intersectionality’,
Read Pp. 411- 417 (and see diagram on p.426)

This diagram shows the pathway to Pedagogy of Social Justice Education (as undertaken by the organisation described in the article).
It starts with the Freiran notions of social justice in education which proposes to focus on giving everyone the tools to make their own arguments to overcome their sense of powerlessness in any social or political environment. This means engaging in critical thinking and weighing different perspectives, enabled through dialogue in which both students and teachers are open with their views and about the views of each other.
Each of the other pillars sequentially build on one another and give the theoretical basis but also practical direction for the pedagogy.

In my understanding the basis for Social Justice Education (SJE) is that any encounter in classroom groups are influenced by their social relationships outside the classroom. Social Justice Education does not aim to diminish those differences but to make them part of the conversation and foster understanding. It aims to empower students to become independent thinkers, based on their individual standing in society.

I think that one important aspect of SJE comes from accepting that opinions differ and maintain mutual respect regardless.
This paper made me think of an episode of the podcast “Unlocking Us”: ‘Brene Brown with President Barack Obama on leadership, family and service’. In the conversation Obama describes how it is important to be able to ‘hold the tension of opposites’, to not dismiss an opposing opinion and to incrementally improve on things with that knowledge. He believes that recognising that two opposing opinions can both be true can make us better leaders and I think it also makes us better teachers.

Within the graphic design course I teach on we often ask students to make their projects personal and infuse their design with their unique perspective. During the design process we encourage experiments that break away from what we teach in the classroom and during the marking we highly value those individual approaches. Some students simply ‘get it’, looking back now these are probably more privileged and often White, and others don’t.
However a critical dialogue about what design means to anyone individually has never really been part of the way I teach. We ask students to be open and share parts of their identities without acknowledging the social construct of the classroom. Have I disadvantaged students who didn’t feel they could share part of their identity within the course? How can I introduce myself to enable students to do the same? I need to be more aware of my Whiteliness within my role as a teacher.

Terms of reference from SoN around Race

This issue contains such a wealth of truthful conversation and deeply felt expressions around race, racism and identity. I love that it’s a collection of different media including poems, artworks and drawings embracing the broad spectrum of expression within art education.

One quote from Terry Finnigan really struck me: 

“Most whites live their lives in segregation and mainly only mix with whites. And yet society does not teach us to see this as a loss.” (p.14)

My social environment is predominantly white and so are most of the companies and institutions I work with. I celebrate diversity on so many levels, yet I am quite segregated in my immediate environment.

I very much saw myself in the interview with a senior member of university staff who was questioned on his involvement with furthering inclusivity (pp. 27-31). The responses came awkwardly like many White people (myself included) behave when talking about race-related issues, tip-toeing around terms like ‘Black’ and seeking approval for their words and circumstances.

As with some of the previous reading on this module my bias was whispering in my ear that the staff member in questions had to be male but there is no evidence of that whatsoever and it’s irrelevant to the conversation. Like Tiffany Webster says in the article that follows this one I was looking for social cues as to who it might be and how much crossover there is in identity – probably to ‘distance’ myself from their (in-)actions and awkwardness. I appreciated the discussion about whether or not this interview should stay anonymous and I think it was more impactful for being anonymous.

Once I started seeing race (after shedding my colour blindness) I see that racism is everywhere, deeply engrained in the fabric of institutions as well as in the streets. Like the senior member of staff in the article mentioned above I will hopefully come back 18 months later and have put some of my learnings and thoughts into action, especially within my classroom.

Shades of Noir

When I first accessed Shades of Noir in 2020 as part of preparation for moving teaching online I was overwhelmed with the amount of resources and information and I quickly navigated away. 
Throughout the Inclusive Unit we were tasked with looking at specific articles and resources and I now have a good feel for what the site has to offer and it’s such an essential reference for anti-racism in pedagogy, conversations arounds inclusivity and notions of intersectionality.
The case studies and conversations around different aspects of education and art were particularly useful to me, not just from a pedagogic perspective, but they will also be a great resource to point students towards in the future. That way I can hopefully foster more critical reflection on the way design is created, it’s potential for social change and the responsibility of the designer. It’s also useful that the conversations are categorised, so they’re very accessible.

One thing I was struggling with a little was reading the terms of references / journals in the browser (through issuu). I have quite a big screen but it was still very small text and fiddly to make it legible. I also couldn’t find a way to use the brilliant accessibility tools within it, so I often lost track of where I was within the reading and read paragraphs over and over.

List of References

Tapper, H. (2013) ‘A pedagogy of social justice education: social identity, theory and intersectionality’.

Ted talk video “Witness Unconscious Bias” Josephine Kwhali, available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6XDUGPoaFw

Brown, B. (2020), Unlocking Us [Podcast]. ‘Brene Brown with President Barack Obama on leadership, family and service’, 7th Dec 2020, available at: https://brenebrown.com/podcast/brene-with-president-barack-obama-on-leadership-family-and-service/

Abraham, I., Gbikpi, N., Hardwick, T, O’Leary, B, Savjani., M. (2020), What does the Life in the UK Handbook say about who the British people are?, available at: https://www.freemovement.org.uk/what-does-the-life-in-the-uk-handbook-say-about-who-the-british-people-are/

Peekabo We See You: Whiteness, available at: https://issuu.com/shadesofnoir/docs/peekaboo_we_see_you_whiteness