IP – Sebastian May

Exploring race & identity in the classroom

Exploring ‘Retention and attainment in the disciplines: Art and Design’, I was surprised to read that while UAL seems to retain students at subject discipline average (94%), the number of students gaining lower or no award is comparatively higher (6%); with a stark yet an unfortunately unsurprising difference between white students and Black student groups (Finnigan and Richards, 2016, p.4). When I began my academic work, I had always imagined that the creativity embedded within Art and Design studies would provide more opportunities for equity, equality and inclusion than other disciplines, and so I am now keen to investigate some of these discrepancies and possible interventions through my own practice.

On white fragility, Robin DiAngelo speaks of a socialisation that shapes our opinions about race “by swimming in the water of our culture” (DiAngelo, 2018, p.101). When we talk about personal identities and narratives, we must acknowledge the communities of which we are part, including our community perspectives. These will contain prejudices, relate to our own points of views and practices; however we cannot use this as an excuse for inaction. I very much acknowledge that even though I open opportunities for students to participate fully as themselves through their creative work and enable them to freely express their identities in the classroom, there remains a power imbalance between me, as a white man, making decisions on how learning takes place and how learning materials are designed, for example. DiAngelo (2018) writes that even though individual white people may be against racism, they can, and will, still benefit from the distribution of resources controlled by ‘their group’, and I feel there is a parallel to be drawn here between this larger social construct and the microcosm of the classroom.

Aaron J. Hahn Tapper’s writing on Social Justice Education, the link to conflict resolution and ‘intergroup education’, is fascinating to me (Hahn Tapper, 2013, p. 422). Much of my work in the classroom positions me as a sort of facilitator to engage students in creative thinking and practice and this can create incredibly positive learning experiences. As the article highlights, this type of work requires an openness and understanding of different identities, and possibly an understanding of (pre-existing) power dynamics and inequalities, from everyone present, me and my students. I hope that the identity exercise I have designed as part of my Artefact will make a positive contribution towards this work.

Aisha Richards (2023) offers through Shades of Noir a range of practical tools, such as the virtual learning netiquette, which I want to explore integrating into my future lectures. I think the website offers a fantastic resource of journals, which could offer students a brilliant insight into this area of work, highlight to them a range of personal narratives to help them reflect on their own identities and creative practices, and support their research. I frequently ask students to consider their own geopolitical, sociological and identity-based perspectives, how these impact their creative work and the stories they tell, and these resources could support effectively such activities.

See my comments on other posts on this topic

Further notes and reflections

The university retains exclusionary practices that align to an old-fashioned idea of Art & Design studies being a privilege to enter in the first place. Art and Design being such a huge field, however, I wonder if there are recognisable differences between art practices and if there are areas of the university that are more successful than others in including everyone.

In my own teaching practice, there are conversations to be had with students about their own identities, particularly in position to the institution and me as their tutor; giving them sufficient time to reflect and respond. Identity exercises, like the one embedded within my Artefact, could foster this.

I thought Josephine Kwhali comment on unconscious bias aligned with Shirley Anne Tate’s lecture on hiding behind unconscious bias, calling on us to stop using the unconscious as an excuse for bias and racism. Kwhali very much addresses staff, but I wonder how we address this with students in a meaningful way.

In my student experience strand of work, I would love to table some of the diversity questions highlighted on the Shades of Noir website. I frequently work with colleagues on experience and curriculum design and these questions are helpful prompts to unpick some of the practices, processes and designs currently in place across UAL online education.

Bibliography

DiAngelo, R. (2018) ‘White Fragility’, Peekaboo We See You: Whiteness, pp. 100–105. Available at: https://issuu.com/shadesofnoir/docs/peekaboo_we_see_you_whiteness (Accessed: 15 June 2023).

Finnigan, T. and Richards, A. (2016) Retention and attainment in the disciplines: Art and Design. rep. York: Higher Education Academy, pp. 1–24.

Hahn Tapper, A.J. (2013), A Pedagogy of Social Justice Education: Social Identity Theory, Intersectionality, and Empowerment. Conflict Resolution Quarterly, 30: 411 445. https://doi.org/10.1002/crq.21072

Richards, A. (2023) Shades of Noir. Available at: https://shadesofnoir.org.uk/ (Accessed: 14 June 2023).

Witness: unconscious bias (2016) ucu black members’ standing committee oral history project. The University and College Union (UCU). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6XDUGPoaFw (Accessed: 15 June 2023).

Whiteliness and institutional racism: Hiding behind (un)conscious bias (2018) YouTube. Chair for Critical Studies in Higher Education Transformation (CriSHET) at the Nelson Mandela University, South Africa. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lur3hjEHCsE (Accessed: 16 June 2023).

Practice, community and belief

Kwame Anthony Appiah’s lecture resonates with me in the way he assigns religion into areas of practice, community and belief (Appiah, 2016). He also talks about the idea of change, in the way we interpret faith to create ‘new traditions’, and says that practice can change over time, and so can belief. The unique way Appiah explores religion makes me think about storytelling and narrative again; how we interpret faith, and how we express ourselves through it. When I look at a group of people, such as students, they may indeed have similar backgrounds in terms of their faith, but it is through their unique experiences and expression that shapes their faith identity in individual, yet equally valid ways. I want to make sure I address this in the way I teach.

This links to the way the ‘Religion in Britain, Challenges for Higher Education’ stimulus paper addresses the idea of multiculturalism. Tariq Modood points towards ‘equality as the accommodation of difference in the public space, which therefore comes to be shared rather than dominated by the majority’ (Modood and Calhoun, 2015, p.6). For me, this is about both the acknowledgment of different stories, but also for providing an explicit platform to express these. Modood stresses that religion is a public good (as opposed to a private one), and giving importance to faith backgrounds and discussion in the classroom aligns with this idea that faith is owned and expressed by its communities, including academic communities.

Related to this, I thought the article by Melodie Holliday on giving up Buddhism based on some of the inherent conflicts within many faith-based systems is very interesting (Holliday, 2017, pp. 46–49). Inequality, sexism, corruption, abuse of power… many of these social challenges do not disappear when we enter religious organisations, yet they might lead us to discuss or consider our religious affiliations from different angles. Again, someone’s experience in this space will be deeply shaped by their own background and is worth listening to in an academic and creative setting, including in my own pedagogic activities with students. There are opportunities here to enable students to integrate their own faith backgrounds through practical applications, such as through their artistic practices, or through classroom discussions with their peers, which I would like to explore further. Some of the resources highlighted here may also provide interesting background information and inspiration to students trying to understand how faith and its expression may impact their practices, in a very reflective way.

See my comments on other posts on this topic

Bibliography

Appiah, K.A. (2016) ‘Creed’, Kwame Anthony Appiah – Mistaken Identities. The Reith Lectures, 30 May. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07z43ds (Accessed: 30 May 2023).

Modood, T. and Calhoun, C. (2015) Religion in Britian: Challenges for Higher Education. London: Leadership Foundation for Higher Education.

Holliday, M. (2017) ‘I was a buddhist for seven years’, Higher Power: Religion, Faith, Spirituality & Belief, pp. 46–49. Available at: https://shadesofnoir.org.uk/journals/higher-power-religion-faith-spirituality-belief/ (Accessed: 30 May 2023).

Reclaiming sounds, empowering voices

Christine Sun Kim’s physical exploration of sound deeply resonates with my own desire to inspire students to investigate creative practices in different ways (Saltzman, 2011). In some of my drawing classes, for example, I encourage students to reflect on what mark making means to them, and how they might approach it within their own creative practice – beyond the use of pen on paper.

Christine Sun Kim says that she is reclaiming sound as her own property, after previously believing that only those with access to sound naturally own it and have a say about it (Saltzman, 2011). There is something incredibly empowering in this, similar to the more ‘radical’ approaches The Horizontals express in their TEDxBrum video (Not all disabilities are visible, 2017), i.e. doing things the same way they’ve always been done no longer works. It would be interesting to use the two films as actual learning resources, using them to prompt discussion or reflection around students’ own positionality towards drawing, or other creative subjects, before or at the beginning of specific drawing activities.

Enabling and empowering students to approach drawing from a personal perspective, guided self-design and self-empowerment, also includes students of all abilities by design, and aligns with the Social Model of Disability.

A majority of students in my teaching context are from Black, Asian, or minority ethnic backgrounds. As Vilissa Thompson points out in her #DisabilityTooWhite interview (Blahovec, 2016), there is plenty of space for additional conversations around how students from different backgrounds experience not just living with disabilities, but also the support available to them. I want to ensure that the learning activities I design remain flexible and open enough for students to speak freely about their own experiences including the support they may want.

Khairani Barokka beautifully, although painfully, speaks of some of their rich and complex personal experiences, and how they may or may not align with “capitalist infrastructure, including the neoliberal structure of arts organisations and funding” (Barokka, 2017) . Creating spaces for such frank considerations in students’ academic experience can be vital to their learning as well as overall experience.

I am curious to see how I could enable students to feel more empowered, possibly through evaluating and constructing their own narratives within their practices, as well as storytelling techniques. What is the student’s own, unique story and retelling of their story? What is the student’s position within the world? How could they apply this within and to their own practice?

See my comments on other posts on this topic

Further notes and reflections

The guided approach to self-design and self-empowerment supports students in their learning. Even more, students may also find it helpful to consider other students’ abilities when collaborating, and these sources may empower them to approach projects with more understanding and respect for each other’s differences. It might also be a good springboard to make students understand the support available through UAL’s disability and dyslexia services. Considerations should be made around how these services were designed, how they are provided, and how students experience them.

Multidisciplinary sound artist Ubuntu (2020, p.177) outlines in their article that there is a “paradox of invisibility and hypervisibility inherent in intersectional oppression” that doesn’t always allow for openness and disclosure. As educators, this is something we must respect, even through our attempts to empower students to be their most authentic selves.

Bibliography

Barokka, Khairani (2017) Deaf-accessibility for spoonies: lessons from touring Eve and Mary Are Having Coffee while chronically ill. Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance, 22 (3). pp. 387-392. ISSN 1470-112X

Blahovec, S. (2016) “Confronting the Whitewashing Of Disability: Interview with #DisabilityTooWhite Creator Vilissa Thompson,” Huffpost, 28 June. Available at: www.huffpost.com/entry/confronting-the-whitewash_b_10574994 (Accessed: May 7, 2023).

Not all disabilities are visible. (2017) YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhXcP65h0sI (Accessed: May 5, 2023).

Saltzman, D. (2011) Christine Sun Kim, vimeo. A Selby Film. Available at: https://vimeo.com/31083172 (Accessed: May 5, 2023).

UAL (2023) Disability and dyslexia, UAL. Available at: https://www.arts.ac.uk/students/student-services/disability-and-dyslexia (Accessed: May 7, 2023).

Ubuntu, R. (2020) “An Inquiry Into Disability + Intersectional Identities,” Disabled People: The Voice of Many, pp. 174–177. Available at: https://issuu.com/shadesofnoir/docs/disabled_people (Accessed: May 7, 2023).