Reflecting about white privilege, it is important for me to acknowledge that I have benefitted from the colour of my skin throughout my life and career. Whilst I am not comfortable with it, awareness of it and honesty about it has been of paramount importance to me in my life and the opportunities that I have had. I became aware of this in my teenage years when visiting my parents who used to live in Nigeria. Here I received treatment and privileges that was not available to most Nigerian people. It was a formative experience in my life, where I became acutely aware of what I had and was able to access due to the colour of my skin.
‘It doesn’t mean your life is 100% going to be easy, it just means that the adversity that you face will not be because of the colour of your skin’
Conversations About Race (BA Graphic Design Students, University of West of England, 2019)
Commencing this blog post, I want to pause and consider my positionality statement. I am a white man in his fifties, married to a black woman, we have a bi-racial daughter. I have been married for twenty years and with my wife for 27 years. My point of view, gaze, and daily experiences encompass three different lenses that bring three different lived experiences to my immediate family unit. Some positive, some not so positive and many where I have a totally different experiences to my wife and daughter. My family and life experiences has given me access to multiple points of view which have positively affected my teaching practice. Putting these attributes aside for a moment , this blogging task has challenged me to look my teaching methods in order to assess bias, it has been a valuable opportunity to pause and think about how I can assess areas of my practice as I plan towards the new academic year.
My wife and I regularly discuss with our daughter about how different spaces will bring different experiences for her throughout her life. Some where she is made to feel too black and some where she will feel too white. I am particularly interested in enquiring and reading further about the experiences of bi-racial students with UAL. If you have any suggestions in order for me to undertake further research about this, it would be most welcome.
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Reflecting on Witness Unconscious Bias
Is bias unconscious? probably not in my opinion. Josephine Kwhali clearly and insightfully explains what bias is on a personal and critical level. I totally agree with her opening statement in the film Witness: Unconscious Bias.
‘I don’t think some of it is unconconcious, it is kind of a get out clause’
Josephine Kwhali
I have always struggled with this phrase ‘unconscious’ when confronted with problematic decision making, worrying opinions and language that is bias, supposedly unconscious or not. When I first started teaching at undergraduate level I was shocked by the bias I experienced across a multitude of topics and spaces within the teaching staff. In those early days working within this new academic working structure that I was exposed to, I struggled to find my voice. The result of which I felt complicit with this bias. The realisation of this required me to look at my functional boundaries, my morals and a lot of reflecting on many conversations with my wife’s family about their own experiences off bias and exclusion.
The standards we expect from the student cohorts, are those standards the same with the teaching teams? My ability to confront and speak out about bias to this day is still a work in progress, I have to call it out rather than walk away to avoid the protagonist.
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Reflecting on ‘Retention and Attainment in the Disciplines: Art and Design’
4.2. Art and Design Pedagogies
Students see themselves as the experts in their practice and look to lecturers for feedback to extend or strengthen their work. However, with increasing group sizes, and the increase in diversity within Art and Design studio spaces, providing feedback at an individual level for learning becomes increasingly challenging. The ‘atelier’ method of working, which includes the “watch me and learn from me”, or the “sitting next to Nellie” approach (Swann 1986, p. 18) is no longer feasible. This relied on the serial one-to-one tutorial model of pedagogy and the tutors’ “pearls of wisdom” approach (Orr, Yorke and Blair 2014). Even with the larger groups this method of one-to-one feedback within the studio is still used today. This leads to students feeling there is very little teaching on the course:
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)
It is gratifying that the increase in students numbers is commented on in the above text. Timetabling, teaching spaces and planning is acutely affected by this increase. One positive development from this increase has been as it is pointed out, the shift from one to one tutorials. Even though many students still demand this, the shift to small group peer group sessions has been encouraging. However, a greater understanding of peer group sharing, group etiquette and group management needs to be more clearly embedded within the unit delivery, learning outcomes and OAT.
4.5. Art and Design Teachers
Ethnic diversity among staff is important for both Black and White students, as it provides positive role models, as well as a range of perspectives that enrich learning and demonstrates an institution’s commitment to diversity. Universities and colleges need to improve the diversity of their staff to better reflect the diversity of their student body. (NUS report 2011, p. 61)
Having taught at Chelsea, LCC, Camberwell, and LCF campuses during my academic career to date, each college has brought different experiences with markedly different student cohorts. Across all the campuses there is a lack of diversity within the teaching staff. Recently, this has been commented on by the students at Chelsea where I am currently a .6 senior lecturer.
This became apparent to me several years ago, when I was taking part in an open day at Chelsea. I was presenting at a Graphic Design Communication open day, the four tutors in the lecture theatre were all white and all men. I felt very uncomfortable with this.
Question / Provocation
Over recent years at Chelsea, the majority of incoming new teaching staff have been white European or American men. Why despite the data about the lack of diversity in the teaching staff within this context at Chelsea, does recruitment continue in this way?
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Reflecting on The Room of Silence
Watching the interviewed RISD students in this film, I thought about peer group sharing sessions, where students often struggle when talking about their ideas and concepts with others. Putting this film into context and considering how students of colour / minority groups feel being in spaces where they are looking to identify with others, let alone when they want to share about topics including race, politics, and faith in predominantly white spaces.
I would like to explore strategies around this to help me improve how I structure my peer group sessions so that all participants feel included and safe. How can I help those who feel ‘opposite’ or ‘other’? With the aim of developing and creating inclusive teaching spaces for everyone.
Language can also be a barrier that leads to silence, for students speaking English when it is their second language. Encouragement and patience is paramount, to help the student feel at ease when speaking.
I intend to use this film ahead of collaborative group work or as part of an introduction to studio culture and the studios as inclusive safe spaces.
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References The Room of Silence www.vimeo.com/161259012 Witness: Unconscious Bias www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6XDUGPoaFw Peekaboo We See You: Whiteness www.shadesofnoir.org.uk/journals/peekaboo-we-see-you-whiteness Retention and Attainment in the Disciplines: Art and Design www.advance-he.ac.uk/knowledge-hub/retention-and-attainment-disciplines-art-and-design Conversations About Race www.williamdevlindesign.com/copy-of-creating-the-canvas
