Here are my reflections on the readings we were presented with for this assignment.
The essay by Alice Bradbury left me feeling frustrated as there is so much evidence but so little action. There is something about how it is framed (I might have misread) about policy and assessment that doesn’t sit well with me. Even if these policies clearly illustrate the gaps and issues students face, what is the purpose of focusing on assessment of models and criteria? The question should be “How do I make sure my students are getting good grades?”, it should be “How am I making sure they are getting a good education?”
(Table of questions from Bradbury’s Essay, getting people to honestly answer these might be uncomfortable. But maybe it is incredibly helpful to face that feeling together?)
No policy will matter unless we take action to create better opportunities for students to catch up and provide better financial support so that students can focus and stay interested in their studies.
Rhianna Garretts essay is given more context thanks to the video by James Orr. Of course, there will be differences in career trajectory for global majority academics if they are faced with hostile staff like James Orr who simply claims institutional racism does not exist. The boldness in James Orr’s claims makes me think about the potential inaction of his peers who take on the role as the naïve and/or bystander in his presence (Wong Et Al, 2024).
Also the Telegraph can go to hell 🙂
Asif Sadiq and James Orr’s video talk about how training is a waste of money. Orr claims that it is not needed while Sadiq states that it is a waste of money because it does not work. After seeing how my peers and managers continue to act after having done mandatory anti racism training, I am very much in Sadiq’s side of the argument. His talk was very helpful to motivate me to put my intervention into practice next academic year, to prove to peers how an embodied manifesto exercise can go a long way as long as you are adaptable and open to change based on student’s needs.
Research questions after reviewing these resources: How can we help teachers become more adaptable and confident? In the end, they were all students with diverse needs and are now adults with diverse needs. So how can an adult who doesn’t communicate their diverse needs get students to do it? Maybe all teachers need a workshop on improvisation?
All of this makes me think of building transformative justice into my teaching. (Need to email practitioner Alex Johnston and ask for an interview.) This would help staff with the fear of saying the wrong thing. “Creating psychological safety to have conversations”. (Sadiq, A. 2023)
Asking what people would like is helpful to hear as it adds to my intervention. We own our own journey of learning, and we need to allow it to be uncomfortable.
Note to remember: How do I communicate to students the appropriate channels for them to raise concerns about me? I currently do not tell students how to do this.
Action: Add point of contact to my manager in all emails in case students want to raise issues around my teaching.
Bibliography:
Bradbury, A., 2020. A critical race theory framework for education policy analysis: The case of bilingual learners and assessment policy in England. Race Ethnicity and Education, 23(2), pp.241-260. Read pages 241-247.
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. Read pages 2-5 & 7-11.
Sadiq, A. (2023) Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. Learning how to get it right. TEDx [Online}. Youtube. 2 March. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HR4wz1b54hw
Orr, J. (2022) Revealed: The charity turning UK universities woke. The Telegraph [Online]. Youtube. 5 August. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRM6vOPTjuU
Billy Wong, Reham Elmorally, Meggie Copsey-Blake, Ellie Highwood & Joy Singarayer (2021) Is race still relevant? Student perceptions and experiences of racism in higher education, Cambridge Journal of Education, 51:3, 359-375, DOI: 10.1080/0305764X.2020.1831441
I agree with your outlook on Bradbury’s essay. I too found the lack of action drawn from so much research and agree with your perspective of a good and inspiring education being the goal, rather than the grade.
I like how you have tied in Sadiq’s critique of DEI into the development of your intervention and how you are learning from the shortcomings of DEI to inform your own teaching and manifesto.
Thank you Charlie, that is very nice to hear.
Hi Fred,
Thank you for sharing, this was an interesting read.
I share your frustration with the Bradbury essay and I’m in agreement that we should focus on ‘good education’ over and above ‘good grades’. It could be interesting to explore constructive ways via which the student preoccupation with final ‘good’ grades could be questioned. I wonder if such research has been carried out to this end, it could make for useful co-learning opportunities, forming the basis for a workshop or toolkit perhaps.
I’m interested to read about your proposition to embed ‘transformative justice’ into your teaching, this is something I am (up until this point) relatively unfamiliar with and I look forward to learning more and seeing how this evolves as part of your embodied manifesto / Intervention.
I admire your pro-active, people-centred approach by ‘asking what people would like’ and stated ‘owning our own journey(s) of learning’. I’m inspired to model similar reflective and responsive methods in my teaching – and in possible questionnaires and focus groups as part of the ARP going forwards.
It’ll be great to discuss the above further into the next unit.
Thanks again.
Thank you Kelly!
Have a nice break and let’s try to catch up for unit 3.
Think we can help each other with the action research.
Fred
I found Bradbury’s text challenging as well, and I chose to focus on other references for my blog. I think part of the difficulty lies in how abstract some of the ideas are without clear links to practical implementation.
In response to Asif and James’s video “Training is a Waste of Money”, I think that the effectiveness of DEI training often depends on who creates it. Sometimes, they were developed without much practical or frontline experience, drawing on a limited range of sources like mainstream media articles rather than lived realities. That may make them feel conceptual. These kinds of training sessions are only meaningful if they’re tailored to the specific context of a course or discipline. In many ways, that responsibility now falls to us as educators. But without access to specialist training that speaks to our subject areas, it can be difficult to know whether we’re getting it right.
Your point about students communicating their diverse needs really resonated with something I mentioned in Blog 1. Students hesitate to tell us their needs because they worry it’ll be seen as a disadvantage or a defining part of their identity. That perception needs to shift, and ideally, it should be addressed much earlier in their academic journey, not just at university.
I hope your intervention develops in the way you envision. Thank you for your feedback on my intervention plan as well. It was a helpful comment that change can be introduced gradually across my other deliveries, rather than only relying on one-off sessions. I will keep adaptability in mind as one of my key focuses, especially given that contexts and student needs shift every year.
Hello Herman.
I agree with your thoughts on training not being delivered by the right people. I also think there is eomthing around how management does not follow up with staff post training. All staff should really be creating their own action plans as a part of training and then have follow up check ins with their line manager to make sure they are doing what they said they would.
Looking forward to seeing what you do for unit 3.
Have a nice break.
Fred