Education for Mental Health Toolkit - Race Equity

The attainment of students of colour across the sector is stratified. Even when prior attainment is accounted for, students in protected characteristic groups, and particularly Black students, are less likely than their white peers to be awarded a ‘good honours’ degree (1). The experiences of students encountering structural racism across the sector must be acknowledged as a key contributing factor in this outcome. This is important for the wellbeing of both academics and students of colour (see Barker & Shakir, 2021 (2); it recognises that the problem is within the system and not something that is individually attributable. This is of fundamental importance to students’ self-concept and self-efficacy.

Institutional Racism can be understood as a ‘recognition that to thrive, racism does not require overtly racist individuals, and conceives of it rather as arising through social and cultural processes’ (3). Students who responded to our survey indicated the positive benefits of academics’ ability to show an understanding of institutional racism and an awareness of their own biases. When academics can speak sensitively with students about ethnicity/race concerns, this is critical in removing barriers to students feeling that they belong.

Ensuring an inclusive environment relies on the collective actions of individuals, but this requires care. As Nova Reid argues (4), it is often ill-informed and well-meaning people who can cause great harm if they don’t actively engage in reflecting on their own prejudices. Creating an environment where students of colour can thrive starts with self-work, followed by thinking through the curriculum and pedagogic approaches. Starting with the very basic questions ‘where am I on this journey?’ followed by and ‘why am I teaching this?’ are good places to begin.

The choice of curriculum content is critical in ensuring inclusivity. When students are unrepresented within curriculum content, feel their culture, language and experiences carry less value and their history is invisible, this can exclude them from learning and a sense of belonging to their cohort and discipline (5). For example, students in our research expressed concern about the lack of critical engagement in some areas of the disciplinary discoveries which had been founded on the exploitation of Black people, such as experimentation on enslaved people.

There are significant issues to be addressed in particular subjects – the predominance of whiteness as the norm in the medical profession for example means that manikins (the anatomical models used in educational healthcare practice) are predominantly white. Case studies which include reference to a range of cultural experiences or look at issues from different traditions or perspectives are important to all students in terms of their critical engagement and wider cultural learning. However, such learning has particular importance to students who may otherwise be disengaged by experiences which never make reference to contexts which directly reference their experiences.

At the launch of the Universities UK and NUS report on closing the Awarding Gap in higher education (6), a student keynote address focused on student experiences of learning about the Awarding Gap in higher education. One Black student explained that when they understood the awarding gap and its causes it felt as if the ‘ghost in the room had revealed itself.’ It explained why she felt she had to work harder than her white peers to relate to the subject content and to achieve as highly them. The simple acknowledgement of the issue resting with the sectoral structural issues of inequity supported the re-evaluation of her understanding of herself- she could stop holding herself accountable for perceived deficiencies which were institutionally created. Challenging the deficit model is something that we can all do; here are some resources that can support you in understanding how we can think about learning, achievement and success through a non-deficit lens:

Key lessons

• A whole institution approach is required to embed race equity. Nevertheless, the construction of the curriculum and the way that it is taught has a critical role in ensuring an environment where all students are able to thrive whilst being their authentic selves.
• The experiences of students encountering structural racism across the sector must be acknowledged as a key contributing factor in the awarding gap.
• When academics can speak sensitively with students about ethnicity /race concerns, this is critical in removing barriers to students feeling that they belong.
• The choice of curriculum content is critical in ensuring inclusivity. When students are unrepresented within curriculum content, feel their culture, language and experiences carry less value and their history is invisible, this can exclude them from learning and a sense of belonging to their cohort and discipline.

Top Tips

• Creating an environment where students of colour can thrive starts with self-work, followed by thinking through the curriculum and pedagogic approaches. Starting with the very basic questions ‘where am I on this journey?’ followed by and ‘why am I teaching this?’ are good places to begin.
• Engaging a wide range of students in co-creating curriculum can bring additional richness to learning and a more inclusive curriculum.
• Provide opportunities for students to reflect on their own experience and value diversity of student focus, ideas, language and culture.

Resoruces

• The SOAS decolonising toolkit
• The Kingston Inclusive Curriculum framework
• What works in approaches to the BME attainment gap - Advance HE
• Supporting Black, Asian and minority ethnic students – Webinar recording, Advance HE 
• Creating an inclusive environment – Advance HE 
• Understanding your white privilege and how to use it – Peggy Macintosh Ted Talk
• Privilege checklist – Boise State University 
• Here’s a step you can take to help end racism – learning to talk about it – Clyde Ford 
• The BAME attainment gap is not the fault of BAME students – Daniel Akinbosede 
• Racism in universities is a systemic problem, not a series of incidents – Professor Kehinde Andrews 
• Valuing diverse knowledges in higher education: a post-COVID proposition – Hilary Noone 
• As white sports lecturers, we’re learning how to make our classroom less racist – Michael Hobson and Stuart Whigham 
• Teaching intelligence: making assessment inclusive – Ruth Payne 
• Curriculum co-creation as a transformative strategy to address differential student outcomes: the example of Kingston Universities Student Curriculum Consultant Programme – Hughes et al, 2019 
• Co-creation in learning and teaching: the case for a whole-class approach in higher education Bovill, 2020 

References

1. Underwood G, Conrad F. DIVERSITY IN DESIGN: ADDRESSING THE BLACK AWARDING GAP. InDS 110: Proceedings of the 23rd International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education (E&PDE 2021), VIA Design, VIA University in Herning, Denmark. 9th-10th September 2021, 2021.

2. Barker, R. & Shakir, S. (2021) Building an inclusive learning community to deliver a race equity curriculum. Times Higher Education (Accessed online, 11/12/2021) Available at https://www.timeshighereducation.com/campus/building-inclusive-learning-community-deliver-race-equality-curriculum

3. Pilkington, A. (2004) Institutional Racism in the Academy? Comparing the Police and University in Midshire. Chapter 3 edited by Law, Ian, Phillips, Deborah & Turney, Laura. (2004) in Institutional Racism in Higher Education. Stoke on Trent: Trentham Books.

4. Fleming, Crystal M. (2018) How to be less stupid about race. Boston, Beacon Press

5. Gillborn, D, Rollock, N, Warmington, P & Demack, S (2016). Race, Racism and Education: Inequality, Resilience, and Reform in Policy & Practice. (Accessed online, 11/12/2021) Available at https://soc-for-ed-studies.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/GillbornD-et-al_Race-Racism-and-Education.pdf

6. Universities UK (UUK) & National Union of Students (NUS), (2018) Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Student Attainment at UK Universities #Close the Gap (Accessed online, 11/12/2021) Available at https://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/sites/default/files/field/downloads/2021-07/bame-student-attainment.pdf

7. Reid, N (2021) The Good Ally London: Harper Collins