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PALGRAVE STUDIES IN RACE, INEQUALITY AND SOCIAL JUSTICE IN EDUCATION
Racism and Education in Britain Addressing Structural Oppression and the Dominance of Whiteness Gill Crozier
Palgrave Studies in Race, Inequality and Social Justice in Education Series Editors Jason Arday Department of Sociology Durham University Durham, UK Paul Warmington Centre for Education Studies University of Warwick Coventry, UK Vikki Boliver Department of Sociology Durham University Durham, UK Michael Peters Wilf Malcolm Institute of Educational Research The University of Waikato Hamilton, New Zealand James L. Moore III Interim VP for Diversity & Inclusion The Ohio State University Columbus, OH, USA Zeus Leonardo Graduate School of Education University of California, Berkeley Berkeley, CA, USA
This series focuses on new developments in the study of race, social justice and education. Promoting theoretically-rich works, contributions include empirical and conceptual studies that advance critical analysis whilst attempting to destabilise the institutionalised racist orthodoxy that has undermined the notion of education being a tool of social mobility. The series will consider social mobility as a form of equality narrowly defined whilst also critiquing the ideology of social mobility which essentially pits individuals against one another in a sink or swim competition, entirely ignoring the reality of deep and damaging structural inequalities. A central aim of the series will be to address important current policy issues, such as social mobility, widening participation etc., while also recognising that critical studies of race are also concerned with wider, fundamental transformations in education, knowledge and society, i.e. the dismantling of racist structures, concern with education’s role in reproducing racial inequality.
Gill Crozier
Racism and Education in Britain Addressing Structural Oppression and the Dominance of Whiteness
Gill Crozier School of Education, Froebel College University of Roehampton London, UK
ISSN 2524-633X ISSN 2524-6348 (electronic) Palgrave Studies in Race, Inequality and Social Justice in Education ISBN 978-3-031-18930-2 ISBN 978-3-031-18931-9 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-18931-9 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023, corrected publication 2023 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover illustration: Eugene Sergeev / Alamy Stock Photo This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG. The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
The original version of the book has been revised. A correction to this book can be found at https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-18931-9_10.
To Musembi, Emily, Molly, Megan and Bella
Acknowledgements
This book is based on a range of work that I have undertaken over many years. My gratitude to those who helped and supported me in various ways therefore extends far and wide. More recently I would like to thank former colleagues, family and friends for their support, encouragement and the many discussions about the issues written here. I would like to thank my PhD students for some great insights and ideas about the process and experience of Education and I am grateful to the University of Roehampton for their continued support. Specifically I am sincerely grateful to those who so kindly read and commented on individual chapters and provided me with some useful critical and insightful comments, as well as pointing me to some useful references, and to those who shared some of their own experiences which gave me further thoughts and endorsed some of the arguments and data here in the book. Huge gratitude therefore to Alice Crozier Green, Dr Jane Davies, Andy Green, Dr Jasmine Rhamie and Musembi Salandy. My heartfelt thanks go to Dr Ada Mau for reading through the complete manuscript and her perceptive observations and constructive comments. Needless to say any errors or misinterpretations are entirely my own responsibility. My thanks also to the series’ editors for their support and positive comments and to the Palgrave/Springer Nature production team.
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Chapter 3 is based on an adapted and developed version of Crozier, G. (2003) Researching Black Parents: making sense of the role of research and the researcher Qualitative Research 3 (1), 79–94. Chapter 8 draws on and develops the previously published: Crozier, G. (2005) Beyond the Call of Duty: the impact of racism on black parents’ involvement in their children’s education. In G. Crozier and D. Reay (Eds.) Activating Participation. Parents and Teachers Working Towards Partnership, pp. 39–55, Stoke-on-Trent, UK and Sterling: Trentham Books.
Praise for Racism and Education in Britain “Using Critical Whiteness Theory, Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality, Crozier explores how racism and racist practices continue to be an everyday feature in education. She eloquently argues that White privilege is a feature of the education system which is used to uphold White supremacy through policymaking, pedagogical practice and curricula. Through exclusionary processes, racism simply continues as business as usual. A powerful and compelling book which completely dispels the myth of post-racism, and a must-read for anyone interested in the perpetuation of normative Whiteness in education.” —Professor Kalwant Bhopal FAcSS, Director, Centre for Research in Race and Education, School of Education, University of Birmingham “Race and education have become big business once again, mostly through the efforts of government and right-wing think tanks to shift blame, normalize white supremacy and portray anti-racists as divisive troublemakers. This book offers a passionate, clear and thoroughly researched answer to the lies that pretend we live in a post-racial or colourblind world. Gill Crozier is one of the UK’s leading anti-racist scholars and this book pulls together different strands of her work to present a challenging and compelling analysis of the racism at the heart of education policy and practice. The book has many strengths, including an important account of whiteness within the research process and a crucial discussion of the importance of both race and class, without falling into the trap of allowing class conscious research to silence a focus on racism. The voices of parents play a major role in the book, providing perceptive and powerful insights into the everyday processes that give racism such a central role in the education system.” —David Gillborn, Emeritus Professor of Critical Race Studies at the University of Birmingham and Editor-in-Chief of the journal ‘Race Ethnicity and Education’ “This inspiring, insightful and thought-provoking book uncovers how racism operates in and through education in the British context and beyond—and why so little has changed despite the pressure of obvious inequalities and discrimination. Using Critical Race Theory and Pierre Bourdieu’s sociology of symbolic violence as analytical tools, Gill Crozier comprehensively traces how racism and White dominance permeate education policy making, curriculum and teachers’
practice and how they shape educational experiences, trajectories and outcomes in school and university. The central thesis is carefully and convincingly underpinned by disturbing evidence of the existence and experiences of racism from her own academic research, that of others and a wide range of political reports. Also, in view of the corrosive effects of neoliberal statehood on the possibilities of combating racism an outlook on collective perspectives for action is given. The book is clearly written and has a reader-friendly structure. Beyond its important contribution to international academic discourse, it is also recommended reading for policymakers, practitioners and other interested parties.” —Mechtild Gomolla, Professor for Intercultural Pedagogy and Educational Justice, University of Education Karlsruhe, Germany “Racism and Education in Britain—Addressing Structural Oppression and the Dominance of Whiteness is a timely book. It comes at a juncture when the British government continues to rage against and seeks to silence educators daring to bring a focus on race within English classrooms. A culmination of the author’s longstanding commitment to anti-racism in schools and higher education, this book offers a unique opportunity to engage with critical whiteness, race and intersectionality theories as they are critically applied to the educational experiences of ethnically diverse students from the 1970s to present-day, and parents from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds in England. For anyone in doubt about the entrenchment of whiteness and white knowledge in British education, analyses of literature and art alongside educational policy analyses dispel such misgivings. Crucially, the book demonstrates that the responsibility for challenging institutional racism in education is not confined to minority ethnic communities and cannot be done without shining the lens on whiteness. As such, the book has much to offer educators, graduates, researchers and policymakers alike.” —Professor Uvanney Maylor, Institute for Research in Education, University of Bedfordshire “In ‘Racism and Education in Britain—Addressing Structural Oppression and the Dominance of Whiteness’, Gill Crozier invites us to think beyond what we take for granted by exploring the subtle, hidden and multiple ways in which education, from teaching to policy, disadvantages Black or BAME people in the UK. Written in a very accessible style, this book brings together decades of critical, educational research on race and ethnic inequalities, focusing on highly
contemporary issues, such as the decolonization of the curriculum, the role of racialization in doing research, the resistance of Black or BAME parents and the importance of including social class and gender in developing an understanding of race and ethnic inequalities in education. Although focusing on the UK, it offers a wealth of inspiration for critical researchers working in different national contexts. A great starting point for anyone interested in this field.” —Dr Peter Stevens, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, Ghent University, Belgium
Contents
1 I ntroduction: Racism in Twenty-First-Century Britain— Like a Pendulum Swinging 1 Structure of the Book 12 References 18 2 Racism: History, Theories and Concepts 23 What Is Racism? 24 Immigration Policy and Nationalism as Conduits for Racism 31 Critical Race Theory, Critical Whiteness Theory and Intersectionality 35 Critical Race Theory 35 Critical Whiteness Theory 35 Intersectionality 40 Conclusion 42 References 44 3 Reflexivity and the Role of the White Researcher in the Field of ‘Race’, Anti/Racism and Education 49 Introduction 49 Reflecting on Whiteness 51 xv
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Personal Experience Research and the Black-White Research Relationship 55 Trust and Risk 58 The Role of the Researcher 61 Research Voices 65 Conclusion 67 References 68 4 ‘Race’, Policies and Politics: Managing Diversity 73 Introduction 73 Management and Control of Racial and Ethnic Diversity 76 Acts of Resistance 81 Constructing Citizenship: Developing ‘Community Cohesion’ 86 From Community Cohesion to Community to Disharmony 92 Post-‘Race’ 94 Conclusion 97 References 99 5 From Policy to Practice: Teaching and the Curriculum— The Process of Racialisation and Othering105 Introduction 105 Racialisation and the Process of Othering 106 Difference and Diversity and Culture 111 Diversity 112 Difference 113 Culture 115 The End of Multiculturalism? 120 Racialisation, Representation, the Power of the Curriculum and Decoloniality 123 Conclusion 128 References 130
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6 Reproducing Racism and Maintaining White Supremacy: Experiences in School and University135 Introduction 135 White Norms and the Neoliberal Education System 138 The Downward Spiral and ‘Breaking Their Spirit’ 141 White Spaces of Exclusion: The School as a Racist Environment 145 Fear of Black and Asian Children 152 Exerting Control and Ensuring Sameness 155 Negotiating White Space 157 Conclusion 160 References 161 7 Blinded by Whiteness: Problems and Possibilities for Teachers in the Fight Against Racism and White Supremacy167 Introduction 167 Teacher Expectations of Black Caribbean and South Asian Heritage Children 169 Teacher Attitudes 171 Structure and Agency 175 Dominance of White Teachers 183 Conclusion 185 References 187 8 Defend, Rescue and Protect: Parents as Social Agents195 Introduction 195 Concern About Racism: ‘Exit’ and ‘Choice’ 198 Compensating for School Failure 202 Managing Feeling 204 Being Ignored and Being Humiliated: Invisibility and Public Scrutiny—Different Sides to the Same Coin 206 The Constraints of ‘Difference’ 208 ‘Whose Culture Has Capital?’ 212 Conclusion 217 References 219
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9 Conclusion: Anti-racism or Post-Race—Where Are We Now in the Struggle Against Racism?223 Possibilities of Change and Challenging Racism and Whiteness 230 References 233 Correction to: Racism and Education in BritainC1 R eferences237 I ndex271
1 Introduction: Racism in Twenty-First- Century Britain—Like a Pendulum Swinging
At the time of writing the tragic death of George Floyd in the USA has given momentum to the Black Lives Matter Movement on a global scale. A new spotlight has been shone on racist practices by the police and authorities and the dominance of White representation throughout societal institutions and organisations, the media and cultural forms. Stimulated by the Black Lives Matter Movement and the global resonance around racist discrimination, there is suddenly renewed interest in and concern about racism. How long this will last remains to be seen as will the extent to which this ‘concern’ will translate into anti-racist policies and practice. The brutal murder of George Floyd, a Black man, by a US police officer was not the first such murder in the USA or Britain or indeed elsewhere in the world. However, years of silence on and denial of these racist acts together with rampant inequalities partly exposed during the COVID-19 pandemic have led to the reverberation of outrage across the world. This is a moment to be seized to challenge racism, as many, especially young Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) writers, commentators and activists, are doing. There seems to be, therefore, for the moment at least, a rise in social consciousness and a recognition of the need to address racism in some © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023, corrected publication 2023 G. Crozier, Racism and Education in Britain, Palgrave Studies in Race, Inequality and Social Justice in Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-18931-9_1
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way. Although there is little practical response from government to this, there is evidence of some schools organising racism awareness training for their staff and interest in developing anti-racist curricula (Batty et al. 2021; Williams 2021), some universities beginning to address racial inequality if the Advance-HE Race Equality Charter is an indication of this (Advance-he.ac.uk accessed 1/07/2022) as well as some considering the implications of their histories and legacies (see, e.g. Mullen and Newman 2018; Anthony 2020), and almost like magic the media have suddenly found a plethora (relatively speaking) of young Black and Asian reporters and presenters and analysts; the cultural world has discovered Black Art and artists, dramatists, actors and musicians. However, none of this is sufficient. Within this context there has also been a brief upsurge in the recognition of the significance of history and the part slavery and colonialism have played in the continuation of racist oppression and a reaction against key historical perpetrators such as the slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol, the coloniser Cecil Rhodes in Oxford and Leopold II in Belgium responsible for the genocide of millions of Congolese people from, as it is known today, the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In England the annual musical celebration known as ‘The Proms’ traditionally ends with the songs ‘Land of Hope and Glory’ and ‘Rule Britannia’ both symbols of British imperialism. It seemed that the organisers in 2020 had been inspired by the emerging zeitgeist and the Black Lives Matter Movement in particular and declared that they would not play these two songs. The backlash to this comes as a warning of the challenges that face anti-racism struggles. The reaction to this initiative was led by the Conservative Government and the Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Invoking nationalistic sentiments about ‘[White] British Identity’, the Government pressured the concert organisers to renege on their decision, and the efforts to take down Cecil Rhodes’ statue were also brought to a halt. It was claimed that these sentiments and those who removed the Edward Colston statue were trying to destroy and distort British history rather than revealing aspects of history that hitherto had been hidden. Exposing the racist practices and beliefs located historically often with figures who are held up to represent [White] Britishness, including ‘goodness and greatness’ is under threat and the full weight of the dominant Establishment has been
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brought to bear in order to counteract these moves. Rule Britannia continues to be sung, and Cecil Rhodes is still presiding over the Oxford College. However, the debate has not been quashed. The importance of these debates lies also in the significance of the statue for what it represents. When it was suggested in the media that Lord Nelson should be removed from Trafalgar Square and Churchill from Parliament Square, the shock waves through the Establishment were palpable (Simpson 2017; Taylor 2020). These figures represent Britishness—a White Britishness and some would argue much of what Britain stands for. To remove them would negate the essence of White British identity. But given their record on slavery and the slave trade in Nelson’s case and attitudes to racism and colonialism in Churchill’s case (Ali 2022), to maintain honouring them, at best, highlights the contradictions in State and government rhetoric of anti-racism or exposes the hypocrisy of any putative anti-racist policy or practice. I am not suggesting that history be eradicated; on the contrary I am advocating that we look again at history more carefully and expose the mistakes, atrocities and exploitation that has been carried out in the name of ‘greatness’ so that we can learn from the past and use this knowledge to address present inequities and misjudgements and hopefully to avoid these mistakes in the future. This book is concerned with racism and education including manifestations of discrimination and inequality, the impact of racism on policy, the curriculum, teachers’ practice, students’ learning, outcomes and educational opportunities, with particular reference to school and university. In Britain it is clear from the evidence, in spite of decades of policies on ‘race’ equality that Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic children and young people continue to be discriminated against in the Education system. There is a significant and enduring achievement gap between certain BAME children and their White counterparts (Department for Education (DfE) 2013; Demie and McLean 2017), certain BAME children are disproportionately excluded from school (Graham et al. 2019, Department for Education 2017), and there exists an achievement gap at university level between certain BAME and White students (UUK/NUS 2019). Further, a recent report in the UK shows disproportionate representation of young Black people in the unemployment statistics and criminal justice system (Lammy 2017) as well as significant over-representation of
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Stop and Search by the police of young Black people (and mainly men) (Stop and search - GOV.UK Ethnicity facts and figures 2022). The continuing failure by the Education system of young Black, (South) Asian and other minority ethnic young people, high levels of unemployment, police brutality, harassment, discrimination and day-to-day microaggressions are the lived experiences in twenty-first-century Britain of BAME people (Crozier 2017). These all too familiar themes have been identified in research over many years (e.g. Arday 2019, Bhopal 2018, Gillborn 1995, Mac An Ghaill 1988, Maylor 2010, Warmington 2014) that hang like a White background or White noise, ever present but seemingly easy to ignore. The book is also motivated by the overriding desire to interrogate why so little has changed in society in relation to stamping out racism over the past 50 years in spite of a multiplicity of policies and commissions enquiring into inequality and also by a deep concern that in the present climate of global disharmony, fluidity of movement of peoples and the challenge to national borders that in Britain and Europe we are not prepared for these changes and the challenges they present. When I say ‘challenges’, I am referring to society’s failure to develop an equitable, fair and inclusive society, together with a failure to support its citizens to develop their consciousness about oppressive and discriminatory racialised practices. Society has failed to develop anti-racist systems and practices; it has failed to develop citizen’s knowledge and understanding of the history of Britain as a colonial power and the implications of this. The failure of the latter feeds into the failure of the former. Racism is cyclical and interweaving. It operates (in Education) through knowledge and ideology—the curriculum, pedagogy—low expectations, stereotyping and discrimination and the organisation and management of the schools and universities. A key principle underpinning the book is that of the value and importance of education in playing a central role in supporting teachers and young people to engage with these issues and to develop awareness and positive practices in addressing racist discrimination and oppression. The book recognises the importance of this for all young people irrespective of colour, culture, religion or ethnicity in order to help them prepare for an increasingly globalised interrelated world, a world where borders will become more fluid rather than less, a world where identity will become more difficult to
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define on the basis of nationality. There is and will continue to be resistance to these changes such as in the rise of the far right and populism in the UK and Europe which underlines the importance of the challenge to and interrogation of racism. The rise of right-wing populism in Britain and Europe and its potential impact to undermine further the educational experience of Black, Asian and Minority Ethic children and young people is fuelled by fear of ‘the Other’ that Brexit,1 for example, has exposed. Arguably this in part is as a result of the failure of education to develop understanding of our history, our relationships as a nation to different parts of the world but in particular the nature, power and implications of Whiteness. But the challenge to racism is not simply at the level of the individual. The Education system, as part of the structure and organisation of society embodies racism and, therefore, has to take some responsibility for the development of racist ideology and the dominance of Whiteness. Part of the populist discourse is an anxiety around ‘British identity’ and a challenge to national borders. Britain’s decision to leave the EU after 47 years’ membership—Brexit—was partly motivated by these apparent fears. Successive governments exacerbated these perspectives with their emphasis on immigration as a problem and a threat to jobs, housing and so on as well as identity (Manchanda 2020). In spite of the Black Lives Matter Movement, there also continues to be resistance by government and policymakers to recognise that we live in a society underpinned by institutional racism. By contrast any issues around ‘race’ are seen as broadly part of general inequalities and prejudices against perceived difference based on individual acts—the ‘bad apple syndrome’ rather than societal and organisational structures. A strong indication of this is the Conservative Government commissioned report by the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities (CRED) Report 2021 (known as the Sewell Report) which has denied the existence of institutional racism. These socio-political contexts, events (historical and recent), understandings and lack of understanding will be examined in order to develop Brexit was the term given to the campaign for the withdrawal of the UK from the European Union (and its outcome) which took place on January 31, 2020. The vote for Brexit took place in June 2016, and what followed was several years of populist as well as party political and intergovernmental arguments and negotiations which in less intensive ways continued in 2021. 1
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insights into the racial dynamics, debates and practices in policy and in the classroom and university. Written from a sociological perspective, the book aims to seek greater understanding of the nature and endurance of racism within education practice with reference to the school and the university in the twenty-first century in Britain and to examine the relationship between racism and the educational experience of BAME children and young people. Racism is a slippery concept. It takes multiple forms and is often referred to in the plural. It adapts and changes to suit the historical socio- political and economic juncture. Racism is based on structural inequalities identified through colour and arguably ‘culture’. It is historically endemic in White society and is a structural element of White domination or supremacy. Power and domination are central to the operationalisation of racism. The practice of racism can be placed on a continuum from overt practices and effects to covert, subtle hegemonic practices and effects. These are the basic parameters, but they are not static or stable. In a White-dominated society racism is first and foremost a White problem. Crucially, as I will argue throughout the book, it is a problem of White supremacy as well as White privilege. White supremacy is not the extreme right-wing version of the Ku Klux Klan or the alt-right in the USA or the English Defence League in Britain (see, e.g. Gillborn 2005; Bonds and Inwood 2016). It is much less overt and is all pervading. It is concerned with values, beliefs, knowledge, cultural ways of being and behaving, language and so on. Whilst White privilege is an important concept to analyse racist practices and behaviours, White supremacy or domination is a complementary concept which demonstrates the power and hold of the hegemony of Whiteness. The reluctance amongst White people to discuss racism and its impact on Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic life chances and experiences is also central to this analysis. There is a strong desire in White-dominated society to refer to racism as something else—sometimes ‘cultural differences’ or just ‘difference’ which in both cases lays the blame on BAME people themselves for their own oppression—it is seemingly their own ‘lack’, ‘difference’, ‘otherness’ which is at fault here. The denial of White privilege is palpable in these instances. However, the recent debate in Britain over whether the experience of Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, at the
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hands of the print media has been racist is a brief departure from the usual wall of silence. It has been difficult for the Establishment to contain the debate possibly because of social media but also the rise of more Black and Asian voices being raised and heard. Writers, poets, musicians, singers and media people are breaking through the silence on racism (e.g. George The Poet, Stormzy, Dave the rapper, Johny Pitts, Faiza Shaheen, Afua Hirsch, Eddo-Lodge, Sathnam Sanghera). Within this debate BAME people have been a powerful voice in raising and debating the issues and challenging White silence. They have also raised and placed the issue of White privilege and White supremacy more clearly in the public arena than thus far in Britain. Nevertheless, in this debate we have witnessed denial and whitewashing. The extent of denial amongst White- dominated society, exemplified in talk shows and TV panel discussions, the denial by the (then) Chief Commissioner of the London Metropolitan Police Cressida Dick of the existence of institutional racism in the police force, denial in the right-wing print media and the outbursts and trolling on social media, is an indication that there is a long way to go before we can claim to have accepted recognition of the existence of racism and that it is an issue facing and undermining BAME people in the UK, not to mention its corrupting effect on the whole of society. Britain boasts of its multicultural society, but we need to ask what does this mean in practice? There are examples of cultural fusion and mutual enjoyments of cultural signifiers such as certain types of music and food. But multiculturalism does not always ensure respect for difference and an appreciation of different values. Nor has it successfully challenged racism. Rather it has been used by successive governments to control and manage ethnic diversity, although it too has since fallen out of favour and been blamed for civil unrest and terrorist attacks. The analysis presented here employs Critical Race and Critical Whiteness Theories (Ladson-Billings and Tate 1995; Garner 2007) to interrogate racialised ideological perspectives and infused policies and practice. It also draws on the work of Pierre Bourdieu to demonstrate the effects of the structure and context of the school and university that give rise to an oppressive space for BAME students’ educational experiences. The use of Critical Race Theory which foregrounds issues of racism and values the voices and agency of BAME people and the use of Critical
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Whiteness Theory contribute to understanding the effects and implications of the symbolic violence (Bourdieu and Passeron 1990) rendered on BAME children and young people in the Education system and through racialised pedagogies (Burke et al. 2017). In examining this it is intended to illuminate how these effects inhibit the acquisition of the resources essential to help BAME students’ progress through the system and marginalise their voice and agency. Within the analysis the importance of the concept of intersectionality (Bhopal and Preston 2012, Crenshaw 2003) is also recognised. Intersectionality as part of the challenge to racism is an essential analytic tool, particularly in recognising the relationship between ‘race’, class and gender. As Bhopal (2018) says, intersectionality enables us to examine and understand the ways experiences are or may be affected by different competing identities and how this can impact on the life chances of individuals in society. In the analysis I look at the polarising debates about White working-class students’ education achievements and those of BAME students, and in relation to this, I explore the questions who is White? Who is Black/BAME? I also discuss colour and cultural racism. I intend to challenge these polarisations and potential hierarchies of oppression which are counterproductive. However, whilst my intention is not to privilege one form of oppression over another, at the same time it is important to recognise the need at times to engage in ‘strategic essentialism’ (Spivak 1987) and therefore in the context of this book the need to foreground ‘race’. I aim to combine these complex positions in my analysis. The book provides both a theoretical analysis of racism and its effects and processes and applies these ideas and understandings in relation to an analysis of a number of my qualitative research projects based in schools (Crozier 2004, 2005a, b, Crozier and Rhamie 2017) and higher education (Crozier and Reay 2008; Burke et al. 2017) as well as others’ research. Whilst discussing the effects and implications of racism on Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic groups, all BAME groups do not experience racism in the same ways and are not impacted by racism in the same ways. Therefore, in order to focus the analysis and discussion, this is centred on the education experiences of three particular groups. These are Black Caribbean heritage and Pakistani and Bangladeshi (South Asian) heritage children and young people. I would like to stress however that this is not
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to undermine or diminish the significance of the impact of racist microaggressions, overt and covert discriminations, racist bullying and so on, on all BAME people. I hope my analysis has resonance and some usefulness in addressing all forms and levels of racism. Racism in education is only one aspect of racism in society; the politics and policies, socio-economic and geo-political factors are part of the context for its existence and reproduction and are therefore inextricably linked with the process of addressing racism in education. The context of migration, the rise of populism and the putative challenge to national identity serve as the backdrop for the analysis. In this way the structural dimensions of racism and the nature and impacts of White privilege and White supremacy are set into relief and examined. The focus of the book is on Britain although I am aware that most of my evidence is based on England. That is partly because of historic reasons in relation to the governance of Education in Wales and Scotland as well as England which changed in various ways following devolution. Also, with respect to equalities, including ‘race’ equality, under the devolution settlements, these are reserved matters, as Meer et al. (2020) note, in relation to Scotland: “Under the devolution settlement … the legislative foundation of race equality is reserved to Westminster” (p. 5). This similarly applies to Wales, although as Winckler (2009) suggests responsibility in Wales for equality is complex. Meer et al. (2020) and Davidson et al. (2018) assert that this situation has had the effect of allowing a sense of complacency about racism in Scotland, which may account for limited school- based research on ‘race’ issues. Also many of the policies discussed in the book apply or did so at the time they were introduced, to the three nations of Britain, although the devolved governments may not necessarily hold the same views as the Westminster governments on all of these. Most recently, for example, attitudes from Scotland and Wales on immigration are quite different from those of the present Westminster Government. The focus on Britain rather than just England is important in that the issues of racism, wherever the research is undertaken, are universally relevant and significant, even though there may be different contextual contemporary and historical differences that contribute and contributed to the reproduction and permeation of racism.
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Indeed racism is a global phenomenon and problem extending beyond Britain, hence the importance of referring to examples from other parts of Europe which share similar imperialist and colonialist histories to Britain such as France, Belgium and the Netherlands. As Jiang (2020) argues: “Transnationalism offers an important lens to understand the spatial, political and cultural connections between the construction of race” (p.34). Drawing on examples from the education policy contexts of these countries where BAME young people also appear to suffer similar racially motivated forms of discrimination provides a broader perspective and insights into the processes and nature of racism within which to locate the British context. The relationship with Europe, in particular, is an essential dimension of these experiences given the interrelation of our societies. I also refer to some of the extensive work on ‘race’ that has been carried out in the USA. To summarise therefore, the overarching aim of the book is to seek greater understanding of the nature and endurance of racism within education practice in the twenty-first century in Britain and to examine the relationship between racism and the educational experiences and outcomes of many BAME children and young people, with reference to school and university. Specifically the book aims to: i. Explore the nature of racism, ‘race’ and Whiteness. ii. Interrogate the nature, processes and impact of racism and Whiteness on the education experiences of BAME children and young people and the ways they are reproduced and permeated through the Education system. iii. Examine and understand the impact and implications of current societal and policy contexts around ‘race’ for the education of BAME children and young people. iv. Utilise the concepts of Critical Race Theory and Critical Whiteness Theory to analyse and expose the racism experienced by children and young people within the British Education system. The terminology within the field of ‘race’ is permeated with problems and challenges. It is, for example, generally understood and accepted that the term ‘race’ is a problematic term. It is recognised that it is a social
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construct. I continue to use the term ‘race’ because it clearly denotes discriminatory and oppressive experiences based on colour, culture and perceptions of difference. Nevertheless, it is a problematic term, hence the use of inverted commas to denote this. The acronym BAME—Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic—has also been subjected to much criticism. There seems to be no agreement on the most appropriate terms. At times I use the term Black to refer to people of Caribbean or African Caribbean heritage and South Asian to refer mainly to people of Pakistani and Bangladeshi heritage as I have already indicated. The term Minority Ethnic is a vague term which, here, includes people of East Asian heritage, ‘Gypsy’,2 Roma and Travellers and other people discriminated against on the basis of their perceived physical and at times cultural difference from the majority White society. BAME is not an ideal term, but I prefer this to ‘people of colour’ which is used commonly in the USA and is beginning to be used more often in Britain. Of course, as a White person, it is not appropriate for me to decide on how to refer people, and I offer these explanations humbly. With respect to individual people in the research projects, I have described them by using the terms they preferred and used themselves. I am also very conscious that all of these terms hold the danger of reinforcing essentialism and implying that Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic groups are homogeneous. This is not my intention and I engage with these issues in the course of the book. A further explanation is with the use of capital letters for Black and White. Using a capital B for Black is well established and asserts a sense of identity and shared histories (Associated Press in Washington 2020). Use of a capital W for White is less common. I capitalise Whiteness following Marx (2006) to refer to a particular racial group which is socially constructed and to demonstrate its power and influence. As Marx says by capitalising the term, it draws attention to “the race, ethnicity and power shared by Whites …” (p. 5). As a White person, my positionality and reflexive approach are important elements of the book. This will be discussed in Chap. 3 after The term ‘gypsy’ is frequently used in a derogatory way and according to Hancock (2007) is an inaccurate as well as inappropriate term. Many prefer the term Roma or Romani. However, I have used ‘gypsy’ in the book since in Britain it is used in official documents and statistics and government policies. I have placed it in inverted commas in order to denote its problematic nature. 2
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explaining the frameworks for the analysis and the policy context and before embarking on the application of these perspectives in relation to the impact of racism on children’s and young people’s educational experiences. In fulfilling the aim of exposing the nature of racism in Education and showing how it plays out through policy, practice and children’s and young people’s experiences, the book draws together and develops discussion and analyses of a range of ideas and extant research. The book is also based on a model of praxis: the relationship of theory and empirical evidence and change together with the recognition of inequalities as lived and embodied. The book therefore draws on data from a number of my research projects (referred to earlier), together with others’ research.
Structure of the Book Chapter 2. Racism: History, Theories and Concepts This chapter sets out the nature of racism and the debates and discourses that surround it in the context of Education, together with a discussion of Whiteness. The theoretical ideas of Critical Race Theory and Critical Whiteness Theory are employed in the discussion and interrogation of racism in education and are outlined and critiqued. The chapter also endorses the importance of intersectionality in the analysis and the significance of social class as a central underlying structural dimension to racist discrimination and oppression. Social class is an essential analytical tool in developing an understanding of racism and its consequences and impact. In drawing on these concepts, the book seeks to challenge hierarchies of oppression and address polarising debates between ‘race’ and class whilst at the same time recognising the need to foreground at times ‘race’ and racism, in the discussion. The relevance of ‘race’ in the twenty-first century and the continuing need to expose and understand racism/s and their different expressions are presented. The complexities of racism, its shifting manifestations and
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the contemporary context of migration issues and the rise of far-right/ right-wing populism are also introduced in this chapter. The chapter sets out key elements that inform the rationale for the book.
Chapter 3. Reflexivity and the Role of the White Researcher in the Field of ‘Race’, Anti/Racism and Education As a White person my positionality and reflexive approach are essential elements of the book. There is a danger of ‘the White critic’ of Whiteness re-inscribing White power which she is attempting to challenge as Probyn (2004) and Ahmed (2004) have argued. In this chapter I engage in a reflexive examination of the role and the il/legitimacy of the White researcher and critic of Whiteness—supremacy and privilege. I explore the danger of the impact of White power and perspectives, especially in this field of research.
Chapter 4. ‘Race’, Policies, Politics: Managing Diversity This chapter argues that policies on ‘race’ are intended to manage diversity rather than challenge racism. This is discussed with reference to historic and contemporary policies. In relation to these policies, migration/immigration, socio-economic factors, developments such as Brexit and the rise of right-wing populism and the implications for Education policy and practice are discussed, together with the rise and fall of multiculturalism as a policy strategy. I do not focus on the Multicultural Education Movement, as such, but I critically examine multicultural education as a strategy to address racial inequalities which has often been appropriated and in certain instances has led to counterproductive effects.
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Identity issues and nationalism and the implications of wider attitudes and practices in society for Education, such as the rise of Islamophobia3 and the Prevent Strategy, are analysed. Post-race is also critically discussed. Brief reference is made to other European countries with similar colonial histories as part of the discussion of racism as a global phenomenon and issue of concern. In particular this chapter shows the ways that the policies have managed and controlled ethnic and racial diversity rather than directly challenging racism and contributed to particular types of racialisation and a dominant set of beliefs and perspectives that reinforce racial oppression.
Chapter 5. From Policy to Practice: Teaching and the Curriculum—The Process of Racialisation and Othering In this chapter I build upon the theoretical aspects and issues raised in Chap. 2 and the policy issues raised in Chap. 4. I discuss the curriculum as ideological and examine how the process of Othering and racialisation has developed and continues to develop through the curriculum and pedagogy. Whilst Britain boasts of its multicultural society, we need to ask what this means and how it plays out in practice. Policy responses to ethnic diversity, inequalities and racism have often taken the form of multicultural education. In this chapter I discuss these responses including an exploration of the problematic concepts of ‘difference’, ‘diversity’ and ‘culture’. All of these terms and concepts continue to be used, and the practice that flows from these ideas continues to be promoted. I argue that if we are to advance anti-racist practice, then we need to understand why these responses are both inadequate and frequently counterproductive. Elahi and Khan (2017) (Eds.) define Islamophobia as follows: Islamophobia is anti-Muslim racism. And: Islamophobia is any distinction, exclusion or restriction towards, or preference against, Muslims (or those perceived to be Muslims) that has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life (p. 1). 3
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Chapter 6. Reproducing Racism and Maintaining White Supremacy: Experiences in School and University School examination results have improved consistently over the past 20 or more years for all children, and more children from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic groups are now going to university, proportionately more than their White counterparts. However, academic achievement is an intricate picture, and academic results are difficult to compare because of complex demographics and the changes in the nature of the examinations and assessment grading systems. Moreover, whilst some BAME children are doing extremely well academically, the picture of academic achievement is not uniform. Data across many years clearly show that there continues to be an achievement gap between children and young people of Black Caribbean, Pakistani and ‘Gypsy’, Roma and Traveller heritage and their peers. Focusing mainly on the school experience and the perspectives of the children, with some reference to the university experience, this chapter looks at the ways young BAME people are often constructed and stereotyped which tends to underpin and shape teachers’ expectations. Frequently accused of their own failure and marginalisation, society has consistently ignored the needs and desires of BAME children and young people. One of the mothers in my research (Crozier 2005a) described the school experience as: “… a War Against Our Children”. This chapter discusses this powerful and disturbing metaphor and looks at the constructions of BAME children and in particular children of Black Caribbean and South Asian heritage, by the schools, and their experience of the downward spiral of ‘underachievement’, negative criticisms and antagonisms and resulting marginalisation.
Chapter 7. Blinded by Whiteness: Problems and Possibilities for Teachers in the Fight Against Racism and White Supremacy This chapter is concerned with teachers’ understandings and practice in schools and university classrooms. The formation and development of
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pedagogies in changing socio-political contexts, impacted by neoliberalism, and the consequences for teachers’ experiences and practice is examined in relation to the demands of the institution on the one hand and the needs and desires of BAME students on the other. Teacher expectations and teacher attitudes are particular concerns of this chapter. These are analysed in relation to a critical engagement with Whiteness. The denial or failure to recognise the dominance of Whiteness is discussed together with its implications. It is shown that through teachers’ attitudes and pedagogy, differential treatment of students and teachers’ expectations of their performance plays out. Through teachers’ and lecturers’ pedagogic practices and the curriculum, exclusion can be more subtle and replete with what is now often referred to as ‘unconscious bias’. This can lead to symbolic violence (Bourdieu and Passeron 1990) leaving students feeling inadequate, a sense of failure and that the responsibility for this lies with them. In fact as Bourdieu and Passeron (1990) asserted, “all pedagogic action is symbolic violence” in that it is an imposition of “a cultural arbitrary by an arbitrary power” (p.5). At the heart of that cultural arbitrary is a notion of White and classed values. The use of Critical Whiteness Theory and Critical Race Theory is employed to contribute to understanding the effects and implications of the symbolic violence rendered on BAME children and students. In examining this it is intended to illuminate how these effects inhibit the acquisition of the resources essential to help BAME students’ progress through the system and marginalise their voice and agency.
Chapter 8. Defend, Rescue and Protect: Parents as Social Agents Since the development of the neoliberal Education system, parents have been expected to play a central role in the function and successful operationalisation of the education market through school choice processes and supporting schools in achieving and then maintaining their market position in the inspection ratings and rankings. In general, White middle- class parents tend to be constructed as ‘good’ and White working-class
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and BAME parents are constructed as indifferent to parental involvement in schools and their children’s education or worse, feckless (Crozier 2019). In the South Asian Families research (Crozier 2004), Bangladeshi heritage parents in particular were repeatedly accused of not being interested in their children’s education and lacking ambition for their children. Black Caribbean heritage parents are generally ignored in their efforts to support their children. Repeated accusations over years have been levelled at these parents for failing to create a culture in the home conducive to high achievement and future success (Bloom 2002). These criticisms ignore the impact and complexity of racism and class as well as the impact of poverty. It is clear from research that BAME parents have worked extensively to support, guide, defend and protect their children in the context of education. I also discuss the emotional costs that parents bear in these endeavours. In this chapter I demonstrate that many BAME parents felt the school acted against their secondary aged child and teachers held low and negative expectations of their children which impacted adversely on their children resulting in low achievement, exclusion or the children giving up.
Chapter 9. Conclusion: Anti-racism or Post-Race Where are we now in the Struggle Against Racism? This chapter summarises and draws together the key arguments made in the book and seeks to present some answers to the question about the nature and endurance of racism and Whiteness and the impact on BAME children and young people who continue to be discriminated against and marginalised by the Education system. It exposes the complex and fluid nature of racism and its manifold ways of impacting on lives and life chances. Over decades impassioned debates have persisted between multiculturalism and anti-racism from the 1980s and continue to the present day, together with notions of post-race. My contention is that we need to move on from these discourses and debates from the past whilst at the same time learning from them. Racism and the dominance of Whiteness permeate all facets of the Education system; this must therefore be the focus for action and critical engagement.
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References Advance HE. Race Equality Charter. https://www.advance-he.ac.uk, Accessed 1 July 2022. Ahmed, S. (2004) Declarations of Whiteness: The Non-Performativity of Anti- Racism. Borderlands e Journal, 3(2), 1–12. Ali, T. (2022) Winston Churchill: His Times, His Crimes. London: Verso Press. Anthony, A. (2020) UCL Has a Racist Legacy, But Can It Move On? 2 August, London: The Guardian. Arday, J. (2019). Cool Britannia and Multi-Ethnic Britain: Uncorking the Champagne Supernova. Abingdon: Routledge. Associated Press (2020) Associated Press Changes Influential Style Guide to Capitalize ‘Black’. Associated Press in Washington. 20 June. London: The Guardian. Batty, D., Parveen, N. and Thomas, T. (2021) Hundreds of Schools in England Sign Up for Anti-Racist Curriculum. 26 March, London: The Guardian. Bhopal, K. (2018) White Privilege. The Myth of a Post-racial Society. Bristol, UK and Chicago: Policy Press. Bhopal, K. and Preston, J. (2012) Intersectionalities and “Race” in Education. London and New York: Routledge. Bloom, A. (2002) Get Involved, Head Tells Black Parents. TES 15 March. Bonds, A. and Inwood, J. (2016) Beyond White Privilege: Geographies of White Supremacy and Settler Colonialism. Progress in Geography, 40(6), 715–733. Bourdieu, P. and Passeron, J.-C. (1990) Reproduction, Education, Society and Culture, second edition (Translated by Richard Nice) London: Sage Publications. Burke, P. J., Crozier, G. and Misiaszek, L. I. (2017) Changing Pedagogical Spaces in Higher Education: Inequality, Diversity and Misrecognition, SRHE Book Series. London and New York: Routledge. Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities: The Report March (2021). (‘The Sewell Report’) www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-report-of-the- commission-on-race-and-ethnic-disparities, Accessed 25 March 2021. Crenshaw, K. W. (2003) Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics. In A. K. Wing (ed) (second edition) Critical Race Feminism. A Reader, 23–33 New York and London: New York University Press. Crozier, G. (2004) Parents, Children and Schools: Asian Families’ Perspectives ESRC End of Award Report (R000239671).
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Crozier, G. (2005a) “There’s a War Against Our Children”: Black Parents’ Views on Their Children’s Education. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 26(5), 585–598. Crozier, G. (2005b) ‘Beyond the Call of Duty’: The Impact of Racism on Black Parents’ Involvement in Their Children’s Education. In Crozier, G. and Reay, D. (eds) Activating Participation: Parents and Teachers Working Towards Partnership, 39–55, Stoke-on-Trent and USA, VA: Stylus Publishing: Trentham Books. Crozier, G. Principal Investigator, Reay, D. Co-investigator April (2008), Project on Widening Participation in HE: The Socio-cultural and Learning Experiences of Working-Class Students in HE. ESRC (Teaching and Learning Research Programme) (RES-139-25-0208). Crozier, G. (2017) Race Matters: Urban Education, Globalisation and the 21st Century. In Pink, W. and Noblett, G. (eds) The International Handbook on Urban Education. 1059–1078, Springer Publications. Crozier, G. (2019) Interrogating Parent-School Practices in a Market-Based System. The Professionalisation of Parenting and Intensified Parental Involvement: Is This What Schools Want? In T. Turner-Vorbeck and S. B. Sheldon (Eds.) Wiley Handbook of Family, School Community Partnerships in Education. 315–332, Hoboken, NJ: Wiley & Sons. Crozier, G. and Rhamie, J. (2017) Small-Scale Study: Key Stage 2 BME Achievement and Children’s Learning Experiences in a London Primary School. Report. University of Roehampton, London. Funded by the Centre for Educational Research in Equalities, Policy and Pedagogy, University of Roehampton, London. Davidson, N., Liinpää, M., McBride, M. and Virdee, S. (2018) No Problem Here. Understanding Racism in Scotland. Edinburgh: Luath Press Ltd. Demie, F. and McLean, C. (2017) Black Caribbean Underachievement in Schools in England. Published by Schools’ Research and Statistics Unit Lambeth Education and Learning International House, London. Department for Education (2013) GCSE and Equivalent Attainment by Pupil Characteristics in England: 2011 to 2012. London: HMSO. Department for Education (2017) Permanent and Fixed Period Exclusions in England: 2015 to 2016. SFR35/2017. London: DfE. Elahi, F. and Khan, O. (Eds.) (2017) Islamophobia. Still a Challenge for Us All. 20th Anniversary Report. London: Runnymede Trust. Garner, S. (2007) Whiteness. London and New York: Routledge.
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Gillborn, D. (1995) Racism and Anti-racism in Real Schools. Buckingham: Open University Press. Gillborn, D. (2005) Education Policy as an Act of White Supremacy: Whiteness, Critical Race Theory and Education Reform. Journal of Education Policy, 20(4), 485–505. Graham, B., White, C., Edwards, A., Potter, S. and Street, C. (2019) School Exclusion: A Literature Review on the Continued Disproportionate Exclusion of Certain Children. 252–259, London: Department for Education. Hancock, I. (2007) We are the Romani People. Hertfordshire: University of Hertfordshire Press. Jiang, S. (2021) Diversity without integration? Racialization and spaces of exclusion in international higher education. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 42(1), 33–48. Ladson-Billings, G. and Tate, W. F. (1995) Toward a Critical Race Theory of Education. Teachers College Record, 97(1), 47–68. Lammy, D. (2017) The Lammy Review An Independent Review Into the Treatment of and Outcomes for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Individuals in the Criminal Justice System. London: HMSO. Mac an Ghaill, M. (1988) Young Gifted and Black. Milton Keynes & Philadelphia: Open University Press. Manchanda, N. (2020) Review of Race and the Undeserving Poor: from Abolition to Brexit by Robbie Shilliam. Columbia University Press. https://www.e-i r.info/2020/07/31/review-r ace-a nd-t he-u nderserving- poor-from-abolition-to-brexit/. Marx, S. (2006) Revealing the Invisible. Confronting Passive Racism in Teacher Education. New York and London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.1007/978- 3-319-74078-2_43-1. Maylor, U. (2010) Notions of Diversity, British Identities and Citizenship Belonging. Race, Ethnicity and Education, 13(2), 233–252. https://doi. org/10.1080/13613321003726884. Meer, N., Akhtar, S. and Davidson, N. (Eds) (2020) Taking Stock. Race Equality in Scotland. London: Runnymede Trust. Mullen, S. and Newman, S. (2018) The Slavery Abolition and the University of Glasgow Report. Glasgow: University of Glasgow. Probyn, F. (2004) Playing Chicken at the Intersection: The White Critic of Whiteness. Borderlands e journal, 3(2), 1–26. Simpson, F. (2017) Historian: Call to Pull Down Nelson’s Column, Like Destruction of Culture by ISIS, 23 August, Evening Standard. www.eveningstandard.co.uk.
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Spivak, G. (1987) In Other Worlds: Essays in Cultural Politics. London: Methuen. Stop and Search - GOV.UK Ethnicity facts and figures May (2022) https:// www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk. Taylor, W. (2020) Anti-racism Campaigners Target Nelson’s Column as Next Statue That Should Be Removed. Yahoo News, 10 June. www.uk.news.yahoo. com, Accessed 6 June 2022. UUK/NUS (2019) Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Student Attainment at UK Universities: #Closing THEGAP. https://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/sites/ default/files/field/downloads/2021-07/bame-student-attainment.pdf. Warmington, P. (2014) Black British Intellectuals and Education: Multiculturalism’s Hidden History. London: Routledge. Williams, C. (2021) Race Equality Action Plan for Wales. Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Communities, Contributions and Cynefin in the New Curriculum Working Group. Final Report. Wales. Winckler, V. (Ed.) (2009) Equality Issues in Wales: A Research Review. Equality and Human Rights Commission.
2 Racism: History, Theories and Concepts
Searching for answers to tackle racism is hardly new. As I show in Chap. 4, Acts of Parliament and policies on ‘race’, racism and equality (although not necessarily in relation to Education) have been issued repeatedly since the 1950s. In the 1970s and 1980s, debates raged around multiculturalism and anti-racism which continue to the present day, and yet very little has changed in terms of positive outcomes and improved racial equalities and justice in Education and also society in general. Whilst manifestations of racism have in some instances changed, the prevalence of racism is as strong as ever. My contention is that the strategies to address ‘race’ issues have been misdirected. Firstly, the concentration on multiculturalism/multicultural education contributed to the eschewing of racism and indeed meant that confronting racism directly was avoided. Secondly the focus on individual acts of racism, excused as the putative ‘bad apple’ syndrome, ignored the more profound effects of structural and institutional racism. Thirdly, until quite recently (with some exceptions such as Bonnett 1996, Gillborn 2005 and Garner 2007 in Britain and Europe at least), there has been silence about White supremacy and White privilege which has also led to distorted understandings of racism
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023, corrected publication 2023 G. Crozier, Racism and Education in Britain, Palgrave Studies in Race, Inequality and Social Justice in Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-18931-9_2
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and undermined the efficacy of anti-racist strategies. Except for the Race Relations Acts 1976 and 2000, there are few examples of official policies and initiatives that have been directed to challenge racism itself. We need to examine racism within the contemporary global present and recognise its rootedness in the past which is not just since 1948 and the arrival of people from the West Indies. This is the purpose of this chapter, and therefore I look at different conceptions and analyses of ‘race’ and racism and conceptions of Whiteness. In addition I present an exposition of the main theoretical frameworks that I will use throughout the book to support the analysis. These are Critical Race Theory, Critical Whiteness Theory and Intersectionality as tools for understanding and challenging racism in Education. In spite of the Black Lives Matter Movement and the current debates around racism in football, ‘Taking the Knee’ (often criticised as though it is in itself ‘Other’ and an unacceptable act alien to ‘our’/White ‘culture’), there continues to be a misconception that we live in a ‘post-race’ (or post-racism) society. That is that racism is no longer an issue but rather it is broadly part of general inequalities and prejudices against perceived difference. Within the post-‘race’ discourse and more recently, there has been another attempt to divide the working-class and minimise the significance of racism by suggesting that the White working-class are being failed (Education Committee 2021), more than any other ethnic group, apart from ‘Gypsy’, Traveller and Roma children (Alexander and Shankley 2020). I discuss this issue throughout the book and challenge the notion of post-race as a continuing belief particularly within government and policymaking.
What Is Racism? Whilst we do not know how long racism may have existed, there is a generally held view that present-day racism, in the West, stems from the inception of the Atlantic slave trade and slavery practices by former colonisers including Portugal, Spain, France and the Netherlands as well as Britain. The socio-political and economic contexts are an essential influence upon the development and manifestations of racism. According to
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Miles (1982), the Atlantic slave trade did not come about because of racism. Slavery had been in existence previously in ancient times and subsequently, and its practice continued across the world including in African societies by Africans. The European involvement in Black African slavery began with the colonisation of the Americas and the need for labour to settle and exploit the land for sugar, tobacco and cotton primarily. Whilst the colonisation of the Americas began in the fifteenth century by the Spanish and Portuguese, the Atlantic slave trade began in the sixteenth century with the involvement of other European countries, Britain, France and the Netherlands, and developed most significantly from the eighteenth to nineteenth centuries (e.g. IRR 1982, Miles 1982, Shilliam 2018). Raymond Williams (1975) notes that following Britain’s involvement in colonisation there was rapid development. In the beginning of the eighteenth century, British commerce was 15% in the American colonies (including the West Indies), by 1775 it was one third (Williams 1975). Britain came to depend on the colonies for food production as well as wealth production, and as Williams observes, the profits from the slave trade and the trade in other commodities fed back into the ‘country-house economic system’ (a form of feudalism) and by 1789 formed the financial basis of the industrial revolution. What followed was the further development of commerce and financial services, the banking system and imperialist, world domination. Whilst slavery remained the particular preserve of Black Africa, once this was abolished, the British turned to India where it had begun to establish itself firstly through the East India Trade Company and then in its colonial rule and to China for a source of cheap labour. A system of indentured labour (mainly involving Indian and Chinese people) was utilised to replace the former system of slavery. This involved a period of enforced servitude without payment of wages. The period of indenture in the Caribbean was on average for a minimum of five years. This system only ended in 1920 (Ramdin 1987). The term ‘race’ in the English language can be traced back to 1508 according to Miles (1982), and throughout the sixteenth century, it was used to refer to social class or a category of person. There was no biological justification asserted for its use at this time. Miles states that it was only in the late eighteenth century and throughout the nineteenth
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century that the term ‘race’ was claimed to be associated with inherent physical traits. A process of racialisation ensued (Banton 1977; Miles 1982) throughout Europe as well as in Britain. This is a process that ascribes physical and cultural differences to individuals and groups (Barot and Bird 2001) as though they were innate and natural (Garner 2010). It is through this process that Black African and Black Caribbean people were constructed often in negative, derogatory ways. Subsequently related processes of racialisation were applied to Asian and other minority ethnic people. There is general agreement that racialisation initially came about as a justification for the slave trade and subsequent slavery practices centrally driven by Christians and the Christian church’s erroneous philosophy of Black people as subhuman and inferior. For over a century, an industry with the sole purpose of constructing a narrative to support this claim grew up across Europe based on supposedly scientific beliefs involving anatomists, ethnologists, geneticists and so on (for more detail and a developed discussion of this, see, e.g. Miles 1982, Institute of Race Relations 1982, Rodney 1969, 1972, Williams 1964). Such views were expanded and developed through ideology and political policy. Particularly in the post-industrial revolution period, they were promoted through culture, including literature, art, geographical exploration, history, philosophy and education (see Chap. 5). Alongside the promotion of (White) Britain and its empire as great, the power and impact of the degradation of Black people through these processes have been immense and continue to feed the structural racism and notion of White supremacy of today. The term ‘race’ is now generally recognised as being meaningless and having no biological, scientific basis. Many have therefore criticised its continued use and that it should be discarded (e.g. Miles 1982; Banton 1977; Gilroy 2004). Miles has argued for the use of the term racialisation as an alternative. However, others (e.g. Barot and Bird 1989; Solomos and Back 1994) have criticised the use of racialisation alone since whilst it signifies the process of ideology it does not take into account the economic and political dimensions of ‘race’. Whilst recognising the problematics of its use, I continue to use the term ‘race’ to aid the sociological analysis and also in a political sense as a focus for struggle. The term ‘race’ is deeply embedded within society’s ways of seeing and being and its
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structural organisation. As Omi and Winant (1986) also contend, ‘race’ and racial identity are embedded and embodied to the point, they assert, that “society is so thoroughly racialized that to be without racial identity is to be in danger of having no identity” (pp. 9–10). This suggests a rather deterministic view although in concluding their article they recognise a shift in views on ‘race’, that it is seen more readily as “an illusion or excrescence” (13). They therefore end with a more optimistic stance and acknowledge that: It may be possible to glimpse yet another view of race, in which the concept operates neither as a signifier of comprehensive identity, nor of fundamental difference, both of which are patently absurd but rather as a marker of the infinity of variations we humans hold as a common heritage and hope for the future. (p. 13)
However, Gilroy (2004) argues seeing ‘race’ as essential to identity is part of the problem, since if ‘race’ continues to be used as an identifier that is supposedly intended to provide a position in society, Black people will remain marginalised and subjugated by White supremacy. The struggle to eradicate racism must be interlinked with the struggle to eradicate ‘race’ and the obsession with difference and identity. This must be the overall goal. However, for now, in order to recognise power differentials based on skin colour and perceived physical constructions of difference, in order to recognise inequalities and discrimination and oppression that ensues from this, then we need to name the root cause of Black oppression which is racism and that in turn is interlinked with ‘race’. As Sara Ahmed (2004) says, “[r]acism works to produce race as if it were a property of bodies (biological essentialism) or cultures (cultural essentialism)” and therefore “…we cannot do away with race unless racism is ‘done away’ …” (p. 9 section 48). ‘Race’ is a relational variable rooted in history as I have discussed and interconnected with class and gender (Anthias and Yuval-Davies 1993). As Garner (2010) also maintains, whilst ‘race’ is inextricably linked to class and gender, it is not reducible to class relations or gender relations. It is not an objective fact or a fixed notion. Following Miles (1982) constructions of ‘race’ are based on ideology, history, politics and
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colonialism. We should also remember that ‘race’ is not just a description of Black people but also White people which can also shift along a continuum. It is a social construction which whilst rooted in history can and does change over time with changing political and economic contexts. The binary of Black and White may still have relevance, but it is not the complete picture. There is often a question of who is Black? Who is White? Colour racism, for example, is fluid, problematised by colourism and the doxa (Bourdieu 1990) of Whiteness and White identifications which, through interpellation, BAME people just as White people can take on and display negative ‘White behaviours and attitudes’, even though they themselves will of course continue to be subjected to racism. It has been well rehearsed (Leonardo 2002; Reay et al. 2013; Roediger 1991; Barrett and Roediger 1997) that there is a hierarchy of Whiteness underpinned by social class positionings. Sivanandan (2001) also argued against the dualist Black-White distinction of colour racism in that it ignores Irish racism (Mac an Ghaill 1999) and those White working-class who are ‘not White enough’ such as ‘Gypsy’, Roma and Traveller people. In the USA Europeans migrating in the nineteenth century and early twentieth century were subjected to these hierarchies and identity differentiations and labelled as ‘inbetweeners’ neither White nor Black (Barrett and Roediger 1997; Garner 2007). Also in the nineteenth century in the USA and in Britain, the Irish, now denoted as White, were marked, at that time, as Black, becoming White through a process of assimilation and adaptation to dominant Whiteness. Likewise the ‘White’ working- class in Britain at certain periods of history and particularly throughout the Victorian period were constructed and referred to as Black in a derogatory sense, to indicate otherness, inferiority and troublesomeness, in the same way Black African people were regarded (Bonnett 1998). According to Bonnett (1998), by contrast the British working-class in the British colonies were ascribed Whiteness in order to denote their socio-economic and political status, thus differentiating them from the Black and Asian colonised subject. The changing identity of the working-class as White developed particularly throughout the twentieth century with the changing nature of capitalism and the requirement of a unified more nationalistic workforce as well as the increase in immigration and the desire to
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assert their difference and White superiority from the “non-White British” (Bonnett 1998, p. 327). As discussed, racism is historically endemic in White society and is a structural element of White domination or supremacy. Whilst racism stems from White-dominant colonial society and is a White problem, it is not so simply just that. Racism infuses and underpins the lives of everyone in society. Racist ideology and behaviours are permeated through and are inscribed in all of our lives and thus distort our realities (see, e.g. Gilroy 1992). This is not monolithic and can be challenged—is challenged, but the fluidity of racism and the contexts it operates in make grasping and fighting it problematic. Racism is not uniform; it is complex and messy and operates to undermine solidarity and collective action. Racism takes multiple forms and adapts and changes to suit the historical socio-political and economic juncture. Because of its multiplicity, it is often referred to as racisms (Garner 2010). Oversimplification of racism has led to failed anti-racist struggles. As Cohen (1992) argued, anti-racists used a reductionist understanding of racism, “a disavowel of complexities for the sake of pursuing moral certainties or political ideals…” (p. 63). As Audre Lorde (1984) has claimed, racism is based on a belief in “the inherent superiority of one race over all others” (p. 178), giving that ‘race’, as she says, the right to claim domination. This domination is based on perceived colour and physical differences from White people. Culture also plays a part, although as I show in Chap. 5 culture is a problematic idea and can be used in ‘race’ discourses contentiously (see, e.g. Modood 2005; Gillborn 2004). However, as Garner (2016) argues, culture is tied into the physical dimension, as he says: “the cultural and physical are inseparable elements of racist ideas and practice” (p. 5). It is the case that any marginalised or minority/non-dominant cultures, irrespective of a person’s colour, may be derided, such as certain UK regional accents from, for example, Birmingham or the Northeast (less now perhaps given the changes in the zeitgeist and some recognition of the need to decentre the focus on London post-Brexit and the discourse of regional devolution (Paun et al. 2021)) and, dress codes and behaviours of so- called ‘Chavs’ (see, e.g. Jones 2011). But these attitudes and discriminatory practices are not racist but rather classist. Modood (2005) argues
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that South Asians and Muslims in particular are racialised and experience racist abuse and discrimination increasingly on the basis of their culture rather than their colour. This is probably the case in many different ways and increasingly with the continued rise of Islamophobia (Jones and Unsworth 2011) and the responsibility for terrorist acts attributed mainly to Muslims. Not all Muslims are phenotypically or colour different from the White majority, but the association between cultural differences and colour/phenotype (or perceptions of these) is dominant. Whilst the dominant discourse in society, where it acknowledges it at all, suggests that racism is a manifestation of individual prejudice, personal negative attitudes giving rise to forms of discrimination, as argued above racism is systemic and deeply embedded throughout the structures and organisations of society. There began to be a recognition of this with the Macpherson Report (1999) (notwithstanding MacPherson’s qualification of racist practices being ‘unwitting’ (Gilroy 2004)) which identified institutional racism within the London Metropolitan police force. The report’s recommendations included the need to address racism in schools and all other public organisations. These recommendations were reinforced with the introduction of the Race Relations Amendment Act in 2000, but since then the initiatives to do this have been undermined by the much weaker and less specific Equality Act (2010) which fails to foreground racism as a central problem. There are several key dimensions that add to or create the conditions that nurture racism in the contemporary period. These include poverty, exacerbated and prolonged by the financial crisis of 2008 and the subsequent financial policies of austerity from which Britain has still not recovered; neoliberal policies and globalisation, which further impact the economic circumstances of people including low-skilled and low-waged people and those occupying insecure jobs including zero-hour contracts, and the reverberating effects on worldwide economies forcing people to migrate; and Brexit. It is beyond the scope of this book to analyse each of these sets of policies and practices in detail, but arising from these circumstances are two central issues that evoke racist sentiments; these are immigration and nationalism.
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Immigration Policy and Nationalism as Conduits for Racism Since 1994 immigration has been greater than the number of those emigrating, although over the past 25 years both immigration and emigration have increased to historically high levels (The House of Commons Library 27 April 2021). There are many reasons why people migrate, but according to The House of Commons Library Research Briefing on Immigration Statistics (2021), 35% of migrants have come to study and 32% have come to work. The majority of the latter are EU citizens, and this number is now trailing off because of Brexit. Also the majority of migrants live in or around London (ibid. 2021). Even though more people have migrated to Britain in recent years than have left, there are still hundreds of thousands of British people who migrate abroad. In addition to people who migrate by choice, there are also those who seek refuge from fear of persecution or are fleeing hardship and economic deprivation. For statistical reasons the UK government treats this group as a subset of migrants. In the year ending 2021, according to the House of Commons Library (2021), 44,574 people applied for asylum in the UK and 20,331 grants of asylum or leave to remain were made. This equates to 6% of immigration. Migration fluctuates depending on socio- economic and political circumstances either in the migratory person’s country of origin or the host country, the UK in this instance (Fekete et al. 2017). There are times when it suits government to allow migration. Since Brexit and the Immigration and Social Security Coordination (EU Withdrawal) 2020 Act, Britain has introduced a points system for those wishing to apply for work visas, based on the country’s skills shortages and needs. Over and above this, two particular notable exceptions are with regard to Hong Kong British Nationals (Overseas) for people who wish to leave Hong Kong in the face of Chinese Government repressions and Ukrainians fleeing the present war in their country. With regard to the former, it could be argued that Britain has a historical responsibility to Hong Kong people. However, Benson (2021) argues that it is more to do with Britain’s aim to develop its ‘global brand’ and present itself as a leading global player, in this instance in taking a stance against a
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repressive government. Britain’s role in relation to Ukraine is similar. The Ukrainian Eastern Europeans have now, for now, become ‘acceptable migrants’, or ‘good migrants’, as Benson terms it, even though it should be said that Britain has accepted the fewest number of Ukrainians of all but one of its European partners (Blood 2022). Migration has been used by right-wing governments and extremist populist groups as an argument against certain racial/ethnic groups of people. In the 1950s and 1960s, for example, people from the West Indies who had come to Britain to support the redevelopment of the country after World War II were erroneously targeted for “taking our jobs” or “taking our homes”. In the 1960s and 1970s when significant numbers of people migrated from India, Pakistan and East Africa, this rant together with the claim of exploiting the NHS and overburdening the Education system also ensued, and the most recent of these racist and xenophobic tirades was also targeted at members of the EU and Central and Eastern Europeans in particular. Immigration is a frequently used device by the right-wing media, governments and right-wing groups such as UKIP 1 and was used in particular during the Brexit campaign, as a device to frighten people into thinking that continued membership of the EU would lead to more immigration and consequently they would lose access to housing, healthcare and so on which is seen as ‘rightfully theirs’. As Bonnett (1998) points out, the welfare state and the NHS in particular has been used as a nationalistic totem, a rallying point for the (White) working-class promoted as a White working-class ‘gain’ through struggle. Hence its use by ‘non-Whites’ is frequently resented by Whites. Such a view is intensified when the welfare state is subjected to austerity measures and BAME people and new migrants are made the scapegoat for limitations to resources and services (Manchanda 2020). Mendacious claims about excessive migration were used in the arguments to campaign for Brexit. Since the 1960s Britain has systematically tightened its immigration laws making it more difficult for people to come and stay in Britain and UKIP—United Kingdom Independence Party is a right-wing populist, Eurosceptic political party in the UK. In 2014 it won its first and only seat in the Houses of Parliament. It currently has no elected members in Parliament 2022. It was very influential in the Brexit campaign. 1
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bring their families. The current British government, together with other European countries, takes an unyielding and often callous stance to migration including asylum seekers and refugees (Edmond-Pettitt 2021; Fekete et al. 2017). Ironically since Brexit there has been a skills and labour shortage in Britain (CIPD 2021) including those people who worked in healthcare and social care, indicating the importance of migrant people for Britain. Sivanandan (2001) referred to working-class Eastern and Central Europeans who tended to be the non-professionals and manual workers coming to Britain as the ‘new Black’ in that they have been treated in the derogatory and brutal way immigrants of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s were. However, although most of the EU migrants were White, reference to migrants and migration is strongly associated with being Black or Asian or ‘non-White’. Brexit is part of a nationalist project and a challenge to the cultural and ‘racial’ diversity of contemporary Britain. The Brexit campaign developed in the face of the UK’s ongoing structural and economic decline and the decline of global influence, since the 1970s. With the dismantling of heavy industry and the closure of the mines throughout the 1980s–1990s, we saw the undermining of the trade union movement, the fragmentation of working-class communities and the rise of neoliberal policies, together with the development of individualism, leading to the diminution of working-class politics and solidarity (see also Virdee and McGeever 2018). Populist discourse feeds off the fears engendered by an erroneous narrative about immigration and locating the blame for austerity and the dismantling of the welfare state on BAME and immigrant people. It is coupled with a putative anxiety about Britishness—British identity or perhaps more specifically Englishness—and invokes an insular nationalism. Following the vote for Brexit 2016 and continuing today, we have seen a significant rise in overt racism. More than 6000 ‘race’ hate crimes were reported to the National Police Chiefs Council in the four weeks after the referendum result (June 2016) according to Komaromi (2016) (cited in Virdee and McGeever 2018). More than half of these referred to the referendum in their abusive comments. What is also significant is that the racist abuse and violence were not just directed at White Europeans but BAME people in general. The slogan “taking back control of our borders” was not just about keeping out EU citizens but just as much about reconstituting (or
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reimagining) Britain as White. However, Brexit was not simply a result of White working-class anti-EU resentment. Brexit received a majority of support from middle-class voters (Shilliam 2018). As I will discuss further below, the White working-class are frequently used as a scapegoat or buffer for White middle-class racism. It should also be noted that the voting responses across the four British nations were uneven with the majority of Leave votes—87%—being cast in England (Virdee and McGeever 2018). Loss of Empire, the threat to ‘national identity’, the plea to ‘take back control’ and the call by Prime Minister Boris Johnson for renewing Britain’s sovereignty and independence from “an ever more centralizing, interfering and anti-democratic” organisation (i.e. the EU) (Johnson 2016 cited in Virdee and McGeever 2018, p. 1804) appealed to middle-class as well as working-class voters. Melancholic longings of a time when Britain was in control on a global scale of 700 million people, an empire that stretched around the world, have been suggested as an important motivator for the Leave vote (Dorling and Tomlinson 2019). The jingoism of “global Britain” and reference to developing trade with African Commonwealth countries as “Empire 2.0” (ibid.) have echoes of Donald Trump’s rallying cry of “Make America Great Again”. The assertion of a supposed crisis in British identity by governments and right-wing groups is not new. The nationalist agenda is a theme that runs throughout history according to Bonnett (1998). The neo-fascist National Front, the English Defence League and the British Party are all based on nationalist populism and fear of the loss of ‘authentic’ Britishness and British values, whatever either of these means. Both Blair and Brown as prime ministers also utilised the alleged crisis of identity to promote Britishness albeit for different purposes. Gordon Brown’s intentions were underpinned seemingly by the recognition to maintain the union and in particular draw in Scotland, which was at that time, as currently, indicating strong desires for independence. Part of the revamping of Britishness was to espouse and promote the values of “liberty, tolerance and inclusiveness” (Dixon 2008, p. 227). Conveniently, however, a blind eye was taken towards the history of British imperialism and the years of injustice, unfairness and exclusion that it espoused and represented. The Black Lives Matter Movement and refocusing on the racism and atrocities of British imperialism and colonialism including the slave trade were and
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are an inconvenience in this attempt to ignore and continue to hide Britain’s shameful past that continues to have significant bearing and implications for the present.
ritical Race Theory, Critical Whiteness Theory C and Intersectionality Critical Race Theory Given that ‘race’ and racism are the central concerns of this book, it follows that Critical Race Theory (CRT) (Ladson-Billings and Tate 1995) is an obvious perspective to adopt. CRT is regarded here as an encompassing term covering a range of perspectives and recognises the importance of intersectionality. CRT recognises the salience of ‘race’ and racism in understanding the operationalisation of societal processes and practices that lead to racial inequalities and discriminations. It is this recognition of the prevalence of ‘race’ and racism that informs the use of CRT in the context of this work together with the recognition of the social construction of ‘race’. In order to understand and adequately interrogate racism and its various ramifications, it is necessary to spotlight ‘race’, not in a compartmentalised way but in the sense of the interrelation of organisations and people and groups oppressed by dominant ideology.
Critical Whiteness Theory At the heart of racism is a notion of Whiteness. Historically Whiteness has barely been spoken of, and sociological and educational research, in Britain, into Whiteness has only in the past 20 years or so begun to have recognition and a voice. Whiteness has been an ‘invisible’ identifier, and the powerful position it provides has been hidden and unrecognised. In general, White people are only beginning, if at all, to face that they are also a racialised group and positioned hierarchically in a dominant relationship to BAME people. Whiteness as an analytical framework has been problematised and criticised. Garner (2007) and Ahmed (2004), for
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example, amongst others, problematise Whiteness and recognise how it could be used in counterproductive ways. Both identify the potential problem of reification, that is, that Whiteness could be turned from a social construction into a fixed object or type of experience in itself. Another concern is that its study consolidates its centring rather than aiding the process of decentring. In other words, reinforcing White supremacy and Ahmed adds “Another risk is that centring on … whiteness studies might become a discourse of love, which would sustain the narcissism that elevates whiteness into a social and bodily ideal” (p. 2). Utilising a Critical Whiteness Theory framework is therefore high risk and thus requires constant awareness and reflexivity. As Garner (2007) argues, however, it is an important concept to further our understanding of how racism operates and can be challenged. He asserts that although Whiteness is a racial identity, it is one that only exists “in so far as other racialised identities, such as blackness, Asianness etc., exist” (p. 2). Whiteness, as he says, is a system of power, privilege and cultural capital. Leonardo (2002) also identifies Whiteness as a racial discourse, whilst the description ‘White person’ is a socially constructed identity usually based on skin colour (Leonardo 2009), and Gillborn (2005) goes further by suggesting that: “Critical scholarship on whiteness is not an assault on white people per se: it is an assault on the socially constructed and constantly reinforced power of white identifications and interests (see Ladson-Billings and Tate 1995)” (pp. 58–60). As I have already discussed in Chap. 1, Whiteness has two strands— White supremacy and White privilege. White supremacy, as I have explained, is not the extreme right-wing version that we can see in the USA, Britain and elsewhere in Europe but is more subtle and pervasive and is concerned with the very essence of our lives. It is central to our lives and is most often taken for granted. Its dominance is rarely questioned, or its existence even recognised. It is insidious in that it imbues all facets of (White dominated) society. Charles W. Mills (2003) argues that White supremacy is multidimensional; he identifies six dimensions. Although writing about the USA, these dimensions hold universal resonance of White supremacy. As he says, White supremacy is dominant through the law, governance and politics but also encompasses the economic (access to resources and wealth), cultural, cognitive-evaluative
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(e.g. ideas, values, assumptions, cognitive patterns, perceptions, conceptualisations), somatic (the body, how it appears and is judged) and metaphysical spheres (racial subordination and inferiority where Black people are regarded as subhuman) (p. 42). Each of these dimensions interrelates and interacts. White supremacy is systemic; it disadvantages some groups whilst at the same time advantages others (based on colour) (Mills 2003; Garner 2007). White supremacy encapsulates the dominance of ideas, perspectives and values and underpins the structural organisation of society. As I will show in Chaps. 4 and 5, this dominance infuses and imbues all aspects of society and life and individual perspectives and behaviours. It has become hegemonic: a doxa which is invisible because it is how it is. Whilst dominant individuals represent dominant Whiteness, the majority of White individuals are not in dominant positions in society. However, White perspectives and ideas are transmitted by the majority of society’s members and throughout society’s systems and organisations. Since the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter Movement and the murder of George Floyd, there has been increased debate around White privilege, its nature and effects. But the idea of ‘privilege’ has to be qualified and explained. This is not or is not necessarily the same as class privilege. It is not or is not necessarily about a White person in a highly paid and influential job or living in an expensive house and having wealth, although in Britain, the majority of such people are White. White privilege in relation to racism refers to the opportunities that being White affords people. For some White people living in poverty, in poor housing and in low paid or without employment, the opportunities and privilege usually afforded to being White may seem meagre or no apparent privilege at all. No doubt it is, but for all White people, privilege exists in that they are not subjected to the racist abuse based on one’s skin colour or perceived difference from White, experienced on a daily basis by many BAME people; they are not subjected to stop and search by the police on the basis of their colour or followed in stores by security guards because of their colour. They are not denied a job or access to other resources because of the colour of their skin. Garner (2007) suggests that “White people are part of the privileged structure regardless of what their personal opinions maybe and wherever they lie in the social hierarchy” (p. 7). That is not to say that White working-class people especially those who
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are unemployed and living in poverty are not also discriminated against and marked out as Other—not White enough. There are gradations of Whiteness which are linked to social class differentiations and hierarchies. Indeed, not all White people are equally White, as I have already said. White people do not all have equal power, privilege and influence, but potentially all White people have equal interest in safeguarding their relative White privilege and with that their relative advantage (Marx 2006). White supremacy and White privilege of course are interlinked. Although outside of the lived experiences of most British people, the fairly recent example of the racism against Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, is a useful example that illustrates the interplay of White privilege and White supremacy. Meghan Markle’s experience shows the White Establishment’s resentment of a Black/mixed race person actually having entered the sanctum of the zenith of White privilege (in Britain at least)— the Royal Family. The racist articles about her in the print media (Turvill 2021) and repeated over social media are intended to Other her and put her in her place—rejecting implicitly her place as a bona fide member of the Royal Family. She is in her own right privileged in many ways— financially, in terms of her celebrity status as an actor, but her presence as a Black person and a member of the Royal Family threatens White supremacy. White society continually seeks to Other Black and Asian and Minority Ethnic people. Daily examples of this are demonstrated through the question of ‘where are you from?’ if you happened to display a perceived difference from that person’s dominant norm. This is not natural curiosity but a desire to emphasise difference and impose the hierarchy of difference. Mixed race people, for example, are perpetually harassed by this question in order to ensure they understand that in spite of having one White parent or some White heritage they will never be White. This resonates with the Black British citizens who came to mainland Britain from the then colonised ‘British’ West Indies who were falsely deemed to be ‘illegal immigrants’ in spite of having lived and worked in Britain most of their lives and when they first came to Britain were in fact already British citizens (since Britain was still a colonial power in those West Indian countries at that time) (The Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants Windrush scandal explained www.jcwi.org.uk accessed
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24/04/2022). In effect they were being told and continue to be told that in spite of their citizenship, they will never be ‘insiders’. Utilising the concept Critical Whiteness to make sense of unequal educational experiences and racial oppression helps to expose and explain why some anti-racist initiatives have failed to make any impact on improving the educational experiences of many BAME children. Anti- racist projects have failed to recognise or understand the nature and impact of Whiteness. Hence anti-racist actions have frequently been superficial in their approach. White dominance impacts on and permeates all facets of the Education system: policies, resources, curriculum, pedagogy, teacher training and so on. Whiteness is a form of symbolic domination in Bourdieu’s terms. Symbolic domination in this sense is the imposition of meanings (Bourdieu and Passeron 1990), social hierarchies and inequalities (Schubert 2008), not through physical force but in a subtle implicit way leading to acceptance as ‘the norm’. The impact of symbolic domination is symbolic violence (Bourdieu and Passeron 1990). Symbolic violence results in the denial of recognition—the Othering of BAME people or rendering BAME people invisible, a denial of resources such as being confined to the lowest academic sets, being subjected to low teacher expectations or suffering subjugation. It is difficult to challenge and stand up to since as Bourdieu says: “Symbolic domination is something you absorb like air, something you don’t feel pressured by; it is everywhere and nowhere, and to escape from that is very difficult” (Bourdieu and Eagleton 1992, p. 115 cited in Schubert 2008). Symbolic domination can thus give rise to misrecognition where the individual is subjected to the imposition of the status quo; so, for example, the Black children and White working-class children who dominate the lowest sets in school and are destined to follow a vocational route rather than an academic one are powerless to change or challenge this if they are unable to recognise the processes and practices that render them thus (see, e.g. Bourdieu and Passeron 1990). Hence, with regard to Whiteness which dominates education in all ways, spheres and aspects, infusing itself in what is taught and the ways it is taught and the language used to teach, the children are disoriented and dislocated when they cannot connect or find resonance with it. In understanding the ways that Whiteness operates and impacts, we can begin to develop ways of undermining and
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dismantling its hold on this domination. Whiteness theory, in spite of its own challenges and flaws, can help to expose the process and permeation of racism through the Education system, pedagogy and the curriculum both overt and covert. In the following chapters, these processes will be further discussed and illustrated.
Intersectionality As I said previously whilst foregrounding ‘race’, I aim not to privilege one oppression over another which is why a recognition and understanding of the intersectionality of social class and gender are crucial (in particular, within the context of my analysis here, although other identities could be added to this list such as sexuality and disability). No person is just Black or just White, just a woman, or just working-class. All people have multiple facets to their identities and their lived experiences. Ignoring that is to essentialise BAME people, positioning them as one-dimensional and disregarding the diversity of their historical and cultural experiences (Hall 1992a). Hall (1992a) thirty years ago talked about ‘identity’ as a process of becoming, not a fixed entity. Our multiple identities can change and develop. Identities can be in contradiction, intersect and indeed conflict with each other. To illustrate this Hall (1992b) used the example of Judge Clarence Thomas, a Black US judge nominated to the US Supreme Court. He is Black and right-wing. During the proceedings of his nomination, one of his former junior members of staff, Anita Hall, who is also Black, accused him of sexual harassment. The case divided the nation along gender, ‘race’ and also class lines. Levine-Rasky (2011) writes that the oppressed can also be an oppressor. Judge Thomas could be said to be an example of this, but also White feminists have played this role too in their failure to recognise the nature and oppression of ‘race’ and racism resulting in the exclusion of Black women. Drawing on the concept of intersectionality (Bhopal and Preston 2012; Crenshaw 2003), an understanding of the interrelationship of identities and raced, classed and gendered oppressions underpins the analyses here, in order to illuminate the nature and impact of racism. Polarisations between oppressed and discriminated against groups are a
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related issue. Recognising and understanding intersectionality can help to avoid polarisations between groups challenging oppressive practices. Polarisations and ‘divide and rule’ contribute to the reproduction of racist practices and divisions. Pitting groups against each other undermines the struggle against racism and other oppressions. The development of a reactionary White-dominant nationalism as described above is one example. Using migrant people as a scapegoat for economic cuts to health, housing and education is another. Intersectionality challenges the focus on identity. As Anthias argues it identifies “the political potential of organising on the basis of specific issues rather than identities” (Anthias 2008, 4:1 p. 15) and thus opens up opportunities to engage with and address structural oppression. Reference to social class is a useful example of the importance of incorporating an intersectional perspective into the analysis of and struggle against racism. As Hall (1992a) observed “Black politics has been undermined by an absence or …evasive silence with reference to class” (p. 256). Black workers are structurally part of the working-class, although as Phizacklea and Miles (1980) argue, the position and experiences of Black people cannot be totally reduced to class relations “in the sense that [B]lack workers are only workers” (p. 1). Like Phizacklea and Miles, Hall et al. (1978) suggest that Black labour is a fraction or subgroup of the working-class as a whole. They also assert that whilst the position of the Black working-class is the same as that of the [W]hite working-class, it is also at the same time differentiated from it. At the heart of the analysis of both sets of authors is capitalism. Hall et al. (1978) go on to say that for capitalism Black workers act as a reserve army of labour, utilised at times of need and expelled when no longer needed and relegated to the margins. As they say, this does not necessarily unite the class as a whole, but it does have implications for the whole class given that ‘race’ and class are inextricably linked and transformed by ‘race’ and that ‘race’ is the modality through which class relations are lived and experienced (Hall et al. 1978, p. 394). ‘Race’ and the effect of racism divide the working-class, so that whilst working-class Black people are used at the behest of capitalism just as the White working-class are, Black people are further subordinated within the workplace and not afforded equal status with their White counterparts. Through these interrelations racism emerges and
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operates causing suffering for Black people and infecting the behaviours and attitudes of the White working-class. Capital thus “reproduces the class as a whole, structured by ‘race’” (Hall et al. 1978, p. 395). This has been very clear in the past with the operation of the so-called colour bar in the 1950s and 1960s such as in Wolverhampton (Wrench 1986) and Bristol (Dresser 1987) where the bus companies refused to allow Black people to work on the buses, aided and abetted by the local unions in both cities, who submitted a proposal to the Transport and General Workers Union conference to ban Black workers. Wrench also provides evidence of discrimination and prejudice as being rife within the trade union movement at that time. Such overt discrimination is now illegal, but these arguments inform the understanding and recognition of the relevance and importance of taking account of intersectionality and serve as a warning about polarising debates that set Black (or BAME) and White working-class people against each other. These examples also have resonance with the experience of Black teachers and lecturers and their continued exclusion from senior positions in schools and universities. As will be shown, the intersection of gender and ‘race’ is also complex where Black boys are frequently marked out negatively and experience some of the most overt forms of discrimination whilst at the same time, as Bhopal (2018) argues, Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic women are the most disadvantaged groups amongst academic staff in higher education. Moreover, as discussed in Chap. 8, the existence of ‘race’ frequently trumps social class in its discriminatory function, in other words being middle-class for Black parents does not provide the advantages and effects as it does for their White counterparts.
Conclusion The analysis of ‘race’ and racism is thus complex and shifting. This makes the arguments to dismantle and destroy racism additionally challenging. The analysis of ‘race’ and racism together with the use of Critical Race and Critical Whiteness Theories facilitates the interrogation of racialised perspectives, practices and policies and helps to demonstrate the effects of
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the structure and organisation of the school and university that give rise to an oppressive space for BAME students’ educational experience. A critical understanding of Whiteness as central to the nature of racism identifies the core of the problem of racial oppression. This is not, as I have said, about White people per se, but White people have responsibility for exposing the constitution, features and effects of White domination. White people are the receptacle of Whiteness and are responsible wittingly or otherwise for supporting its reproduction and permeation through Education and other societal systems. The consequences of Whiteness can be seen most glaringly in the extreme examples of nationalism, the far-right and some of the attitudes displayed as a result of Brexit. The more insinuated consequences and influences of Whiteness are of greater significance because they are unrecognised as damaging and because they are established as the norm. Making the link between racism and Whiteness is therefore essential in order to expose Whiteness for what it is. We have seen throughout the chapter that White supremacy is woven into the processes of the racialisation of BAME people reinforcing a hierarchy of worth. Whilst it may be argued that racism in Britain is not such an issue as it was in the 1950s, 1960s or 1970s, the fact is that there is still overt violence against BAME people but more significantly the racism that permeates society and maintains BAME people’s subjugation is understated and penetrating. This chapter provides the framework through which the subsequent analyses are developed and will show how racism and Whiteness permeate policy and educational practice and are reinforced and reproduced. In the following chapter, I discuss my role as a White researcher and academic undertaking this work on racism. Critical Whiteness theory is central to this examination and reflection. In Chaps. 4 and 5, I then go on to show how the racialisation of BAME people is promoted and perpetuated through government policies and the school and university curricula which contribute to the cultivation and generation of individual, institutional and structural racism throughout the Education system.
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Bourdieu, P. with Eagleton, T. (1992) In Conversation: Doxa and Common Life. New Left Review, 191, 111–122. CIPD (2021) Resourcing and Talent Planning Survey 2021. London: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. Cohen, P. (1992) ‘It’s Racism What Dunnit’: Hidden Narratives in Theories of Racism. In Donald, J. and Rattansi A. (eds)‘Race’, Culture and Difference. 62–103, London, California and New Delhi: Sage Publications with the Open University. Crenshaw, K. W. (2003) Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics. In A. K. Wing (ed) (second edition) Critical Race Feminism. A Reader, 23–33 New York and London: New York University Press. Dixon, K. (2008) Le New Labour et l’identité britannique. Blair, Brown and Britishness: The End of an Old Song, 227–237, https://doi.org/10.4000/ osb.698. Accessed 5 October 2021. Dorling, D. and Tomlinson, S. (2019) Brexit: How the End of Britain’s Empire Led to Rising Inequality That Helped Leave to Victory May 22, The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/how-the-end-of-britain’s-empire- led-to-rising-inequality-that-helped-leave-victory-116466. Dresser, M. (1987) Black and White on the Buses. The 1963 Colour Bar Dispute in Bristol. Bristol: Bristol Broadsides (Co-op) Ltd. Edmond-Pettitt, A. (2021) ‘Where Does Fortress Britain Begin and End? 30 June. IRR Online. www.irr.org, Accessed 11 November 2021. Education Parliamentary Select Committee (2021) The Forgotten: How White Working Class Pupils Have Been Let Down and How to Change It. June 23 www.gov.uk. Equalities and Human Rights Commission (2010) How Fair Is Britain? The First Triennial Review. London: HMSO. Fekete, L., Webber, F. and Edmond-Pettitt, A. (2017) Humanitarianism. The Unacceptable Face of Solidarity. London: Institute of Race Relations. Garner, S. (2007) Whiteness. London and New York: Routledge. Garner, S. (2010) Racisms, an Introduction. London, California, New Delhi, Singapore: Sage. Garner, S. (2016) A Moral Economy of Whiteness. Four Frames of Racialising Discourse. London and New York: Routledge. Gillborn, D. (2004) Anti-racism. From Policy to Praxis. In G. Ladson-Billings and D. Gillborn (eds) The RoutledgeFalmer Reader in Multicultural Education. 35–48, London and New York: RoutledgeFalmer.
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Gillborn, D. (2005) Education Policy as an Act of White Supremacy: Whiteness, Critical Race Theory and Education Reform. Journal of Education Policy, 20(4), 485–505. Gilroy, P. (1992) The End of Anti-racism. In Donald, J. and Rattansi A. (eds) ‘Race’, Culture and Difference, 49–61, London, California and New Delhi: Sage Publications with the Open University. Gilroy, P. (2004) After Empire. Melancholia or Convivial Culture? Oxfordshire, UK: Routledge. Hall, S. (1992a) New Ethnicities. In J. Donald and A. Rattansi (eds) ‘Race’, Culture and Difference. 252–259, London: Sage/Open University. Hall, S. (1992b) The Question of Cultural Identity. In S. Hall, D. Held, and T. McGrew, (Eds.) Modernity and Its Futures, 274–325, Cambridge and Oxford: Polity Press in association with Blackwell Publishers and the Open University Press. Hall, S., Critcher, C., Jefferson, T. Clarke, J. and Roberts, B. (1978) Policing the Crisis. Mugging, the State and Law and Order. London: Macmillan Press. House of Commons Library (2021). Research Briefing. Immigration Statistics. Tuesday 27 April. IRR (Institute of Race Relations) (1982) Roots of Racism. Book One. London: Institute of Race Relations. Johnson, B. (2016). Boris Johnson’s Speech on the EU Referendum: Full Text. Conservative Home, May 9. http://www.conservativehome.com/parliament/2016/05/boris-johnsons-speech-on-the-eu-referendum-full-text.html. Jones, O. (2011) Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class. London and New York: Verso Books. Jones, S. H. and Unsworth, A. (2011) The Dinner Table Prejudice. Islamophobia in Contemporary Britain. University of Birmingham and the British Academy London. Komaromi, P. (2016) Post-referendum Racism and Xenophobia: The Role of Social Media Activism in Challenging the Normalisation of Xeno-racist Narratives.http://www.irr.org.uk/news/post-r eferendum-r acism-a nd- the-importance-of-social-activism/ Ladson-Billings, G. and Tate, W. F. (1995) Toward a Critical Race Theory of Education. Teachers College Record, 97(1), 47–68. Leonardo, Z. (2002) The Souls of White Folk: Critical Pedagogy, Whiteness Studies, and Globalization Discourse. Race, Ethnicity & Education, 5(1), 29–50. Leonardo, Z. (2009) Race, Whiteness, and Education. New York: Routledge.
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Levine-Rasky, C. (2011) Intersectionality Theory Applied to Whiteness and Middle-Classness. Social Identities, 17(2), 239–253. Lorde, A. (1984) Age, Race, Class and Sex. (from Sister Outsider. Freedom, California: Crossing Press. 114–123. In M. L. Anderson and P. Hill Collins An Anthology, Race Class and Gender, Fourth Edition, 177–184, UK and USA: Wadsworth Thomson Learning. Mac An Ghaill, M. (1999) Contemporary Racisms and Ethnicities. Buckingham, Philadelphia: Open University Press. Macpherson, W. (1999) The Stephen Lawrence Inquiry. London: The Stationery Office Cm 4262. Manchanda, N. (2020) Review of Race and the Undeserving Poor: from Abolition to Brexit by Robbie Shilliam. Columbia University Press. https://www.e-i r.info/2020/07/31/review-r ace-a nd-t he-u nderserving- poor-from-abolition-to-brexit/. Marx, S. (2006) Revealing the Invisible. Confronting Passive Racism in Teacher Education. New York and London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.1007/978- 3-319-74078-2_43-1. Miles, R. (1982) Racism and Migrant Labour. London, Boston, Melbourne and Henley: Routledge and Kegan Paul. Mills, C. W. (2003) White Supremacy as Sociopolitical System: A Philosophical Perspective. In A. W. Doane and E. Bonilla-Silva (eds) White Out: The Continuing Significance of Racism. Taylor and Francis. e book. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com. Accessed 04 August 20221. Modood, T. (2005) Multicultural Politics. Racism, Ethnicity and Muslims in Britain. University of Minnesota Press and UK: Edinburgh University Press. Omi, M. and Winant, H. (1986) Racial Formation in the United States. New York: Routledge. Paun, A., Nice, A. and Rycroft, L. (2021) How to Make a Success of County Devolution Deals. London: Institute for Government. Phizacklea, A. and Miles, R. (1980) Labour and Racism. London, Boston and Henley: Routledge and Kegan Paul. Race Relations Amendment Act (2000) London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office. Ramdin, R. (1987) The Making of the Black Working Class. Wildwood House. Reay, D., Crozier, G. and James, D. (2013) White Middle-Class Identities and Urban Schooling, Second edition. London and New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Rodney, W. (1969) The Groundings with My Brothers. London: Bogel-L’Ouverture Publications Ltd.
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Rodney, W. (1972) How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. London: Bogel- L’Ouverture Publications Ltd. Roediger, D. (1991) The Wages of Whiteness. London and New York: Verso. Schubert, D. (2008) Suffering. In M. Grenfell (ed) Pierre Bourdieu. Key Concepts. 183–198, Durham, UK: Acumen Publishing Ltd. Shilliam, R. (2018) Race and the Undeserving Poor. From Abolition to Brexit. Newcastle upon Tyne: Agenda Publishing. Sivanandan, A. (2001) Poverty Is the New Black. Race & Class, 43(2), 1–5. Solomos and Back (1994) Conceptualising Racisms: Social Theory, Politics and Research. Sociology, 28(1), 143–161. https://doi.org/10.1177/003803859 4028001009. Turvill, W. (2021) Meghan Coverage Was Racist According to Half Journalists Completing PG Survey. Press Gazette, 1 April.https://pressgazette.co.uk, Accessed 02 April 2021. Virdee, S. and McGeever, B. (2018) Racism, Crisis, Brexit. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 41(10), 1802–1819. Williams, E. (1964) Capitalism and Slavery. London: Longman. Williams, R. (1975) The Country and the City. Hertfordshire, UK: Paladin. Wrench, J. (1986) Unequal Comrades: Trade Unions, Equal Opportunity and Racism. Policy Papers in Ethnic Relations, No.5. April, Centre for Research in Ethnic Relations, University of Warwick.
3 Reflexivity and the Role of the White Researcher in the Field of ‘Race’, Anti/ Racism and Education
Introduction Given the dominance of Whiteness in society and the role that White people play in the reproduction of racial inequalities and discrimination, the critique of the role of the White researcher in the field of ‘race’ is important and necessary. That is not to say that White people have no role or part to play in this area of research. As a White person myself, such a response might be expected. However, this chapter is not a mini autobiography demonstrating and arguing why I should be trusted with this research, even though I hope to earn this trust. I want to show my thinking and understanding of the role of the White researcher in this field and the implications or potential implications of this. I want to present an argument for the necessity of White people to take responsibility for their/our Whiteness, specifically within this context, because Whiteness shapes and impacts on their/our/my identity, attitudes, beliefs and
This chapter is based on an adapted and developed version of Crozier, G. (2003) Researching black parents: making sense of the role of research and the researcher, Qualitative Research, 3(1), 79–94. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023, corrected publication 2023 G. Crozier, Racism and Education in Britain, Palgrave Studies in Race, Inequality and Social Justice in Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-18931-9_3
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practices. This chapter is intended to highlight these issues in relation to the debates and discussions throughout the book. I also draw on previous research I have undertaken with Black and South Asian parents to illustrate some of the implications of the role of the White researcher in the field of ‘race’ and racism and to discuss my reflexive practice in carrying out empirical work. For all researchers but particularly for White researchers, in this field, it is essential to engage in reflexive practice regarding their/our actions, processes and analyses. Previous criticisms of White researchers and their research include White researchers’ inability to accurately or adequately interpret the data because of their dominant White hegemonic perspectives and issues around interviewing Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic people including allegedly being unable to understand and empathise with the perspectives of BAME people, thus giving rise to problems of engendering trust (Troyna and Carrington 1989). There have also been criticisms of ‘studying down’, that is, focusing just on Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic people and constructing BAME people as the problem rather than societal and structural processes of institutional racism. This has often resulted in blaming Black people themselves for the poverty and discrimination they experience and thus potentially feeding damaging suggestions to policymakers, exacerbating inequalities (Lawrence 1982). This latter criticism was particularly prevalent in the 1980s. Understanding of racism, together with critical Whiteness studies, has arguably developed thinking and understanding in more enlightened and insightful ways through, not least, the work of the Centre for Contemporary and Cultural Studies (CCCS) at the University of Birmingham and the work, for example, of Hazel Carby, Pratibha Parmar, Stuart Hall, Paul Gilroy and Errol Lawrence (e.g. CCCS The Empire Strikes Back 1982). Whilst these criticisms are still relevant, in this book, as I have said, the focus is on racism and Whiteness rather than specifically on Black and Asian and Minority Ethnic people. However, as Barry Troyna (1998) wrote, studying racism makes it necessary to interview and discuss with Black people who experience racism. Moreover, one of the key principles of Critical Race Theory is the importance of recognising Black people’s voices and own stories. As Troyna also argued the important thing is to place those experiences within a framework which locates and exposes
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racism and demonstrates how it impacts and forms those experiences. The fact remains in writing any sociology but in particular in relation to contested issues such as ‘race’ and racism especially from a White perspective and where personal experiences are concerned, it is essential that a reflexive approach is taken throughout the research process. Throughout my career I have rightly been questioned and called to account about the validity of me as a White person undertaking research in the field of ‘race’. Within the context of this book my assertion is that interrogating the roots of racism, exposing its damaging and devastating impact on society and young people in order to challenge racism and contribute to bringing about change, has to be the responsibility of White as well as Black and Asian and Minority Ethnic scholars. Indeed it is fundamentally wrong to leave this work to BAME scholars alone. However, there is a great need for White researchers/scholars to commit to and engage in a process of examining our Whiteness and how it impacts on and shapes our research and behaviours.
Reflecting on Whiteness Being White affects “thinking, behaviour, attitudes and decisions” (Scheurich 1993, p. 9), and therefore it is necessary to become aware (as a White person) of one’s racial positionality (ibid.). This is important in the research process in interviewing and observing but also in analysing the data. It is also important when reading and interpreting texts and developing concepts and ideas. The White researcher, just like the teachers I discuss in Chap. 7, is shaped and influenced by their histories, their historical context, environment and experiences. Developing an anti- racist perspective is not a one-time activity. It is not simply a few sessions of anti-racist training; it requires ongoing knowledge development and awareness together with a sharpened reflexive practice. Reflexivity is, however, by its very nature individualistic, and especially where a White researcher is undertaking the research alone, strategies need to be put in place in order to safeguard against reinscribing Whiteness (Probyn 2004). It is necessary to keep in mind the dialectical relationship between the structural and the individual or the objective and the subjective and
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understand and explain the effect of this interaction. As Probyn (2004) suggests, the White person, and in this case the White researcher, is both object and subject and also obstacle. Considering this triadic relationship is part of the reflexive process. As discussed in Chap. 2, White people tend to be driven by the desire to safeguard White identifications and their self-interests—their status in society, the workplace and so on and the privileges that go with this. Racialised groups, including White people, are positioned hierarchically, and White people tend to have or are more likely to have more power than BAME people. There are calls for White people especially those who claim to be anti-racists, to relinquish their White power (e.g. Aileen Moreton-Robinson 2000, p. 186, cited in Probyn 2004). What does this actually mean? To undertake this is complex and challenging. A simple call for individual White people to relinquish their power ignores the structural dimension of the basis of power and the relativity of the volume and status of power held by White individuals. Probyn (2004) suggests that power “is not ours to give up” (p. 21). To give up power implies giving it to others without power, but this is also potentially condescending and as Probyn implies reminiscent of a ‘colonial gesture’. She also argues that giving up power would involve taking something from this act which in itself could be empowering to White people. Grasping what might be involved here involves concerted critical reflection and the will to step back in the daily competition for recognition of self and the clamour to be heard. Power as I have said is relative and at an individual level often seems nebulous even whilst recognising White power and privilege is greater than that for BAME people. A more direct and precise call to action is to abolish Whiteness as Ugwagba (2020) argues, not to abolish White people but rather the endemic system of Whiteness already discussed. To abolish Whiteness is to abolish the belief that Black people are inferior to White people, to abolish the exclusion and subjugation of the ‘Other’ (ibid., p. 53). In my view this is what challenging White supremacy and anti-racism is or should be about. Ugwagba suggests that simply talking about structural racism somehow exonerates or takes the pressure off White people to act. She throws down the challenge to White anti-racists. In referring to White privilege, she says:
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In the moment that white privilege offers itself up to you, can you, will you say ‘no’? Will you start boycotting the hairdresser who gives you an amazing blow-dry but who you know doesn’t cut Afro hair … Will you say something when your boss makes a loaded comment about Black people, potentially risking your own employment, or will you squirm uncomfortably in your seat ….? What will you do when you find out that the Black colleague who does the same job as you is being paid far less than you are …? (p. 85)
Individual action is a necessary part of challenging structural racism; all White people have an individual responsibility. But this challenge has also to be undertaken collectively and in a wide-ranging way to be most effective. Anti-racism involves individual and collective action against individual attitudes and practices but more so, essentially against structural and institutional racism and Whiteness. Binaries of Black and White, as previously discussed, are too simplistic, given that we all have multiple identities, although some have argued that claiming to have multiple identities is an excuse for not addressing the problematics of Whiteness (Probyn 2004). That is not my intention here. Taking into account multiple identities is not an alternative to recognising one’s Whiteness. This still exists irrespective of being a woman, working-class and so on. Multiple identities, however, are a source of influence on the White person which could give rise to insights that in turn lead to developing anti-racist perspectives and egalitarianism and to developing solidarity and activism such as through social movements and the trade union movement. The White-Black power relationship is of course constantly present. For many BAME participants, racism is a daily or frequent occurrence and experience which informs perceptions. Therefore understandably, in my empirical research referred to in this book, I found some of the participants were wary of me as a White researcher, at least until I had developed trust as I discuss below. It is for this reason that ‘racial’ or ethnic matching, standpointism, is advocated by some. That is to say that you have to be Black to research Black people or ‘race’ issues, and you have to be a woman, disabled, working-class, etc. to research issues pertaining to those identities. Standpointism is, however, problematic in a number of
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ways. It can reinforce essentialism, a feature which standpoint theorists (at least standpoint feminists) would object to with its obfuscation of multidimensionality and multiple identities. The argument about significance of multiple identities is relevant here and thus complicates the idea of standpointism. The perspectives we carry in relation to our identity are likely to influence our behaviour and attitudes in, for example, the research situation such as the interview. A female researcher might well have greater connection with Black mothers, for example, but less so if she was White. Social class might also affect the relationship and so on. Matching the identity of the researcher with that of the researched might be preferable in certain circumstances depending on the research focus, but it would be difficult to ensure that personal resonance could be achieved. Moreover, it may not always be possible to obtain this match since having access to suitable researchers is dependent on many other factors. It would also be unlikely that a perfect match could be created. Whilst women may have insights through their own experiences of being a woman, not all women share the same insights or social consciousness or world view. Moreover, men who have heightened awareness of the oppressive forces in society can also have insights into the workings of patriarchy in a way that some women may not; they too have privileged insight but rather from ‘the inside’ than from without. The same could be said about White people in relation to the study of racism, and so on. Although some have argued for what Brah (1992) (whilst critical of this herself ) has referred to as the ‘authenticity of personal experience’ (p. 136), it is not possible to claim a monopoly of insight, perception, awareness or whatever. The notion of standpointism in terms of symmetrical matching of researcher and research has been thoroughly critiqued by Mirza (1998) who articulates the problematics of this with reference to her own experience as a British South Asian woman researching South Asian girls and women in the northwest of Britain. She demonstrates that this relationship is much more complex than a simple binary of opposites pointing to her and the respondents’ multiple identities and experiences, in spite of their shared gender and apparent ethnicity and skin colour. Indeed which part of ‘placing’, as Finch (1984) termed it, would be the most necessary for the optimum interviewing conditions to be created: ‘race’, ‘ethnicity’,
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gender, class, culture or what? Rather perhaps what is of greater importance to establish, or at least try to establish, is what Vincent and Warren (2001) refer to as ‘structure of feeling’—shared understandings, taken- for-granted assumptions and key reference points.
ersonal Experience Research P and the Black-White Research Relationship Returning to the issue of power but this time in the research-participant relationship, there is clearly a Black/White power relationship where the White researcher is seeking to collect personal information about the respondents; even without the ‘race’ dimension, this can be an anxiety- based relationship. In our White middle-class families research, I certainly interviewed parents, male and female, professionals established in their fields, who expressed nervousness about the interview (Reay et al. 2013). For BAME people the experience of racism is constantly present. For many of the respondents in my various research studies, White oppression was a day-to-day reality which in turn informed or influenced perceptions about White people and particularly those in positions of authority which a researcher from a university was deemed to be. In the research with Black mothers about their role and experiences of their children’s education, including the relationship with the school, for example (Crozier 2003, 2005a), some of the mothers were initially wary about disclosing personal experiences and views to a White researcher. For others being interviewed by a White researcher was less of an issue. When I negotiated access, I did so on the basis of my commitment to using the research as much as I could to contribute to change. I ‘placed’ (Finch 1984) myself, initially at least, and was placed by the parents as a White middle-class researcher. Even though no social location holds a monopoly on oppression, I felt, perhaps because of the historical criticisms of White feminists by Black feminists (e.g. Carby 1982) and the limited evidence of change, that to place myself as a woman would be insensitive and arrogant. Only as each interview progressed did I place myself, albeit tentatively, as a mother.
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As Ladner (1987) asserts, the relationship between the researcher and the researched can be likened to that of the oppressor and the oppressed; in a White-dominated society, this relationship is clearly problematic. In relation to this issue, one of the problems lies in the fact that it is the researcher who sets the agenda—who defines the research problem and identifies the questions to be answered (Ladner 1987). Research with Black people by White researchers is often couched in terms of wanting to ‘give a voice’ to Black people. Whilst well-intentioned, the notion of the White researcher ‘giving’, bestowing this ‘opportunity’, is arrogant and reinforces the hierarchical position. Not only does the researcher set the agenda, but she also decides whose voice can be heard. The only way to balance the research relationship is arguably to give the participants some control over the research and to enable them to have a say in whose voice is heard. There are important parallels here between the substantive issues (of challenging racism and social justice) and the methodological issues. Would preventing such participation and control invalidate the research? On the other hand, is it feasible to involve the research participants in this way? The answers to these questions are complex and are also influenced by external factors such as the funding authorities’ requirements, ethical considerations and the academy. These and other questions need to be kept in the foreground when preparing research with BAME people and on ‘race’ and racism’ and I suggest should form part of the initial preparatory work and negotiations for participation. The issue of control or how much control is desirable also relates to how trustworthy the researcher is, how conscious she is about issues of ‘race’ and racism and whether a White researcher can ‘speak for’ or on behalf of Black people and also how will she address the focus on Black people through the White gaze and its potentially associated negative, stereotypical connotations (Lawrence 1982). In addition, I am conscious of the fact that one of the risks in personal experience research (Clandinin and Connelly 1994) is that you parade someone else’s lifestyle and identity in front of an audience—a predominantly White audience, thus laying it open to judgement. Should the researcher ‘tell it how it is’? Or should the researcher present what she sees/hears in a way that she thinks will ‘protect’ the respondent or be acceptable to the audience (or is that ethical?)? Michelle Fine (1994) identifies this problem in relation to a
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White woman lawyer, in the USA, who successfully represents Black women accused of killing their violent partners. Fine recounts that the lawyer presents a case based upon sanitised accounts of the defendants so that they are ‘acceptable’ to the White middle-class Establishment, and in this case, the jury. Perhaps this is a situation where the end justifies the means given that the power relations frequently mean that Black women do not get justice. Ultimately, however, the White researcher, however well-intentioned and committed to social justice herself, has limited (or even no) power in ensuring a just and positive use of the research account and so also has to employ measures to minimise negative, unintended consequences. Presenting quotations from respondents in Standard English or in the individual’s own dialect is one example of the dilemma facing the researcher given that certain forms of, for example, Black English speech can be misunderstood as ungrammatical and therefore the speaker would be exposed potentially to ridicule. In putting the respondent’s words into Standard English however, the respondent’s voice is sanitised and potentially negated. Standing (1998) points out the multidimensionality of this dilemma in that it is concerned with the desire to challenge rather than reproduce hierarchies of power and knowledge; it is trying to avoid positioning the respondents as Other whilst at the same time trying to represent the respondents’ voices, and it is trying to engage in praxis through a medium which, however, frequently imposes a notion of ‘objectivity’ (p. 201). Making such decisions needs to be discussed in advance of the analysis with the research participants. In addition to the use of the actual speech of the researched, researchers have been guilty of Othering in the way they have reinforced the ‘them’ and ‘us’ dichotomy, the way they have remained aloof, on the outside looking in. In doing so, Fine (1994) argues, much qualitative research has produced a colonizing discourse of the ‘Other’. She quotes bell hooks: …no need to hear your voice when I can talk about you better than you can speak about yourself. No need to hear your voice. Only tell me about your pain. I want to hear your story. And then I will tell it back to you in a new way. Tell it back to you in such a way that it has become mine … I am
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still author, authority. I am still the colonizer, the speak subject and you are now at the centre of my talk”… (hooks 1990, pp. 151–152)
Previous research undertaken with parents has developed a critique of parental involvement (e.g. Crozier 2019; Vincent 2017; Symeou 2002) questioning the rationale underpinning much English education policy that advocates or even in some respects requires parents to play a more active role in their children’s schooling. Part of this criticism has focused upon the role of parental involvement as a form of socio-cultural assimilation (Crozier 2001; Lareau and Horvat 1999). Much of the parental involvement discourse has tended to exclude mothers, working-class and BAME parents. Where it acknowledges their existence, it often casts them in the role of ‘Other’, pathologizing their behaviour and rendering them marginalised. It was important for me to ensure that through my research these practices were not repeated but rather the research itself should serve to challenge this misanalysis and these damaging constructions.
Trust and Risk In negotiating access, in any qualitative research, the researcher is asking for the participants to trust her/him, especially if the research involves disclosure of personal experiences. For the White researcher negotiating access to BAME respondents, this request takes on greater import. I felt strongly that I had to ‘prove’ my trustworthiness. I had to outline the purpose of the research and try to demonstrate its worthwhileness. I had to try to show that I would handle with care the experiences and information that the respondents shared with me. In many of the cases, there were experiences which caused the child and parent distress. I felt privileged that the parent was willing to share these stories with me. The experiences recounted emphasised to me people’s vulnerability, and in turn this emphasised the responsibility that was now entrusted to me, not just to take care of the data but to do something useful with them. Only one woman in the Black parents’ research said that she did not want to be interviewed because she believed a Black person should be
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carrying out this research. Another woman whilst agreeing readily to being interviewed did comment that Black parents would probably be somewhat reticent in agreeing to be interviewed by a White middle-class researcher. Another woman said it was not an issue for her at all. However, half the mothers asked searching questions for, as it seemed to me, reassurance of trust and respect and that the research would be worthwhile. The task of negotiation and fulfilling the parents’ expectations was challenging. Even if this had not been the case, the experiences that the mothers recounted, in themselves, demanded a different kind of engagement as a researcher than I had felt in other research with White participants; so much of what they recounted was deeply moving and necessitated that it was reported with appropriate care and sensitivity. In accepting this White stranger into their lives, the participants engaged in a dichotomy between trust and risk. This required consideration of the potential consequences for the research participants and the nature of the responsibility placed upon the researcher. The process of negotiating access with Black parents forced me as the White researcher to confront the issues of trust and the usefulness of the research for those being researched and to address the question, which had on a number of occasions been put to me: ‘what’s in it for us?’ As Giddens (1991) suggests, in all social relations, there is a degree of trust involved even in the act of walking along the street. Through our social organisation and the development of our ‘civilisation’, we have found ways of trusting at this level what Goffman (1963) describes as ‘civil inattention’. Giddens (1991) argues that “civil inattention is a fundamental aspect of trust relations in large scale anonymous settings of modernity”. “It is”, he goes on, “the reassuring ‘noise’ in the backdrop of the formation and dissolution of encounters which involve their own specific trust mechanisms that is, face-work commitments” (p. 80). However, for Black people or indeed women that have been physically or verbally threatened when innocuously walking along the street or through face-to-face encounters, in a White-dominated, patriarchal society, then civil inattention may not exist as securely as is implied here. Giddens acknowledges that encounters with strangers or acquaintances involve “the balance of trust, tact and power” and “Differential power, particularly where it is very marked, can breach or skew norms of tact and
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politeness rituals…” (p. 82). Racism in White society (and therefore ensuing differential power) has contributed to the undermining of trust between White and Black people. It is therefore just as likely that Black people are sceptical about these abstract systems and the Education system in particular, especially where there is substantial evidence of them having failed Black people. If the researcher is seen as a representative of an abstract system such as the university, the research community or the Education system, then the reluctance to trust will be all that greater (see, e.g. Edwards 1990). Although the trust or lack of it lies with the abstract system itself, it is the individual representative (or perceived representative) who has to win that trust. It is through direct human contact that the research participant can assess the integrity of the researcher (Giddens 1991). In making this assessment, the individual is weighing up the need for trust against the risk involved in placing it. In other words, ‘what’s in it for us?’ However, even if the participants are convinced that there is something in it for them, they still have to be convinced that the researcher can/will deliver and can/will deliver something that is acceptable to them. In his discussion of trust, Giddens draws on Goffman’s (1963) analogy of ‘front and backstage’ in terms of what the ‘experts’ choose to reveal or conceal, the argument being that to reveal all, such as mistakes or lack of knowledge, would undermine confidence. My argument here is the reverse that as a researcher in the context I describe, I had to be more open and prepared to reveal more. There are, I suggest, three main reasons for this: firstly, I am not, as such, representing the abstract system and do not want to be seen as a part of that and secondly, in order to distance myself from the abstract system, I can prove my credibility by providing ‘insider accounts’/information. But thirdly, perhaps the most important reason is about being willing to share my experiences and identify with the respondents as much as possible in order to diminish the barriers and equalise the relationship: to identify the ‘structure of feeling’ referred to earlier or to promote some sense of solidarity between the research and the respondents (Edwards 1993). Before I discuss this further, I want to say something briefly about risk. In giving one’s trust, a certain risk is involved. Within the context of the neoliberal Education system under which parents are monitored and
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judged, they (especially BAME and working-class parents) are frequently at risk of being accused of failing in their responsibilities or exposing themselves to criticism, not least because they are not privy to the requisite knowledge or confidence that would enable their active participation (e.g. Crozier and Davies 2007). Risk of course is pervasive in the modern world, and people have to some extent adapted and accepted this. There are certain risks according to Giddens that embody an inevitability—that cannot be controlled by the individual or, even in some cases, large organisations. Where this is the case, individuals may resign themselves to a ‘pragmatic acceptance’ or even ‘pragmatic participation’ in the hope that they may be able to exert some measure of control and influence (Giddens 1991, p. 135). Such a stance might be described as: “…an optimistic outlook, but one bound up with contestatory action rather than a faith in rational analysis and discussion” (Giddens 1991, p. 137). In this sense also, the research participants may see the possibility of some benefit for themselves. For example, one of the organisations through which I accessed names and addresses of some of the Black parents wanted to use the research report to facilitate their campaign for Black parents’ and children’s educational needs and for me to speak at a forthcoming campaign event. Also, although there was scepticism among some Black parents about the transformatory possibilities of the research, others thought that the research could be useful to improve the situation in schools for Black children. In a similar way, Fine et al. (2000) noted that their respondents, who were on welfare and significantly disempowered, indicated that the researchers (Fine and her colleagues) were in a position to take their stories and concerns to policymakers in a way that the research participants could not do themselves because they would be unlikely to get access and may not be listened to.
The Role of the Researcher In order to win trust, it is necessary to prove oneself, hence the need for openness referred to above. In personal experience research, remaining on the sidelines, silent and disinterested, implies an aloofness, and in the researcher-researched/White-Black relationship, this reinforces the
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hierarchical relationship. Fine (1994) argues that where social science methodology has insisted on ‘objectivity’, it has acted as a tool of domination. She goes on to say that where researchers stand aloof from the research context, as though we have nothing to do with it, then we are responsible for contributing to ‘Othering’. By not disclosing who or what you are, you are hiding your vulnerability: you are hiding behind a mask. You are hiding your weakness and therefore appear to be strong, and you are hiding your values and, arrogantly, expect trust literally on face value or else on the basis of your White, middle-class professionalism—your White superiority. Moreover, if the respondent asks questions either about your own experience or a question to elicit information, the failure to answer could be seen to be exploitative in the sense that the relationship would be based on taking without giving anything meaningful in return (see Oakley 1981). When it seemed relevant, I did talk about my own experiences as a parent, and I shared my views at times on some of their experiences, empathizing with them but not being judgemental. Although I initiated the questions, I asked very few and mainly in response to what the mothers said to me, just as one might in a conversation. At the end of one group interview, having recognised one of the women whom I had known years ago, I felt I had to ‘disclose’ myself and asked her if she remembered me which she did, although until this point she said she had been doubtful. She then asked me about my son who is mixed ‘race’ and how he had got on at school and so on. In the course of that discussion, it was rather like me being interviewed, and the women took the opportunity to find out more about me. My son’s father was a well-known and respected person in the community which appeared to add to my trustworthiness. Reflecting this, just as I was about to leave, one of the other women said, “We feel more secure now knowing that our words will be safe”. As Mac an Ghaill (1993) remarked (drawing on Whyte 1943), personal relationships in eliciting data counted much more than explanations. This historical connection, together with links that I had had with other Black people in the local community, served to give me some credibility. But in most cases, such relationships at the outset take a long time to build up. Disclosing yourself and answering questions are not entirely without its problems and dilemmas. I did find in interviews with the Black
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mothers that at times when I started to share my experiences, I sensed that these were not wanted. This was ‘her story’, ‘her space’, ‘her voice’. Sharing stories and experiences is an aspect of a developing relationship; only friends ‘share’ stories: I had not gained that status and nor could I in such a short encounter. My desire to ‘share’ was premature. Clandinin and Connelly (1994) caution about the researcher-researched relationship, since if the researcher becomes a character in the story being told, then the story will change. Moreover, the reasons for doing the research have to be kept in mind at all stages. This has implications for the data analysis and also for the different potential roles that the researcher can play. In her early research on motherhood, Anne Oakley (1981) talks about her role as an interviewer and how and why she rejected the traditional interviewing practices. In her account she refers to the way the women frequently asked her questions either about her own experiences or about medical matters concerning childbirth, the welfare of their children and aspects of motherhood. In deciding to answer these questions as best she could and/or refer them to the appropriate authority (e.g. doctor, midwife, health visitor), one can see that Oakley occupied different roles: researcher, confidante, health advisor or friend. Balancing these different roles can be difficult and potentially could conflict. In this research, I was not directly asked questions about my views or for information. However, there were times when I felt compelled to make some response rather than remain silent since, as already discussed, it was important to demonstrate empathy and thereby avoid the voyeuristic aspect of research. For example, respondents often ended their statement with ‘do you know what I mean?’ or ‘do you see?’ or ‘do you understand?’ which required a response. And when the mothers recounted distressing stories about their children, it was neither appropriate nor desirable to remain silent. Even though my response was brief, it did indicate sympathy, as shown in this example: Aisha talking about an experience her son had had at school: …he [Kofi] got into trouble once … there was a bike that was stolen and I think he was aware that it was stolen and the boy, it was a White boy that stole it, but the boy asked him to put it in here [Kofi’s house] because I’m
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not here when he comes home. I come home half five, quarter to six, and he comes home before me. So he had it in the back yard but the school [video] taped it and taped him riding it off…. And then … the school kept all this information back and then the police went in to arrest him, in the school, with, with what they have like erm, what do you call it [miming something]? GC: Oh, sort of flak jacket? A: Yes like, they were kind of like armed, kind of thing, you know what I mean? And and like they … GC: … bullet proof vests? A: Yes they had bullet proof vests, when they went in and they called him and Nicholas [another Black boy] and him and Nicholas were saying, ‘But the funny thing is, we were standing there and the boy who actually stole the bike was there and the teacher said, “you two come out’” and as soon as they went out, these police jumped on them and had them in handcuffs in the corridor. Couldn’t believe it. I could not believe it. I’m at work… GC: No, I can’t believe it either. A: …I was at work and they brought him here [home], which they’re not allowed to do and searched the premises with him … GC: Oh no. A: Yes. And then my neighbour phoned me at work and told me what actually is going on, [the neighbour says:]’The police is in there with [Kofi]’. But just then they arrived [at my place of work], she [the neighbour] said she’d seen them leaving with him, but they arrived outside my work with handcuffs, in this police car, and I was… GC: Oh that’s terrible… A: It was…
Empathizing was important in the winning of trust, as part of negotiating access and staying in, so long as I did not intrude on their stories. Empathizing in this way, however, was not contrived. I was genuinely shocked at what had happened to her son and her. Once having agreed to be interviewed and accepted me as ‘the researcher’, the mothers did not really want anything from me, except to fulfil my side of the bargain: to listen and then use my relative power and influence in relation to the data to try to make a difference for their children. This, more than being ‘nice and friendly’, is the challenge in personal experience research.
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Researching personal experiences is wholly intrusive. Going into people’s houses, asking them to talk about their children, themselves as parents, their own educational experiences, often encouraging them to lay bare some painful experiences, makes it particularly difficult to remain aloof, notwithstanding the undesirability of doing so, as already argued. Such familiarity, whilst suggesting trust and openness and giving rise to rich and full accounts, also embodied constraints. At times I felt I could not ask some of the questions I wanted to. There were very personal details that I would have liked to have asked such as about their income or the child’s father (where the mother was bringing up the child alone), but I did not feel I could. To do so seemed even more intrusive, and having lessened my hold over the agenda would have put me back in control of it. To have done so would have shifted the relationship back into a (more) hierarchical one, having tried to dismantle or at least diminish this. And to have done so could so easily have cast me in the role of surveillant, associated with abstract or not so abstract systems such as police officer, social worker or welfare benefits snooper. Being in the field may be said to be a testing time since one has to maintain access. The issue of trust however extends much further including to the data analysis and report writing stages. The research referred to in this article is predicated upon the need and desire for educational change and transformation. It is also predicated on the desire to act as a conduit for the views of the Black parents in the study and to try to be as faithful as possible to their accounts. Some narrative researchers would argue therefore that the data analysis should entail a representation of those accounts—to let the research speak for itself. That is not the position I took. It is to this that I now turn.
Research Voices I had been entrusted with the parents’ stories, which now had to be used to good effect. I had been bestowed with the responsibility to respect and look after their accounts. It was a responsibility to achieve something useful out of the research. I am not deluding myself about the potential impact that I or other White researchers make or could make. Such effects
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are usually small, more likely to be localised rather than national policy based and often difficult to measure. I am also conscious of the importance of avoiding the White saviour (Dabiri 2021) syndrome, whereby the White researcher is coming to the rescue with all of the answers and strategies to defeat racism. Where the White researcher is the dominant researcher, White supremacist dangers and ‘reinscribing Whiteness’ are potentially possible. Engaging in analyses of others’ accounts, for example, is part of the process of having control of the agenda, and it is a relatively powerful position to be in. The researcher is in a position of power to decide whose voices are heard and when and which aspects of those voices should be heard (Clandinin and Connelly 1994). Indeed speaking for the ‘Other’ is the very criticism that has been engaged with here. However, research that purports to contribute to change needs to be proactive, and research accounts of individuals’ stories cannot stand alone if action and change are to be achieved. Clandinin and Connelly suggest that ‘personal experience research’ can be likened to a public enquiry. They argue that: “Field texts will not adequately influence the discourse or the practices beyond the immediate research field” (p. 424). Part of the process of data analysis therefore is making decisions about whose voice/s should be heard. In order to ensure the equity of these decisions, this could be through some form of participatory research involving the participants in the research process (e.g. Hall and Tandon 2017) and/or at least respondent validation. The research with Black mothers attempted some form of respondent validation sending the mothers their transcripts and some analyses of the data. The research with South Asian families (Crozier 2004) developed a more extensive approach including sharing analyses with groups of parents and enabling their responses (Crozier 2005b). Recognising the White saviour syndrome whilst navigating understanding of the impact of racism and Whiteness on one’s own attitudes and beliefs, it is essential to beware of romanticizing the narratives and subjugated voices and retreating from analysis, as Fine (1994) cautions. To do so is little different from the essentialised position that only Black people can speak about ‘race’ and ‘race’ issues, a point which was criticised above. The operationalisation and manifestation of racism do not have such boundaries—we are all implicated in some way and in turn
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have a part to play in challenging and resisting its oppressiveness. Joyce Ladner (1987) has been critical of research which takes on a passive and dispassionate stance, and she has questioned how anyone can stand silently by in the face of the damaging effects of poverty, racism, sexism and other ‘destructive conditions’ (p. 79).
Conclusion How then can the White researcher represent their analysis without distorting the voice of the researched? How can Othering be avoided here? How can it be ensured that the hierarchical White-Black relationship does not re-emerge and impact the participants and the research overall? There are no simple answers to these complex and competing concerns. Participatory research in anti-racist and social justice research and personal experience research would seem to be necessary in order to achieve a more equitable balance over control but also to aid the development of effective impact. The extent of involvement is an area of negotiation of what might be possible in the specific circumstances. The use of respondent validation with its own difficulties of data manipulation, bias (see, e.g. Bloor 1978) and time-consuming constraints on the participants as well as the researcher is one strategy which has been implemented, although its effectiveness is seemingly limited but also difficult to measure. In personal experience research especially that which is concerned with issues of participatory methodology, the need to share data ownership with the research participants and provide the opportunity for them to have some control over the ‘use of their voices’ would seem essential. An important aspect of this would seem to be an engagement with the research participants in a discussion of their views and drawing out different perspectives. In the GaP project (Burke et al. 2017), we made some tentative attempts to do this in group discussions using some of the data we collected. However, where the researchers’ views might conflict with those of the respondents within the research process, it is unlikely that these views would or should be shared. One theme, for example, that emerged in the research with the Black mothers was a strong desire amongst many of them to take their children out of the state sector and
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either to send them to private schools or, for some, to send them to ‘Black run’ schools (if they existed). In some cases where the parents could afford it, they had sent their children to private schools. From my own perspective, this is a very controversial position, but it would have been inappropriate for me to voice my views in that context. Similarly in the research process and analysis, I chose to make no comment on the mothers’ views on these particular points, not least because these views had no relevance for the analysis. Whilst many of these issues face all personal experience researchers, the central issue here is the dominance of Whiteness and the role of the White researcher. The field of ‘race’ and anti/racism and the role of the White researcher within it are replete with challenges. These can only be dealt with through continuous reflection, debate and reflexive practice, through engagement with BAME fellow researchers and also research participants. Safeguards to ensure training and preparation and working collectively with BAME researchers as well as White researchers are essential in order to try to ensure robust and rigorous anti-racist practice and analyses.
References Bloor, M. (1978) On the Analysis of Observational Data: A Discussion of the Worth and Uses of Induction Techniques and Respondent Validation. Sociology, 12(3), 545–552. Brah, A. (1992) ‘Difference, Diversity and Differentiation’, in J. Donald and A. Rattansi (eds) ‘Race’, Culture and Difference, 126–145. London: Sage in Association with the Open University. Burke, P. J., Crozier, G. and Misiaszek, L. I. (2017) Changing Pedagogical Spaces in Higher Education: Inequality, Diversity and Misrecognition, SRHE Book Series. London and New York: Routledge. Carby, H. (1982) ‘White Woman Listen! Black Feminism and the Boundaries of Sisterhood’, in Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies. The Empire Strikes Back: Race and Racism in 70s Britain, 212–235. London: Hutchinson/CCCS.
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Clandinin, D. J. and Connelly, S. M. (1994) Personal Experience Methods. In N. K. Denzin and Y. S. Lincoln (eds) Handbook of Qualitative Research, 413–427. London: Sage. Crozier, G. (2001) ‘Excluded Parents: The Deracialization of Parental Involvement’, Race, Ethnicity and Education, 4(4), 329–341. Crozier, G. (2003) Researching Black Parents: Making Sense of the Role of Research and the Researcher. Qualitative Research, 3(1), 79–94. Crozier, G. (2004) Parents, Children and Schools: Asian Families’ Perspectives ESRC End of Award Report (R000239671). Crozier, G. (2005a) ‘Beyond the Call of Duty’: The Impact of Racism on Black Parents’ Involvement in Their Children’s Education. In Crozier, G. and Reay, D. (eds) Activating Participation: Parents and Teachers Working Towards Partnership, 39–55, Stoke-on-Trent and USA, VA: Stylus Publishing: Trentham Books. Crozier, G. (2005b) Is Ethnography Just Another Form of Surveillance? In G. Troman, B. Jeffrey, G. Walford (Eds.) Methodological Issues and Practices in Ethnography, 95–109, Netherlands, USA, UK: Elsevier. Crozier, G. (2019) Interrogating Parent-School Practices in a Market-Based System. The Professionalisation of Parenting and Intensified Parental Involvement: Is This What Schools Want? In T. Turner-Vorbeck and S. B. Sheldon (Eds.) Wiley Handbook of Family, School Community Partnerships in Education. 315–332, Hoboken, NJ: Wiley & Sons. Crozier, G. and Davies, J. (2007) Hard to Reach Parents or Hard to Reach Schools? A Discussion of Home-School Relations, with Particular Reference to Bangladeshi and Pakistani Parents, British Educational Research Journal, 33(3), 295–313. Dabiri, E. (2021) What White People Can Do Next. From Allyship to Coalition. UK: Penguin Random House. Edwards, R. (1990) ‘Connecting Method and Epistemology. A White Woman Interviewing Black Women’, Women’s Studies International Forum 13(5), 477–490. Edwards, R. (1993) ‘An Education in Interviewing: Placing the Researcher and the Research’, in C. Renzetti and R. Lee (eds) Researching Sensitive Topics, pp. 181–196. London: Sage. Finch, J. (1984) “It’s Great to Have Someone to Talk To”: The Ethics and Politics of Interviewing Women. In C. Bell and H. Roberts (eds) Social Researching, 70–87. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
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Fine, M. (1994) Working the Hyphens: Reinventing Self and Other in Qualitative Research. In N. K. Denzin and Y. S. Lincoln (eds) Handbook of Qualitative Research, 70–82. London: Sage. Fine, M., Weis, L., Weseen, S. and Wong, L. (2000) For Whom? Qualitative Research, Representations and Social Responsibilities. In N. K. Denzin and Y. S. Lincoln (eds) Handbook of Qualitative Research, 107–131. London: Sage. Giddens, A. (1991) The Consequences of Modernity. Cambridge: Polity Press. Goffman, E. (1963) Behaviour in Public Places. New York: Free Press. Hall, B. L. and Tandon, R. (2017) Decolonization of Knowledge, Epistemicide, Participatory Research and Higher Education. Research for All, 1(1), 6–19. hooks, b. (1990) Yearning: Race, Gender, and Cultural Politics. Boston, MA: South End. Ladner, J. (1987) Introduction to Tomorrow’s Tomorrow. The Black Woman. In S. Harding (ed.) Feminism and Methodology, 74–83, Bloomington, IN: Indiana. Lareau, A. and Horvat, E. (1999) Moments of Social Inclusion and Exclusion Race, Class, and Cultural Capital in Family-School Relationships. Sociology of Education, 72(1) 37–53, https://doi.org/10.2307/2673185. Lawrence, E. (1982) In the Abundance of Water the Fool Is Thirsty: Sociology and Black ‘Pathology’. In Centre for Contemporary and Cultural Studies (CCCS), The Empire Strikes Back. 95–142 London, New South Wales and Auckland: Hutchinson & Co. (Publishers) Ltd. Mac an Ghaill, M. (1993) ‘Beyond the White Norm: The Use of Qualitative Methods in the Study of Black Youths’ Schooling in England’, in P. Woods and M. Hammersley (eds) Gender & Ethnicity, 145–165. London: Routledge in association with the Open University. Mirza, M. (1998) “Same Voices, Same Lives?”: Revisiting Black Feminist Standpoint Epistemology. In P. Connolly and B. Troyna (Eds.) Researching Racism in Education, 79–94, Buckingham and Bristol: Open University Press. Moreton-Robinson, A. (2000) Talkin’ Up to the White Woman, 186, St. Lucia: University of Queensland Press. Oakley, A. (1981) Interviewing Women: A Contradiction in Terms. In H. Roberts (ed.) Doing Feminist Research, 30–61, London: Routledge. Probyn, F. (2004) Playing Chicken at the Intersection: The White Critic of Whiteness. Borderlands e journal, 3(2), 1–26. Reay, D., Crozier, G. and James, D. (2013) White Middle-Class Identities and Urban Schooling, Second edition. London and New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
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4 ‘Race’, Policies and Politics: Managing Diversity
Introduction In the development of the analysis and discussion of the nature of racism, its impact on Education and the educational experiences of children and young people, I begin by looking at ‘race’-related policy initiatives in Britain from circa 1950/1960 to the present day (2021) and their purposes within the political context of the period, together with community responses and reactions. This is not a detailed or inclusive historical account of policy developments and initiatives, but rather I examine a selection of key policies to identify the ways they have or have not addressed racism and show that despite the multiplicity of policies on ‘race’ and related issues, there was limited effect on improving racial inequalities in Education or tackling endemic racism. Central to this analysis is the concept of White supremacy (explained in Chaps. 1 and 2) which I argue underpins and infuses societal actions, processes and perspectives, the dominant ideology, although until relatively recently has barely been recognised (in Britain or Europe) as implicit in racial oppression and has not been taken into account by government or policymakers. There is still resistance to recognising Whiteness as a key issue by © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023, corrected publication 2023 G. Crozier, Racism and Education in Britain, Palgrave Studies in Race, Inequality and Social Justice in Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-18931-9_4
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government and policymakers. Government policy and its implementation are not uniform nor linear, and the socio-economic and political contexts at both micro and macro levels impact and influence these developments. As I have said previously, racisms and ‘race’ are not themselves unitary fixed principles (Solomos et al. 1982) but are fluid and are constructed/reconstructed and reproduced throughout changing historical periods along with shifts in socio-political and economic contexts. In this chapter I discuss a range of social and political events and their impact alongside the development of political responses and policies. These I argue are underpinned by a desire and intent to control and manage the ethnic diversity of Britain and society’s organisations including Education. The management priorities took different forms across the decades. Broadly, in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, the focus was on managing migration and the new migrant population. The 1980s saw resistance to racism and mounting community reactions to discrimination. Government response tended to be preoccupied with these events. In the 1990s with the development of the neoliberal framework and school performativity, there was a growing awareness of the BAME academic achievement gap, and various initiatives depending on the ideology of the government of the day were introduced to address low academic results and ‘poor school performance’. In the 2000s the murder of Stephen Lawrence and the failure of the police to investigate this racist murder led to the Macpherson Enquiry (1999) and subsequently to the Race Relations Amendment Act (2000). Following the invasion of Afghanistan, the invasion of Iraq by Western countries and subsequent terrorist attacks and civil unrest in the 2000s, the government introduced a range of policies to address ‘community cohesion’ as it was referred to, and anti- terrorism measures including the Prevent Strategy were introduced, requiring surveillance of children and young people in schools and universities. This impacted on Education and teaching professionals, as well as the children themselves. Throughout these decades various immigration policies continued to be introduced, as well as measures to address education quality and outcomes. These policies and political developments form the framework for this chapter (see Tomlinson 2008 and 2019 for full details of these policies).
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These events, as I have already said, take place within a globalised world in which countries are highly interrelated. Neither White supremacy nor racism is simply a British problem. In order to develop recognition of this and to broaden our understanding of the way racism operates, I make occasional reference to policy and practices in other European countries, when appropriate. The intention is to demonstrate the international dimensions and the interrelatedness of the global reach of racism and its colonial and neocolonial history together with its influence and implications. Referencing other European countries, especially Western European countries which also have colonial pasts, helps to illuminate the ways Whiteness—supremacy and privilege—and racism function and impact and, in turn, further our understanding of the failure to challenge racism in Education. Although these references are brief, this dimension also aims to indicate the operationalisation of hegemonic White supremacy as a theme across these different contexts. Whilst there are different approaches and motivations to managing diversity, there are also similarities. Therefore, to summarise, phenomena, policy initiatives and economic and political developments in relation to ‘race’ and racism (which in many respects are shared across other European countries) include BAME educational achievement ‘gaps’ or school failure of BAME children, migration/immigration controls, the rise of the ultra-right and populism, economic upheavals (the financial collapse of 2008 which Britain and Europe have still not fully recovered from (The Office of National Statistics (ONS) 30 April 2018), poverty impacts, the threat of terrorism and Brexit. This is the context for the discussion of and implications for Education policy and practice on ‘race’ in twenty-first-century Britain. White nationhood and White nationalism, identity issues and the implications of wider attitudes and practices in society, such as the rise of Islamophobia, are analysed in relation to any impact or influence on Education. Fragmentation and polarisations of White and BAME oppressed, classed groups and issues of divide and rule and the post-race discourse are also discussed. Firstly, there is a need to consider the politics and policies on ‘race’ and education and their influences historically as well as contemporaneously.
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anagement and Control of Racial M and Ethnic Diversity Policies and legislation to address inequalities (not necessarily or always progressive)—mainly with regard to social class—can be identified from the inception of compulsory state-funded education at the end of the nineteenth century, but with regard to ‘race’, these can be identified from the 1950s and then throughout the decades since. Although there has been a multiplicity of policies on ‘race’ for over 60 years, with some notable exceptions discussed below, they represent mainly amendments rather than significant changes, and they include limited references to Education specifically. Policies have been adapted according to the socio-political context of the time and as a result of pressures from social movements and campaigns particularly from the 1980s onwards, as well as from changes in government and slight shifts in ideological position. Although Britain has been a multi-ethnic country since at least 1948 and the arrival of West Indian people on HMS Windrush, there is a theme throughout this account of policies and initiatives of marginalisation and Othering. As Gilroy (1992) has argued, ‘race’ and racism are pushed to the margins of British politics and at times, as will be discussed, have become all but invisible. He goes on “…just as racism itself views black settlers as an external, alien visitation, anti-racism can itself appear to be tangential to the main business of the political system as a whole” (p. 51). Racism, by contrast, is in fact a fundamental element of the nature and basis of British society; it has fashioned Britain’s history and continues to impact modern-day society. The desire to see ‘race’ and racism as “fringe questions” (ibid.) permits indifference which is only disturbed through, for example, extreme protests and/or civil unrest, as discussed below. Except perhaps for the Race Relations Amendment Act 2000 (www. legislation.gov.uk), the policies have not been and are not concerned with challenging racism or rooting out racism nor are they particularly concerned with education and the failure of the Education system to address the discrimination faced by BAME children. Rather the general purpose has been to manage diversity (Kundnani 2007; Shain 2013) and to exert control of those characterised as ‘immigrants’ or BAME—different from
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the White norm, and also depending on the historical juncture, to address overt expressions of racial harassment, abuse and discrimination to maintain social order. One example of control is illustrated in the reinforcing of differentiation based on a hierarchy of status and colour. In 1948 coinciding with the arrival of HMS Windrush and 492 skilled workers from Jamaica (who had in fact been invited by the British Government to help rebuild Britain after World War II), the British Nationality Act was introduced in which a distinction was made between citizens of independent Commonwealth countries (mainly White) and those in colonies and dependent territories (of which Jamaica was still one) (Tomlinson 2008). Throughout the 1960s other legislation was concerned with immigration controls, a process and preoccupation which has continued to the present day. The dominant strategy in Education at this time was of assimilation whereby ‘immigrant’ children and their families were expected to renounce their own cultural ways of being and assimilate into the dominant White society and policies for the teaching of English as a second language were introduced. Also at this time, in response to protests from White parents, the Department for Education and Science (DES) in 1965 recommended that schools should not have more than 30 per cent “immigrant children”. Consequently, some Local Education Authorities (LEA) introduced bussing policies whereby children of immigrant families were dispersed between schools (DES 1965 circular 7/65). The discourse throughout this period (as well as subsequent periods) helped to construct BAME children as difficult, burdensome and inadequate. By 1970 Bernard Coard published his report on ‘How the West Indian Child is Made Educationally Subnormal’ in which he documents the number of West Indian children incorrectly placed in schools (known as schools for the ‘educationally sub-normal’) for children with special educational needs. As Tomlinson recounts “Racial beliefs deriving from 19th century imperial expansion and social Darwinism helped create a popular consciousness in all social classes that the White British had economic, moral and intellectual superiority over arrivals from colonial countries” (Tomlinson 2008, p. 23). This was a dominant belief which has infused subsequent Education policies and practice.
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Throughout the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, debates between assimilation, integration and multiculturalism dominated the ‘race’ and education discourse across Britain. Many sociologists argued that there was no difference between assimilation and integration (e.g. Troyna 1993; Mullard 1982) though in terms of integration, there was a shift in emphasis by the government as indicated by the Labour Home Secretary Roy Jenkins in 1966, in which he advocated an understanding of ‘cultural diversity’ and ‘tolerance’ giving recognition to ‘immigrant’ people’s languages and customs (Mullard 1982). The discourse of integration and multiculturalism throughout the 1970s and 1980s, just as the assimilation discourse had been, involved the requirement for BAME people to ‘fit in’ although fitting in to what was hardly defined. Rose et al. (1969) (cited in Tomlinson 2008) defined both of these concepts as an expectation of performing “their obligations to society as equal citizens” and at the same time “to remain members of their own communities and preserving their own language within the home” (p. 24). The limited government commitment to preserving first languages, recommended by the Swann Report (Department for Education and Science 1985), waned, and resources given to ‘home languages’ teaching were short lived. Cultural pluralism then developed through the 1970s; this was an extension of the integration ideology which many argued was in itself mainly a form of assimilation. According to Mullard (1982), “cultural pluralism is a more refined version of both [assimilation and integration model]” (p. 128). Policy developments around cultural pluralism led to the development of multicultural education. This took on various forms, was frequently misunderstood or was not understood at all. Initiatives included sending groups of teachers, funded by the Department for Education and Science (as it was then called), to India or the Caribbean to ‘learn about these other cultures’, and the now notorious sari, samosa and steel band approach (Troyna and Williams 1986) became commonplace, perceived as an easier set of curriculum activities, than tackling the potentially conflictual issue of racism. These approaches were based on a deficit model of BAME children and an erroneous belief that BAME children were suffering from poor self-concept as a result of their ‘cultural’ ignorance. The cultural deficit model with regard to White working- class, as well as Black children, was a dominant educational theory in the
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1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Black children (but also White working-class children) and their families then as now were blamed for their own educational failure in that, it was argued, they lived in inadequate environments both culturally and linguistically, rather than identifying issues of poverty and lack of resources and locating the responsibility with society and the Education system underpinned by racist structures, attitudes and practices (Stone 1981). Returning to multicultural education, based on this notion of educating BAME children about their ‘own’ culture, was not workable. Not only was the idea patronising; the majority White teaching force could never have had sufficient knowledge about any of the children’s cultures. As Sivanandan (1983) said, such attitudes are “based no longer on feelings of superiority about their own culture but on their superior knowledge of mine”. Moreover, as Sivanandan (1983) went on to say: Just to learn about other people’s cultures is not to learn about the racism of one’s own. To learn about the racism of one’s own, … is to approach other cultures objectively.
Secondly the cultures embodied in the pupil population were and are diverse and fluid rather than homogenous and monolithic which this approach suggests. But even where there was an attempt to adopt a multicultural approach as part of recognising ethnic diversity in society and reproducing diverse representation in educational resources, for example, teachers were reported as being resistant to implementing a multicultural approach. Some argued that they could not address ‘all cultures’ in the school (Crozier 1992), reflecting their lack of understanding, and others remained hostile to changing the traditional White-dominated curriculum. Where they did attempt to do so, it often resulted in tokenism or even unintentionally reinforcing negative stereotypes (Crozier 1994). A potentially more radical stance that developed was anti-racism, but attempts to address racial inequalities and discrimination were either co- opted or undermined. In 1989, for example, following the 1988 Education Reform Act during which time there was a flurry of curriculum development, the Secretary of State for Education requested that the National Curriculum Council (NCC) take account of ‘ethnic and
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cultural diversity and the importance of promoting equal opportunity for all children regardless of ethnicity and gender’ (Tomlinson 1993, p. 21). A Task Group was set up with the remit to produce a report that would provide non-statutory guidance for schools on multicultural education. The report was produced in 1990 but was rejected by the NCC with little explanation, and the Task Group was disbanded the following year (Tomlinson 1993). Anti-racism was itself not without critics. Mac an Ghaill (2010) pointed out that it contributed to a Black-White dualism, ignoring the impact of social class and the complexities of racism. Others such as Gilroy (1987) argued that it was a diversion, and in spite of focusing on structural racism, anti-racist strategies deflected from addressing structural oppression. Anti-racist approaches not unlike multicultural education practices tended to remain at the superficial level comprising in effect tokenistic symbols. As Gilroy (1987) suggested, whilst ILEA (Inner London Education Authority), for example, was in the forefront of anti- racist displays, very little changed for Black people in terms of discrimination and unequal treatment. In my PhD school focused research (Crozier 1992), I also found in a school that expressed a commitment to anti-racism that whilst the adornments on the walls throughout the school and in the staffroom looked impressive with anti-racist posters lauding Nelson Mandela and anti-racist statements and principles, in the school there still existed disproportionate exclusions of boys of Black Caribbean heritage compared to the other children. Also there was a significant gap between Black Caribbean children’s academic achievement and the rest of the school comprising Asian heritage and White children (Crozier 1992). Whilst the school prided itself on being ‘anti-racist’, there was a lack of recognition of this inequality and apparent discrimination. When the deputy head teacher was asked about this, she could see no issue of discrimination and saw no differences amongst the student body who comprised one third Black African/Caribbean, one third South Asian and one third White most of whom were working-class and many of whom were of Irish heritage. By definition all arguably located in discriminated against groups. The school and teachers believed as they said “we are anti-racists here”, and since the majority of the children were Black and Asian (BAME in today’s parlance), they felt secure in the view
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that there were no disproportionate exclusions or inequalities. BAME children are thus perceived by the White majority as a homogenous whole. It is a version of “we treat them all the same”, ignoring that all groups of people are not the same in any terms, and in relation to education, children have different needs which require different approaches. Perhaps more importantly it shows a lack of understanding that racism operates in different and differential ways. Further, although it may be a lack of understanding, it is one that is based on a failure to engage with the issues of ‘race’ and racism and Whiteness and is thus another example of marginalisation and avoidance.
Acts of Resistance Throughout the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, Black parents, students, Black Community groups, local Labour Party branches and socialist organisations protested against racism and fascism and began to protest against the failure to address education inequalities and discrimination (Southwark Heritage Blog. Southwark Disablement Association. 30 November 2020 Archive Officer, Chris Searle. Accessed 9 May 2022 www.southwarkheritage.wordpress.com). In the 1980s, street fighting erupted in various cities; this came at the start of the austerity of the Thatcher government within a context of police racism and brutality and the ongoing presence of fascist organisations such as the National Front which were prevalent at that time. In 1980, street fighting erupted in Bristol against police racism, and a report by the Bristol Teachers Association (BTA), the Bristol branch of the National Union of Teachers (Bristol Teachers Association 1980), showed inadequate educational provision in the St Pauls area of Bristol where the protests took place, as well as in national provision. In 1981 the protests in Brixton, Southall, Liverpool and elsewhere (Tomlinson 2008) helped to raise the debate about racism and point the way to anti-racist strategies. A growing awareness and recognition of the failure of the Education system developed, and efforts to initiate equal opportunities and anti-racist initiatives began to emerge amongst teachers, educationists and policymakers (see, e.g. Troyna and Williams 1986). Organisations such as the All London
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Teachers Against Racism and Fascism (ALTARF), the Campaign Against Racism and Fascism (CARF), the revamping of the Institute for Race Relations (IRR) in 1982 under the directorship of A. Sivanandan, the Centre for Contemporary Studies (CCCS) University of Birmingham, the setting up of Black bookshops such as New Beacon Books by John La Rose and Sarah White, the Black Supplementary School Movement, and the National Association of Multiracial Education later to be renamed as the National Anti-Racist Movement in Education—NAME, were responsible for contributing to the further generation of debate and understanding in education through various initiatives, events and the production of resources. In 1981 prompted by the ‘Brixton riots’, the long-proposed commission on ‘West Indian Children in our schools’ chaired by Lord Rampton and known as the Rampton Report was initiated. The terms of reference were narrow, and the focus was limited to ‘the educational needs and attainments of pupils of West Indian origin’ (Department for Education and Science (DES) 1981, p. ii). Rather than concerned with school processes as a cause of racial inequalities, the Committee was more centred on the pathologising discourses of family support and poor social background and so on (Troyna 1993). An interim report was issued which nevertheless did identify racism as one explanation for Black ‘educational underachievement’. This was not well received by the government, and mysteriously Rampton resigned as chair and was replaced by Lord Swann. The Swann Committee maintained the same terms of reference as its predecessor focusing on cultural and social phenomena to explain differential performance between students rather than the institutional role in reproducing racial inequalities, nor was there any consideration of the effects of social class and gender (Troyna 1993). Few of the Committee’s recommendations were implemented, but at the same time there was growing concern about ‘the fragmentation of society along ethnic lines’ (Department for Education and Science (DES) 1985, p. 7) and that action needed to be taken. Whilst there was some recognition of the importance of cultural pluralism, the emphasis was still on assimilation into a unified White-dominated British citizenry. No government effort was made to develop anti-racist education. The only recognition of racism was at an individual level, in that racism was viewed as an individual
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problem that merely required some racism awareness training and cultural knowledge development (Troyna 1993). Also during the 1980s, several Local Education Authorities (LEAs) (as they were then known) (20 according to Tomlinson 2008) when they had power and control over the education provision in their area wrote multicultural education policies and recommendations for action to address multicultural education (Troyna and Williams 1986). In many cases substantial efforts were made to engage teachers, local councillors and parents in drawing up these policies and documents. In some cases such as the ILEA and Brent, they aimed to address anti-racism too. Multicultural education as a concept dominated however. Referring to racism and anti- racism was often seen as threatening and extreme. Multicultural education on the other hand was criticised, as referred to above, for obfuscating the central issue of racist discrimination and oppression, and according to Hatcher (1987) and Troyna and Carrington (1990), multiculturalists tended to conflate racism and prejudice based on an individual form of ‘intolerance’. The introduction of the 1988 Education Reform Act and the beginnings of the neoliberal marketisation of Education put an end to Local Authority control over Education and community involvement in forging Education policies and influencing potentially radical and foresighted ‘race’ and anti-racism strategies. To stem the tide of racist violence and discrimination, various Race Relations Acts were passed, 1965, 1968 and 1976, although of these Education is only mentioned in the 1976 Act as Tomlinson (2008) notes. The significance of these Acts lies in the recognition (albeit limited) of racism as an issue requiring State intervention and the importance of making discrimination based on colour, ‘race’ and religion a crime. The two policies that have played the most significant part in addressing racism, I suggest, are the third Race Relations Act 1976 and the Race Relations Amendment Act 2000.The Race Relations Amendment Act (RRAA) 2000 was probably the most impactful of these Acts. Arising out of the Macpherson Inquiry into the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence (in 1993) and the inadequate response by the police, its subsequent report (Macpherson 1999) identified the existence of institutional racism in the police force and other public bodies and organisations including the Education system and its organisations.
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The RRAA gave legal recognition to the existence of structural racism and required all public organisations and institutions to draw up and implement anti-racist action plans and monitor racial harassment. This requirement in turn stimulated the debate in Education and opened up opportunities for developing anti-racist initiatives and practice and revived the focus on multicultural education. Indirectly there was government support for the professional development of teachers and also the need to address the preparation of student teachers with respect to these issues. The Teacher Training Agency,1 for example, funded a substantial in-service teacher education initiative MULTIVERSE2 (Crozier 2012), and initial teacher education courses as well as similar activities in other public sector spheres were developed. The success of these initiatives is difficult to quantify, and their implementation was patchy throughout Britain (Davies and Crozier 2005; Davies 2021). Nevertheless this and similar initiatives raised the profile of the issues and the need to address racism in Education. Whilst anti-racism was still difficult to promote, such initiatives raised the potential of being able to do this, although once the TTA ceased to exist (in 2005) the money for Multiverse ended and the online resources and activities were no longer readily available.
The Teacher Training Agency (TTA) was established by the Education Act 1994 and later became the Teacher Development Agency. It was a body responsible for funding and ensuring the quality of initial teacher and in-service training of school teachers in England. 2 The Multiverse Professional Resource Network was funded by the Teacher Training Agency and comprised a consortium of eight Initial Teacher Education (ITE) institutions from across England. Its main aims were to raise awareness around and develop understanding of issues of ‘diversity’; to raise the educational achievement of pupils from diverse backgrounds by building a web-based resource bank for teacher educators, student teachers and trainees. The definition of diversity employed encompasses social class, ‘race’, ethnicity, ‘Gypsy’, Traveller and Roma, bilingual and multilingual learners, religious diversity, refugees and asylum seekers. Under the auspices of Multiverse, online resources were developed together with training sessions for teachers and student teachers, which were conducted across England. Various surveys were also carried out and research was commissioned. After the TTA was closed down by Government, the MULTIVERSE web site became inaccessible. However, some resources are available at: http://webarchive.nationalarchives. gov.uk/20101021152907/http:/www.multiverse.ac.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?ContentId=12268. 1
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With regard to Initial Teacher Training/Education (ITT/ITE)3 overall, it should be noted that since the mid-1980s to the present day, successive governments have increasingly exerted some control over Teacher Education programmes. In particular a significant element of government intervention in university teaching was the imposition of the requirement of Teaching Standards (originally termed competences) (2011 and implemented in 2012) on university Initial Teacher Education/ Training programmes and more recently the imposition of the Core Curriculum Framework (Twiselton et al. 2019) which prescribes the teaching content of ITT/ITE programmes. In her detailed analysis of the Teaching Standards policies, from 1984 to 2012, Smith (2013) demonstrates the controlling nature of these policies over a 28-year period and that over the years they became less and less concerned with ‘race’ and challenging racism and racial inequalities. Smith also points to the ever- increasing surveillance mechanisms of teacher training. Failure to comply can result in a poor Ofsted4 inspection report and grading which in turn can lead to a reduction in student numbers and thus funding, all of which can seriously threaten the continuation of programmes. Smith suggests that teacher educators therefore would be disinclined to interrogate the problematic nature of the standards in order to fulfil requirements and thereby would be discouraged from developing anti-racist actions: …far from encouraging critical engagement with the standards, such enforcement is likely to promote surface level engagement with meaning, so that teacher educators can demonstrate evidence of having ‘done what is required’. (p. 430)
ITT (Initial Teacher Training) is also referred to as ITE—Initial Teacher Education. The latter is often the preferred term based on the belief that learning to become a teacher is more than just training. ITT has become the term most commonly used in official documents, and also preparing student teachers has become so reduced in time and academic experience, that it has become much more like skills training. 4 Office for Standards in Education. Ofsted is a government organisation responsible for inspecting and monitoring a range of educational institutions, including initial teacher training programmes. 3
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onstructing Citizenship: Developing C ‘Community Cohesion’ In the early part of the New Millennium (2000–2010), there was civil unrest in Bradford, Oldham and Burnley, all areas with significant numbers of people of South Asian heritage. Once again this reflected frustration over poor educational opportunities and job prospects, as well as relentless experiences of racism more generally (Crozier 2012) and police failure to safeguard the communities (Kundnani 2002). This unrest was not officially attributed to anger about racism and discrimination but rather was attributed to South Asian communities ‘segregating’ themselves. Another Commission was set up to review the potential causes of the ‘riots’ entitled: Report of the Independent Review Team (the ‘Cantle Report’ 2001). It was stated there was a depth of polarisations between communities in towns and cities, exemplified by, for example, educational arrangements, community organisations and voluntary groups, community places of worship, language and social and cultural networks. It said that this meant that “many communities operate on the basis of a series of parallel lives” (p. 9). The findings suggested that the South Asian communities were disaffected but also that they were disengaged and introspective communities arguing that they had failed to integrate with White society. Similar views were expressed by the Chair of the former Commission for Racial Equality, Trevor Phillips, with his pronouncements that Britain was “sleep walking into segregation” (Phillips 2005). The blame for this however was placed on the South Asian communities rather than focusing on structural racism and the obstacles which served to inhibit the South Asian people from engaging more fully with teachers and the schools and accessing educational opportunities generally (Crozier and Davies 2007). Being relegated to poorer housing, underfunded schools which experienced White flight as well as the vulnerability of these communities to explicit racist violence contributed to this. The key recommendation from the Cantle Report was to develop Community Cohesion programmes with the aim to develop a unified citizenship. A further premise for this was also based on the view that disharmony and fear between communities were once again based on
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ignorance. There was little acknowledgement of racism as the central problem. Also during this historical period, the 9–11 attacks in the USA on the World Trade Centre had recently taken place, and we saw the rise and development of urban terrorism in Britain and subsequently other parts of Europe; alongside this was an increase in Islamophobia and the rise of the far right (Crozier 2012). Presumably because of this violence and these claims of segregated communities and lack of civic engagement, by the end of the 2000s, successive British governments and governments in Europe including France and Germany pronounced the failure of multiculturalism (Crozier 2012). As I have argued above, multiculturalism was part of the strategy to manage ‘diversity’ and promote assimilation. This seemingly had failed. According to Kundnani (2002), the Establishment now required a different strategy in order to “manage and preserve a racially divided society” (p. 67). Ruth Kelly, the then Minister for Communities under a Labour Government, set up another commission entitled the Commission on Integration and Cohesion. The underlying aim of this body to reject cultural pluralism and reassert an assimilationist strategy is indicated in her statement: “In our attempt to avoid imposing a single British identity and culture, we have ended up with some communities living in isolation from each other, with no common bonds between them” (Press Statement Department for Communities and Local Government, August 2006, 2). The new strategy included ‘community cohesion’ as proposed by Cantle (2001), and the introduction of citizen education (following the Crick Report 1998) was made compulsory for secondary aged children in England in 2002, although different requirements applied to each of the four nations that comprise the UK. Citizenship education was based on the premise of civil, political and social rights and responsibilities, but as Tomlinson (2008) notes, little attention was made to the recognition of BAME people as integral members of and contributors to British society. Later in the following decade, the requirement for schools to teach Fundamental British Values (Department for Education 2014) discussed below is arguably an extension of citizenship development. In 2002 the Nationality and Immigration Act was passed which required new citizens to take an oath and a test about ‘life in Britain’ and an English language
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test (Tomlinson 2008). Citizenship was seen as a way of creating or recreating commonality, part of the development of the nationhood project said to have been weakened by globalisation, immigration and fragmented communities (Cheung et al. 2007). For similar reasons of alleged segregation of communities and a polarisation of attitudes between ethnic groups (including the dominant White majority), the Dutch Government introduced a similar policy, ‘Education, Integration and Citizenship’, to promote citizenship Education and ‘social integration’ (Stevens et al. 2019b, p. 790). One important feature of being or identifying as British and thus an insider is that of the acquisition and mastery of the English language (Fortier 2018). From the 1960s onwards, the teaching of English as a second language (ESL) (as it was originally termed) in schools has been seen as essential, not just in terms of functionality but more precisely to develop common citizenship and shared values (Fortier 2018; Department for Communities and Local Government 2012). English as a second language teaching was implemented in schools by designated ESL teachers who were employed by the LEA and tended to work as peripatetic teachers based in a multicultural education centre external to the school. Following the civil disturbances in 2001, Fortier (2018) observes that a shared national language was seen as a necessary device for interpersonal, social and cultural values. She further states “English proficiency is not only tied to British values; it has become both a British value and a standard upon which to value foreign citizens and their will and capacity to integrate” (p. 1257). The focus is on relatively newcomers who come from non-English-speaking countries but also on established yet frequently marginalised and low SES communities in northern cities. Language is a strong signifier of identity or an aspect of identity, and changes or influences have been seen as a threat to this (Radford 2021). In Britain there is generally a reluctance to utilise or encourage children’s ‘home’ languages in the study of literacy or other classroom activities (Bailey and Marsden 2017). Some argue that this is because of a lack of language knowledge and confidence dealing with languages other than their own (ibid.), but others have shown that there remains a view that the English language is valued more highly than other languages. As Cunningham (2017) argues, there is an attitude amongst some teachers
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that if you can’t speak English, then you can’t speak at all. As already reported, following a brief period in the 1980s when Urdu and Gujarati together with other ‘home’ languages of BAME children were taught in school, the teaching of these languages in the mainstream school curriculum is almost non-existent now. The emphasis in Britain, or England at least, has been and continues to be on Standard English at the exclusion of adaptations and variations of English based on subcultures and dialects. Ahmed and Cushing (2021) argue that government policies emphasising monolingual practices are racially motivated. As they remind us, Standard English is a tool of domination originally used by colonial governance in, for example, the West Indies, Africa and Ireland. Standard English is part of the system of White supremacy, representing authenticity and legitimacy. The use of a national language as a device to cohere a nation is one that has permeated policies on ‘race’ and ethnicity in other parts of Europe too. France is an example where successive governments have demonstrated their safeguarding of the French language and its dominance despite significant numbers of other languages proliferating in the country (Radford 2021; Rowland 2008). Likewise, according to Gomolla (2021), the teaching of German as a second language to ‘the children of immigrants’ has also been a historic theme and national governments’ major response to addressing the needs of minority groups. As Fortier (2018) argues, implicit in the one-nation one-language discourse, the value of multilingualism is undermined. However, I would add that it is not all types of multilingualism that are undermined or devalued. To be multilingual in European languages is valued, whilst being multilingual in Urdu and Arabic, for example, in the UK context, is not (Wells and Serna 1997). In the Netherlands, as briefly occurred also in Britain, ‘mother tongue’ teaching took place and was funded. Their multilingual efforts lasted until the early 2000s but were regarded as ineffective in terms of integration and addressing inequalities resulting in priority being given to the teaching of Dutch (Stevens et al. 2019b; Driessen 2012). By 2010 the Equality Act was passed which overrode the Race Relations Amendment Act 2000 and undermined previous anti-racist initiatives. The Equality Act reduced the concerns about racism to a vague notion of equal opportunity and discrimination, relocating the need to address
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racism back to the margins. It also placed issues of disability and gender and sexuality within the same group as ‘race’ as though the issues were all the same. Although in this book I argue against polarising debates and a hierarchy of oppression, the Equalities Act was not concerned with that as such. It was ostensibly a pragmatic move to avoid having separate Acts for different equality and discriminatory issues. Aggregating these important issues together is to reduce the focus on each of them and undermine their distinctiveness. Specifically regarding ‘race’ and racism, as I have already argued, it is important that racism is at times focused on in relation to racialised experiences of and discriminatory practices towards BAME people. In the face of the dominance of Whiteness, failure to employ a form of ‘strategic essentialism’ as described by Spivak (1987) risks avoidance of addressing racism in any meaningful way, and we have witnessed and continue to witness a colour-blind policy approach to attempts at achieving ‘equality of opportunities’. As part of this new diluted and I suggest weakened strategy, The Commission for Racial Equality was also disbanded at this time, and the Equalities and Human Rights Commission was set up to “protect equality across 9 grounds— age, disability, sex, race, religion and belief, pregnancy and maternity, marriage and civil partnership, sexual orientation and gender reassignment” (Equality and Human Rights Commission. www.gov.uk accessed 12/05/2022). Throughout these decades of racialised or ethnicised policy initiatives, there remained antagonism towards ‘immigrant’ people. The tightening of immigration rules promoted the message that certain people were not welcome. The right-wing media and current Conservative Government (led by Prime Minister Boris Johnson) continue to maintain anti-immigration as part of their policy agenda. Arguably this is motivated by the need to placate their right-wing supporters and as part of their Brexit agenda since many economic migrants were members of the European Union (EU) and the Conservative Government has taken a particularly firm stance against freedom of movement. However, as I have said, migration is strongly associated in the migration discourse with BAME people. This government’s stance on migration has been vicious with the present Home Secretary (Priti Patel) proposing that asylum seekers and refugees are sent to British administered islands such as Ascension Island and/or
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to be housed in ships moored offshore. Most recently she has proposed that new migrants are sent to Rwanda to be settled or returned to their country of origin from there. Under a previous Conservative Government when Theresa May was Home Secretary, a policy known as ‘The Hostile Environment’ was deliberately created as part of their strategy to reduce immigration and deter interest in coming to Britain. But more than this, the policymakers also sought to expel vulnerable people who had migrated to Britain from the West Indies, as long ago as 1948. This led to the Windrush scandal whereby hundreds of West Indian heritage people had been denied the right of citizenship even though they had lived and worked in the UK since being a child or teenager. Many people lost their jobs; some were denied healthcare and some also lost their homes. Many were deported or were threatened with deportation. In effect these policies promoted and legitimated a view of Black people as lesser, as Other. We have since learned that people had no rights; their homes were raided in the middle of the night, and they were arrested and placed into a detention centre without legal support. Opportunities to protest and challenge were limited or inaccessible to people on low incomes (www. jcwi.org.uk accessed 10/05/2022; Gentleman 2019; Rawlinson et al. 2022). Chillingly this scenario is reminiscent of Omi and Winant’s (2015) argument about enslaved peoples: The expropriation of property, the denial of political rights, the introduction of slavery and other forms of coercive labor, as well as outright extermination, all presupposed a worldview which distinguished [White] Europeans-children of God, hu- man beings, etc.-from “others.” Such a worldview was needed to explain why some should be “free” and others enslaved, why some had rights to land and property while others did not. Race, and the interpretation of racial differences, was a central factor in that worldview…”. (p. 10)
It was only through a media campaign by The Guardian journalist Amelia Gentleman that the injustices were exposed (Gentleman 2019).
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F rom Community Cohesion to Community to Disharmony The Windrush Scandal gives rise to two silently posed questions: Who can be British? Who is entitled to be a British citizen? These debates thus raise again the issue of Britishness. What is Britishness? During 2007–2010 under Prime Minister Gordon Brown, this became a key topic, tied to concerns around ‘community cohesion’ indicated above. With increasing terrorist threats and attacks including the bombings in London in 2005, the attempted attack on Glasgow airport in 2007 and the murder of soldier Lee Rigby in 2013, all carried out by British-born and educated Muslim people, the Prevent Strategy (Department for Communities and Local Government 2007) was introduced to monitor and prevent the potential radicalisation of children and young people in schools and universities. Anti-extremism initiatives and legislation have developed in relation to contextual issues, and whilst the focus has not always been on education, this became increasingly a focus of the Prevent Strategy resulting in the introduction of the Prevent Duty 2015 (Revell and Elton-Chalcraft 2021). According to Revell and Elton-Chalcraft, multicultural education was in fact blamed for the actions of the ‘home- grown’ bombers/jihadists, and as they say: “The scene was now set for a review of the role of education in cultivating a cohesive national identity and in preventing radicalisation among the young” (p. 7). This controversial strategy has led to an increase in Islamophobia and hardened out antagonistic views of Asian people including children and university students, by the White majority (Bhopal 2018). The Prevent Strategy has set communities against each other and placed professionals especially in Education in an invidious position of acting as monitors of potential extremism (Revell and Elton-Chalcraft 2021). Although from 2015 the Prevent Duty did not specify Islam or Muslims as the previous Prevent Strategy had done, this seemingly dominated teachers’ and others’ interpretation of the policy focus (Jerome et al. 2019), reinforced by media discourses and the current politics which implied the relationship of the two (Kundnani 2014). In schools and universities, Muslim young people were targeted by the policy (Cohen and Tufail 2017), and several
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studies show that the Prevent Duty has a disproportionate impact on Muslim young people and also Muslim teachers (Jerome et al. 2019). Others reported that Muslim pupils felt stigmatised (Vincent 2019) and that they were considered to be a potential threat or “a member of a suspect community” (Lockley-Scott 2016 cited in Jerome et al. 2019). Cohen and Tufail (2017) argue that the Prevent Duty has normalised Islamophobia with obvious detrimental effects on people who are Muslim or are perceived as Muslims: Within a national climate of anti-Muslim racism, where the necessity of Prevent is routinely associated by the government and media with Muslims and/ or Islam, there is evidence of frontline professionals relying on existing biases and stereotypes. There is a public debate that is yet to take place about the fact that the majority of these so-called ‘suspicious’ individuals, behaving perfectly lawfully but deemed vulnerable to radicalization, are Muslim school children, left traumatized after being wrongly regarded as potential terrorists. (Cohen and Tufail 2017, p. 43)
In addition to Prevent, new Teacher Standards were introduced in 2012 which required teachers to hold certain values, which they had to convey in their teaching. The Standards also made reference to Prevent (Revell and Elton-Chalcraft 2021). With respect to the Community Cohesion strategy, Kundnani (2002) argued that this reflected a broader concern and anxiety about Britain’s Muslim population. The Prevent Strategy is an amplification of this. Subsequently, in an attempt arguably to reinstate the assimilationist/integrationist agenda, a curriculum requirement that all schools had to teach Fundamental British Values (FBV) was introduced. Defining these values proved difficult not least since no one had come up with an answer to ‘what is Britishness?’. In 2014 the Department for Education published four broad FBVs (Dept for Education 2014) which schools had to interpret and implement. These are democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs. The notion that these are British values rather than international values is arrogant, but they are couched in this way deliberately to imply or even assert superiority—a White superiority of White Britishness. Jerome et al. (2019) point
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out that the “Prevent duty and promotion of FBVs are integrally linked” (p. 822). The teaching of FBVs are targeted at the Other, the alien outsider who is seen as a threat. At this point we have moved a long way from trying to address racism and racial inequality. In fact Revell and Bryan (2018) suggest that the FBVs indicate a hostility to difference. As several authors have shown, schools approached the teaching of FBVs in a variety of often superficial ways with some taking it more seriously than others (Elton-Chalcraft et al. 2017; Lander 2018; Maylor 2016; Vincent 2019). However, the research also showed divergent views amongst teachers some espousing critical views of FBVs arguing that their promotion was counterproductive to the values of a multicultural society, whilst others argued they were essential to promoting patriotism and to counter what they saw as an overemphasis on diversity (Elton- Chalcraft et al. 2017). Some researchers reported that Muslim students whilst identifying with the FBVs felt that this was not recognised or respected (Green 2017). Moreover, Jerome et al. (2019) report that research has shown that whilst some teachers in the teaching of FBVs do encourage critical debate, the majority do not, and therefore opportunities for young people to learn and develop their understanding are closed down.
Post-‘Race’ There are two interpretations of ‘post-race’, one is regarding ‘race’ as a characterisation of a person’s identity, and since ‘race’ does not exist in any scientific sense, some (such as Gilroy 1998; Miles 1982) have argued it should no longer be used as a concept or characterisation (see reference to this in Chap. 2). The second meaning of ‘post-race’ is a denial of the discrimination against people who have been racialised on the basis of perceived physical and cultural difference from the White majority, that is, the denial of racism. In this section it is this interpretation that I am discussing. The denial of the existence of racism as a cause of inequality and discrimination and the criticisms of anti-racist analyses of discriminatory policies and practices are not new. Post-race is an ideology that has permeated most of the policies I have discussed. It was not always termed
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post-race however but rather ‘deracialisation’. The shunning of the existence and impact of ‘race’ and racism was a theme that ran through the Thatcher and Major Governments (Crozier 1999). The growing “suspicion of diversity” (Lentin 2014, p. 1268) and the ways that BAME people’s ‘cultures’ and ways of being have been blamed for societal disorders and so on, together with multiculturalism as discussed earlier, have contributed to post-race discourses. Specifically in relation to education, Gillborn (1997) explained that Education Policy had adopted a deracialised discourse which effectively rendered “ethnic inequalities of achievement and opportunity” (p. 345) off the policy agenda and to the margins. In 1997 when New Labour took office, they prioritised education, and a raft of policies were introduced, it was said, to improve educational opportunities and access to university and further education and to raise standards. The policies were wide ranging focusing on schools and teacher education, further education and so on. According to Tomlinson (2019), New Labour started with good intentions with a declared commitment to social justice and to education as a means of achieving this, and she argues that through New Labour initially “Race returned as a presence rather than an absent presence” (p. 142). However, in spite of these positive beginnings and their stated concerns, their policies were contradictory. Few of their policies addressed ‘race’ and racism directly, with the exception of the Race Relations Amendment Act. Most significantly, New Labour policies continued with the previous strategy of control and management of diversity. The concern with educational achievement between the White working-class and BAME groups, focusing on the low achievement of White working-class children, is an area that the media likes to focus on in order to express the denial of ‘race’ or racism and to create division between BAME groups and the White working-class. In the right-wing newspaper, The Telegraph, it was claimed, for example, that White working-class boys were becoming an underclass (Paton 2008). Similar sentiments regarding the achievement gap between White working-class boys and everyone else were echoed again in 2013 by the right-wing think tank The Centre for Social Justice (Garner 2013). But in particular White working-class children in the context of education were pitted against BAME children in relation to educational opportunities and
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achievements. This has become an extension of the argument that BAME people and new migrants steal jobs, homes, hospital places and so on; now they are ‘stealing’ education. In 2008 the BBC ran a series of documentaries showing the ‘disadvantage’ and marginalisation of the White working-class in Britain. Again more recently in June 2021, the Education Parliamentary Select Committee issued a report ‘The Forgotten: How White Working-class Pupils Have Been Let Down and How to Change It’, both making similar claims and once again creating divisions between White working-class children and Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic children. The White working-class are undoubtedly being failed by education. They are also discriminated against, but their discrimination does not diminish the significance of racial discrimination. The Runnymede Trust publication (Sveinson, Ed. 2009a) which looked at the polarisation between White working-class and BAME oppression clearly demonstrates that the White working-class are indeed discriminated against, but they redress the analysis to show that the root causes of this include the hierarchical class structure, the legacy of deindustrialisation and Thatcherism and austerity measures undertaken by repeated governments (Sveinson 2009b). In the same volume, Gillborn (2009) demonstrates through an analysis of the data that White working-class boys (boys were frequently identified as those who were particularly ‘left behind’) are losing out to White middle-class pupils not to BAME young people. Pitting BAME people against the White working-class is damaging and fuels right-wing populism. It serves to move away from a focus on ‘race’ and racism as key issues in addressing inequalities. Whilst racism and racial discrimination continue to thrive, the denial of it remains. In March 2021 the Commission on Race Disparities (known as the Sewell Report) chaired by Dr Tony Sewell published its report. The Report denied the existence of institutional racism and stated that “we no longer see a Britain where the system is deliberately rigged against ethnic minorities” (p. 8). The report is, I suggest, a backlash to the Black Lives Matter Movement and anti-racism activism. It is part of a systematic onslaught against any resistance to racism which challenges White supremacy. The Report is one amongst several announcements opposing anti-racism and in fact seeks to deny its relevance. Others include government opposition to the concept of Critical Race Theory
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(Trilling 2020), the Minister of State for Equalities Kemi Badenoch declaring that teaching about ‘White privilege’ is illegal and rejecting a response to calls to decolonise the curriculum, stating that the ‘curriculum was not colonised’ (Jessica Murray 2020). Further, the promotion of the union jack—to be flown on all government and public buildings (Waterson 2021)—as a symbol of nationhood, warnings given by the Culture Secretary to museums who threaten to remove statues or artefacts associated with Britain’s colonial past (Waterson 2021) and the government’s ‘impartiality guidance’ (Department for Education 2022) which insists that teachers must present balanced views on all potentially controversial topics such as the history of British imperialism are indicative of a government in fear of losing control over their management and control of ‘ethnic diversity’ and their post-race agenda. The Sewell Report also dismissed the relevance of the history of the slave trade giving support to the pronouncements that there will be no removal of statues (or tolerance of those who take unilateral action, such as the removal of the Colston statue in Bristol 2020) and no changing of street names (to reflect abhorrence of venerating former slave traders and beneficiaries of the slave trade). In this way it is regarded on the one hand that ‘race’ and racism are not issues that need to be addressed and on the other that attempts to eradicate racism are seemingly irrelevant in contemporary society.
Conclusion In Britain and other European countries, a key and constant concern is around community cohesion and citizenship and national identity. Relatedly policy initiatives became intensified with the rise of immigration across Europe and threats of terrorism. Both of these aspects have been conflated with managing and controlling the ethnic and racial diversity of society. The term ‘immigrant’ or ‘migrant’ has developed negative connotations with sentiments of ‘scrounger’, ‘illegal’, ‘feckless’ or ‘illegitimate subjects’. In the 1980s and 1990s, the debates around ‘race’ and racism often involved careful examination of language and the ways certain
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terms can reinforce negative stereotypes and microaggressions, and thus these terms were rejected. By the 2000s the terms ‘immigrant’ and ‘migrant’ seeped unreflexively back into common parlance and academic discourse. To be a ‘migrant’ suggests someone who does not belong: an outsider, a transient. Implied by government policies and right-wing social media posts, the ‘migrant’ has also been constructed as a potential threat. Although it may not sit well with dominant White society, many if not most people living in Britain are descended from migrants either recently or over generations. When do you stop being a migrant? The repeated question of ‘Where are you from?’ asked of Black and mixed race people referred to in Chap. 2, signifying a rejection that a Black or BAME person can be British, is one example of perhaps subtle but relentless exclusion. Whilst assimilation and integration are bridging strategies between the excluded Other and White society, designed to manage the tension of discrimination and exclusion, assimilation itself is an assertion of White supremacy. Those who do not assimilate or resist being assimilated are thus not seen as worthy of becoming a British citizen. In 2005 when the Labour Government brought in the requirement of a citizenship test referred to above, Tony McNulty, Immigration Minister at the time, was reported as stating: “It is a test of their preparedness to become citizens” (www.news.bbc.co.uk accessed 8/01/2021). Under New Labour following the raft of policies including the Community Cohesion and Prevent strategies, the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (2010) carried out research to answer the question How Fair is Britain? Their report showed that it was not very fair at all. They reported that Black Caribbean, Black African and Pakistani heritage children were still the lowest achievers in mathematics and English when they take their General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) examinations and that ‘Gypsy’, Roma and Traveller children do even less well than all other ethnic groups. Privately educated children were 55 times more likely to go to Oxbridge, and even though BAME young people were proportionately well represented in the university sector, this was not the case across all types of universities or all subjects. Black Caribbean heritage students were still disproportionately excluded from school, in addition to being subjected to police harassment and ongoing racial aggression (Crozier 2014). As we have seen and will see further,
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these statistics have a habit of repeating themselves throughout the decades. Given the thrust of the policies has been about containment rather than addressing these issues and their causes, this failure is not surprising. As I have said, policy initiatives and implementation are not linear, and there have been examples of what might appear to be more benign approaches such as multiculturalism and attempts to give recognition to and celebration of cultural diversity. Whilst this was summarily condemned by successive governments both nationally and internationally, multiculturalism and the use of ‘culture’, as has been shown, are complex and contradictory. As well as frequently serving as a diversion from the focus on anti/racism, Lentin suggests that ‘culture’ has been deployed in the denial of racism and of ‘race’ as an explanation of discrimination (Lentin 2014). What has been shown here is the policy and practice process from assimilation to post-race is arguably the same thing. In the next chapter, I further discuss the complexities of culture and of multicultural education and the role of the ethnocentric, White-dominated, curriculum, particularly in relation to the process of Othering and the reproduction of racism.
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5 From Policy to Practice: Teaching and the Curriculum—The Process of Racialisation and Othering
Introduction The historical and current policies and perspectives outlined in the previous chapter comprise the official responses to racism and racist practices in Britain in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. The thrust of that chapter has been to show the ways that these policies have aimed to manage and control ethnic and racial diversity rather than address racism itself. The policies contributed to a particular type or types of racialisation of people and a dominant set of beliefs and perspectives that reinforce the subjective positioning and objectification of BAME people. In this chapter I examine how this is further developed through practices in both the school and the university including the curriculum. I discuss the ideological development and the negative representation of BAME people as part of the systemic construction of the Other. Conversely, I also discuss the lack of representation of BAME people. This is a further aspect of the previous discussion of the marginalisation of BAME people together with the marginalisation of racism they are exposed to. In this chapter I show the ways in which systemic Othering is constructed and
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023, corrected publication 2023 G. Crozier, Racism and Education in Britain, Palgrave Studies in Race, Inequality and Social Justice in Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-18931-9_5
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reproduced through and in Education. I begin to explore ways in which ‘race’ and racialisation influence and shape the experience of university (Jiang 2021) and school students.
Racialisation and the Process of Othering Much has been written about Othering in relation to social class, gender, disability as well as ‘race’. I want to take a further look at ‘racialised’ Othering as a forerunner to the later discussion of how this plays out in the classroom, school or university settings. To speak of Othering as a process may be seen to contradict the cultural pluralism discourse. However, as I have said, the cultural pluralism approach remained at a tokenistic, superficial level and differed little from the assimilation and integration approaches. Whilst assimilation, integration and cultural pluralism have tended to be discussed by researchers and policymakers as separate approaches and often presented as in conflict with each other, I suggest that they are on a continuum which is fluid. The shift along the continuum both forwards and backwards is influenced by the socio- economic context, government ideologies and political zeitgeist. As I have tried to show, none of these approaches is intended to radically change the status quo and dismantle or undermine racism, even though operationalised by certain individuals there may have been an intention to seek greater social justice and racial equality of opportunity. As I have begun to show and will further demonstrate throughout the book, these efforts are inadequate and are frequently counterproductive. Through his substantial and highly significant work on the construction of Western attitudes towards the Orient, Said (2003) demonstrates the profound impact and influence of hundreds of years of colonialism through literature, philosophy and politics on the construction of the Other. The frequently demeaning presentation of certain peoples has become deeply ingrained in White Western society’s ways of seeing and being. Although Said’s Orientalism focuses on Arab people, the Middle East, Asia and North Africa, Orientalism depicts more broadly the role, perspectives and impact of the Western world in relation to all colonised or former colonised peoples. Said himself describes the Orient as
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meaning different things for Europeans and the Americans. With regard to Europe he says: The Orient is not only adjacent to Europe, it is also the place of Europe’s greatest and richest oldest colonies, the source of its civilizations and languages, its cultural contestant, and one of its deepest and most recurring images of the Other. (Said 2003, p. 1)
Whilst different ethnic groups share experiences of racism, these experiences may manifest themselves differently, and likewise marginalisation and Othering take on different forms and implications for different ethnic groups. The process of Othering is essential to White supremacy (i.e. the maintenance of White dominance and Whiteness as central to society). It is also finely balanced: between insiderness and outsiderness; inclusion and exclusion; between being a legitimate subject and an illegitimate one; between being seen as different or being ‘seen’ as the ‘same’ (as White) based on mimicry (Bhabha 1984), for instance, and ‘colour- blindness’ (Bonilla-Silva 2014). Othering can be presented as ‘beneficial’ to the Other, such as with the successful footballers who played for England in the 2018 World Cup Games and were heralded as champions of their sport and effective role models for other BAME youth (but not particularly for White youth). However, even though they were part of a team, they were picked out as Other, usually referred to as of a ‘different culture’ or as ‘representing diversity’, irrespective of the fact they were born and bred in Britain. During the World Cup games commentators endlessly talked about how culturally diverse the team was but what they meant was that there were Black and mixed ‘race’ as well as White players. All of these ‘Other’ players had been born in Britain. The commentators probably knew nothing about their culture. If the team had been all White, no mention of cultural diversity would have been made but could be as diverse or as uniform as any team. I discuss this misrepresentation of culture further below. It can be convenient and beneficial for White society to give recognition to BAME people when the zeitgeist shifts as in 2020 and the Black Lives Matter Movement, or as a result of civil protest such as the street fighting in 1981, in 2001 and at various times in between which has led
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to commissions and/or policy initiatives. I have already indicated some of the changes that have occurred in, for example, the media and at local levels and in some schools and universities in response to the Black Lives Matter Movement. However, this recognition is constantly undermined by the focus on an apparent sense of the exotic and wonder at the achievements of these young people. We need to ask why is ‘their’ ‘culture’ or ethnic background mentioned at all? It is irrelevant particularly in the example of the footballers, but there is a long list of such irrelevancies that could be cited including using the stand-out descriptor ‘Black’ as in ‘Black authors’, ‘Black actors’ and ‘Black artists’ when reference to Black is unnecessary and irrelevant. Whilst this may seem to be a trivial point, such references are part of the relentless pressure to ensure racial subjection. In his analysis of what he calls “magical negro films”—“cinema highlighting … magical black characters who transform … uncultured, broken white characters into competent people…” (p. 543), Hughey (2009) argues that these films (and their accompanying acclaim) serve to further marginalise Black people and reinforce hegemonic Whiteness. Black characters, he asserts, are glorified only in so far as they are “placed in racially subservient positions” (p. 543). The focus and repeated reference to the footballers’ ‘culture’ are devices in this process of placing. As Omi and Winant (1994 Second Edition) argue, racial subjection is ideological: Everybody learns some combination, some version, of the rules of racial classification, and of their own racial identity, often without obvious teaching or conscious inculcation. Race becomes “common sense/’-a way of comprehending, explaining and acting in the world. …Racial beliefs operate as an “amateur biology’ a way of explaining the variations in “human nature. … Differences in skin color and other … physical characteristics supposedly provide visible clues to differences lurking underneath. Temperament, sexuality, intelligence, athletic ability, aesthetic preferences and so on are presumed to be fixed …”. (p. 13)
Exoticising Black people is not a new phenomenon. As Said (1994, 2003) and others (e.g. Fanon 1967; Gilman 1992; Hall 1992a) have shown, representing Black people as the exotic subject including as
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entertainers and as sexual objects serves to minimise their threat to White supremacy and maintain a subjugated and subaltern position. In one of my studies of students’ experiences in higher education (Crozier et al. 2016), some of the White students veered between viewing their Black peers as fascinatingly strange, entertaining and frighteningly different from themselves, moving in gangs and being like “gangsters”. Some viewed the Black students and their behaviour like watching a television soap opera. Stephen, a White middle-class student, explained how he loved the university because of its ethnic ‘diversity’ and how he recounted his experiences to his White friends back home in the Home County1 suburbs. He describes how he mimicked or tried to mimic a ‘West Indian’ accent and dialect: I would entertain certain friends … about people who speak like that… saying this language, they [his friends] found it hilarious… I found them not taking it too seriously, not being prejudiced”. (Crozier et al. 2016, p. 45)
Daniel, another White middle-class student, emphasises the difference between ‘him and them’, underscoring ‘their’ Otherness: I’m middle-class, we’re quite well off. It’s just interesting to see people who aren’t so well off and live in really crowded places. They are all gangs. It’s like the kind of thing you see in East Enders [British TV soap opera] …It’s [being at this university] kind of like the [TV] programme How the Other Half Live. (Crozier et al. 2016, p. 46)
And Josephine, a mixed White East Asian heritage middle-class student, explained that most of the students at one of the colleges, Luxembourg, were Black and loud implying unruliness, and she also emphasises the difference between the Black students and the White, disassociating herself, placing herself at a distance from ‘them’: I’ve noticed that like - this is not to be racist or like horrible or anything like that - but most of the boys, like most of the people that go to A large area within commuting distance of the capital city London, comprising predominantly a White middle-class population. 1
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[Luxembourg] College are boys and a lot of them are like Black boys, more a bit like gangsters and the people who have come from other colleges are a bit more quieter… (Crozier et al. 2016, p. 46)
All of these students display a form of ‘dysconscious’ racism (King 2004) in the sense of not recognising that their sentiments are racist and moreover what they are saying is not “horrible or anything” or “prejudiced” and so does not need to be changed or challenged. In all of these sentiments, however, can be seen a fear of the Other, of some kind of contamination or degradation and an inauthenticity, as though these Black students should not be at university at all. As Holt and Griffin (2005) suggest, the dialectic between fascination and disgust illuminates the relationship with the Other, serving to maintain a distance. One White male middle-class student described the Other (Black and White working-class) as “idiots”, “people who … come to university not really knowing what they are doing… who are just not interested in anything” (Burke et al. 2017, p. 117). There were many examples from students and also staff which constructed Black and White working-class students as inferior, unworthy, unruly or threatening. Having such people in the university threatens the status and authenticity of the degree and future job prospects. The White middle-class students thus sought to disassociate themselves from these behaviours and reassert their own worth as entitled and ‘good’ students (ibid.). This tension is also rooted historically in colonial practices and posed a dilemma for the British ruling class throughout their colonial periods. Nirmal Puwar (2004) discusses at length the relationship between the British Raj and the Indian civil service. During the period of colonialism in India, the British needed on the one hand to trust the local Indian people and on the other hand to manage the fear of resistance and being overthrown. The use or inculcation of the English language was central to this, but as well as enabling Indian workers to support and service the Raj, at the same time it served to empower or potentially empower them. Puwar warns that although assimilation and integration are essential to maintaining White dominance, too much integration or assimilation can be dangerous and threatening for the White majority. This is the dilemma White domination faces. With respect to this, Patricia Hill Collins (1998)
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has argued of the importance of surveillance. The White students reported here keep the Black students under the spotlight noting their recalcitrant or unacceptable behaviours. The lecturers too maintained similar watchfulness in noting Black students’ punctuality and non/attentiveness in the lecture theatre (Burke et al. 2017), and eventually the university introduced an electronic registration system to record students’ attendance. Puwar also identifies the salience of surveillance as essential to maintain control over the threat of “Black bodies out of place” (p. 117). The pressure on Black students is to ‘fit in’ to the White norm, not to stand out but to adopt the ‘White mask’ (Fanon 1967). BAME people are frequently accused of segregating themselves as we have seen (see also Alexander 2000; Shain 2011; Crozier and Davies 2008), and White students in this study also levelled similar criticisms against the BAME students. The BAME students by contrast denied forming cliques in spite of the White students’ claims. Some were particularly keen to emphasise the importance of coming together and mixing. One student Greg of Black Caribbean working-class heritage said that on first going to university he attended the African Caribbean society but then felt it was as though he was ‘segregating’ himself and did not attend again (Burke et al. 2017). I am not suggesting that this student or the others were devaluing themselves in Fanon’s (1967) terms or denying their identity; I do not have sufficient evidence, but we know from Fanon the effect of symbolic violence of Whiteness impacted both ‘externally and internally’ leading to what Hall (1992a) terms “the internalization of the self as other” (p. 256). I will discuss this further in relation to how this impacted on the students’ behaviours and sense of self in Chap. 6. However, I want to discuss further here the processes of White struggle for maintaining control and for maintaining its position of dominance. Some of these ways are through the notions of ‘diversity and difference’ and ‘culture’.
Difference and Diversity and Culture Through the activism of Black parents and students and progressive teachers in the 1970s and 1980s, as we have seen, attempts were made to address multiculturalism and in some cases anti-racism, in Education. All
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such initiatives involved struggle and dialectical relationships. There were and continue to be various problems with suggested ‘solutions’. One of these is in relation to heterogeneity, or one might say ‘diversity’ and the notion of ‘difference’. Both terms have become part of multicultural and racial discourses, but both are contested terms and present problematic notions, even though at times their use can serve a valid purpose. The term culture is also contested and requires some discussion. Hence, there are several dilemmas around these concepts.
Diversity What is meant by diversity? Arguably we have always lived in a diverse society since diversity covers age, gender, sexualities, social class, disabilities and ‘cultures’—including belief systems, language, social customs, behaviours and aesthetics, what I have been referring to as ‘ways of being’. Today more consciously and overtly, diversity is manifested through physical differences in terms of colour, for example, as well as cultural differences. However, because the term ‘diversity’ can be so wide ranging, its use has frequently become meaningless. It is often used to give an appearance of recognising different needs, but it can be used to eschew what might be regarded as challenging issues. For example, individuals, organisations and so on which have a specific task such as a workshop or policy development around ’diversity’ may use that opportunity to select what they regard as an easier option to address. Diversity is often used to refer to special educational needs and disability, for instance. That is not to suggest that these needs are necessarily any better addressed than issues of ‘race’/racism, but disability tends to be seen as less threatening to engage with than ‘race’. The term ‘diversity’ has come to be used instead of talking specifically about ‘race’: another aspect of the post-race discourse. Cultural diversity is often referred to as ethnic differences although the term ethnicity is also problematic as argued by Brah (1996) and Hall (1992a). Ethnicity is problematic as it tends to represent a monolithic and essentialising interpretation of identity. This is in spite of Hall’s groundbreaking contribution to developing an understanding of identity
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as complex and intersected by multiple identities and the concept of ‘becoming’. ‘Ethnicities’ still tend to remain as hierarchised categorisations and reinforce the image of an ‘ethnic group’ such as South Asian as ‘all the same’, one of the classic “predicates of racism” (Hall 1992a, p. 254). As Brah points out, South Asian children will not all experience education in the same ways. As we know children of Indian heritage do very well academically in school and university compared, for example, to children of Pakistani heritage. These different experiences and outcomes may be connected to some aspect of culture and family, but they can also be attributed to different social class positionings and the different ways racism operates and impacts. As Brah also contends, people of Caribbean and South Asian heritage, for instance, experience racism similarly but also differently and that State policies impact and are targeted on these and other racialised groups in different ways and for different purposes, some of which have already been discussed. Both Brah and Hall argued that we need to reappropriate and struggle for the use of the term ‘ethnicities’ and to ensure that it does not reinforce inequalities.
Difference With respect to difference, what constitutes this? When should we recognise difference—when is it appropriate to do so? Is it always appropriate? If someone or something is ‘different’, then it has to be different from something else—something, it is implied, more permanent, more established, normative, accepted. In White-dominated society, this norm is White/ness. Difference used in relation to BAME people, therefore, can carry with it a sense of inadequacy. And so how much do we want to draw attention to difference, our own difference, the difference of others? For example, although less common now, a newspaper report recounting a case of fraud describes the accused as Black or Asian when this information is totally irrelevant. You often hear in everyday interactions unnecessary reference to racial or ethnic differences such as in a conversation X says, “I met Suzy’s new boyfriend. He’s Black. He’s very nice”. You don’t often hear “I met Suzy’s new boyfriend. He’s White. He’s very nice”. In doing so the former statement implies that this is something surprising or
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exceptional, whilst the latter is taken for granted, to be expected. Therefore, in the school and the classroom, is it relevant to refer to a person’s colour or perceived ‘race’? Whether or not it is appropriate to identify difference depends on why this identification is being made. The motivation to identify ‘difference’ should be seen as a first step to celebrating and embracing difference as an enriching and positive contribution. It is the beginning of decentring from the White norm. That is to say that the world is not just White; White values are only a part of a whole. Therefore, in recognising difference we have to critique and analyse the notion of Whiteness and White dominance. Addressing difference is important as is diversity since failure to do so is to devalue the richness of society, and more importantly not doing so is to privilege White middle-class domination—the White norm, which feeds into the racist marginalisation and discrimination of anyone who does not fit in with this. Addressing difference takes place at various levels. In the classroom it should begin with recognising that not everyone in the room is the same—irrespective of whether they are the same colour or not which in turn requires sensitivity to the fact that not everyone may hold the same perspectives on the world. We have to be sensitive about making assumptions. If we take Christmas, for example, which in Western Europe is a dominant winter festival, in a multi-ethnic society where not everyone celebrates Christmas and even when people do celebrate it, they do not all hold religious or necessarily the same religious beliefs about Christmas, then the nature of the festival in itself becomes diverse—and can change. Christmas might be celebrated, for example, as simply a social event, an opportunity to get together with friends and family. Non- Christians, atheists or humanists may not endorse the religious/Christian underpinning of Christmas, but that is not to say they would not enter into the seasonal ambience. At an individual level, being sensitive about this is about being aware of different views and being respectful of these. The key point here is about the importance of not making assumptions and of not holding and imposing expectations of sameness. Individual practice however is underpinned by and imbued with dominant ideologies that distinguish and hierarchise cultural practices and groups. Not all values are regarded equally, of equal worth or equal place. This can be seen in the earlier example (in Chap. 4) of language diversity
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but also the defence mechanisms national governments or even individual schools have employed to repress minority cultural representations. Examples of this include policies such as in France, where they have banned the wearing of religious symbols in public (Legifrance 2010) which has a particular impact on Muslim girls and women; in Denmark where strict rules for the right to access citizenship status for migrants require, for example, men not to refuse to shake a woman’s hand (pre- COVID- 19 pandemic) (again this would impact most severely on Muslim men) (Mouritsen 2012); and in schools in Britain where some schools have excluded Black children because of their hairstyles (Tidman 2021). In this way certain cultures are denigrated and excluded, only recognised as marginal and exotic, brought to the fore only as entertainment. The sari, samosa and steel band (Troyna and Williams 1986) multicultural education trope is a classic example of this.
Culture The term ‘culture’ is also disputed and is used extremely loosely, such as in the sense, for example, in talking about people of ‘different cultures’ when it is often meant of different colour or national heritage, as indicated earlier in the example of the English footballers. In this instance, the term ‘different culture’ is used as a proxy for ‘race’, identifying some perception of ‘difference’ from the White ‘norm’ but showing a refusal or reluctance to refer to a person’s identity such as Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic. As already discussed, culture and diversity have become part of the denial of the significance of ‘race’ in understanding oppression and discrimination (Lentin 2014). The focus instead is on ‘different culture’ as the issue. But its use in this way is often meaningless. To illustrate this let us take the hypothetical example of a child or young person born and brought up in Britain with one White parent and the other parent who is second- or third-generation Jamaican heritage and identifies as Black. Both parents were born and brought up in Britain. This mixed-race child is British (like his parents). Apart from the colour of his skin, he is as alike or as different as any of the White children in his class who do not seem to evoke reference to their ‘culture’. Assuming he has been brought up in
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a household rich in a range of ‘cultural’ experiences (whatever these might be in terms of British or Jamaican but maybe hearing stories from both sets of grandparents about Jamaica and the area in Britain where the White family was originally from; savouring different cuisine including traditional Jamaican dishes; hearing some Jamaican Creole and local British dialects), but is he of a ‘different culture’? Or equally he may have had no contact whatsoever with his Jamaican or White British grandparents or relatives, has not visited Jamaica and knows nothing about Jamaica. Is he of a ‘different culture’? Is he any different from any of the White children in his class? Who knows? But we come back to the question of different to what? In the classroom all that can be seen is that he has pale brown skin. So why is he marked out as ‘different’ or having a ‘different culture’? No doubt all 20+ White children in the class have aspects of culture different from each other, which goes unremarked. Notwithstanding this argument the mixed-race boy’s mixedness is important to recognise and respect because it is an important aspect of his identity. It is a positive feature of the multi-ethnic society (school and community and society in general) that we live in. It is also important to recognise this child’s colour in order to avoid the colour-blind approach which negates and marginalises Black people and ignores the racism experienced by them. It is therefore important to recognise this colour difference in order to be aware of the dangers of racism and to develop strategies for challenging and dealing with racism (Bonilla-Silva 2014). Also, children’s cultural experiences and identifications are essential to acknowledge and respect and celebrate. But this should be the norm not presented as something exotic and different from some dominant White notion. Culture is evolutionary and reinterpreted by individuals. As Brah (1992) contends in talking about culture and identities, “Our cultural identities are simultaneously our cultures in process but they acquire specific meaning in a specific context” (p. 143). Language, as part of culture, for instance, is organic and changes over time; it is influenced and affected by social and geographical context. The English language is a good example of this. Now an international language, it has evolved and continues to evolve in myriad ways; vocabulary, grammar, syntax and not to mention accent are all evolving from what is still referred to as Standard
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English. No representation of culture is absolute or fixed. A problem with the term ‘culture’ is that it can essentialise people. BAME people are often described as or ascribed a particular manifestation of culture as though that is their absolute identity. Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic people then come to be fixed by some often fairly arbitrary putative cultural signifier leading to stereotyping (see Brah 1996). With the rise of Islamophobia, South Asian people are frequently referred to as Muslim whether or not they are. Muslims are frequently stereotyped as fanatics, associated with terrorism and so on (as discussed previously). Not all South Asian people are Muslims and not all Muslims are the same; there are myriad beliefs, perspectives and interpretations in Islam as reflected in the different groups such as Sufis, Sunnis and Shias, as there are in most organised religions. There are millions of Muslims in the world living in hundreds of countries. Muslims are White, brown and so on in colour. Some wear burka, shalwar, kamiz, saris, skirts, dresses, trousers and so on. Some fast some don’t. But White society tends to fix Muslims in certain limited and often derogatory ways. This is part of the essentialising process of a person’s identity which feeds the racist perception of Muslim people. Modood (2005) argued (referring to the Fourth Survey 1994) that whilst there has apparently developed an associational identity amongst young South Asian groups whereby they continue to hold a strong sense of pride in and identity with their ethnic origins, their identities are no longer “necessarily connected to personal participation in distinctive cultural practices” (p. 195) including language, religion or dress (see also the Office for National Statistics (ONS) 2021). Addressing ‘difference, diversity and multi-culturalism’ in the classroom has in the past proven to be problematic, such as the response by teachers in my research (Crozier 1992) who argued that it was impossible to address all cultures which seemed to be a reason for not recognising any ‘diversity’. This is a misunderstanding of multiculturalism based on an incorrect premise. Multicultural Education is not or should not be about representing cultures at all in the sense of parading an artefact as some kind of icon or symbol or constructing people, individuals or groups as being defined by that artifact. The key purpose of a multicultural approach should have been and should be a recognition of not just the existence but the equal status of ethnic and racial diversity in Britain
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(see, e.g. Modood 2005; Taylor 1994), a recognition that everyone is not the same as the White majority and indeed that the White majority is not all the same either, that Whiteness is not monolithic. Multicultural Education should be a challenge to White supremacy. Representation of ‘ethnic diversity’, that is of BAME peoples, is important where it is concerned with ensuring the pervasiveness and normality of ethnic and racial diversity. Multicultural Education is or should be about recognising and engaging with different perspectives and ways of being and doing. It must be about having and generating respect and about developing critical reflexivity and engagement with ideas that are varied and not based centrally on what have come to be recognised as dominant White ‘culture and values’. It must be about decentring from the dominant White norm and recognising colour and ethnic diversity in society as a whole. It is not about recognising a particular cultural facet and generalising or attributing this to all South Asian or Caribbean heritage children, for example. As teachers we can draw on the life experiences and histories of all the students we teach, irrespective of colour or perceived ethnic heritage, ensuring they have agency to set their own agenda and decisions about whether to share their experiences and making sure they are not singled out as representing the whole of an ethnic group, making sure we are not using the student themselves as an artefact. The idea of using stories or experiences should include stories from all the students in the class both BAME and White and their local communities and wider society in order to show how the interrelationship of social class, ‘race’ and gender shape and play out through experiences. The work of Chris Searle (Searle 1978) in the 1970s and 1980s was a powerful example of this kind of teaching still relevant and apposite today, whereby he took the children’s daily, lived experiences as the focus for the English lesson. Through the sharing of their stories, children gained insights to help them understand their worlds and experiences. Riaz (Race et al. 2022, pp. 7–8) also used storytelling in a project designed to bring communities together and to overcome barriers. Her intention was to illuminate global issues in relation to social justice, equality and fairness and to “decolonise the curriculum through a global citizenship lens” (p. 8). In our GAP research (Burke et al. 2017), we found some, albeit a limited number, of positive examples where the lecturer drew on
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her or her students’ experiences to stimulate discussion in the group, which gave rise to some illuminating responses. At some point, just because of my personality, it becomes clear across the term that I’m Jamaican, in particular. And as a personality I do identify myself as black, because I’m aware that some people don’t know that I am, it just kind of comes out at some point along the way. But I find then that Black students will particularly align with me. And so there is a dynamic within the group, and it’s the subtlest, subtlest thing in the world, often, but one has to be very careful that there is no perception from the whole group that somehow I am showing any favouritism, or any kind of extra layer of understanding, or even mummydom to the Black students in particular. I remember one particular case, we were talking about something we were talking about in life writing, called social languages, just essentially the different positionality of people depending on what kinds of dynamics and who they are and how they meet the world. And people were identifying social languages, and a group of black students had gotten together, and they were identifying social languages that I knew, so I went across and went oh, that’s my grandmother, and we all dropped into a different social language around me. And then I became aware of a silence around me, and I looked up, and the larger group of students were all going……and looked very unhappy. I said ‘hello’, what’s happening? What is everybody feeling, what’s going on? And they were brave enough to say we suddenly thought you had something in common with them that we don’t have in common. And I said oh, that’s what happens to people, that’s the power of social languages. I just dropped into my grandma’s social language, which they share as well, and what did you suddenly feel? You felt left out, didn’t you? And so then we could all come together as students and have another conversation. But I did have a moment of oh, shit, what do I do with this dynamic? Because it is true that I felt on some level closer, but it was a perfect situation. (Female tutor quoted in Burke et al. 2017, p. 66)
Whilst this is a lengthy quote, it is useful because it identifies the possibilities of engaging with the students’ own stories and experiences. It also raises a number of additional and significant issues, in the form of unintended consequences. This lecturer’s practice and experience recounted here are interesting in various ways. Firstly, she indicates that
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she identifies with the Black students in her group as they do with her, no doubt similar or potentially similar to the ways White students do with their White tutors. This is not about role models but more about relatability, a mutual identification and connection in spite of age and possibly class differences. This identification and its possible reverberations are amplified in the example of the tutor and the students sharing some language experiences which related to the topic of social languages under consideration in the session. An unintended consequence was that it gave rise to a sense of exclusion amongst the White students. The tutor had the reflexivity, insight and skill to utilise this situation to generate discussion about exclusion, Othering and racism even though she may not have couched the discussion in these terms. This example presents clear evidence of how easily a group of students can be marginalised and affronted. This experience is a highly frequent occurrence for BAME students to the point where it is the norm.
The End of Multiculturalism? Multiculturalism and multicultural education in particular have been at the centre of multi-ethnic/multiracial discourse since the 1980s in Britain. As commonly understood, it has been interpreted in multifarious ways depending on perspectives or political context. As argued in Chap. 4, along with many other ‘race’ and education policies, its utilisation served mainly to manage diversity rather than address racial discrimination or inequalities, and one of its main criticisms is that it did little if anything to address structural racism. Indeed many have argued that it masked the existence and impact of racism (Kundnani 2002; Carby 1982). However, whilst multicultural education has been criticised by both the Left and Right, others have argued for its relevance and salience. Modood (2005), for example, takes the view that racism is often expressed through cultural slurs and tropes which multicultural education can serve to challenge. Others such as Race (2011) takes the view that promoting multiculturalism evens up the scales in the pursuit of equitable citizenship education. However, Bonilla-Silva and Mayorga (2011) argue that “… the racial status of individuals trumps their citizenship standing in
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any polity” (p. 77). They go on to argue that “people of color” (p. 79) hold second class citizenship. I have already commented on the policy initiatives around citizenship. Furthermore, focusing on the development of citizenship eschews the central issues of poverty, discrimination, racism and other forms of inequality. It focuses on the groups and individuals who are promoted as a problem that is BAME groups and locating the blame on the individual rather than the structural problems of institutions, organisations and society. It is not that we do not need productive, respectful and harmonious citizenship, but the dominance of Whiteness, its values, or its ways of being, needs to be challenged and dismantled in order to achieve this. Notwithstanding my arguments above, it is essential that ethnic difference and diversity are valued although not necessarily without critique. This is not the same as advocating cultural relativism, not all cultural practices and values are acceptable, but this needs to be debated. Some cultural practices are bound by law, but in challenging White domination, we need to open up debate and the opportunities for engaging with a reappraisal of cultural norms. Valuing ‘difference’ is central to the process of challenging White supremacy. Cultural diversity or specificities, as Avtar Brah (1996) has argued, can signify identificatory processes of belonging and community. Culture can play a significant role in the importance of generating hybridity and cultural fusions, as resources in order to progress through a multicultural, globalised world (see Hall 1992b). As Brah (1996) also says: Cultural specificities do not in and of themselves constitute social division. It is the meaning attributed to them and how this meaning is played out in the economic, cultural and political domains that marks whether or not specificity emerges as a basis of social division. (p. 235)
The fusion of cultures is an idea that is arguably related to what Modood (2005) calls commonality strategies for the common good. Also identified by Modood, The Future of Multi-Ethnic Britain (Commission on the Future of Multi-Ethnic Britain 2000, also known as the Parekh Report) takes this idea in its proposal for ‘a community of communities as well as a community of individuals’. The Report argued for strategies
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to ensure a sense of belonging to one’s country in order to forge unity whilst at the same time arguing for the need to challenge racisms and related structural inequalities (Commission on the Future of Multi- Ethnic Britain 2000; Modood 2005, p. 207). As outlined in Chap. 4, since the mid-2000s, multiculturalism has also been criticised by Western governments including that of the UK as being responsible for ‘riots’ and youth antagonisms, undermining assimilation/integration and they argued has to take some responsibility for the development of ‘home-grown Islamists’. There has therefore been a downplaying of ‘diversity’ and an increase in the promotion of sameness, with the emphasis on ‘citizenship’ as a homogenous, hegemonic type (Crozier 2016, p. 139). Perhaps the impact of this development can explain at least in part that more recently some researchers have identified a complacency amongst teachers around cultural sameness that is where the majority of the children are Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic. They are probably not culturally ‘the same’, but since they are from minority ethnic backgrounds, they are perceived as such. Meetoo (2020) found in her research that where the majority of children in a school were from non-White ethnically diverse communities, this led some teachers to regard racism as no longer a problem, reflecting the assumption “that ethnic diversity is a synonym for racial harmony (Ahmed 2012; Harries 2014)” (Meetoo 2020, p. 7). In a small-scale study (Crozier and Rhamie 2017) of school experiences of Years 5 and 6, in an outer London primary school where there was a majority of BAME children, my colleague and I found no explicit recognition of their ethnic diversity in the school. For example, there were no external displays of multiculturalism such as no welcome signs in multiple languages and no pictures on walls depicting society’s ethnic diversity, and apart from a mention in the school assembly of religious events such as Ramadan and Eid, there was no curriculum focus on ethnic diversity either. In schools with a majority of BAME children, being BAME may be the norm, but without locating the children and their families within society as a whole and representing them and their specific contributions, then they remain as outsiders and are displaced—Othered, in the White society. As Kundnani (2002) says, in the past minority ethnic children and young people were described as ‘ethnically disadvantaged ‘and thus needed a ‘top-up’ of their own culture
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(as described in Chap. 4) in the 2000s, and post-‘riots’ the government of the day deemed that they had received an excess of culture, as he says, “they were [now] too Muslim, too traditional” (p. 70). By the twenty-first century where schools in certain cities have a majority of BAME students, it has seemingly become irrelevant to focus on diversity or more to the point difference; or is there a fear of identifying difference? In some cases, the minority of White students are the different ones—another reason to bolster White ‘culture’. Teachers often argue that they do not distinguish between minority ethnic groups or focus at all on a child’s ethnicity, colour or perceived difference (Crozier 2004). However, whist this may be well intentioned, it leads, as already stated, to a colour-blind approach. This in turn potentially leads to the denial of a student’s identity and the exclusionary experiences that result from ‘we treat them all the same’. BAME children are thus devalued, marginalised and dismissed.
acialisation, Representation, the Power R of the Curriculum and Decoloniality ‘Difference and diversity’ raises the question of values and whose values count. The answer to the question then impacts on and reveals the nature of the curriculum taught in schools and teachers’ and policymakers’ own perspectives and values. Stimulated by the Black Lives Matter Movement, there has been a recent resurgence in the debate around curriculum, its nature and what it represents; this has given rise to the development of the decoloniality movement. The Black Lives Matter Movement has shone a spotlight, particularly in early 2021, on various aspects of society and dented a little the hegemonic discourses around knowledge values including histories, canons of literature and societal symbols and icons. The decolonising project and discourse are an example of this. As indicated earlier, government fightback over these challenges has, however, clearly begun. If decolonising the curriculum is to be successful, it will need to be robust, theoretically and empirically informed and rigorously developed and constructed. It will also need to ensure that the mistakes of multicultural education are avoided. In addition to exposing what is
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missing from the curriculum, it is necessary to consider the implicit White bias of values and perspectives embedded within the curriculum across disciplines. The curriculum is an ideological and powerful tool in the reproduction of racialisation and racism. It contributes to negative and undermining constructions of BAME people, BAME values, languages, histories and knowledges in relation to White supremacy; most often in subtle, covert ways, it promotes the stereotypes and requirements of Whiteness and the representation of BAME people as subaltern. Although it has been argued particularly recently by advocates of decolonising the curriculum, for example, Moncrieffe (2020) and Arday (2021) that the History curriculum in English schools neglects to teach about British imperialism and its colonial role, which it does and it needs to be rectified, much of the curriculum across other subjects integrally also reflect Britain’s colonial past. Focusing on English literature as an example and drawing on Said (1994) below, I discuss the ways the power and dominance of British imperialism are infused through literature and serve to reinforce and reproduce White hegemony and ensure the marginalisation of the Other. Central to the role of schooling is the curriculum. The curriculum is the repository and resource of the dominant knowledge that the society wants to inculcate. Many, such as Apple (2004), have argued that Education is ideological and as Apple also says Education is part of the system of maintaining “existing relations of domination” (p. 10). It is part of the system of maintaining White dominance. What is valued in terms of behaviour and knowledge is conveyed through school, including the way it is organised, and the curriculum. In the 1980s and 1990s, some linguists and literature scholars and teachers sought to deconstruct the impact of colonial metaphors and images throughout aspects of the curriculum (e.g. Klein 1985; Milner 1983; Prieswerk 1981). As already discussed, there were variable efforts to inject a multicultural dimension into aspects of the curriculum such as in the English, History and Geography curricula and incorporate languages from South Asia in the curriculum in some schools. There were also some examples of recognising, for example, the scientific and mathematical discoveries of Arab scholars in the Middle Ages. Whilst these approaches were never universal, there was that potential to recognise ‘multiple values’ rather than ‘multiple differences’
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(Ramadan 2011). Over the past 20 years or so in Britain, the intensification of assessment tied to school league tables and the role of Ofsted together with increased government interventions into what is taught and how it is taught, have led to the narrowing of the curriculum and reinforcing its ethnocentrism and the dominance of Whiteness. Not only have the opportunities to develop the kinds of pedagogy indicated above, whereby young people could be centrally placed as agents of their own learning, been rejected, the curriculum in its present form differs little from the historical versions whereby BAME people are negatively and derogatively represented, as well as their contribution to society and knowledge is ignored and marginalised. Through the processes of schooling, racism is reproduced implicitly as well as at times explicitly, together with the power differentials between BAME and White people and hierarchies of knowledge and values. The profound impact of this and the reproduction of racism throughout history has been clearly laid out by Said (2003) through his thesis ‘Orientalism’. Through his analysis he explores the discourse of Orientalism, and as Jiang (2021) puts it, he demonstrates the construction of “the ‘superior West from the ‘inferior’ rest”. He analyses the processes involved in ideological inculcation or what Bourdieu (Bourdieu with Eagleton 1992) prefers to term symbolic domination. The curriculum both overt and covert in school and university plays a central part in this process of symbolic domination. Said (1994) in Culture and Imperialism explores and explains the ways the power and dominance of British imperialism are infused through literature and other cultural forms. This is done explicitly but also frequently by an absence of any mention of the impact of Britain’s colonial role and indeed role in the Atlantic slave trade. The canon of English literature so intensively and repeatedly defended by Secretaries of State for Education (such as Gove, Okolosie 2013) is replete with such omissions, as well as racist tropes and negative, derogative representations. Chinua Achebe (1977), for example, in discussing one such example by the author, Joseph Conrad, argues that it clearly displays the use of Africa as a foil to display the gloriousness and superiority of Europe. He goes on:
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Heart of Darkness projects the image of Africa as “the other world”, the antithesis of Europe and therefore civilization, a place where man’s vaunted intelligence and refinement are finally mocked by triumphant bestiality. (p. 2)
According to Said (1994), the role of culture in the promotion of the idea of this ‘other world’ also impacts on Asia, South America and the Caribbean as well as Africa, areas colonised by Europeans. ‘This other world’ is exploited in multiple ways for resources, minerals and so on but also by writers of fiction and travel, historians, philosophers, geographers, botanists and explorers who have excavated colonised lands. Through their work they served to create these countries as fantastical, exotic places on the one hand and as barbaric, lacking civilisation, degenerate and having nothing worth representing in their own right (Said 1994). Focusing specifically on Britain, Said gives examples where literature serves this purpose. He cites the philosopher John Stuart Mill who wrote that “…Our West Indian colonies … cannot be regarded as countries with a productive capital of their own … [but are rather] the place where England finds it convenient to carry on the production of sugar, coffee and a few tropical commodities …there is little production of anything except for staple commodities and these are sent to England … to be sold in England for the benefit of its proprietors there” (p. 114 in Said and Stuart Mill 1965, p. 693). As Said says this statement depicts the ruthlessness of the colonial period but also of the White slave master to which of course there is no explicit reference. Said juxtaposes the reference to John Stuart Mill against the classic novel Mansfield Park by the much- loved author Jane Austen. In the novel Jane Austen makes only passing reference to slavery, and as pointed out by Said (1994), the relationship between the source of wealth through the slave trade and slavery of the Bertram family and the grandeur of Mansfield Park is not made. Indeed whilst hinting at criticism of slavery and the slave trade, Austen’s key protagonist both depends on and covets this lifestyle. This stance is not unusual not least since most of Britain benefitted in some way and the landed gentry in particular, from the slave trade and slavery. Austen of course is not alone in this, and similar processes are displayed by other canonical writers in Britain, and elsewhere (Said 1994).
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As well as promoting and perpetuating the notion of the greatness of Britain and the British Empire through literature and other cultural forms such as art (see e.g. Berger 2008) and music (Richards 2001), more crudely and overtly, there are numerous examples where Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic people are denigrated particularly in relation to India— as in Kipling and E.M. Forster (Said 1994)—and Africa such as by Joseph Conrad, together with Maugham, Rider Haggard and so on. This is not the place to undertake a textual analysis of literature and art, but these ideas and overt and subliminal messages of BAME people are connected and reproduced. The word ‘savage’ and the ‘N’ word are used frequently in the literature of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, together with derogatory representations and racist tropes, a perfect foil for subjugating Black people, demonising them and constructing Black people as lesser. This serves as a further justification for maintaining control over people who it is implied are not equal to the White majority and are threatening. Where literature portrays Georgian England as in Jane Austen, for example, or the England of Dickens’ Victorian period, Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic people and the role of Britain at these times, the period from which the canon tends to be drawn, most frequently go unmentioned. The bustling city of London and home counties in Dickens and Hardy are marked by the absent presence of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic people. The prosperity of the upper classes in Dickens, Eliot and Gaskell, for example, in spite of all three being social commentators, is never contextualised with the sources of their wealth. The worlds of these novels are White, and anything that is non-White has no place in the narrative of ‘Great Britain’. References to the colonial relationship are mainly in texts relating to former British colonies such as in those texts I have just referred to. The classics have created a normative hegemonic view of history which in some of the literature is revealing in many ways regarding social class, the hierarchies in society and gendered roles and behaviour, but a significant element of British society is almost completely missing. The impact of the White curriculum is thus to view BAME peoples through a White Western and frequently negative gaze (Burney 2012a). Through the curriculum the Other is created and recreated, positioned on the margins contributing little. There may be more consciousness and sensitivity in modern-day society about the use of racist language and images, but these and other
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Victorian authors are still widely read and studied uncritically. There are also examples where there is clearly little understanding or recognition of the implications of Britain’s colonial past. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, for example, quoted from Kipling’s problematic colonial poem Mandalay on his visit to Myanmar and the country’s most sacred temple, and had to be stopped by the British Ambassador because of its inappropriateness (Worley 2017). Also, a recent television drama based on the book The Black Narcissus (Godden 2013) contributes to colonial images of the White saviour, in this instance missionary nuns, and portrays local Himalayan people as simplistic, uneducated and superstitious. The book itself includes racist language such as “coolie” and “slit eye Mongol”. Said (1994) makes the further point that it is not just the work of the nineteenth- and early twentieth-century writers that depicted Africa and other former British colonies in these negative ways, but he argues, contemporary novelists and film makers rather than learning from the deconstruction of Western representations through the work of, for example, Frantz Fanon, C.L.R. James and Walter Rodney, have merely followed in Conrad and others’ footsteps, demonstrating an unwillingness to acknowledge the existence and relevance of cultures and societies other than their own.
Conclusion The White curriculum establishes itself as the norm and thus the embodiment of ‘true knowledge’. It stands as the arbiter of what knowledge counts and what knowledge has value (see also, e.g. Miller 2019; Yosso 2005; Brah 1996). It serves, as Said argued in relation to Western ‘culture’, to promote the Othering of BAME people. Multicultural education at best may have tinkered around the edges in order to try to achieve wider more positive representations, but it has made limited impact on the substance of what is taught in schools or universities in terms of challenging hierarchies of knowledge and giving recognition to the value of ethnically diverse cultural and historical contributions or the influences of Britain’s colonial past and links with many parts of the world. Multicultural Education has remained on the margins but also served as a buffer, a diversion to engaging with the racism endemic in the
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curriculum and pedagogy of the teacher and school. The impact on BAME children has been to ensure they are kept in their place, and the curriculum has reproduced and perpetuated negative, derogatory stereotypes. What has remained is an ethnocentric education experience to ensure the maintenance of White domination. Challenging the distortion of history and the protests to remove, for instance, the statues of slave traders and its key beneficiaries such as Colston in Bristol and others, are connected struggles. It is not that Austen and others should not be read or that remembrance of the likes of Colston should not be kept in museums, but rather these historical periods need to be deconstructed, re-analysed, explained and recontextualised with an analysis of the actual implications of the role of the slave trade and also British imperialism. As I argued earlier, it is not about hiding history but on the contrary much more about revealing history and exposing the distortions of history. The curriculum issue is much more than whether it addresses diversity but rather its significance lies in the ways BAME people are objectified and subjugated through the Western gaze, through colonial and imperialist tropes and discourse (Burney 2012a) and how this is continuously reproduced often by default (Said 2003). Decolonising the curriculum or challenging racism in the curriculum, however we might want to describe it, might include the need for diverse representation, but it also needs to be as much if not more about deconstructing the messages and metaphors represented in the existing dominant White curriculum. It also needs to address pedagogic styles and as part of this to include the education of children in critical analytical approaches in relation to literature and to be able to do this in other spheres of life including other media representations and texts. The failure to do so leaves ‘symbolic domination’ unchecked and unchallenged. At the present time the Black Lives Matter Movement also seeks to place racism and anti-racism at the heart of the struggle for equalities and social justice. We still need to be mindful of and learn from history about the ways that a focus on culture and cultural diversity can intentionally or unintentionally obstruct the target of tackling racism and relegate racial inequality and racism to the level of individual prejudiced attitudes and behaviours. Foregrounding the challenge to racism and White
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supremacy is therefore of central importance. It is also provoking, often frightening, painful and threatening. The danger lies in that addressing diversity of cultural practices can be much easier and less challenging, especially if the process remains at the level of tokenism.
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6 Reproducing Racism and Maintaining White Supremacy: Experiences in School and University
Introduction School examination results have improved consistently over the past 20 or more years for all children (Strand 2015; Department for Education 2019), and more children from minority ethnic groups are now going to university, proportionately more than their White counterparts (Gov.UK 2022; Crawford and Greaves 2015). However, academic achievement is a complex picture. Academic results are difficult to compare because of complex demographics and the changes in the nature of the examinations and assessment grading, not least recently since the disruption to children’s schooling as a result of COVID-19 measures and Britain’s lockdowns in 2020–2021. Moreover, whilst some BAME children are doing extremely well academically, the picture of academic achievement is not uniform. Chinese (Mau 2014; Archer and Francis 2007) and Indian heritage children do particularly well, and Bangladeshi heritage children have also greatly improved over the past ten years or so (DfE 2019, 2020; Alexander and Shankley 2020). By contrast, data across many years clearly show that there continues to be an achievement gap between children and young people of Black Caribbean, Pakistani and ‘Gypsy’, Roma © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023, corrected publication 2023 G. Crozier, Racism and Education in Britain, Palgrave Studies in Race, Inequality and Social Justice in Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-18931-9_6
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and Traveller heritage and their peers (Joseph-Salisbury 2020; Alexander and Shankley 2020; DFE 2020), and Demie (2021) also notes that Black Caribbean children are not sharing the higher achievement standards as other minority ethnic groups seen over the past decade. There are many complex reasons why there is this diversity of achievement amongst different ethnic minority groups. It is outside of the scope of this book to examine in detail why this might be, but social class plays a significant role in academic achievement and performance as we know. Some have argued that the role of parents in Chinese heritage families is significant (Archer and Francis 2007). However, the complexity of the ways racism plays out and the maintenance of White supremacy are central to the experiences and achievements of BAME children in school. As Strand (2012) and others (Rollock et al. 2014) have shown, the racialisation of people and the effect of racism override the impact of social class on these experiences. Likewise, the investment of Black and Pakistani heritage parents is at least equal to that of White middle-class parents in relation to supporting their children’s education and yet has been shown to have a limited positive affect (Crozier 2005a, b; Crozier and Davies 2006; Rollock et al. 2014 and see Chap. 8). It is, nevertheless, important to emphasise that not all Black Caribbean heritage young people leave school without qualifications. For some academic achievement levels are improving, and more Black Caribbean and South Asian heritage young people are going on to university than in the past. However, there remains an achievement gap there too. As the #Closing the Gap Report says: A student’s race and ethnicity can significantly affect their degree outcomes. Of the disparities that exist within higher education, the gap between the likelihood of White students and students from Black, Asian or minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds getting a first- or upper-second-class degree is among the most stark – 13% among 2017–18 graduates. (UUK/NUS 2019, p. 1)
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and the majority of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic young people tend not to go to Russell Group1 universities (Bolliver 2016) which are more selective, more White and middle-class dominated and it is said provide greater opportunities for higher status jobs and financial rewards. Academic achievement is a central part of the context of young people’s schooling, and it has immense significance for a young person’s future opportunities in the modern world. But what I am particularly concerned about here is the composition and impact of their school experience. I am concerned with the nature of racism and how it plays out in the school, university, classroom and Education system, and as the title of the chapter suggests, I will interrogate these experiences and different facets of schooling and university to reveal the ways Whiteness infuses and dominates the education experience. In particular, I consider the experiences of children and young people of Black Caribbean heritage and those of South Asian heritage, particularly of Pakistani and Bangladeshi heritage. Drawing on some of my own research as well as that of others, I show how young Black Caribbean heritage children experience, in school, a downward spiral of opportunity through a range of undermining and discriminatory experiences, which construct them in negative derogatory ways and marginalise them, often resulting in actual exclusion. I also address the experiences of South Asian (Pakistani and Bangladeshi) heritage young people which involved processes of hyper-differentiation and Othering and as a result of the terrorism and radicalisation discourses the creation of certain groups of young people as fearsome. The theme of fear of the Other also extends to the university context. With regard to the university, the experiences of racism may manifest themselves differently, but the impact is basically the same. I therefore seek to cast some light on how we might challenge racism and put an end to its pernicious effects. Russell Group Universities are a self-selected group of 24 universities focused on research and academic achievement. Their collective interest is to represent their interests to government. Other university groups with a similar purpose include Million +; Universities UK; and Universities Scotland. Russell Group Universities in Britain are perceived to be high status universities and are regarded as being more difficult to gain admission to. Modern or post-1992 universities have tended to be more successful in achieving widening access to a broader range of students from White working-class and Black Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds. 1
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hite Norms and the Neoliberal W Education System The endurance of schools’ failure of Black and South Asian students is a deep-seated and embedded systemic issue. Schools should be places of inspiration, creativity, safety, motivation and support. As we have seen, racism is endemic in society; it pervades all aspects. In education it permeates the curriculum, pedagogy, organisation and management. Racist abuse and harassment in schools have increased particularly since the Brexit vote (2016) and for East and Southeast Asian heritage people particularly since the COVID pandemic (https://www.nasuwt.org.uk/ static/uploaded/078c0e49-ca96-497c-9edbc9830ceb99bb.pdf ). In 2017 Schools Week reported on a survey of 43 police forces in England. Of the 21 who responded, 18 revealed a significant increase in the number of racial hate crimes being reported. The overall figure rose by 57 per cent from 271 in 2014–2015 to 425 in 2016–2017. Nineteen of the surveyed police forces reported that the number of schoolchildren having been arrested for a race crime rose by 53% from 2014–2015 to 2016–2017. Schools Week also reported that minority ethnic schoolchildren were physically attacked on the way home from school and told “go back to your own country” (Camden 18 June 2017). More recently The Guardian newspaper reported that over 60,000 racist incidents were recorded by UK schools over the past five years. It is thought that the numbers will be much higher since schools in England are no longer required by law to report these to their local authorities (Batty and Parveen 2021). This begs the question about whether schools are fulfilling their duty of care as outlined in the Equality Act 2010. Other evidence suggests that schools can be uncomfortable environments and places of exclusion. Irrespective of the seemingly improved and more promising assessment results cited earlier, Black and mixed Caribbean heritage children continue to be disproportionately excluded from school (www.ethnicity-facts-figures. services.gov.uk 2021a, b; Timpson Review 2019) (‘Gypsy’, Roma and Irish Travellers are the most excluded overall), and these young people together with Pakistani heritage young people are disproportionately represented in Pupil Referral Units (Alexander and Shankley 2020). This last
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statistic resonates with the similar issue of low expectations and misrepresented labelling of Black Caribbean heritage children revealed by Bernard Coard in 1971 (Coard 1971). The Education system as is commonly understood is structured by a neoliberal framework. Competition, the foregrounding of the individual and more to the point individual responsibility for success are at the crux of it. The reforms to establish a neoliberal market-based Education system from the Education Reform Act (1988) through the various amendments to the present day and the implications of these have been well documented (Chubb and Moe 1988; Ball 1990; Bowe and Ball 1992; Gewirtz et al. 1995). It is of particular note that the school choice competition process, the introduction of school academies with the Academies Act 2010 and the means to ensure a school is at the top of the league tables are key features in the discussion here. The strong emphasis on competition (between schools) has had the impact of creating an ethos averse to risk that could potentially impact the school’s academic reputation. The emphasis on pupil behaviour, ensuring sameness and maintaining a unity of pupils’ values and purpose together with compliant parents are paramount requirements for achieving success in these terms. A form of assimilation is another way of putting this (Crozier 2016; Levitas 1998). Fuelled by the Prevent Duty and Brexit populism (see Chap. 4), the discourse of patriotism and the requirement to teach ‘Fundamental British Values’ underpin the ethos and orientation of many schools. Graham (2016) and Timpson (2019) point to the emphasis on zero tolerance of school behaviour expectations as contributing to the impact of exclusions on Black Caribbean heritage children in particular. The competition between schools, the high stakes exam results and the pressures from PISA internationally have led to a tightly organised and narrowly focused school organisation, regime and curriculum (Lingard and Sellar 2013; Crozier 2017). For a privileged minority in private schools and certain selective schools, a broader range of learning experiences through school autonomy or, for example, the international
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baccalaureate2 is available. For the rest, the curriculum has become narrower, more focused on Standard Assessment Tests (SATs) and the General Certificate of Secondary Examinations (GCSE), and the nature of the curriculum has become more limited (Alexander and Shankley 2020; Alexander and Weekes-Bernard 2017). We have seen a loss or diminution of the provision of music and other creative subjects in many schools including primary. At secondary level after the age of 14, it is now possible to drop modern foreign languages (Long et al. 2020). Compartmentalised efforts to incorporate a multicultural education perspective is left to the decision of individual schools and teachers, but constrained by the demands of the statutory curriculum and the lack of anti-racist, multicultural education training, the possibilities for such innovations are limited. As discussed in the previous chapter, even small recognitions of the multicultural society that we live in such as the welcome signs in multiple languages are frequently absent. In the multi- ethnic, multiracial school in the Southeast of England, for example, where we conducted the research (Crozier and Rhamie 2017), the SATs had taken over completely leading Year 6 pupils to complain how bored they were during the extensive preparation for the tests. They were relieved and excited once these were over and found they could do subjects other than maths and literacy. History in Year 6 was taught through role-play which the children loved, but the extent of diversity was a focus on the Greeks. As also explored in the previous chapter, there have been some discussion and recognition of the need to ‘decolonise’ the curriculum and address the history of British colonialism, although up to this time it seems that there remains profound compliance over what is taught in schools and the maintenance of a White-dominated perspective on knowledge and the world we live in. Whilst it is crucially important, addressing the curriculum is only one aspect of beginning to challenge racism. Addressing teachers’ pedagogy together with the organisation of the classroom and school is also essential. The International Baccalaureate (IB) is a series of education programmes recognised globally. In England it is studied mainly by years 12 and 13. Unlike the limited three or four A level subjects from the same disciplinary area usually taken as university entry in England, the IB offers six subjects from a range of disciplines four of which have to be taken from different disciplines. 2
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he Downward Spiral and ‘Breaking T Their Spirit’ As I have said, in spite of increased academic successes, Black children of Caribbean heritage have consistently experienced one of the most significant achievement gaps between themselves and their peers. Although there is no very recent quantitative research to draw on, the past evidence showed that children of Caribbean heritage began primary school positively with good results in the baseline assessments and Key Stage 1 SATs, but by Key Stage 3, it is clear that they are underachieving (Sammons, 1995; Gillborn and Mirza 2000; Department for Education and Skills 2003). In 2010 (Department for Education 2011) it was reported that Black pupils made comparable progress with White pupils during Key Stage 2, but their progress performance was found to become polarised during Key Stage 3, with higher proportions of Black pupils failing to progress. These data are borne out by the views of parents in my study (Crozier 2005a, b; see also Rollock et al. 2014), who described their children as bright and keen to learn initially but who were systematically turned off by the negative school experience. All of the parents talked about how engaged with learning their children were at the start of secondary school and showed through their accounts the downward spiral that their children experienced. One mother described the school experience for Black African Caribbean heritage boys as like “a war against them” (Crozier 2005a). A pattern of school experiences for the majority of the children were identified as invalidating, disabling and emotionally challenging which, in Beale-Spencer and Harpalani’s (2001) terms, could result in the undermining of the students’ mental health and well-being. This was certainly a serious concern for the parents in the research. They spoke about the need to support the morale of their children, and they feared their personality being changed as a result of these pressures. As one mother, Sara (African Caribbean mother, business studies degree, occupation unknown) explained: “… the thing I’m really really aware of is the fact that I’m a mother with an African male child and I know there’s an
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onslaught on our male children so I’m very conscious about his spirit not being broken” (Crozier 2005a, p. 589). The fear of a downward spiral of achievement and educational engagement ran throughout the parents’ accounts. Each parent had a story about teacher hostility, teachers not supporting their children, being indifferent to their needs or unfairly blaming them for some wrong doing. A number of parents talked about their children doing well at primary school and being fully engaged with their education, but when they went to secondary school, problems began to occur. Two parents Mr and Mrs Kerr (father, white, unemployed due to ill health; mother, Black, social worker) who had four children were so worried about their third son ending up in prison as a result of his schooling and decided to take him out of school altogether and home-school him. Mr Kerr: He was scared of getting into trouble. Mrs Kerr: He was and we could see him heading down a path or becoming really [inaudible] youth offending, a borstal type of thing, eventually prison that really was the way he was sort of going with no real support from the school. I felt they were pushing him towards that because they were always incredibly, I felt they were challenging him and what we didn’t also want was, we didn’t want him to be one of these boys who would lose, …[his persona]… He had a nice persona but there’s more to it. … I didn’t want him to lose his resilience and I didn’t want him to necessarily become sort of like a coward about his interactions with people. He’s very outgoing …I didn’t want him to be somebody who would just be a ‘yes’ person and I really felt that that’s what they wanted him to become more like. And it’s really awful but it almost reminded me of slave days of when people were trying to put any kind of will in people so that you then lost all will and they could do what they wanted with you and I could almost see that happening to my son. And I thought I actually don’t want that for my son; I actually think he’s the sort of character whether he did well at school or didn’t do well at school, he can land on his feet and would somehow be okay and I didn’t
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want that almost beaten him out of him. (quoted in Crozier 2005a, p. 590) The work of Graham (2016) shows that Mr and Mrs Kerr’s fears regarding the potential future for their son were not unfounded. Graham (2016) shows the links between school and prison for young Black men, not least as a result of school exclusions (see also Audit Commission 1996; Scott and Spencer 2013; Briggs 2010, cited in Graham 2016), which she refers to as the ‘school prison pipeline’ (see also IRR 2021). All except one of her research participants could outline the trajectories from being “naughty” as a child to developing anti-social behaviour outside of school and/or ending up in prison. She reported that one of her Black male respondents described his schooling as “the war years” (p. 5) reflecting the sentiments of Sara above. Between March 2018 and April 2019, Black people were over three times as likely to be arrested as White people and, overall, men were six times as likely to be arrested than women (www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk 2022). Whilst these statistics have steadily increased overall, this disproportionate representation of Black and Asian people in prison is not a new phenomenon as the IRR report (2021) showed, as did the Lammy Review (2017). The parents (in my study) felt teachers and the school had considerable power over their children, and this was not always being used responsibly. Mrs Banks (Black British, nurse), for example, said: “… at the end of the day they are in control of our children … and they can make or break them …” (Crozier 2005a, p. 590). Reasons for Black underachievement have frequently been located within a pathologising discourse, blaming the children themselves as inadequate or innately delinquent. Poor self- concept and low self-esteem as a result of alleged cultural deficit has been one popular explanation. Then a further twist to the deficit model was proposed by Fordham and Ogbu (1986), writing in the USA, who argued that Black young people refused to engage with education because to do so would be to ‘act white’. Tony Sewell’s work (1997) in the UK in part endorsed this view, although he also tended to blame the parents and in particular lone Black mothers (Sewell 2010; Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities Report March 2021). The “fear of acting white” thesis has largely been spurned at least in the UK, but also Beale-Spencer et al.
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(2001) in the USA argued that this thesis is questionable. In addition, as they said, it fails to take account of the pressures young Black people are under in schools and the need for them to adopt coping strategies as a result of this. In our study of primary aged children in Southeast England (Crozier and Rhamie 2017), the Black British Caribbean heritage children we interviewed expressed dismay at never getting a reward for their work and good behaviour in the reward system that the school operated, no matter how hard they tried. These reward systems are very commonly used in primary schools, but their effect seems not always to be understood in relation to negative and undermining, demoralising impacts. Their allocation is based on the attitude and subjective judgement of the teacher. For these Black children, this did not tend to play out satisfactorily. As one of the boys said resignedly, “It’s not that they don’t like us, it’s just that they like the others better” (Crozier and Rhamie 2017). The South Asian children and young people and parents I interviewed as part of the Asian Families research project (Crozier 2004) expressed similar views of teachers’ neglect, low academic expectations and indifference. Some girls suggested that often schools did not bother that much with them as they stereotyped them, assuming that they would get married soon after leaving school, and therefore they did not consider their education to be that important. This respondent summed up her view of the career guidance experience she had had, as: They’re a waste of time – they’re all really racist…just the expectations that they have of us. … their attitude is like well ‘they’re all going to get married anyway so what’s the point’ and the teachers were just as bad… they can’t be bothered… they can’t cos they know that the lads are going to the restaurants and the girls they’re all getting married – it’s wrong. (Bangladeshi heritage secondary aged female pupil)
Parents of Pakistani heritage were also concerned about teachers’ low expectations of their children. Parents observed that their children were not making progress or seemed to be unmotivated in some way and that they did not seem to have been given homework. Parents whose relatives or friends had children in other schools often made comparisons with
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what went on in these different schools. In these instances parents often seemed helpless to know what to do or how to get the school to address their concerns. Beale-Spencer and Harpalani (2001) in some further work refocused their argument and developed a structural and contextual analysis of school as a stressful experience that impacts negatively upon young Black people’s psychosocial well-being. They argued that young people throughout their schooling encounter risks and ‘stressor’ experiences, and structural racism creates risks for ensuring positive outcomes for the students’ mental well-being (Beale-Spencer and Harpalani 2001, p. 28). The emotionality of experiencing and enduring racism on a daily basis has been under-researched and under-reported particularly in sociology (Bonilla- Silva 2019). And yet as Beale and Harpalani indicate, experiencing racism is highly stressful. Anderson (2015) goes further and argues that when Black people enter White spaces, they feel anxious, something which Bonilla-Silva (2019) refers to as “feeling race”; Bonilla-Silva goes on: “Much like class and gender, race cannot come to life without being infused with emotions, thus, racialized actors feel the emotional weight of their categorical location” (p. 2). As I show the unrelenting pressures of racialisation, racist discrimination and abuse throughout school not surprisingly take its toll.
hite Spaces of Exclusion: The School W as a Racist Environment As already discussed, racist abuse became more overt, and reported incidents increased after the Brexit vote in 2016. But racist harassment and abuse has been a long-standing and enduring experience for many BAME children and young people. Following 9/11 in the USA, the war in Afghanistan and then the invasion of Iraq, parents and children from both the Bangladeshi and Pakistani communities also reported that attitudes towards them had changed both in the community and in school. Many respondents reported being verbally abused both on the streets, on the way to and from school, and indeed when they were at school. In
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Shipton3 violent racist attacks on Bangladeshis and other minority ethnic groups were reported in the local press. Some of the girls talked about having their hijabs pulled off when walking home. Parents in Ironoreton4 also said they felt attitudes had changed. As one father said, he felt teachers had changed their attitude towards them, and his wife said she felt people in the street were covertly hostile, which they had not previously been. This situation is not conducive to free and easy movement through the streets afforded by the White majority. The Bangladeshi community, especially the women and the children, felt relegated to the confines of their home, causing them to become invisible, not present and in effect excluded. The school by association may be seen as part of that unwelcoming and at times hostile environment, not least because of the children’s experiences there. In Shipton in particular, many of the children were anxious about their parents being ridiculed for wearing their traditional clothes of shalwar, kameez, the hijab, and therefore they actively conspired to make sure their parents did not attend parents’ meetings usually by not informing them of these. South Asian families were frequently stereotyped as not being well educated, or not speaking English, especially the mothers, and in Shipton there was a view amongst the schools that education especially for the girls was a low priority, as explained earlier by one of the pupils. We did not find this to be the case in our study (Crozier 2004) There were examples (in the research) of schools and teachers making the effort to reach out to the communities and to give some recognition to cultural differences. Primary schools tried at times to involve all of their parents in events such as school fetes and through making food. One primary school head in Ironoreton had a shalwar and kameez made for herself which she would wear at school events in an effort to identify with the Pakistani heritage parents. But moving beyond the tokenism of such gestures was difficult and often recognised by the teachers themselves. Lack of knowledge and lack of insights into the effects of racialisation often led to well-intentioned initiatives slightly mis-stepping. A Not its real name. Not its real name.
3 4
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secondary school in Ironoreton, for example, introduced ‘Asian dancing’ for the South Asian girls, assuming all Asian heritage people have the same cultural traditions. Then there were ‘old habits’ and presumably the need and/or desire to accommodate the White majority of parents. An example of this was when one school in Ironoreton organised a barn dance with an alcohol bar which on both counts excluded the Pakistani heritage and other Muslim parents. In spite of these attempts to engage with the school’s diverse ethnic population, there was limited active response to complaints about racist abuse. Just as in the local communities described above, similar attitudes and behaviours were replicated by fellow White pupils in school. The South Asian children frequently mentioned bullying and aggressive behaviour against them in schools, and it seems that this was often either of a direct racist nature or that racist insults were used within disagreements or to antagonise individuals or groups. This was a key feature in both locations, Shipton and Ironoreton. One young person explained: Well because the [White] boys say ‘we’re fighting a war now against the Pakis and you are a Paki so we are going to do a war with you at playtime’. (Shipton Bangladeshi heritage male school student.)
The South Asian heritage secondary school students reported feeling deep anxieties about harassment and being taunted. During break times was particularly worrying as well as coming and going to and from home. At one of the secondary schools in Ironoreton, some of the children of Pakistani heritage again referred to changing world events and the impact it had on them. They described White children’s aggressive attempts to marginalise and silence them: Boy:
Well I think, when we first started in year 7, I’ll take it from year 7 right, racism was a bit of a problem, but anyway [inaudible] so there was no problem by year 9 it was better, but now (Girl: since that ‘Osama Bin Laden’ thing) yeah when that happened, right when that Osama Bin Laden thing happened, like it hit year 10; now it’s come to be a real problem now.
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Girl: And the girls especially, always fighting, arguing. GC: What, the White girls? Boy: Yeah … Boy: Like I think racism is a really big problem now. GC: So is it from the other kids? All: Yeah Girl: It puts us off our education, [and you don’t want to] come to school as well. Boy: Like some of us here are like quite strong individuals but where the weaker individuals, I think it could scare [them] from coming to school, at times. GC: So is it, like this name calling? Boy: Yeah name calling and… Girl: Throwing coins at us…. Boy: Yeah throwing coins at us…you know like if we’re in the social area and we put music on they just walk past and switch it off, they do things… Girl: [They] can’t stand it [if we do stuff] Boy: It’s anything we do basically, like if we’re in lessons and we’re like trying, like if the teacher’s asking us questions and we’re trying to like answer yeah, if no-one answers or even if we’re trying anyway, they make remarks like “fxxxxxx Paki’s always have to answer, open their mouths or whatever”, but we’re just trying. GC: And is it just a few certain ones? Girl: Well it’s most of the girls now, to be honest. Boy: After September 11th I think everyone’s got it in their heart, but I think some people show it more than others, but I think everyone has got it in their heart, that’s what I think…Yeah, because there’s so much happening in the world, the more they listen … they think ‘Pakis’ and then when they come to school and [if ] we do anything, [they say]: “Pakis, they’re all the same that’s the way they’re like”. But some people say it to us, some people don’t, some people
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keep it inside, some people express it to others that’s the way it is. (Ironoreton, Pakistani heritage pupils Year 10/11) The coin throwing is like a form of punishment for whom they are or whom they are seen to represent. They are regarded as ‘outsiders’ who have the audacity to behave as insiders. Or if they ever were insiders, they are now being cast out. The young people here have clearly got the message that they have no right to a voice. As far as they are concerned, although they may not be overtly abused by all of their White peers, they do believe they are widely resented and that makes them wary. In Shipton we heard stories of White youths setting upon Bangladeshi boys on their way home from school or on their way to the youth club in the evenings or at weekends. In school the aggression was often more verbal but also intimidatory such as being pushed on the stairs or having their way blocked. The girls also suffered the common occurrence of having their hijabs pulled off often resulting in them deciding not to wear them anymore. We know from reports of racist incidences on social media and the racist abuse Black footballers have experienced over the past few years (Okwonga 2019) that the social environment, including that of schools, for children and young people is toxic. For BAME children it is a dangerous environment and for White children it is a corrupting one. For none of the children is this situation conducive to developing positive citizenship let alone productive learning. The schools have an important role to address this damaging negativity as well as to ensure safeguarding of all the children. For BAME children this environment creates exclusion and fuels antagonism. Such experiences had become normalised as part of the young people’s lives. One pupil said, for example: It happened to everyone so I just thought it was normal. It didn’t bother me that much – it was just one of those things. It was nothing I couldn’t handle – they’d turn round and say, ‘you black bastard’ or something like that or ‘Pakis go back to your own country’ - stuff like that – that’s normal – that’s just like their narrow minds isn’t it? (Ironoreton, Pakistani heritage male pupil)
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In the secondary schools the students complained that nothing was ever really done about the racism or they were told to ignore it by teachers and therefore they could see little point in reporting it. Even when they did report it the pupils felt it was not dealt with effectively by teachers or schools. One female respondent provided a vivid example of having been the victim of racist taunting and bullying, and yet, when it was reported, the solution offered was to move her out of the class group in question, in order to get away from the perpetrators. Initially she had accepted this but then realised that this would impact upon her educational opportunities in that she was being placed in a lower set with a less demanding curriculum and less opportunity to achieve a high grade. In effect she was being punished indirectly for the negative actions of others. Mr Yusuf (one of the few teachers of ‘Asian’ heritage we interviewed) referred to the anti-bullying/no blame approach at his school in Shipton but that no Bangladeshi children participated or reported racial harassment, an observation endorsed by Mrs Hyam who ran the scheme. The onus, however, both here and elsewhere was on the children themselves to monitor the racism. A vicious circle seemed to have grown up where the teachers do little because they did not regard it as serious and the South Asian students did not report it because nothing was done about it; seemingly the absence of reports led the teachers to assume that there was not an issue. We do not know exactly why this happened. It may be to do with a lack of training which there certainly was and is and therefore a lack of knowledge and confidence about how to deal with racist abuse. Or it may be to do with ‘dysconscious racism’ (King 2004). This is not unconscious racism but rather “a form of racism that implicitly accepts dominant White norms and privilege” (p. 338). As she explained a lack of critical thinking about racial inequality leads to the acceptance of assumptions, myths and beliefs. Negotiating Whiteness for some of these young people involved capitulating or assimilating in the sense of becoming ‘invisible’. As already said, some of the Bangladeshi and Pakistani heritage girls talked about taking off their hijab on the way to school or else giving up wearing it altogether. For others and indeed for so many of the young people we spoke to, there was a disturbing resignation to the commonplace of racism: so common an occurrence was it that the young people
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often expressed a resigned acceptance to it: “It’s not that big a deal really; it’s just one thing that we all know you have at school…” (Bangladeshi heritage girl group interview at the Bangladeshi Community Centre). Krzyzanowski (2020) associates the normalisation of racism with the ongoing moral panic (Cohen 2011) around immigration across Europe. As he says myths, distortions and exaggerations are created and recreated, based on historical knowledge or experiences, to justify government policy and are then pervaded through the media, the effects of which contemporaneously are amplified through social media platforms. Some of the policies on immigration have been discussed which portray a negative view of migrant people together with the effects of Brexit. We have also seen how the notion of migrants tends to translate generally into people who are perceived as Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic. From the young people’s accounts above, it is clearly shown how the socio-political context impacts on attitudes and behaviours, but perhaps even more importantly, the repeated nature of these views and sentiments becomes part of the doxa—everyday reality—just how it is. The students’ experience resulted not in understanding or sympathy from the school, nor positive action, but rather gave rise to teachers’ criticisms of the South Asian students segregating themselves (Crozier and Davies 2008), as though they were aloof and unapproachable, reluctant to engage with their White peers and the school environment. These experiences did not end at school, but in some later work with university students, Crozier (2008) and also Bhopal (2010) reported that South Asian students recounted similar experiences of fear and the need to seek solidarity and support with other South Asian students. As Krysan and Zubrinsky (cited in Onwuachi-Willig 2017) researching in the USA have shown, prejudice is the strongest predictor of resistance to racial integration amongst Whites, whilst fear of discrimination is the strongest predictor of BAME avoidance of White neighbourhoods. Nevertheless, as Anderson (Anderson 2015) has said, whilst White people dominate and have control over the space and can absent themselves without such comments as “forming gangs” if and usually when they choose not to mix with BAME people (children and university students in this instance), BAME people “are required to navigate the white space as a condition of their existence” (p. 11). Exclusion takes on many forms. Failure to create
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a welcoming, positive, supportive and anti-racist environment leads to exclusion. Hiding from violent or threatening or simply discomforting situations leads to a form of exclusion. The children consequently miss out on educational experiences and opportunities.
Fear of Black and Asian Children After hearing a child say, “Look, a Negro” and “Mama, see the Negro. I am frightened!” Fanon (1967) writes: My body was given back to me sprawled out, distorted, recolored, clad in mourning in that white winter day. The Negro is an animal, the Negro is bad, the Negro is mean, the Negro is ugly…. Where shall I shelter from now on? I felt an easily identifiable flood mounting out of the countless facets of my being”. (pp. 112–114, cited in Bonilla-Silva 2019)
This was written in 1967, but not only have these attitudes barely been challenged or dealt with, they are perpetuated through the school, through both the overt and hidden curriculum, teacher and pupil attitudes and stereotypes, school practices and organisation, as well as attitudes and practices external to the school. The introduction of the police in urban BAME populated schools (Long 2018; Joseph-Salisbury 2020) is an example of schools regarding Black and Asian young people as potentially troublesome and a problem to be dealt with. According to Joseph-Salisbury, police are not universally deployed but mainly in areas of economic disadvantage and often with significant populations of Black and Asian children. Joseph-Salisbury reported that the teachers who he interviewed were not happy with the police presence in schools and expressed concern that their presence could disrupt the safe and harmonious environment that they aimed for in school. The high incidence of the stop and search measures carried out by the police on young Black men has been well reported (Long 2018; Stop and search 2022). It was felt that the association of the police presence in schools with these practices and with the over-policing of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities could lead to a negative and threatening association
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(Joseph-Salisbury 2020). It has also been reported that the police presence could lead to a culture of low expectations and the risk of criminalising young people (Parveen et al. 2021). The construction of South Asian young people deliberately or unintentionally as potential terrorists reinforced by the Prevent Duty (2015) continues to have a profoundly negative effect on the children (Versi 2015). Implications of the Prevent Duty and the requirement to include Fundamental British Values into the curriculum, as discussed, have exacerbated an environment of difference based on negativity and suspicion especially for children and young people perceived as being Muslims; in fact anyone perceived as South Asian are frequently regarded as Muslim even though this is not the case. South Asian heritage children already stigmatised in a range of racialised ways have been subjected to this additional differentiation. The Pakistani and Bangladeshi heritage children in my study (Crozier 2004) were often seen as oppositionists, and with the rise of Islamophobia (Elahi and Khan 2017) based on the notion that all Muslims are (potential) terrorists, the boys in particular were seen as the ‘enemy within’. Teachers spoke of the secondary aged children as forming gangs and having rival gang conflicts. These according to the teachers were between different Muslim groups from different countries such as Iraq, Libya or Afghanistan, all war zones at the time or between different families originating from different parts of Pakistan or Sylhet (in Bangladesh). The Pakistani heritage children in particular and their community were depicted as resentful, territorial and aggressive, not benign and passive as was once the construction of South Asian children (Crozier and Davies 2008). They were said to be threatening, but there was little evidence to support these claims. Instead it was said that “They’re threatening because they hang around in a large group and look threatening…” (ibid. p. 291). As Alexander (2000) argued, “Muslims….have become the new ‘black’ with all the associations of alienation, deprivation and danger that come with this position” (p. 236). Whilst the boys were regarded as posing a threat (Crozier and Davies 2008), the South Asian heritage girls were described as devious (Crozier 2004; see Shain 2003 also). Likewise, Black British Caribbean boys are often seen as threatening, to be feared, troublesome and dishonest (Crozier 2005a, b; Gillborn 1990;
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Joseph-Salisbury 2019), whilst Black British Caribbean girls are constructed as loud, vulgar and ‘overly assertive’ (Morris 2009; Rollock 2007). Perceptions of children in these ways informs school and teacher attitudes and actions. Whilst some of the children in the Crozier (2005a, b) study referred to earlier did achieve academically and went on to further and higher education, the predominant view by the parents was of a negative school experience. Parent after parent reported the stereotypical depictions of their children explaining school and teacher descriptions of Black boys as loud, big, aggressive and the girls as feisty even when this was not the case. Mrs Jordan, for example, explained that the reference to physical appearance was a signifier of her son’s putative guilt: He also … thought that the teachers were saying, stereotypically, saying that he’s a young tall black man and they feel intimidated by him, which is the norm for most black youths. And he just began to hate the school. … As far as [the teachers are] concerned the child is wrong and there’s been some occasions where because he was in a particular position, you know when you’re in class and you’re sat with a particular group, or near a particular group, if that group starts off because you’re there, you’re automatically getting blamed. If you stand up for yourself and say, ‘Hang on miss or sir, I wasn’t involved in it’, they don’t want to hear; unless some other, … children are prepared to support you, you’re going down. And that, you know, does sort of like build up in your head. Both of them really [her two sons] [it] just made them believe that the school had actually failed them because … they weren’t getting the support that they needed. (Mrs Jordan quoted in Crozier 2005a, p. 591)
Being regarded in this way often resulted in confrontation or even exclusion for some of the children. The accumulation of these experiences led Mrs Jordan’s son to give up one of his courses. Another mother explained that her son was repeatedly accused of various misdemeanours including stealing a bike, bringing hashish into school and threatening a teacher, again because he was said to be ‘tall’. Being erroneously accused of stealing was common indicating a characterisation of Black young people as untrustworthy, unscrupulous and potentially criminal and treacherous, echoing the views of the White middle-class university
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students reported in Chap. 4. None of these accusations were substantiated. These kinds of accusations without evidence dominated the parents’ narratives of their male children’s school experiences.
Exerting Control and Ensuring Sameness Where young people take the risk or are not yet aware of the dangers in doing so, they seek to express themselves and assert their identities through their presentation of self and ways of being. However, for Black Caribbean and African heritage children, this is increasingly problematic. Black hair has seemingly become a key site of oppression (Joseph- Salisbury and Connelly 2018). School policies commonly ban certain types of haircut and style including patterns in hair or cornrows (Graham 2016; Tidman 2021) or dreadlocks (Joseph-Salisbury and Connelly 2018), and also schools try to implement uniform policies which discriminate against BAME children such as in the case of Pimlico Academy and the wearing of the hijab (Tidman 2021). It is not unknown for children breaching these rules to be placed on internal exclusion or even externally excluded on a long-term basis. Conflict between schools and parents over hair issues has been reported (Graham 2016; Joseph- Salisbury and Connelly 2018; Tidman 2021). As Graham argues “the mere presence of working-class and more strikingly, Black bodies in school can be seen as a potential lack of discipline in and of itself ” (p. 127). She goes on to say that working-class and Black language forms, deportment and the supposed adoption of ‘street cultures’ in terms of style “all look like trouble to teachers and schools” (p. 127). This resonates with Gillborn’s work in 1990 who found that teachers perceived children of African Caribbean heritage to be a challenge to their authority, a threat to the social and White cultural order of the school. More recently a London school was reported as trying to stop pupils from using ‘urban language’ influenced by Caribbean expressions of rappers’ lyrics such as ‘cut-eye’, ‘oh my days’ ‘cuss’ (Booth 30 September 2021). One of the mothers in my study (Crozier 2005b) sums up appositely the workings and impact of racism on children, the teachers and the school:
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…we live in a society where, you know, it’s inherently racist and I feel it impacts on us as black people, our perception, where we’re at, and it impacts on white people, on White children, Black children, …White teachers, Black teachers; it impacts on all of us…. And I think that the teachers’ perceptions of my son because he had locks on his head that was very critical…is that he wasn’t going to do nothing or go nowhere…. It depends on the teacher and the teacher’s perception and on how the teacher is willing to work with him and see him…. (Aisha, British African- Caribbean heritage; diploma in social work; worked with the homeless; quoted in Crozier 2005b, p. 47)
She indicated the stereotypes arising from something as simple as a hairstyle have a profound effect on the teachers’ perceptions of Black children, and boys in particular. These perceptions can pervade a school community so that Black children are marked out as problematic and dangerous. Joseph-Salisbury and Connelly (2018) argue that black hair has been constructed as undisciplined which leads into the view that Black children themselves are the problem, as they say that “Blackness [itself ] is troublesome”. In discussing the exclusion of Black artists in the UK who historically have been denied recognition and opportunities to exhibit their work (although this may be changing relatively in 2021), Fisher (2009) identifies the continued dominance of White fear and the implications of this for BAME people. Angela Onwuachi-Willig (2017) takes the analysis of White fear and protectiveness further in her examination of the murder of Trayvon Martin in 2013 in the USA by a neighbour whilst he was on his way home from buying some chocolate. In her account she demonstrates the threat that young Black men, in particular, are presented as and the deep desire and need of White people to regulate the presence of Black people in ‘White space’. In my own research (Crozier et al. 2016) with students in higher education, we showed, through the accounts of middle-class White men, how the presence of Black students was controlled through their demonisation as threatening and their putative ‘laziness’ to locate them as inauthentic students who had no right to be in the university. Controlling Black people through whatever devices is
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intended to ensure that Black people are kept in their place (see also Puwar 2004).
Negotiating White Space In Wallace’s (2017) research, the Black middle-class parents and their children were seen ‘to perform to be accepted’, but at the same time they strove to hold onto the essence of their Black identities and values. The Black middle-class parents utilised their class capitals and in particular what Wallace refers to as Black cultural capital, in targeted and instrumental ways, congruent with the norms of the field (of education) in Bourdieu’s terms (Bourdieu 1994)—that is, the structural conditions and processes of the school and the Education system, in this case, in order to fend off racist discrimination and subjugation. They coached their children to navigate the White spaces of school and sought to pre-empt the kinds of negative expectations of teachers and the school that I have outlined. A strategy employed by the parents and children in Wallace’s (2017) research was for the children to ingratiate themselves with the teachers, modelling their behaviours on what they saw as White behaviours and expectations. In the children’s accounts they appeared to be clear about what they were doing and what they needed to do in order to “improve their social and academic performance” (Wallace 2017, p. 912) and challenge the stereotyping of Black identities (ibid.). They engaged with the ‘game’ and performed as coached by their parents. At the same time, they tried to share their knowledge about Black history and cultural facets in order, from my reading, to offset the denial/disavowal of self that ensues from donning the White mask (Bhabha 1996; Fanon 1967). Although Wallace’s students present very self-conscious and sophisticated accounts, especially for such young people, they are not alone or unusual in “[performing] to be accepted” in White spaces as Anderson (2015) argued: …whites and others often stigmatize anonymous black persons by associating them with the putative danger, crime, and poverty of the iconic ghetto, typically leaving blacks with much to prove before being able to establish
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trusting relations with them. Accordingly, the most easily tolerated black person in the white space is often one who is “in his place”—that is, one who is working as a janitor or a service person or one who has been vouched for by white people in good standing. Such a person may be believed to be less likely to disturb the implicit racial order—whites as dominant and blacks as subordinate. Strikingly, a black person’s deficit of credibility may be minimized or tentatively overcome by a performance, a negotiation, or what some blacks derisively refer to as a “dance,” through which individual blacks are required to show that the ghetto stereotypes do not apply to them; in effect, they perform to be accepted. (Anderson 2015, p. 13)
It is, as in the case of these children, often more than just being accepted but rather an act of survival. In Jasmine Rhamie’s (2017) study of Black male university student teachers, the students spoke about having to put on the White mask on entering the school in order to succeed on their training course, as well as surviving the school and classroom encounter. In part due to the ‘role model’ discourse, the Black male students were perceived by the schools as a “saviour” on the one hand but in accordance with the dominant stereotype of Black men as troublesome, as a “threat” on the other. As one student David explained: …I don’t think they were expecting me…a Black male. I got there…, all of a sudden, I was pretty much a saviour to all the students. I was that Black role model that that school needed. …He [deputy head teacher] actually said ‘…It’s great to have a Black male student in here. You’re gonna be a positive role model to the boys and it’s something that’s very needed in this school’ and at first I was a bit taken aback by it…. On your first placement, on your first day you don’t really wanna hear that you’re pretty much the guy that these kids are depending on. (David in Rhamie 2017)
There are a number of issues here around the deficit notion of Black families as fatherless or lacking positive male role models and also the essentialising of Black men, as well as being utilised here as ‘cultural experts’ (Rhamie 2017). But echoing the constructions of Black male secondary school young people, these students also said they felt the teachers (particularly the White female teachers) felt afraid of them or were intimidated by them:
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…within the school environment it’s the same fear, she was scared to give me feedback, I don’t know why, but she was scared – I saw the look, ‘cos I did a lesson, – it didn’t go very well I could see what I was doing and that it was going on too long, her face was sort of screwing up a little bit and then afterwards when she went to give the feedback she kind of looked at me and went “hmmmmm” and I didn’t say anything, and she said it was okay. …I mean she was scared of me, and it was, it was fear, I could see it in her eyes …. (Denzel in Rhamie 2017)
The students recounted their own fears and feelings of exclusion and rejection. For these reasons they felt the need, although they disliked having to do so, to don the White mask in order to fit in and try to gain acceptance or else to ensure some form of self-protection against racist aggression. Wearing the White mask can reinforce subjugation and negation as Fanon (1967) implies. Bhavesh (in a study of working-class students in Higher Education, Crozier 2008) of Gujarati heritage talks about navigating his way between White, middle-class university peers and the Asian, and White, working-class friends and associates, in his locality. He also explained that he often felt like an in-betweener, not quite identifying or being accepted by either. As we subsequently wrote (Crozier et al. 2019), occupying this liminal space represents the struggle against assimilation but also part of the process of trying to make sense of and manage the inevitable changes for all young people who go through university. For BAME young people, this is made twice as challenging because of the rejection and denigration of who they are and what they bring to the experience. Du Bois (1903) described this as ‘double consciousness’—a process to merge the “double self ” but without losing their “older selves” (p. 5). Whilst Du Bois (1903) was writing about ‘race’ in racially segregated US society, his argument can be extrapolated to Britain and Europe at the present time. Black Americans’ experience of racism, he argued, only allowed Black people to see themselves through the eyes of the “other world” (the dominant White world), a sense of “looking at oneself through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity” (p. 5). Rhamie’s students,
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the children in Wallace’s study and the higher education students in my own study all appear to be aware of the White gaze and conscious of the need to respond in some way in order to achieve a level of acceptance or approval. At the same time, in their different ways, they try to hold on to who they see themselves as. All, in this sense, appear to be aware of their double consciousness. Whilst the students might ‘perform to be accepted’, this performance is a pragmatic gesture which is momentary and in fact part of the challenge to White hegemony. The children (influenced by their parents), for example, whilst adopting and utilising the language of White domination, at the same time, seek to share and thus assert the value of aspects of what they see as ‘their own culture’.
Conclusion The dominance of Whiteness acts as the organisational and epistemological framework in society and thus the Education system. It underpins assumptions and expectations and the practice of teachers and school managers and the learning process and the experiences of the children and students. The opportunities to question or change the established practice are constrained further by the neoliberal model of competition between schools. Schools and teachers are bounded by a rigid framework of what can be taught, how the learning experience should be organised and how teachers should teach. Driven by this neoliberal framework, the school students are in turn controlled and directed. Where children are not seen to be compliant or express seemingly divergent values, as in the case of BAME children, the outcome results in some form of control and/ or exclusion. As I have indicated, exclusion can take many forms from external exclusion from school, temporary or permanent, or a subtle rejection or undermining of the individual’s identity, a de-legitimation of who they are and their contribution as pupils and students, resulting in marginalisation. The infusion of racism within and throughout the Education system has become normalised to the point where it frequently goes unrecognised. The normalcy of racism is tantamount to the notion of post-race/ racism. ‘It is just what it is’ justifies an acceptance of the status quo and
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not having to address the concerns and complaints of the children or indeed the parents. Once in this framework, recognition of one’s own behaviour is further clouded giving rise to a lack of reflexivity on the part of the teachers with respect to low expectations and stereotyping Black and South Asian children’s behaviours as described. In the following chapter, I will look further at the issue of teacher expectations of BAME children. I will also discuss the support and training, or lack of both of these, given to teachers in the challenge to racism and addressing the achievement gap and disproportionate school exclusions.
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Crozier, G. (2008) Principal Investigator, Reay, D. co-investigator, project on Widening Participation in HE: The Socio-Cultural and Learning Experiences of Working-Class students in HE. ESRC (Teaching and Learning Research Programme) (RES-139-25-0208). Crozier, G. (2016) Parents and Schools and Diversity: Challenges and Opportunities for Parental Involvement in a Changing, Global Context. In H. Jacques, C. Timmerman, et al. (eds) Youth and Education: The Necessity to Value Diversity. 139–151, London and NY: Routledge. Crozier, G. (2017) Race Matters: Urban Education, Globalisation and the 21st Century. In Pink, W. and Noblett, G. (eds) The International Handbook on Urban Education. 1059–1078, Springer Publications. Crozier, G. and Davies, J. (2006) Family Matters: A Discussion of the Bangladeshi and Pakistani Extended Family and Community in Supporting the Children’s Education. The Sociological Review, 54(4), 678–695. Crozier, G. and Davies, J. (2008) “The Trouble is They Don’t Mix”: Self- Segregation or Enforced Exclusion? Teachers’ Constructions of South Asian Students. Race, Ethnicity and Education, 11(3), 285–301. Crozier, G., Burke, P. J. and Archer, L. (2016) Peer Relations in Higher Education: Raced, Classed and Gendered Constructions and Othering. Journal of Whiteness and Education, 1(1), 39–53. Crozier, G. and Rhamie, J. (2017) Small-Scale Study: Key Stage 2 BME Achievement and Children’s Learning Experiences in a London Primary School. Report. University of Roehampton, London. Funded by the Centre for Educational Research in Equalities, Policy and Pedagogy, University of Roehampton, London. Crozier, G., Reay, D. and Clayton, J. (2019) Working the Borderlands: Working- Class Students Constructing Hybrid Identities and Asserting Their Place in Higher Education. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 40(7), 922–937. Demie, F. (2021) The Educational Achievement of Black African Children in England. Research report. Published by School Research and Statistics Unit Education and Learning, Lambeth LA. www.lambeth.gov.uk/rsu, https:// www.dur.ac.uk/research/directory/staff/?mode=staff&id=16086. Department for Education and Skills (2003) Aiming High: Raising the Achievement of Minority Ethnic Pupils. London: DfES. Department for Education (2011) RR096 ISBN: 978-1-84775-880-4. March. London: Department for Education. Department for Education (2015) The PREVENT Duty. Departmental Advice for Schools and Childcare Providers. London: Department for Education. Department for Education (2019) National Pupil Database (NPD). London: Department for Education.
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7 Blinded by Whiteness: Problems and Possibilities for Teachers in the Fight Against Racism and White Supremacy
Introduction What can be seen from the evidence presented thus far in this book is that the Education system plays a key role in producing and reproducing racism, and teachers, schools and other education professionals are implicated in the complex web of racism and White supremacy. Teachers in particular are in a highly significant position given that they occupy the interface between society and the children. In this role they are often first and foremost criticised for the failures of the school or blamed for a poor educational experience. Whilst they are not individually or even collectively solely responsible for school failure or indeed systemic racism, all teachers and educational professionals must take some responsibility for school failure, discriminatory practices and the perpetuation of racism. Teachers like the rest of society are imbued with hegemonic racism which shape and impact their views, attitudes and behaviours. They may not intend to have negative attitudes towards Black or Asian or other Minority Ethnic children or to treat them differently from White children; they may not intend to have low expectations of these children, but their
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023, corrected publication 2023 G. Crozier, Racism and Education in Britain, Palgrave Studies in Race, Inequality and Social Justice in Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-18931-9_7
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unconscious or dysconscious attitudes have the effect of reproducing racialised inequalities (Gillborn 1990; Mac an Ghaill 1988). As well as holding low expectations of Black, Asian and other Minority Ethnic children and displaying prejudiced and discriminatory views, extensive studies have shown that White teachers and pre-service student teachers have limited or no consciousness about Whiteness (e.g. Pearce 2005, Lander 2011; Marx 2006, Picower 2009), and as Solomon et al. (2005) say, they espouse a denial of the discourse of racism and Whiteness and White privilege as part of that. However, there are also structural and institutional problems facing teachers in the fight against racism. One of these problems is that they are poorly prepared for rising to this challenge and being equipped for teaching in a society infused with racism (Maylor 2014). Moreover, as Skerrett (2011) argues, many teachers have poor racial literacy which she describes as: “… an understanding of the powerful and complex ways in which race influences the social, economic, political, and educational experiences of individuals and groups” (p.314). Where they recognise racism at all, teachers tend to see it as an individual ‘problem’ rather than as institutional and structural (Pearce 2014) and how it impacts on their teaching or the function and organisation of the school. Teachers are also faced with the contextual, pedagogic, curriculum and policy constraints including the lack of autonomy brought about by the development of the neoliberal framework of the Education system. Likewise teacher educators experience severe constraints on what they are able to teach and how they might teach it, in the form of, for example, the Teaching Standards (Department for Education 2011) and the requirements of the Core Content Framework (Twiselton et al. 2019) for universities’ ITT programmes of study, neither of which make explicit reference to ‘race’, anti/racism or discrimination. In this chapter I explore these issues and their implications for teachers’ practice. Firstly, however, building on the accounts from pupils and students previously discussed, I begin by looking at the evidence on teacher expectations and teacher attitudes to ‘race’ and anti/racism, and by drawing on the work of Bourdieu, I explore the interrelation of structure and agency and the impact of structural racism for and on the work of teachers and the development of their attitudes and practice.
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In this chapter I will again focus primarily on the implications and experiences of Black Caribbean and South Asian heritage children and young people in Britain, but I will also draw on research based in the USA and other European countries.
eacher Expectations of Black Caribbean T and South Asian Heritage Children From the research already discussed in Chap. 6, it can be seen that the Black and South Asian heritage children felt teachers had low expectations of them, and in the following Chap. 8, it will be shown that parents believed this also. Other research also demonstrates this. Rist (2000), Strand (2012) and Basit (1997), for example, have shown that White teachers tend to have lower expectations of BAME children which impacts on their achievement levels. There is an abundance of international research particularly in the field of psychology which demonstrates the links between teacher expectations and the ethnic achievement gap (e.g. Jussim et al. 1996; Jussim and Harber 2005; McKown and Weinstein 2008; Tenenbaum and Ruck 2007; van den Bergh et al. 2010). van den Bergh et al. (2010), for example, researching in the Netherlands, found that the prejudiced attitudes of teachers are significant in relation to “differential expectations of students and the ethnic achievement gap” (p511). They go on to say, “Teachers with negative prejudiced attitudes appeared more disposed to evaluate their ethnic minority students as being less intelligent and having less promising prospects for their school careers” (p511). Of course there is not a simple or simplistic correlation between teacher expectations and a child’s performance. There are other factors at play including social class factors and family resources, support and expectations. What the teacher thinks of the child and their attitude towards them is, however, of paramount importance not least since this can and does influence what is taught to the child and which set or stream the child is placed in. As Rubie-Davies (2009) reports, as well as ‘race’ and ethnicity, researchers have shown teachers differentiating on gender grounds in terms of their expectations and choice of curriculum matter.
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She reports, for example, that Qing (1999) showed that teachers have higher expectations of girls in relation to reading and boys in relation to maths and science which resulted in differential teaching opportunities in those subjects. Likewise, in relation to ethnicity, Page and Rosenthal (1990) demonstrated that teachers in the USA taught [East] Asian boys more and more challenging mathematical concepts than other children in the class, despite no initial differences in their ability assessment. Clearly differential teaching means some children are excluded from the same opportunities to learn than others and thus will fall behind and frequently do not have the opportunities to catch up. We also know that segregation in terms of tracking and streaming or setting is an ongoing problematic issue (e.g. Ireson and Hallam 2009; Francis et al. 2017a) and that children from minority ethnic groups are overrepresented in the lower sets or tracks. Related to this is differential academic achievement (e.g. Strand 2012; Gillborn and Youdell 2000). Given the differences in achievement amongst BAME groups, as well as between White groups, as indicated in previous chapters, it suggests a hierarchy of expectations (Crozier 2017). Teacher expectations have been shown to be influenced by their attitudes and prejudices (van den Bergh et al. 2010). Archer et al. (2010) have also argued that teachers differentiate between ethnic groups based on their perceptions that might well have been informed by stereotypes, prejudices and so on. For example, the significant success of East Asian heritage children historically from Hong Kong is often referred to as ‘the model minority’ because of their high achievement. Whilst not ignoring the racism which these children and young people also face and the pressure this label places on the young people (see, e.g. Mau 2014; Archer and Francis 2007; Francis et al. 2017b), it is nevertheless a stereotype which is likely to shape teachers’ expectations more favourably compared to some other minority ethnic groups. Lepore and Brown (1997) and Hugenberg and Bodenhausen (2004) argue that teacher attitudes are subjective and therefore will not all be the same towards all ethnic minority groups. There are various and many influences on attitudes and expectations. Strand (2012), in the UK, amongst others, for example, reports on the influence of social class and school type on teacher expectations of the children, and Rubie- Davies (2009) in the USA also discusses social class and diagnostic labels
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and whether the teacher had previously taught siblings as influencing factors. Related to this, others demonstrate that teachers categorise children and create exemplars to make conscious or unconscious judgements about future students from the same group, based on prior information of others from those ethnic groups (Burgess and Greaves (2009, cited in Chang and Demyan 2007). Also these exemplars or stereotypes differ across ethnic groups, across subjects and between schools (ibid.). Rist (2000) and Mechtenberg (2009) discussed the impact of teacher expectations or bias in relation to the self-fulfilling prophecy and the re-cycling or reproduction of negativity and related outcomes. The self-fulfilling prophecy can also of course have a positive effect for those upon whom there are high expectations such as in van den Bergh et al.’s study (2010) where they found that when teachers held positive attitudes of White Dutch students, they tended to perform particularly well thus exacerbating the differential performances and outcomes with their minority ethnic counterparts.
Teacher Attitudes As van den Bergh et al. (2010) suggest, “It is impossible to keep one’s behaviour always under control, which means that the chances [of ] prejudice ‘leaking’ into behaviour are very high” (p501). In other words, even if they tried to, teachers who hold prejudiced attitudes towards BAME children would be unlikely to prevent these influencing their teaching and behaviour in the classroom. Studies undertaken in the USA and UK have shown that White teachers are frequently unaware of their negative attitudes towards BAME children. Taking Whiteness as a theoretical framework and mainly focusing on pre-service teachers in the USA (Picower 2009; Marx 2006) and in England (Pearce 2005, 2012), studies have shown teachers’ responses to diversity include a sense of confusion, lack of understanding and guilt. Some have argued that teachers lack a sense of their own White identity and its implications of the power and privilege it can provide. Others have argued that there is such a strong hegemonic hold of Whiteness (such as perspectives, ways of being, valuing White privilege), that it leads to “dysconscious racism”, a way of
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seeing the world whereby racist practices appear acceptable as the norm (King 2004). As King says: Dysconscious racism is a form of racism that tacitly accepts dominant White norms and privilege. It is not the absence of consciousness (i.e. not unconsciousness) but an impaired consciousness or distorted way of thinking about race as compared to, for example, critical consciousness. (p. 73)
She explains that the White students in her study displayed limited and distorted understandings of “inequity and cultural diversity” (p72) which limited their ability to act in a transformational way towards creating more equity and challenging racism. Picower (2009) and Marx (2006) both reported White students’ lack of critical awareness and perceptions and failure to recognise the existence of racism in their own practice. The students claimed they were anti-racist, but this was shown not to be the case. Other research shows that White students are frequently reluctant to talk about ‘race’ and racism expressing discomfort or guilt or just rejecting the relevance and significance of needing to do this (e.g. Levine-Rasky 2000). Pearce (2012, 2014) has shown from her research that schools are frequently reluctant to discuss and engage with issues of ‘race’ and racism preferring to ignore both and take a colour-blind approach. As King (2004) argues, uncritical ways of thinking about racial inequality and discrimination reflect an acceptance of the societally sanctioned racist myths, stereotypes and beliefs that justify the dominance and advantage of Whiteness. To face up to this would be of course to have to face up to the challenge to White advantage and therefore White people’s own advantaged positions being undermined or threatened. In her study, Sarah Pearce (2005) provides a highly reflective and reflexive account of her own teaching as a newly qualified teacher. Through her ethnographic study, she forensically examines and documents her actions, attitudes and thoughts about ‘race’, racism and her and her colleagues’ practice. She describes her own and her colleagues’ failure to address racism before developing her own critical understanding and consciousness. She describes her fear and anxiety about tackling racism and occasions when she avoided discussing issues around racism
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and ‘race’ that arose with the children. She reflects that she may not have addressed them because she was afraid of “stirring up controversy” (p30). She also talks about failed opportunities to enable the children to develop their learning about racism and how it operates and thus their own anti- racist behaviours. Through her reflexive account, she comes to understand her own Whiteness and how it shaped her understanding of racism and indeed how it shapes the understanding of other White people. She also reveals how her teacher colleagues denied the existence of racism through, for example, ignoring White children who were name calling BAME children or caricaturing their physical features and other peer related acts of microaggression. Other researchers, already mentioned, found similar responses by White teachers. Failure to address racism can have profound effects on both BAME and White children. As Noguera (2002) argues, even where teachers do not talk about ‘race’ or racial issues with children, the children still become aware of racialised differences and hierarchies. These in turn are then normalised. For White pupils this norm is beneficial and places them in advantageous positions. For BAME children, as shown in the previous chapter, this norm is destructive, hurtful and undermining of the children’s learning experiences. For White teachers their nervousness and anxiety about challenging the racialised status quo might be partly due to a reluctance to lose advantage for themselves but also, I suggest, a fear of impairing and threatening the position of White children which in turn could lead to conflict and disruption (as Pearce 2005 also implies) and a negative response not just from school authorities but parents too. This is one of the reasons why teachers need to work collectively to challenge racism in order to provide support for each other and resolve to make sure they can stand up to racism and change their practice and the practices in the school. In addition to avoiding dealing with racist acts, attitudes and behaviours, teachers’ own views of BAME children can lead to a variety of negative outcomes as described by parents and children in Chap. 6, as well as the evidence above. Black male pupils in particular seem to be subjected to negative stereotyping resulting in their disproportionate placing in lower sets (Demie and McLean 2017) and in being excluded from school (Timpson report 2019; Parsons 2009). As Mrs Jordan in the previous chapter said, her son was associated in the mind of the teacher
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with ‘troublesome Black boys’, and by this association he found that he was often blamed for some misdemeanour which he had not done. As already seen Black and South Asian boys are frequently described as fearsome. Picower (2009), for example, recounts that her White female pre- service student teacher interviewees expressed that they felt scared of some of their pupils. As one said: …some of them are a lot bigger than me. Like some of the toughness of some of the boys… And that’s scary for me! [I’m scared] that a fight would break out … like they would either come at me … or that I couldn’t stop it…”. (p. 203)
Size is again a recurring theme together with the stereotypical scariness of the Black male. As Hester and Gray (2018) have indicated, “Considerable research demonstrates that Black men are specifically stereotyped as physically threatening and imposing. For this reason, height may impact judgments of threat more strongly for Black men than for White men” (p. 2711) (see also Wilson et al. 2017; Cottrell and Neuberg 2005). But even where Black men are not particularly tall (this is a relative concept after all), they are frequently perceived as imposing and threatening. It should be noted that these children the student talks of, is apparently afraid of, are eight years old. Picower points out that teachers’ perspectives are shaped by White hegemonic perspectives on Black men as violent and criminal. The student/teacher brings these perspectives to their teaching which in turn shape and feed their understandings or perceptions and fears of the, in this case grade 3, children. The dominant perspective that seems to prevail amongst teachers and school staff is of the problematic, troublesome and ‘scary Other’, particularly if they are male and Black. Similar sentiments were expressed in my research in the higher education sector by fellow students (Crozier et al. 2016) and occasionally lecturers. As one male lecturer said, “I am intimidated by a group of Black boys at the back. Having the bravery to go back and break up [the talking] that is very difficult…” (Burke et al. 2017, p. 68). This same lecturer had previously taught in a Russell Group University. The lecturer contrasted the Black students here at Riverside University (a modern post-1992 university) with the predominantly White students at his
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previous university, describing those students as having higher-level skills compared to the Black students at Riverside University and regarding the Black students as requiring a different ‘management style’ rather than pedagogic style, in other words a form of control. Teachers’ views of BAME children in these negative and derogatory ways have a profound impact not only on their own actions and pedagogy but also on the children themselves. It is clear from the accounts from the pupils in the previous chapter that children are acutely aware of how the teachers regard them and they know that this often translates into lack of care. The Black boy quoted in the previous chapter who said of the teachers “It’s not that they don’t like us; it’s just that they like the others more” demonstrates the sense of feeling—“feeling race” as Bonilla- Silva (2019) termed it. The emotional toll on the children is immeasurable. As Noguera (2002) says, name calling in whatever form, or one could add any microaggression, is a way of establishing ‘racial’ boundaries, a way of putting people in their place. Whilst individuals have to take personal responsibility for their actions and views, racism is, as I have consistently explained, a structural, societal and institutional issue and problem. Teacher behaviour and actions need to be located within the context of wider society and the school as an institution (Pearce 2014, Connolly 1998, Stevens and Van Houtte 2011). Recognising this reinforces the need for teachers not only to take responsibility for challenging racist remarks and behaviours amongst children, staff and the school itself but also to engage children in learning about racism and where these attitudes and behaviours have come from, why and how they have arisen (Pearce 2005).
Structure and Agency The infusion and embeddedness of racism and Whiteness, as part of that, in the school and classroom are expressed and conveyed through the authority of the teacher, the organisation of the school and classroom (Connolly 1998) and also as previously demonstrated and discussed, through the curriculum, both hidden and overt, as well as through wider societal processes such as the media, film, literature and art. As such the
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curriculum also acts as another form of social control and a means to contribute to the reproduction of racism. Notwithstanding the denial, reluctance and lack of critical consciousness about racism and Whiteness, amongst teachers, even where teachers seek to implement an anti-racist perspective to their teaching and are committed to anti-racist action, they are faced with a range of external and internal policies and organisational and structural challenges that can impede their efforts. Whilst these are structural, they occur and operate at two interrelated levels: the wider context of school or society and the personal, individual level. The immediate educational context and organisation of the school, classroom and local community, the wider context of the Education system and government policies constrain and hinder attempts to disrupt dominant ideologies of racism and Whiteness. These ‘contexts’ or social spaces can be termed fields in Bourdieu’s terms (Bourdieu 1990; Bourdieu and Passeron 1990). In his concept of field, Bourdieu suggests there are multiple fields or sub-fields within an overarching ‘space’ which he calls ‘field of power’. The field of power is a macro concept within which powerful structures, organisations and individuals interact and relate to each other. Through the field of power, the key capitals that Bourdieu identified economic, social, cultural and symbolic are arranged and deployed to shape relations and practices within the fields (Webb et al. 2006; Thomson 2008). Fields or sub-fields differ according to their function and purposes and as Thomson (2008) says are shaped according to their specific purpose and role. Bourdieu uses the analogy of a game to demonstrate social and structural processes. In other words fields have their own rules, histories, traditions, players, aims and so on. To operate successfully within any given field, the actor, and in this case the teacher, needs to have the appropriate habitus or dispositions (Bourdieu 1977) and cultural capital, a form of value of cultural tastes, skills, knowledge and educational qualifications, for example (Bourdieu 1984). Although in developing his analytical concepts, Bourdieu’s key concern was social class and he described the acquisition and accumulation of habitus as coming initially and primarily through the family, I want to use these concepts more broadly. As an individual grows and leaves the family and ventures into different fields, the particular habitus to operate within that context needs to continue to develop and be acquired. For teachers their White pedagogic
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habitus (see Cottle 2022) is not class related or not necessarily so or at least not wholly class related. In terms of their teaching, it is the dispositions, attitudes, assumptions, expectations and practices and the ease or adeptness with which they operate that are underpinned by dominant Whiteness and racialised understandings that they have acquired and accumulated through their former experiences and training and/or associations. Sayer (2005) suggests that habitus is also acquired and developed through a process of osmosis, most often, at least initially, unquestioningly and unconsciously. The accumulation and generation of habitus in these ways can be seen in the examples of the White pre-school teachers discussed above. Teachers and especially newly qualified teachers will therefore absorb dominant White pedagogic habitus through the school unless active strategies are engaged to challenge this and arrest and reshape the construction of the field. How then can teachers change in order to develop anti-racist practice or even recognise the need to do so? In spite of its apparent hold, habitus is a dynamic concept. It is subject to continuous adjustment in relation to the specific field where the individual is operating (Reay et al. 2013, p. 27). As Bourdieu (1993) says, it is transposable and, if there is resonance, is activated in response to the field. Hence, “The habitus is both structured by conditions of existence [the field] and generates practices, beliefs, perceptions, feelings… in accordance with its own structure” (Maton 2008, p. 51). Not everyone has access to acquiring the appropriate habitus and the requisite capital in order to function effectively and successfully in the field of power or a particular sub-field. Moreover, and specifically to the concerns under discussion here, where the individual or in this case the teacher tries to challenge the dominant ideology and again in this case, Whiteness and racism, then they are going against the grain. Their anti-racist habitus jars with the dominant order. In terms of trying to develop anti-racist practice within a White hegemonic environment, this would present immense challenges; their habitus would be out of place. If the school’s function is to maintain White supremacy which Gillborn (2006) has argued, involving the reproduction of ‘race’ and class hierarchies, then it follows that teachers will be trained to fulfil these roles. It is important to note that Initial Teacher Training now takes place for the majority of time in the schools themselves with only limited time
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in or contact with the university. Anti-racist teaching, in its attempt to challenge the dominant order or doxa of Whiteness and structural racism, is not accepted as relevant especially where racism is no longer regarded as an issue, nor is talking about it regarded as desirable. However, as already said habitus is dynamic and generative. It brings together the objective structure and subjective personal experiences (Maton 2008; Bourdieu 1977). This has implications for potential change which are discussed below. As I have already indicated, the Education system is framed by a neoliberal agenda involving the idea of the market and intense competitiveness between schools, and often between families and pupils, all of which serve in various ways as a form of control and monitoring. The socio- political and policy contexts that schools operate within constitute a significant influence on what schools across Britain can do. These include the OECD PISA tests and league tables of the results. According to Lingard and Sellar (2013), these tests are increasingly driving national education policies towards global competitiveness. Where stakes are so high, the philosophy underpinning educational principles is challenged. There is the additional issue of school choice for parents and competitiveness between schools in the bid for pupils, driven by league table position and notions of ‘high achieving’—‘outstanding’, ‘low achieving’—‘in special measures’ schools or those merely rated as ‘satisfactory’ (classifications used by the inspection regime Ofsted). Where schools have autonomy from local authority control, there is potentially less accountability of practice (Wilkins 2015), and therefore any existing policies to address racism and inequalities could be weakened. Whilst through the academisation system the control of the National Curriculum has been loosened, there remains tight management over what is taught in schools, and individual teachers do not have autonomy over what they teach. In addition, the current Conservative Government (2012–) is interventionist in its views on teaching about racism and White privilege; the teaching of the latter according to Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch is illegal (Nelson 2020). Moreover, it has been reported that ‘English schools should not teach “contested theories and opinions … such as white privilege” as fact’ and “schools should avoid teaching partisan views” (Hall 2021). In its 2022 publication, the Department for Education outlines guidance for
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schools and local authorities that reinforces this position. Whilst it states that schools should teach about racial discrimination and racism, it must not be taught in a way that is politically partial or representing “extreme” views. The tone of the document I suggest is intimidatory and off-putting. Schools already wary of appearing to be too radical or progressive for fear of adverse parent reactions or jeopardising their Ofsted report and ranking could be further reluctant to develop anti-racist curriculum and practice. A recent example of parental reaction was in Brighton in the South of England: when schools and the local authority decided to take a Critical Race Theory approach to their curriculum, some parents and other community members got a petition together to prevent this (Booker-Lewis 2021). Not only does this show the level of constraints schools and teachers are under where they want to challenge racism, it also further indicates the depth of resistance to challenging racism in society. At the same time as these, other requirements have been placed on teachers, including the implementation of the government’s Prevent Duty and the teaching of Fundamental British Values (DfE 2014). The implications of these policies have already been discussed (in Chaps. 4 and 5) which showed that following the policy requirements means that teachers have to place the children they are responsible for under surveillance. There have been reports of anxiety about the curtailment of debate which is central to education (Williams 2015), and there is evidence that teachers were often unclear about the purpose of the Prevent Duty or understanding what is appropriate or inappropriate behaviour, as Busher et al. (2017) have reported, leading to some children being wrongly referred. Such practice can potentially lead to conflict and distrust not least between pupils themselves but also between teachers and pupils and teachers and the parents (see Abbas et al. 2021 in relation to university Muslim students). Likewise, the emphasis on British values as though these are fundamentally different from international values and in particular the values of the ethnically diverse groups in the Education system reasserts and reinforces a sense of division and difference as hierarchical. These policies present contradictions and dilemmas for teachers who have anti-racist consciousness.
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Preparing children for the intensive assessment regime that dominates English schools is to a great extent the responsibility of the individual teacher in charge of that particular class of children and with that responsibility for ensuring excellent results. As Stevens (2007) suggests, teachers are mindful of being judged by their colleagues based on pupil achievement. In England this is not least since poor test results could lead to a poor Ofsted score. Stevens and Van Houtte (2011) report that teachers in Flanders, Belgium, under similar pressures but where they have significant autonomy compared to teachers in England, manipulated the curriculum and the assessment in order to ensure their pupils passed their examinations. This was shown to have had an important impact on minority ethnic children in terms of lower educational standards and expectations. The examination pressure on teachers in secondary schools in England as reported by Gillborn and Youdell (2000) led to a system of triaging where certain children were given extra support to ensure they achieved the desired A*–C pass grade which at that time was an important measure of educational success for the pupil and the school, whilst others regarded as less likely to achieve this were denied extra support. Gillborn and Youdell also showed the differentiation of examination routes known at the time as ‘tiers’ whereby a pupil could be entered for an A tier or Foundation tier, had consequences for the grade which they could ultimately achieve. Foundation students, for example, could not achieve a grade above a D, which meant a lower and, in some respects, less valuable qualification and would prevent access to certain post-16 courses. Whilst this system has now been modified, the differentiations of grade achievability still remain and schools, in order to accommodate this and minimise potentially poor results, employ a system of setting (subject- related streaming). Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic children are disproportionately affected by these practices, as already indicated. A further problem facing teachers committed to bringing about anti- racism in their and their schools’ practice is their lack of knowledge and training to do so. A recent YouGov poll of teachers in England showed that only 12% of them felt confident to teach “optional black-related topics such as colonialism, migration and identity ahead of competing [other] optional topics”; 75% said they were not aware of the availability of resources to teach cultural diversity across the curriculum, and it found
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that 54% of teachers believed the school system or national curriculum has a racial bias, rising to 93% among minority ethnic teachers (Adams 2022). Given the extensive and repeated changes to teacher training courses and the limited amount of time students now spend in the university as opposed to in the school classroom, this response is unsurprising. Research into initial teacher training courses has repeatedly shown how inadequate they are at preparing students for teaching in an ethnically diverse society and developing anti-racist approaches, and since the introduction of the Core Curriculum Framework (Twiselton et al. 2019), ITT providers will be likely to have even less control over what they might want to teach. Bhopal and Rhamie (2014) reported that Initial Teacher Training (ITT) students needed more support in learning about and developing understanding of diversity and addressing racism in the classroom, and Lander (2011) also identified the inadequacies of students’ preparation to address racism in the classroom and argued that students were ill- equipped to address the current government’s Teaching Standards for teachers on ITT programmes which included understanding of cultural and linguistic issues, although no recognition of White supremacy or racism is included (Department for Education 2011). As discussed in Chap. 4, in the 1980s there were relatively strong grassroot movements amongst pupils, parents, teachers and some Local Education Authorities campaigning for ‘race’ and racism to be addressed in education. This was also reflected to some extent in initial teacher training courses at that time. However, from the mid-1980s onwards, government interventions in ITT increasingly led to the demise of teaching about ‘race’ and education on these courses, as well as in general (Crozier 1999). Findings from Davies’ and Crozier’s (2005) research on Diversity and Teacher Training (commissioned by the TTA-funded Multiverse Project) included many vague responses from teacher training providers. For example, of the 64% response from the HEIs and 26% from the SCITTs/DRBs (School- Centred Initial Teacher Training/Designated Recognised Body), all said that their institutions had policies relating to diversity which were part of their general Equal Opportunities Policy (EOP). Eighty-seven per cent said they had Race Equality Policies, but again it was not clear whether this was part of their EOP. ‘Diversity’ elements were variously covered
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and varied considerably across institutions with these terms being very narrowly defined. ‘Race’ and ethnicity, for instance, frequently translated as provision for pupils who spoke English as an Additional Language (EAL). Our evidence showed that there were only limited examples of the recognition of the impact of racism or of the implications of working in predominantly White schools. We concluded that the most significant constraints felt by providers were “lack of time, … lack of expertise on the part of the school-based mentors… the nature of their geographic locations” (p.5), in that predominantly White areas were less likely to address ‘race’ issues. This would have consequences for students’ school- based experience. There was also evidence of lack of knowledge and expertise on the part of the providers too. Davies (2021) in a related qualitative study identifies similar findings. She also highlights the complexity of provision relating to ‘race’ and identifies that there was little attempt to “disrupt White trainees’ hegemonic understandings” (p.9). Davies found that the majority of providers prioritised trying to avoid upsetting White trainees or causing offence to Black trainees. She did find “’race-conscious providers’” who were aware of the entrenched nature of racism, but due to the limits of available time and resources on ITT programmes, any meaningful engagement with the issues and development of understanding was undermined and unlikely to take place. Maylor’s research (2014) showed similar constraints and also highlighted that ITT lecturers were failing to address student teacher racism (Maylor et al. 2006). Lander (2011) also noted that the Teacher Development Agency’s own annual survey of Newly Qualified Teachers (NQTs) (a means of monitoring the national ITT courses from the newly qualified teachers’ perspectives) showed over a period of five years (2003–2007) that only one third of all NQTs felt ‘well’ or ‘better’ prepared to teach pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds and pupils who speak English as an additional language (EAL).
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Dominance of White Teachers Currently 14.1% of teachers are from Minority Ethnic backgrounds in English schools, whilst 33.1% of primary children and 30.3% of secondary children are of Minority Ethnic heritage (Allen et al. 2016; www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk 2020; Department for Education 2018a). According to a recent report from University College London (UCL) (Tereshchenko et al. 2020), 46% of all schools in England have no BAME teachers; only 16% of schools in England employ a fifth or more teachers from minority ethnic backgrounds. The under-representation of BAME teachers is the same in Scotland (Mohammed 2020; Scottish Government 2018) and in Wales (Gov.Wales 2021). Whilst there have been initiatives to recruit more BAME teachers (in England) (TDA 2007), these have had limited success, and retention rates are poor (Tereshchenko and Mills 2021). The Welsh Government has also recently drawn up plans to recruit more Black and Asian and Minority Ethnic teachers, as has the Scottish Government. Tereshchenko et al. (2020) reported several reasons for poor retention including school demographics, career progression, including into senior leadership, and racism and inequalities. As discussed in Chap. 6, Rhamie’s research demonstrated the nature and extent of racist harassment and the impact of racism experienced by Black male PGCE students. Teaching is a highly pressurised and stressful occupation in general, but additionally for BAME students, they frequently have to bear the stress and pressures of racism (Hancock et al. 2020; DiAngelo 2011; Mohammed 2020; Rhamie 2017). As Rhamie (2017) argued, the Black male student teachers, in her study, were burdened with additional responsibilities in the form, for example, of the role of ‘saviour’ or of having to be the perfect role model for Black pupils. BAME people are often regarded as representing a notion of a monolithic group and culture, indicated by perceptions of their physical appearance. They are expected to act as the ‘experts’ on ‘their’ culture. The largest percentage of BAME teachers is in London, and the largest concentration of BAME teachers is in schools with ethnically diverse schools both in London and across England (Tereshchenko and Mills 2021). Whilst these teachers are needed in these areas, just being located in ethnically diverse areas indicates marginalization. As Maylor et al. (2006) suggested, if BAME teachers are not more widely represented,
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then it gives a damaging message that they cannot be trusted in the important and responsible profession of teaching. Maylor (2009) also argued that increasing the numbers of BAME teachers is important in order to better reflect the ethnic diversity in society and the representation of a more appropriate and wide-ranging set of experiences. As well as there being inadequate numbers of BAME teachers, there are also insufficient numbers of BAME school leaders and university academics. In terms of head teachers according to the Department for Education (2018b), between 2010 and 2016 in England the number of BAME head teachers increased to 7% in primary schools and 9% in secondary schools, although in some areas of England there are no BAME heads of school. In the university sector, according to Advance HE (2021) (formerly the Equalities Challenge Unit), the number of ‘ethnically diverse’ staff working in UK universities has increased from 8.6% to 15.4% (compared with the decrease of White staff from 91.4% to 84.6%). However, as they say inequalities remain since fewer BAME staff are on permanent contracts or in senior positions or professorial roles than their White colleagues. In 2019/2020 they stated that academic staff specifically comprised 18% BAME, compared with 82% White. Of these 8.5% of White staff held senior positions compared to 6.4% of BAME. In relation to professorial roles in 2019/2020, 11.2% were White compared to 6.2% of BAME. Breaking down this group, “4.3% of professors were Asian and .7% were Black”. In 2019 Rollock (2019) reported that there were just 25 Black female professors in UK universities. Some argue that Black teachers and lecturers are important in order for Black children/young adults to have positive role models. However, it is not my intention here to advocate the ‘role model’ thesis. Firstly, as I have argued, the problem of racism, the achievement gap in schools and the negative experiences that BAME children/young people endure are located within the institutions and structures of society, not within the individual child (see also Maylor 2009). BAME teachers are professionals who have a job of teaching to do, and as part of that just as White teachers, they have to represent positive examples of how to behave in society, but it cannot be BAME teachers’ responsibility for addressing singlehandedly endemic and institutional racism. All teachers in a sense should provide a role model of respectful, positive citizenship, but all teachers
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both BAME and White should provide this for all children irrespective of their ethnicity. BAME teachers do not represent a monolithic group. However, it remains clear that a broader and more representative group of people are needed in the teaching profession, in schools and universities for the benefit of all children/young people.
Conclusion If “Race inequality has been a constant and central feature of the Education system” and “Schools function to maintain White supremacy” as Gillborn (2006, p. 335) argues, then teachers willingly, unwittingly or dysconsciously are a key means of achieving this, unless they take an explicit stand to challenge racism and Whiteness. As can be seen from the discussion, teachers and White teachers in particular need help and support in developing a critical anti-racist consciousness and anti-racist pedagogy. The task is both individual and collective. Teachers will only be able to achieve a limited amount as individuals. Schools as institutions help to create the environment for the teachers’ practice and the expectations upon the children. As well as teachers embodying racist attitudes and perspectives, schools too, as institutions, are imbued with racism which needs to be identified, recognised and rooted out. Schools in turn need the support of their communities, governors and parents to achieve this. This is an area where schools could forge stronger links and cooperation with their parents and initiate the development of anti-racist understanding and perspectives collectively. Low teacher expectations and the perpetuation of differential treatment of certain BAME children are urgent problems to be tackled and are fraught with difficulties. The task requires teachers to face up to their role and responsibilities in the reproduction of racism and White supremacy, within the Education system. Whatever initiatives have been instigated in the name of anti-racism will remain as merely tokenistic gestures if as a society and a teaching profession we do not face up to and continue to talk about our own, our collective and our institutional racism and Whiteness. As Marx (2006) argues White colour blindness masks our thoughts and stifles our language. “However”, she goes on “in order to
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move beyond this false era of egalitarianism, we must talk about race” (p172). It is only by talking about and naming Whiteness and racism that the nature of these ideologies and their implications can be recognised and understood. Unless we talk about White supremacy and White privilege, they will never be confronted or truly understood and addressed. Finally, there have been various initiatives to recruit Black and other minority ethnic teachers as there have to develop multicultural if not anti-racist initial teacher training courses. But in both cases, these initiatives either barely or no longer exist. In addition to this, there is a serious retention crisis which has been an ongoing problem for many years and continues, and the country is heading for a recruitment crisis (Freedman 2022). The greater the government’s control over ITT, the more difficult it is for universities to develop these initiatives. However, universities could establish stronger links with schools where, as I have said, most of the ITT takes places, in order to cultivate critical perspectives and practice. Schools of course need to recognise their own institutional racism and show commitment to addressing this. Avoiding the temptation to see Black and Asian and Minority Ethnic teachers as the complete expert and representative of diverse and extensive communities, committing to employing more Black and Asian and Minority Ethnic teachers could begin to help to shift the balance of forces away from White dominance and the dominance of Whiteness. Since the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter Movement in 2020, we have seen a marked change in the representation of Black and Asian and some other minority ethnic groups on television, in advertisements, and the theatre is slowly beginning to address this too, and there has been some recognition of the ‘racial’ inequalities in cinematographic awards. The Education system needs to make and be enabled to make similar efforts to include and represent society’s BAME communities at all levels.
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Hancock S. D, Showunmi V. and Lewis C. (2020) Teaching While Black and Female: Navigating Mental, Curricular, and Professional Aggression. Theory Into Practice, 59(4), 409–418. https://doi.org/10.1080/00405841.2020. 1773184. Hester, N. and Gray, K. (2018) For Black Men, Being Tall Increases Threat Stereotyping and Police Stops. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. Edited by Jennifer A. Richeson, 115: 11, 2711–2715, Yale University, New Haven, CT, March 13, www.pnas.org/cgi/ doi/10.1073/pnas.1714454115, Accessed 4 May 2022. Hugenberg, K. and Bodenhausen, G. V. (2004) Ambiguity in Social Categorization. Psychological Science, 15(5), 342–345. Ireson, J. and Hallam, S. (2009) Academic Self-concepts in Adolescence: Relations with Achievement and Ability Grouping in Schools. Learning and Instruction, 9(3), 201–213. Elsevier. Jussim, L., Eccles, J. and Madon, S. J. (1996) Social Perception, Social Stereotypes and Teacher Expectations Accuracy and the Quest for the Powerful Self-fulfilling Prophecy. In M. P. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, Vol. 28, 281–388. Academic Press. https:// doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2601(08)60240-3. Jussim, L. and Harber, K. D. (2005) Teacher Expectations and Self-fulling Prophecies: Knowns and Unknowns, Resolved and Unresolved Controversies. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 9, 131–155, https://doi.org/10.1207/ s15327957pspr0902_3. King, J. (2004). Dysconscious Racism: Ideology, Identity, and the Miseducation of Teachers. In G. Ladson-Billings and D. Gillborn (eds) The RoutledgeFalmer Reader in Multicultural Education. 71–83, London and New York: RoutledgeFalmer. Lander, V. (2011) Race, Culture and All That: An Exploration of the Perspectives of White Secondary Student Teachers about Race Equality Issues in Their Initial Teacher Education. Race, Ethnicity and Education, 14(3), 351–364. Lepore, L. and Brown, R. (1997) Category and Stereotype Activation: Is Prejudice Inevitable? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72(2), 275–287, https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.72.2.275. Levine-Rasky, C. (2000) The Practice of Whiteness among Teacher Candidates. International Studies in Sociology of Education, 10(3), 263–284. Lingard, B. and Sellar, S. (2013) Globalisation and Sociology of Education Policy: The Case of PISA. In Brooks, R., McCormick, M. and Bhopal, K. (eds) Contemporary Debates in the Sociology of Education. Hampshire, UK and New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
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8 Defend, Rescue and Protect: Parents as Social Agents
Introduction Since the development of the neoliberal school system with the introduction of the 1988 Education Reform Act, parents have been expected to play a central role in the function and successful operationalisation of the education market through school choice processes and supporting schools in achieving and then maintaining their market position in the inspection ratings and the location of their status (see, e.g. Van Voorhis et al. 2013; McConnell and Kubina 2014; Olmedo and Wilkins 2017). At the same time, BAME and working-class parents have tended to have a limited voice and agency in terms of calling schools and teachers to account. Within this context there has been pressure to ensure ‘reponsibilisation’ (Squires 2008) and the performance of ‘the good parent’. In general White middle-class parents are constructed as ‘good’, and White
This chapter draws on and develops the previously published: Crozier, G. (2005b) Beyond the Call of Duty: the impact of racism on black parents’ involvement in their children’s education. In G. Crozier and D. Reay (Eds.) Activating Participation. Parents and teachers working towards partnership. Stoke-on-Trent, UK and Sterling, USA: Trentham Books. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023, corrected publication 2023 G. Crozier, Racism and Education in Britain, Palgrave Studies in Race, Inequality and Social Justice in Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-18931-9_8
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working-class and BAME parents are constructed as indifferent to parental involvement in schools and their children’s education or worse, feckless (Crozier 2019). The South Asian Families research (Crozier 2004) found that Bangladeshi parents in particular were repeatedly accused of not being interested in their children’s education and lacking ambition for their children. Black Caribbean heritage parents were generally ignored in their efforts to support their children. In particular these parents have been blamed for their children’s academic ‘underachievement’. Repeated accusations over years have been levelled at these parents for failing to create a culture in the home conducive to high achievement and future success, William Atkinson, head of a London School, in an article in the TES asserted (Bloom TES 15/3/02), and Atam Vetta (2002) also added his contribution to laying the blame at parents’ door; further Tony Sewell continues to blame families, citing Black parents’ lack of qualifications and single parents (mainly mothers) are given special mention implying their inadequacy (The report of the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities 2021). These criticisms are oversimplistic and ignore the impact and complexity of racism and class as well as the impact of poverty. It is clear from research that BAME parents have worked extensively to support, guide, defend and protect their children in the context of Education (see, e.g. Archer 2010, Rollock et al. 2014; Wallace 2017b). The importance placed upon parents for the educational success of their children (Goodall et al. 2011) makes it particularly necessary to address these criticisms levelled against BAME parents and to re-present a discussion of the levels of investment they make in their children. In previous work I have written on parents both White as well as Black, my argument has always taken a structural analysis which I continue to do. However, I have tended to look at the obstacles facing parents in terms of the need for high volume capitals such as cultural capital and social capital, and I think I have focused insufficiently on the impact and implications of the effects of racism and Whiteness. In this chapter I want to return to some previous analyses of parental involvement in school education (Crozier 2005) and address this neglect. Throughout this book I have drawn on my research with Black Caribbean heritage parents to demonstrate the experiences of their
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children and the deep concerns that the parents hold about their children’s education. As I have discussed, the parents give accounts of unfair practices being meted out to their children, including the children’s experiences of exclusion, which in many instances were found to be totally unwarranted, and of themselves being ignored and disrespected by teachers when they have tried to get the school to address their children’s needs. In this chapter I return to these parents and the issues they face in trying to support their children. In relation to this, the emotional impact or what I refer to as ‘emotional labour’ is raised. I suggest that there are three types of labour that the parents engage in in their involvement with their children’s education. These are domestic labour (providing meals, the school uniform, resources; ensuring the child gets to school on time), professional labour (labour expended in supporting the homework, listening to the children reading; providing educational experiences out of the home—the work of the teacher, as well as generating cultural capital which is explained further below) and emotional labour. In talking about parental involvement as emotional work, I am conflating the concept of ‘emotional labour’ written about by others such as Nicky James (1989) and Arlie Hochschild (1983) and the emotional expenditure involved in emotion work. James defines emotional labour as: “a social process in which labour is employed in dealing with others’ emotions” (James 1989, p. 21), and according to Hochschild, it is the “the management of feeling to create a publicly observable facial and bodily display …” (Hochschild 1983, p. 7). But Hochschild also uses the term synonymously with emotion work and emotion management to refer to the same acts done in a private context where they have use value (ibid.). As reported previously Bonilla-Silva (2019) highlights the importance of recognising the emotional impact and its consequences of racism. I am thus concerned here with the emotional expenditure that mothers and fathers invest as a result of the pressure the children and the parents themselves are under in the educational setting. I am using the concept of emotional work to add to an understanding of the kind of investment parents place in their children’s education in addition to the already understood if not always recognised ‘domestic’ and ‘professional’ labour. In addition to parents’ emotional expenditure in their actions and initiatives, they also used this emotion work in the shoring-up of children’s
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own emotions and self-confidence in the face of a series of negative experiences that they endured as part of their schooling (James 1989). In the second part of the chapter, I draw on the South Asian Families’ research (Crozier 2004) to broaden the analysis. I look at aspects of the parents’/ family-school relationship and their children’s education more generally. Regarding both groups of parents, I discuss aspects of their cultural capital and values and show how these are frequently rendered invisible and illegitimate. Contrary to Sewell and others referred to previously, I present a very different view of Black and South Asian parents’ involvement. I demonstrate the extent of parental involvement and the difficulties parents and children face in spite of their investment in their children’s education and show how White supremacy as the key marker to being a ‘good’ parent serves to undermine what Black and South Asian parents try to do. I also challenge the negative stereotyping of South Asian families and their attitudes to education, and I discuss the impact of racism including the microaggressions that they are subjected to in their encounters with the school.
Concern About Racism: ‘Exit’ and ‘Choice’ The emotional labour and resulting anxiety about schooling often began before the children got to school or at the transitional stage between primary and secondary school. The parents were aware from their own experiences as children or that of their siblings that racism could be an issue and they were acutely aware of repeated reports of the academic achievement gap of Black children and the disproportionate exclusion rates amongst this group. The Black parents were not confident that teachers had the ability or willingness to deal with the issues their children faced or might face. Consequently, they were anxious about what was going to happen to their children on going to school and particularly secondary school. This led many respondents to take or try to take pre-emptive action by seeking out a school which they thought would best serve their child’s needs and eschew racist practices. Most of the parents lived in the inner city where the majority of minority ethnic groups also lived. Many
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of the parents associated the large numbers of Black children in the innercity schools with a poor quality educational experience and consequently did not want to send their children there. However, the parents were not blaming the (Black) children themselves for poor quality schools, but rather they saw the juxtaposition of large numbers of Black children with teachers’ inability to relate to and meet the needs of these children and also they believed that these schools had poorer resources. As Irvine (1990) also found in the USA, African Americans believed that resources and quality followed White students (reported in Ladson-Billings 1994, p. 5). The parents in my study were aware of the nature of the local schools and that certain predominantly White schools had better exam results. Many parents therefore either sent their children to primary schools outside of the area and in a predominantly White area of the city which involved long distances, or where this was not possible, they sought out the most ‘reputable’ local primary school. Five parents chose private schools for at least part of their child’s education. With regard to secondary school, those who did not wish to send their children to a private school or just could not afford it (only three were able to do this for all of their child’s education and two of these were able to do so through the Assisted Places Scheme which has since been abolished) tried to get their children into one of the two grammar schools (at that time) in city A, a City Technology College—at the time there was a view that these schools were considered to be higher status than the average comprehensive school, a Foundation School (formerly grant maintained) in city B or a Church of England School in city A which had a ‘good’ academic reputation. Jan and her partner sent their youngest son to a private school at first and justified it in these terms: I mean like all parents we want the best for our children and I stayed at home with my son until he was three and a half and [then] looked at different nurseries…and then we put him in a private school … the reason we chose that was the fact that … I suppose partly because I had him at home and he had a one on one with me and we did lots of things and you know … he was very bright, he is very bright and I wanted him to be in a class where
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he was going to get the attention, the class size was going to be small. So that was … our overriding decision about choosing the school that [he went] to and he started off okay. (Jan, African/African Caribbean;1 occupation unknown; Access course and BSc Business Management). (Crozier 2005, p. 45)
Another mother, Doris who had sent her older daughter to a private preparatory school was clear that because they paid for their daughter’s education it was more likely that she would be shielded from racism and discrimination: I know that with issues like [racism] they do [the private school] handle it very quickly and very positively. And I think it’s because you’re paying for it and it’s a horrible thing to say but I think the sheer fact that parents are paying for their child’s education means that they have more status and power within the school to affect the way that teaching and the social… the way the school is organised socially. (Doris, African Caribbean; part- time university lecturer. Mixed race children). (Crozier 2005, p. 45)
In order to find the ‘best’ school from their perspective, parents consulted league tables, information distributed by the schools, or through grapevine knowledge (Ball and Vincent 1998). Several parents had to go to appeal and lobbied hard to win their desired choice of school. Although other studies have shown that ‘active choosers’ (Gewirtz et al. 1995) and proactively involved parents (Crozier 2000) tend to be middle-class, the difference between the working-class parents here and the White working- class parents in my other study (Crozier 2000) with respect to their ability to act in this way is in relation to the social capital and cultural capital that many of the parents had, particularly through their own experiences of having returned to study at university or FE level and in some cases through their community activism. I also suggest that their ability to activate and utilise these capitals came to some extent from their ‘race’ politics and awareness and experience of related struggle. A similar point is made by Hill Collins (1998) in discussing Black women’s activism in the USA, as she said: “[Black women] [w]orking for social justice for I have used the self-identified terms that the respondents used.
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particular loved ones often stimulated a heightened consciousness about the effects of institutionalized racism on African Americans as a group” (p. 28) and therefore led them to be proactive. Despite these efforts most of the parents were dissatisfied with their children’s school experiences. Low expectations by teachers of the children were repeatedly referred to by the parents as a particular source of concern and something that they as parents had to address. In some cases this would also give grounds for seeking out an alternative school: When my eldest daughter went to school at five she knew everything that the teacher was teaching them… they were surprised that she knew all that she knew and I felt that they could have done a lot more to push her along really…She used to come home and complain that the children were messing about and she couldn’t get on so I moved her to a more affluent school… (Shakira, African Caribbean, supply teacher) (Crozier 2005, p. 46)
Doris and her (White) partner (occupation unknown) had paid to give their daughter a ‘good start’, but they could not continue to pay for her education. They were worried how she would fare in the state system where they perceived they would have less influence over the teachers’ practices and expectations: I am very worried about how [she] will manage in the state system…I think she is more likely to experience, not full-on racism from the staff. I think it will probably be more subliminal than you know that the sort of direct…or from her own peer group… (Crozier 2005, p. 47)
Other parents said that they were ‘fed up’ with the state system, and they would have sent their children to private schools if they could have afforded it, whilst some mothers said that what they really needed was ‘Black-run’ or ‘Black-only’ schools. As Aisha explained, “… if I had a choice I would put him in a black only school” (Aisha, African Caribbean; diploma in social work; worked with the homeless) (Crozier 2005, p. 47).
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Compensating for School Failure Black parents are frequently faced with the need to make up for the deficiencies of the school system as best they can. Arguably parental involvement as professional labour such as help with homework or homework monitoring, listening to the child read, providing IT resources to support homework and course work tasks could be seen as compensating for the school’s inadequacy. The parents in this study had to undertake compensatory measures beyond these rudimentary forms when they saw that the school would not respond to their requests or concerns about their children’s progress or needs and when they believed the school was acting unjustly. In so doing they expended a combination of domestic, professional and emotional labour. Ms Banks (Black British; nurse), for example, had lost faith in the teachers; she felt that they were not supporting her son in his mathematics and even though he was making good progress they refused to put him in a higher set. At first she paid for private tuition in maths (and also in English) but then decided that she too would go back to study GCSE maths so that she could help her son. She and her son went to evening classes to study it together, and he took his maths GCSE and passed it a year early. Shakira discovered that her daughter was not getting homework even though her exams were approaching and so needed to buy books for her to revise. Some parents though did not have the resources to give extra support. Nina (Black British; social worker) knew her son was not doing as well as he should have been and tried repeatedly to lobby the school to give him extra support which never materialised. Parents’ efforts it seemed were frequently at odds with the teachers’ practice who, according to the parents, were too complacent. The parents felt their efforts at trying to raise their children’s aspirations and motivation were undermined by the power and influence of the school. Nina, for instance, described how her son needed to be pushed, but the teachers were not doing this. They were too easily satisfied with, in her opinion, his limited efforts compared to herself who wanted him to achieve much more. Yet she felt they had much more influence over him with respect to
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education. This in turn had consequences for her: “It’s quite upsetting; it can be quite emotional …because I want my son, you know, I want him to do well and achieve …”. And yet the parents often felt that the pressure they put on their children might be unreasonable. This dissonance between themselves and the school and the potential consequences for the children gave rise to ‘see-saw’ like responses of not being sure whether they had done enough or too much. The consequence of that for the parent was frequently guilt: … it’s not every day I get to do [maths] so that’s why I get my guilt trips as well. I think ‘oh I should be doing it every day’ …. some days she comes in and she’s tired and I’m tired as well …and by the time we’ve turned round and we’ve eaten and all the rest of it… (Nina, Black British, social worker) (Crozier 2005, p. 49)
One of the most extreme examples of compensating for the failure of the school is with regard to exclusion. Some of the parents in the sample had more than one child who had been excluded on one or more occasion. Also there are different types of exclusion. Mr and Mrs Kerr’s (White father retired due to ill health; mother Black British, social worker) daughter, Sarah, was excluded from school visits because of her alleged poor behaviour. Consequently her parents made up for this by taking her on outings themselves and to “things like the Tate Gallery…go to exhibitions around here…take her to multicultural events, Black history events, all sorts of different things…”, things which they said they would do anyway, but nevertheless they had to ensure that this role was fulfilled in the absence of that undertaken by the school. As they pointed out, not all parents would have had the resources, cultural or financial, to do this. Exclusion from school made different kinds of demands on parents. Frequently parents reported that they had no forewarning that there was a problem and they would just get a phone call at work to say that their child was being sent home. The added stress involved in this was caused by the implications of trying to manage their job and get home to see to their child. Shakira whose son had been, wrongly as it turned out, excluded from school gave up her job to look after him at home until he was reinstated in school, leading to financial hardship. Most of the
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parents reported that their excluded children either did not receive any or at best received only a few hours a week home tuition and often no homework was sent. One mother said she had to ‘cut back’ to pay for a tutor but could only afford this once a week. Others talked of having to buy the necessary books that the child would normally have at school. Exclusion from school acts like a punishment not only of the child but also the parent. The responsibility for the child’s poor behaviour is blamed on the parent/s, and so the child is returned to the parent to deal with this. There seemed to be either no or little dialogue about what led to the misbehaviour (see also, e.g. Gillborn and Youdell 2000). When parents probed to find what was the cause, some found that the punishment was unjust. The consequences of the exclusion for the parents in financial, physical and emotional terms are extensive. In addition to having to ensure the safety and care of their child during the day as well as the need to try to provide an education for her/him, there is also the loss of respect and degradation both for the child and for the parent. Where the punishment is unjust, the impact of all of these experiences is even greater.
Managing Feeling The case of Sarah referred to above, who had been banned from school trips, provides an example of this injustice and reflects the extent of stereotypes and poor expectations, albeit in this instance in relation to behaviour. Although she had been banned from school visits, there was one occasion when she was allowed to go on a visit to a themed museum park. During the visit there was some trouble, and the school was subsequently banned from the museum. Sarah was blamed. Mr and Mrs Kerr explained how they were shocked and appalled that Sarah had caused all of this trouble. They were going to go to the museum to apologise in person, but the school stopped them from doing so. Instead they wrote to the museum and wrote to the school to apologise and told them about the positive things that Sarah can and does do. They explained that they did not want them to think that they were ‘bad’ parents. As they said: “We really didn’t want them to feel that she just wasn’t being raised [properly] or anything because we almost felt ‘oh it appears like they don’t
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know how to raise their children’”. As it transpired it was not just Sarah but a whole group of children who had been misbehaving. In these circumstances the parents are having to retrieve the situation for their child, deal with the putative misbehaviour whilst at the same time ameliorate the impact of negativity on the child’s self-concept. In addition to this, the parents themselves are having to defend their own dignity and integrity as parents. Where the child and the parents have been wrongly accused, the parents felt they had been misled by the school which for them demonstrated a lack of respect. Another mother, Jan, talked about how she tried to support her son by changing the teacher’s view of him through her own actions and how she thought it was important to fit in and conform so that her child would be treated fairly, although it was to no avail: I was working, then doing Uni. part-time, and on days that I didn’t have lectures I’d go in on a morning and help over the lunchtime and help at playtime or go to the class and help with reading or other things and build a relationship with the teacher, you know, just so that she could see my son in a different light but that didn’t work. (Crozier 2005, p. 51)
Many of the parents talked about having to protect their children in similar ways, providing them with ‘emotional support’. Ms Banks, for example, who described her secondary aged son as having lost all trust in the teachers, explained that her son encouraged her to go into the school to help out in order to ‘chaperone him’, to monitor what the teachers did which she thought was an unusual request for a teenager but demonstrated to her the extent of his concerns. As well as shielding their children, the mothers tried to inculcate their own emotional capital, as Reay (2000) has described, into their children to have the strength to continue to strive for academic success. However, the emotional cost began to take its toll for some, and optimism began to wane; in the words of Ms Breeze (African Caribbean; community care worker) when asked what she hoped for the future for her son, she replied “I’m struggling, I’m really struggling now…”. Given the extent of oppression already described and the fear for their children’s safety and well-being, as Hill Collins (2000) also points out, protecting their children remains a primary concern of Black
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mothers. Most of the parents in the study had to struggle in some way for their children. For some it was to get the school of their choice; for others it was to get more information about their children’s academic progress; or for others it was a fight for justice for their excluded child or just better treatment in the school or classroom.
eing Ignored and Being Humiliated: B Invisibility and Public Scrutiny—Different Sides to the Same Coin As can be seen from the accounts above, Black parents’ views seem to count for little. In spite of their concern, interest, commitment and general involvement, the parents reported that they were not being kept informed and their concerns and requests were frequently ignored. In their efforts to get information, the Black parents were often seen as pushy by the school or were treated with disdain. Some parents also described being treated as a child themselves: “Sometimes when I go to the school and they’re talking to you, I feel intimidated because the way they talk to you sometimes, you feel as if you’re the kid…” (Ms Banks). And Mrs Kerr explained that the teachers found her and her husband challenging because they questioned the teachers’ or school’s practice. She said: “In fact [Sarah’s] head of year Mr [A], he actually said … he said that he found me quite challenging which I thought was a bit… He’s treating me a bit like he treats [Sarah]; he finds [Sarah] challenging” (Crozier 2005, p. 53). Being infantilised is a justification for being ignored and marginalised given the position of children in this society. It also obscures Black parents’ right to a voice. Black people are not only silenced in this way but traditionally are put under surveillance which in turn is a form of control (Gilkes 1983). Naming and shaming are one manifestation of this kind of surveillance-control strategy and one which was experienced by Ms Banks. Ms Banks and her partner took their children on holiday which overran the school holidays by a few days. Ms Banks acknowledged that she had failed to ask the school’s permission for this absence but sent a
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note with her son to the school on the day he returned. When she returned to work, she discovered that the Education Welfare Officer had telephoned her place of work and told them that her son was missing from school. On her return to work, she was met with ridicule from her colleagues; they greeted her with: “Oh, you’ve been a naughty girl, haven’t you?” Here there are two aspects to the surveillance, the Education Welfare Officer (EWO) and the work colleagues. In the case of Ms Banks, not only is she a ‘naughty girl’, infantilised this time by her colleagues, but she is also an irresponsible parent demonstrated by the pursuit of the EWO. In an incident recounted by Aisha involving her oldest son, when the police brought him to her place of work in a police car, she, together with her son, was humiliated in front of her colleagues. There is the added dimension here of being not only a ‘poor’ parent but parenting which has apparently led to potential criminality (see Crozier 2003 for further details). One of the most significant issues about this event is what Aisha herself identifies: a White boy was also involved, but in his case the school telephoned his White parents to arrange an appointment treating them like adults and responsible parents: A: …[It was the school’s] responsibility to let me know what was going on as well. You see what I’m saying, and the school knew he [her son] was taken from the premises [by the police] and brought here …. The boy who actually stole the bike, when they went down and asked about his statement, they phoned his parents. His parents were very middle-class [and White]. Phoned his parents and made an appointment with the parents; [asked] whether it was convenient for the parents to bring their boy down to talk about what had happened. You see what I’m saying? And he was the actual perpetrator. (Crozier 2005, p. 54)
This experience is echoed in the words of Hill Collins who argues that black women “who break silence” (and Aisha as she had said was seen as troublesome by the school because she did try to ‘stand-up’ for her children) can be both silenced and rendered invisible on the one hand and vilified on the other (Hill Collins 1998, p. 41).
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The Constraints of ‘Difference’ The impact of racism, marginalisation and stereotyping of Black and South Asian families plays out in diverse ways affecting school relationships and school responses. In the following part of the chapter, I will therefore also draw on the data from the South Asian Families’ study to elucidate a wider range of experiences and their perceived consequences. Not fitting in or belonging and marginalisation are themes that run throughout this analysis. South Asian, Muslim, families, as has been shown, have been regarded with suspicion, and people in these communities reported that this had spilled over in relation to the school. The Bangladeshi community in Shipton was also a traditional community at that time. Many members of the community were first-generation Bangladeshis. By their dress many of the Bangladeshi community looked different from the majority White population, and they lived in two distinct areas of the town. Most of the older aged children attended the same secondary school. This school regarded the parents as ‘hard to reach’, but as we showed (Crozier and Davies 2007) it was more that the parents found the schools ‘hard to reach’—difficult to approach and engage with. Dissonance between the families and the schools meant that parents played a limited direct role in their children’s school education and were therefore not very visibly present. They also tended to have a deferential attitude towards teachers. This is very different from the attitude of the White middle-class parents in another of my studies (Reay et al. 2013) whereby they, by contrast, frequently challenged the teachers’ professional judgement. The Bangladeshi heritage parents expressed significant reliance on and trust in the professional expertise of the teachers. They said “the teacher knows best”, “the teacher is the expert” and those who had not furthered their education recognised that there was a limit to the help that they could give in advising their children or even questioning the teachers. This response was often misconstrued by the school as indifference. The Bangladeshi heritage parents were not necessarily satisfied with their children’s school experiences. They were aware that their sons often truanted and were not engaging as well as they should with their
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schoolwork, and they were perplexed as to why the schools were not acting on this. Just like the Black parents, the Bangladeshi parents and the Pakistani heritage parents expressed concerns about the perceived low expectations the teachers had of their children but in most cases felt powerless to address the issue and as we have seen the Black parents who confronted teachers about this were most often frustrated by the responses. Teachers in Ironoreton generally had positive, although at times contradictory, views of Pakistani heritage parents as supportive of their children’s education but like the Bangladeshi parents were thought not to be very involved in the school including attending parents’ meetings. Schools, as I have written elsewhere (Crozier 2000), tended to have a fixed view of the nature of parent-school relationships and parental involvement which largely comprised desiring parents to give their full support to the school in terms of the children’s behaviour, punctuality, attendance and overseeing homework. Whilst teachers recognised that the Pakistani heritage parents wanted their children to do well in school, on these ‘Parental Involvement Measures’, the Pakistani heritage parents tended to do poorly as did the Bangladeshi heritage parents. Moreover, the stereotypes of South Asian parents not wanting their daughters to further their education and holding low aspirations continued to prevail. This position was strongly contradicted in the research on South Asian Families (Crozier 2004). The South Asian parents’ attitudes to education, across both communities, were positive and from the responses below it can be seen that education was regarded as highly important. The reasons behind these views are also wide ranging from philosophical and religious to more pragmatic reasons in order to safeguard their children’s futures. As a number of fathers said: We are Muslims, without education there is no progress. Education is a tool of life. Education is the backbone of the community. They need to study in order to survive in this country. Education is essential within the Islamic teaching Education is a way of life. It is everything. They can reach a profession if they have an education.
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Education is the most important thing in your life, you must work hard while you are young, good education means better workplaces, better money. In society people judge you, when you speak people can tell how educated you are. The school is a second parent.
And these mothers said in answer to the question how important do you think education is? Very important. These days, uneducated people have no value- if you want a job, you won’t get a good one. You can go to any country, it will be the same. It’s very important … it’s their future isn’t it and if they’re reading, writing, do something, get somewhere, cos they’re gonna have good jobs and it will help them in life. I just want my kids to get a good education, you know, get a good education at school If they’re capable enough they should be able to get decent grades and hopefully N. will; and leave school with decent grades to get a decent job. You know that’s what I really want.
Some parents had high aspirations and expectations of their children and where they could draw on their familial social capital (Crozier and Davies 2006) were able to advise and guide their children and thus enable them to fulfil these expectations. Some parents wanted their children to go to university and to be doctors; some said they would be satisfied if one of their children went to university. Parents, especially fathers, said that they did not want their children to end up doing what they did such as working in a restaurant. Many parents also said it was up to their children to decide and that it depended on their children’s ability. A minority of fathers had some reservations about the necessity of post-16 education for their daughters although others saw the advantages of education for women in terms of their future childcare role. Social class is a factor that can serve to influence, exacerbate or mitigate the types of experiences discussed here. Half of the 32 Black British, African Caribbean parents in my study were first-generation middle- class, and one was second-generation middle-class. This group had
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professional jobs, and many had gone to university through access courses.2 Nevertheless, like Rollock et al.’s (2014) Black middle-class parents, their class locations and capitals did little to protect them or their children from the effects of racism. Amongst the South Asian families, the middle-class families especially in Ironoreton were regarded more favourably by the schools than the working-class families. Class in these cases tended to be marked out by English language use, education but also economic capital. Several middle-class families of Pakistani heritage in Ironoreton believed they had positive relations with their children’s school. As has been shown previously, some parents were conscious of having to ‘fit-in’. Middle-class Mr and Mrs M. explained how they had gone out of their way to make it known to the school that they wanted their children to go on to university. They demonstrated their support for their two daughters’ education and sought to disabuse the school of the stereotype that Muslim families do not want their daughters to be educated. Both parents wanted their daughters to go to university and were supporting the oldest to become a doctor. They had already deployed their social capital to access a hospital placement for work experience for her. They were very supportive of the school, but with echoes of similar examples of racism irrespective of social class reported in Rollock et al. (2014), when an incident between one of the daughters and another child took place, the parents were shocked that the school turned against them and blamed their daughter for the misdemeanour, which she vehemently denied. As Rollock et al. (2014) also described, their middle-class standing seemed to be ignored and the values and worth of their capitals were rejected and delegitimated.
Access courses are a post-19 route into higher education which is an alternative to the traditional Advanced levels. 2
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‘Whose Culture Has Capital?’3 Within parental involvement discourse, the White middle-class parent and their practice are the norm—the standard against which White and BAME parents’ behaviours are measured (Crozier 2019). White middle- class parents are motivated by the commitment to ensure social reproduction that their children maintain their status, wealth and so on (Reay et al. 2013). A key feature of the White middle-class parents’ role is to ensure their children are endowed with culturally enriching experiences (Vincent and Maxwell 2016; Reay et al. 2013). This is often referred to as concerted cultivation. Whilst there are various interpretations of what this might comprise, it arguably includes symbols of distinction and cultural capital (Bourdieu 1984) as well perhaps as school choice actions. Bourdieu explains cultural capital as objective-material objects and media: paintings, writing, instruments and so on, institutionalised— education—qualifications, for example, and embodied, the results of “a labour of inculcation and assimilation” (Bourdieu 1997, p. 48). Not only are these attributes potentially personally enriching; they can also prepare the child for a particularly privileged future. They can build up the child’s experiences and expertise and develop a particular entitled sense of self (Crozier 2019). Where Black parents adopted these practices of concerted cultivation, the resulting effect in relation to the school was not the same, neither in terms of the view and standing of the parent nor in terms of the desired impact on the child, as in the case of Mr and Mrs Kerr and their children referred to above, for example. However, White working-class and BAME parents not always wanted or were able to engage with a process of concerted cultivation either because they did not have access to the opportunities or financial resources that these experiences required or because they had their own set of cultural and/or value-based priorities. There is a prevailing misconception that if parents are not behaving as White middle-class parents or as the school expects them to, then they have no educational ambitions for or I have borrowed the title for this section from the eponymous article by Tara J. Yosso—Whose Culture Has Capital? A critical race theory discussion of community cultural wealth. Race ethnicity and Education. Vol 8, No. 1 2005 pp. 69–91. 3
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commitments to their children’s education. As Lareau (2003) showed in her study of working-class and middle-class parents, the parents’ priorities and orientations for their children contrasted markedly from middle- class parents who tended to structure and prescribe their children’s time and activities to working-class parents who gave their children much more autonomy in their leisure activities. Working-class parents also tended to be more focused on supporting their children’s well-being and providing for their physical needs. Black parents tried to cover both school and their own priorities as shown in Rollock et al.’s (2014) and Wallace’s (2017a) research as well as my own outlined here. In addition to school commitments, they, for example, sought experiences including Supplementary Saturday Schools, which could teach their children about ‘race’ issues and about ‘Black history’ and so on. Likewise, the South Asian parents often felt that their family and religious responsibilities had to take second place to the schools’ requirements and requests. BAME and White working-class parents often find school expectations frustrating in that they encroach upon their family time and activities. These parents’ activities are equally if not more valuable, and this mismatch of ‘what counts’ is classed and racialised. As Yosso (2005) has argued, the contributions to their children’s education made by parents from different social classes and ethnicities frequently go unrecognised and are undervalued and delegitimised. Which knowledge and values and culture ‘count’, are worthy, is a social construct, a subjective judgement and indeed, as Bourdieu and Passeron (1990) pointed out, is arbitrary. As they say: The selection of meanings which defines a group’s or a class’s culture as a symbolic system is arbitrary in so far as the structure and functions of the culture cannot be deduced from any universal principle whether physical, biological or spiritual, not being linked by any sort of internal relation to ‘the nature of things’ or any ‘human nature’. (Bourdieu and Passeron 1990, p. 8 proposition 1.2.1)
These knowledge values and cultural objects are not absolutes or monolithic and have been selected to enable the maintenance of the power and influence of the selector. In a White-dominated, hierarchised
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society, knowledge, culture and values are White. Bourdieu and Passeron give an example of the teaching of Latin and (Ancient) Greek in schools as elite subjects which are taught in elite schools. These subjects are held up in Britain today as of great importance and indicative of (so-called) high ‘intelligence’; this is accepted as a given without substantial evidence of support. By contrast, for example, many South Asian children as well as those originally from the Middle East speak Urdu, or Bengali and or Arabic, which are ancient languages, involve scripts that differ markedly from Roman script and are challenging for English speakers to learn. Knowing these languages is not given recognition of any importance but is often seen as an interference in a child’s ability to develop their English language skills. As Moore (2004) (citing Bourdieu 1993b) discusses, a type of cultural attribute only has meaning or value in relation to other positions in the field. Capitals need to be understood and discussed relationally to each other but also to the field or fields in which they are located and operationalised. The field is a social space in which interactions take place. It is a context of scarce resources which are competed for. Individuals’ capitals economic, social and cultural are utilised through their habitus to acquire these resources. Hence cultural attributes or cultural capital, in Bourdieu’s terms, is given value depending on the context of the field (Bourdieu and Wacquant 1992). The field or fields in relation to the discussion here is education—the Education system and more specifically the school. For example, most of the working-class, as well as the middle-class, South Asian families were, as I have said, highly committed to their children’s education and highly aspirational. In addition, they had an abundance of social, linguistic and familial capital, but within the fields of the school and Education system which is dominated by a White hegemonic classed set of values selected for the privileging of those who hold the power to make the selection, their cultural attributes appeared to have little or limited value. Indeed the perception of South Asian parents’ aspirations were not regarded in the same way as those of middle-class parents. Moreover, as well as the impact of class, the field is also ‘raced’ and the experiences and efforts of the South Asian parents were impacted by racism in its various forms.
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In her article Tara Yosso (2005) discusses the culture that “students of colour”, in the USA, bring with them to the classroom. She argues that she seeks to challenge what she describes as “traditional interpretations of cultural capital which promotes a deficit view of ‘communities of colour’ as places of cultural poverty” (p. 69). She asserts that by contrast these communities are in fact “rich in cultural wealth—cultural knowledge, skills abilities” etc. (p. 69). She depicts six types of cultural capital that she has discerned from her research in “communities of colour” that “people of colour” (using her terms) employ in negotiating school education on behalf of or with their children. These are aspirational, navigational, social, linguistic, familial and resistant capital. Arguably these are not all forms of cultural capital in the Bourdieusian sense; nevertheless they are all forms of a type of capital. As Yosso also showed, the family, and arguably associated capitals, played a very important and supportive role in terms of sharing knowledge and providing support, and without it the negative experiences of schooling and relationships with the school may have been more difficult to bear and more difficult to navigate. Yosso explains that: Black people shared their cultural capital with one another and developed their social capital [based on Black community links] (Black social capital) for survival and success in a segregated world bounded by the omnipresent forces of racism and discrimination. (Yosso 2005, p. 102)
Yosso rightly foregrounds BAME people’s cultural capitals in her challenge of the deficit views of these families. However, if we take ‘familial capital’ as identified by Yosso, there are many examples where the value of the families’ actions is not accepted within the field of Education. In my study, when a South Asian family member such as an uncle or older cousin went to the school’s parents’ meeting or indeed just took the younger children to school, for example, the teachers failed to see the role of these family members as contributing as part of the extended family, in the same way that the teachers expect the parent to behave. They therefore continued to interpret the use of the family member as the parents being disinterested and uncaring. By contrast the White middle-class (professionals, highly educated) parents in our study (Reay et al. 2013),
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even where those parents did not go up to the school very often or attend parents’ evening, they had high visibility and were esteemed. In other words they held and embodied high value, cultural capital—they had high status and were perceived as ‘good’ parents. Another example according to Yosso of BAME capital is linguistic capital. Like the “people of colour” in her study (many of whom were Latino/a/Latinx), as I have said the South Asian families in my study spoke two or more languages. In the 13 schools in my study, the parents were frequently described as not ‘being able to speak’ or ‘not having the language’ (see also Cunningham 2017). Punjabi, Sylheti, Urdu or Bengali were not and are still not recognised as valuable knowledge within those fields, and therefore teaching them to their children within these highly competitive fields of the school and the Education system is not regarded as legitimate. School and Education system rankings in the national and global context are based on specific and narrow testing regimes which in turn are based on specific White knowledge. These languages, and indeed other cultural attributes, therefore, have no currency within a White- dominated capitalist system, at this historical juncture. For the parents their language skills are seen as deficient and inferior, in spite of their multilingualism, and their linguistic contribution to their child’s education is not regarded as valuable or as significant cultural capital. Likewise, the cultural experiences that parents provided such as taking their children to Pakistan or Bangladesh for holidays were derided and strongly criticised. Some children lost their school place as a result of this. Being regarded in these ways led to the parents feeling exposed and vulnerable. By contrast White middle-class families (see Reay et al. 2013) who take their children on holiday to France, Australia or the USA are seen as culturally cultivating their children, refining their taste and as Bourdieu (1984) argued infusing their children from an early age with ‘acceptable knowledge’ which in turn develops the appearance of ‘natural ability’. The interrelation of habitus with dominant cultural capital was crucial in order for parents to access the opportunities to make any successful intervention or contribution to their children’s school education. In most cases they found such opportunities unavailable. Even where parents had middle-class resources and middle-class social capital, as I have already indicated, racism often derailed parents’ efforts to support their children.
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The impact of racism on the field and on parental capitals, even for middle-class Black parents, is significant. Parents who had furthered their education and held professional jobs found it difficult to navigate their way through the Education system and play an effective role. Class fractions and how well the habitus was constituted also, however, come in to play (Moore 2004). So again the relational and interconnectedness of these features conspire to enable or disable productive and successful actions. For the many working-class parents, the consequences were in certain ways even more stark. Very few of the South Asian heritage parents had furthered their education beyond 16 years of age, and many of the Bangladeshi parents had not been educated in Britain. In many cases they lacked knowledge of the way the Education system worked or what their children were engaged in in school and even where they did have some insights into this—often through community and extended family-based social capital and the exchange of knowledge, they did not necessarily have the dispositions to utilise this knowledge. This is not about constructing these parents as deficient, as Yosso also argued, but rather it is demonstrating the nature of the structures that are erected to maintain inequalities to ensure privilege and advantage on the one hand and disadvantage on the other.
Conclusion It has been argued that Black parents, and particularly mothers, and South Asian parents have invested considerable emotional labour in conjunction with domestic and ‘professional’ labour in their children’s education. This has taken the form of trying to ensure their needs are met, compensating for the inadequacies of the Education system and protecting or rescuing their children from a negative or educationally damning and damaging experience. In doing so the parents are taking a stand against a system that pathologises their children and has them marked out as failures, adamant that their children will succeed academically and in terms of their future careers.
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Nicky James (1989) has observed that mothers undertaking the management of feeling and thus regulating emotional expression and protecting others from the demands of emotion result in women acting “as society’s emotional sponges” (p. 24). Oakley (1974) has also argued that women’s role is to deal with tensions that arise from certain emotional expressions and ensure harmonious relationships. In a sense this is exactly what the school is expecting from the parents/mothers when they exclude the child. However, although parents/mothers may soak up the emotions of others, they are not passive reproducers of the status quo. Rather it has been shown that they invest their own emotional labour into challenging the exclusion decisions, the discrimination, injustice or whatever their child has experienced, in order to achieve something better for her/him— and indeed for other Black children. The Black parents and the South Asian parents, in these studies, tended to take a more collective rather than an individualistic approach aiming to achieve gains for the children in their communities as a whole. These different orientations in turn impact on the way Black and Asian parents are perceived and responded to by the school. My account here barely does justice to the extensive engagement in their children’s education that the parents entered into. They are motivated not only by a strong commitment to education and wanting their children to do well but also by the impact of institutional racism and the need to defend, rescue and protect their children. Many of these parents had more than one child for whom they had to act in these ways. Enduring endless criticisms of your child as ‘bad’, rude or troublesome or seeing your child rejected by the school is an emotional trial. Emotional work involves the management of feeling and those of the person (the children in these cases) who is the object of the emotional work (Sharma and Black 2001). But of course the role of the parent is much more than managing emotions; as Mrs Kerr said when she had to go to the school and hear the complaints and criticisms about one of her children, she turned to the head teacher and said, “… you know it’s very hard for me to sit back and hear you talking about my child like that because despite what you think he’s still our child and we still … love him and support him…”.
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References Archer, L. (2010) “We raised it with the Head”: The Educational Practices of Minority Ethnic, Middle-Class Families. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 31(4), 449–469. Ball, S. and Vincent, C. (1998) Grapevine Knowledge. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 19(3), 377–400. Bonilla-Silva, E. (2019) Feeling Race: Theorizing the Racial Economy of Emotions American Sociological Review, 84(1), 1–25. Bourdieu, P. (1984) Distinction.: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. London: Routledge. Bourdieu, P. (1993b) The Field of Cultural Production: Essays on Art and Literature. Cambridge: Polity Press. Bourdieu, P. (1997) The Forms of capital. In In A. H. Halsey, H. Lauder, P. Brown and A. Stuart Wells (Eds.), Education, Culture, Economy, Society. 46–58, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. Bourdieu, P. and Passeron, J.-C. (1990) Reproduction, Education, Society and Culture, second edition (Translated by Richard Nice) London: Sage Publications. Bourdieu, P. and Wacquant, L. (1992) Invitation to Reflexive Sociology. Cambridge: Polity Press in association with Blackwell Publishers. Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities: The Report March (2021). (‘The Sewell Report’) www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-report-of-the- commission-on-race-and-ethnic-disparities, Accessed 25 March 2021. Crozier, G. (2000) Parents and Schools: Partners or Protagonists? Stoke on Trent: Trentham Books. Crozier, G. (2003) Researching Black Parents: Making Sense of the Role of Research and the Researcher. Qualitative Research, 3(1), 79–94. Crozier, G. (2004) Parents, Children and Schools: Asian Families’ Perspectives ESRC End of Award Report (R000239671). Crozier, G. (2005) ‘Beyond the Call of Duty’: The Impact of Racism on Black Parents’ Involvement in Their Children’s Education. In Crozier, G. and Reay, D. (eds) Activating Participation: Parents and Teachers Working Towards Partnership, 39–55, Stoke-on-Trent and USA, VA: Stylus Publishing: Trentham Books. Crozier, G. (2019) Interrogating Parent-School Practices in a Market-Based System. The Professionalisation of Parenting and Intensified Parental Involvement: Is This What Schools Want? In T. Turner-Vorbeck and
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S. B. Sheldon (Eds.) Wiley Handbook of Family, School Community Partnerships in Education. 315–332, Hoboken, NJ: Wiley & Sons. Crozier, G. and Davies, J. (2006) Family Matters: A Discussion of the Bangladeshi and Pakistani Extended Family and Community in Supporting the Children’s Education. The Sociological Review, 54(4), 678–695. Crozier, G. and Davies, J. (2007) Hard to Reach Parents or Hard to Reach Schools? A Discussion of Home-School Relations, with Particular Reference to Bangladeshi and Pakistani Parents, British Educational Research Journal, 33(3), 295–313. Cunningham, C. (2017) Saying More Than You Realise About ‘EAL’: Discourses of Educators About Children Who Speak Languages Beyond English. PhD thesis, University of York. White Rose e Theses On-Line. http://etheses.whiterose. ac.uk/19395/, Accessed 27 June 2022. Gewirtz, S., Ball, S. J. and Bowe, R. (1995) Markets, Choice, and Equity in Education. Buckingham and Philadelphia: Open University Press. Gilkes, C. T. (1983) From Slavery to Social Welfare: Racism and the Control of Black Women. In Amy Swerdlow and Hanna Lessinger (Eds.) Class, Race and Sex: The Dynamics of Control, 288–300, Boston: Hall. Gillborn, D. and Youdell, D. (2000) Rationing Education. Milton Keynes: Open University Press. Goodall, J. and Vorhaus, J., with the help of Carpentieri, J. D., Brooks, G., Akerman, R., and Harris, A. (2011) “Review of Best Practice in Parental Engagement: Practitioners Summary”. Department for Education. London Research Report DFE-RR156. (publishing.service.gov.uk) Hill Collins, P. (1998) Fighting Words. Black Women and the Search for Justice. Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota. Hill Collins, P. (2000) Black Feminist Thought. London: Routledge. Hochschild, A. (1983) The Managed Heart. Berkeley, LA: University of California Press. Irvine, J. (1990) ‘Black Parents’ Perceptions of their Children’s Desegregated School Experience. Paper presented to the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Boston, Massachusetts. April. James, N. (1989) Emotional Labour. Sociological Review, 37(1), 15–42. Ladson-Billings, G. (1994) The Dream Keepers. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers. Lareau, A. (2003) Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race and Family Life. Berkley, CA: University of California Press.
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McConnell, B. M. and Kubina, R. M. (2014) Connecting with Families to Improve Students’ School Attendance: A Review of the Literature. Preventing School Failure: Alternative Education for Children and Youth, 58(4), 249–256. Moore, R. (2004) Cultural Capital: Objective Probability and the Cultural Arbitrary. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 25(4), 445–456. Oakley, A. (1974) Housewife. Middlesex: Penguin. Olmedo, A. and Wilkins, A. (2017) Governing Through Parents: A Genealogical Enquiry of Education Policy and the Construction of Neoliberal Subjectivities in England. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 38(4), 573–589. Reay, D. (2000) A Useful Extension of Bourdieu’s Conceptual Framework: Emotional Capital as a Way of Understanding Mothers’ Involvement in Their Children’s Education? The Sociological Review, 48(4), 568–585, https:// doi.org/10.1111/1467-954X.00233. Reay, D., Crozier, G. and James, D. (2013) White Middle-Class Identities and Urban Schooling, Second edition. London and New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Rollock, N., Gillborn, D. Vincent, C. and Ball, S. J. (2014) The Colour of Class. London and New York: Routledge. Sharma, U. and Black, P. (2001) Look Good, Feel Better: Beauty Therapy as Emotional Labour. Sociology, 35(4), 913–931. Squires, P. (Ed.) (2008) ASBO Nation: The Criminalisation of Nuisance. Bristol: The Policy Press. Van Voorhis, F. L. M., Michelle, F., Epstein, J. L. and Lloyd, C. M. (2013) The Impact of Family Involvement on the Education of Children Ages 3 to 8: A Focus on Literacy and Math Achievement Outcomes and Social-Emotional Skills. New York and Oakland, CA: MDRC. Vetta, A. (2002) Slow Fuse for Minefield, Opinion, TES, 29 March. Vincent, C. and Maxwell, C. (2016) Parenting Priorities and Pressures: Furthering Understanding of ‘Concerted Cultivation’. Discourse: Cultural Politics in Education, 37(2), 269–281. Wallace, D. (2017a) Reading ‘Race’ in Bourdieu? Examining Black Cultural Capital Among Black Caribbean Youth in South London. Sociology, 51(5), 907–923. Wallace, D. (2017b) Distinctiveness, Deference and Dominance in Black Children’s Fathers’ Engagement with Public Schools in London and New York. Gender and Education, 29(5), 594–613. Yosso, T. (2005) Whose Culture Has Capital? Race, Ethnicity, & Education 8(1), 69–91.
9 Conclusion: Anti-racism or Post-Race— Where Are We Now in the Struggle Against Racism?
This chapter draws together and summarises the key arguments made in the book including the discussions of the nature and endurance of racism or racisms and Whiteness and their impact on BAME children and young people in the Education system. It exposes the complex and fluid nature of racism and its manifold ways of impacting on lives and life chances. We have seen since the Brexit vote a rise of racism and populist ideologies, whilst at the same time there has been a neglect of addressing racism and even acknowledging the existence of ‘race’ as an issue in Education, as well as society generally. We have lurched from equality and diversity policy to policy without making significant changes to the Education experiences of BAME children or without developing the understanding of racial oppression and discrimination and Whiteness amongst teachers. Since the 1980s, impassioned debates have taken place around the differences between and the validity of multicultural education or anti-racist education. My contention is that we need to move on from these discourses and debates from the past whilst at the same time learning from them. We are also faced with the enduring discourse of post-race/racism, but the evidence of discrimination, racial abuse and marginalisation of BAME people demonstrates the absurdity of this as a myth (Bhopal © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023, corrected publication 2023 G. Crozier, Racism and Education in Britain, Palgrave Studies in Race, Inequality and Social Justice in Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-18931-9_9
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2018). It has been shown that racism and the dominance of Whiteness permeate all facets of the Education system. This therefore needs to be the focus for change. It has always been the case but has been and continues to be evaded. Throughout the book I have compiled and drawn on evidence of the existence and experiences of racism from not only academic sources but also reports such as those of the Runnymede Trust (www.runnymedetrust.org), the IRR fortnightly calendar of racism and resistance (www.irr. org), the EHRC Research Database (Research@equalityhumanrights. com), the Stuart Hall Foundation (www.stuarthallfoundation.org) and media sources. I have woven historic with contemporary evidence over a number of years and have utilised international evidence to show the endurance, changeability, multifunctionality and globalisation of racism. The incidences are relentless, not only of individual acts but organisational/institutional acts of racism. Alongside this we have seen government resistance to giving recognition to this reality. I would like to begin by summarising the key conclusions from the analysis based on exploring the nature of racism, ‘race’ and Whiteness and interrogating the processes and impact of racism and Whiteness on the Education experiences of BAME children and young people and the ways it is reproduced and permeated through the Education system and education experience. It has been demonstrated that: Racism is historic. It has developed in relation to the socio-political context of the historical period and changes and manifests itself in relation to those conditions. It is all pervasive in Education and has become normalised in Education and society. It operates and impacts on Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic people in similar and also different ways. In Education this is shown, for example, in relation to different levels of achievement between different BAME groups, differential attitudes, treatment and expectations regarding behaviour. Whiteness is woven into racism and the processes of racialisation; it needs to be confronted and rooted out if we are to eradicate racism itself. Racism and Whiteness are reproduced through the curriculum, professionals’ behaviours and attitudes and those of the White pupils and
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students, as well as through the structures and organisation of the Education system and society more generally. The pervasiveness of racism exposes the ineffectiveness of the numerous policies on ‘diversity’ and ‘equality’ and the lack of concern with tackling racism and racialisation and the dominance of Whiteness directly. Indeed no policy has recognised the significance of Whiteness. Attempts to begin to address Whiteness through ‘decolonising’ the curriculum have been met with government denial of this as a problem. This pervasiveness also exposes the contradictions between various policies and commissions on equality and the immigration laws through their brutal denigration of BAME people as unworthy and unwanted. The book was started shortly after the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter Movement and the resulting support and inspiration it gave rise to. The book ends at a time when some very repressive State measures are being introduced against demonstrators (The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022, often referred to as the Police Bill), anti-immigration measures in the policy to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda for settlement there, and a whole raft of policies, guidance and pronouncements that continue the drive to manage and control ethnic diversity, as previously argued, with the attempt to close down discussion of racism and Whiteness. These are attempts in effect to push back on the focus on ‘race’ and resume the deracialisation/post-race agenda. The actions aimed at stifling debate and curtailing teachers and teacher training providers’ anti-racist practices are particularly concerning. The government’s ‘impartiality guidance’ (Department for Education 2022) admonishes teachers against discussing or teaching anything that suggests a personal opinion rather than ‘evidence-based’ statements, although it is not clear what types of evidence would be seen as acceptable. The tone of the document is threatening and intended to warn off teachers from discussing controversial issues such as ‘race’ and White supremacy. Badenoch, the Equalities Minister, has already declared that teaching Critical Race Theory is unacceptable in schools and Education establishments since she asserts it is ‘political’ and therefore inappropriate for institutions that “should be neutral” (Markson 2022). Moreover, in a discussion in Parliament about Black History month, she declared explicitly that a
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discussion of Whiteness would not be tolerated: “We do not want teachers to teach their white pupils about white privilege and inherited racial guilt” (Trilling 2020). The universities’ minister Michelle Donelan has also told universities that they should not participate in the Advance HE (Advance-he.ac.uk accessed 1/07/2022) universities’ Race Equality Charter (designed to help universities develop anti-racist policies and practice and improve their equal opportunities for both staff and students). Echoing the ‘impartiality’ message, she said that the Race Equality Charter and other ‘diversity schemes’ “could be in conflict with their duties to uphold free speech” (Grove 2022). There was again a threat in the tone of her letter to universities regarding the £750 million government support to teaching and science facilities and whether such initiatives and membership of these schemes represent value for taxpayers’ money. Most recently Jacob Rees-Mogg, another government minister, has voiced his intention to request that government departments ban ‘diversity training’ in an attempt to prevent reflexive practice on privilege and other issues relating to ‘race’ and other discriminations in the civil service (Warren 2022), echoing Donald Trump’s similar orders to federal agencies and contractors to stop funding any training programmes that drew on “race-based ideologies” (Trilling 2020; ibid.). These declarations to curtail debate and critical thinking are further attempts to deracialise the policy agenda. Moreover, the CRED (Sewell) Report and its denouncement of the existence of institutional racism, reducing racism to individual acts, is an attempt to significantly undermine the focus on racism in public life. It is also part of the government’s backlash to the rise of anti-racist activism and debates in Education and the public sector which challenge racism and White supremacy and privilege. The CRED Report in fact is a further attempt to reassert the post-race agenda. However, the criticisms of this report from academics and professionals from across the public sector, as well as MPs, have limited the nature of government recommendations which have ignored some of the most criticised and extreme conclusions, up to this point in time at least (Syal 2022). The persisting manifestations of racism in their various guises in Education and society continue to damage lives and life chances of BAME children and young people. The policy agenda which has eschewed
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racism has failed to address the needs of children and young people and the needs of the teachers to become adequately equipped to teach them in an equitable and fair anti-racist way. The power and dominance of Whiteness and its damaging reverberations remain unchecked in any organised or formal manner throughout the Education system. Any attempts by individual schools or universities or individual teachers to make changes are now being undermined by policy interventions. The government refusal to recognise and acknowledge White privilege and White supremacy is linked to the promotion of Britain as ‘great’ and the harking back to its imperial past and global leadership. As the Brexit project continues to falter in demonstrating any benefits to people’s lives and is in part at least responsible for surging food prices and lack of supplies and services, the more necessary it becomes to bolster the myth of greatness. It is feared that the challenge to White supremacy would further undermine this. Understanding the historical development of ‘race’ and ensuing racialisation of certain people is central to the analysis of racism and Education. The construction of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic people as lesser, deficient and Other, as has been discussed, continues to prevail. It weaves its way through the lived and educational experiences of the children and young people, albeit in different ways across different ethnic groups and often in more subtle and sophisticated ways from, for example, the crudity and viciousness of the Victorian period or even the twentieth century to the often subtle, so-called unconscious bias as it is currently often referred to, but it has the same and worse discriminating and damaging effects. The school and university curricula play a key role in the production and reproduction of racist and White supremacist ideology. Of course, it is not just Education and the curriculum that is responsible for this, but within the context of Education, the focus here, this is of great significance. It is also through Education, at least in part, that the perpetuation and reproduction of racism could be stopped. To allow racism and White supremacy to permeate teaching and learning is damaging for all children and young people. It colludes with the festering attitudes against immigrants as recounted in Garner’s (2016) study, for example, allowing the use of migrant people by the political class to act as a buffer against the real causes of poverty and deprivation
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and empty lives. For White children in school, they are allowed to reproduce these false ideas they hear from home, the media and elsewhere without any countering information and critical discussion. Such attitudes fester and feed into antagonisms and the violence recounted by the BAME children in the studies reported earlier. Recalling the lack of effective action on the part of the school and the teachers to racial harassment by White pupils, it is not surprising that a slight reprimand did not work. It could not work because these ideas and beliefs have to be exposed through developing understanding, debate and recognition of the nature of racism and Whiteness. The cyclical nature of the reproduction of racism, through teachers’ negative attitudes, negative stereotyping and low expectations of BAME children, has dire consequences for the learning and educational experiences of certain BAME children. For some Black boys, in particular, as Graham (2016) has shown, schools merely provide a pipeline to prison as she describes it. The exclusion rates and reports from the parents in my study underpin that possibility. Similar negative attitudes expressed in the university context that I reported, as others have too (e.g. Arday and Mirza 2018; Akel 2019), ostracise BAME students as illegitimate and ‘out of place’ (Puwar 2004). The achievement gap in school and university education remains a major problem as does the disproportionate number of BAME people suffering from ill health, without work or in low waged jobs. It has been shown that schools and universities are challenging spaces for BAME children and young people to negotiate and access fully the benefits that they should do. The organisation and ethos of the school together with the dominance of Whiteness in the curriculum have the effect of symbolic violence (Bourdieu and Passeron 1990), Othering the young people, placing some in inappropriate learning situations and causing some to give up altogether on their education. Fear of the Other has been a strong theme that has run through much of the analysis in the book. Fear of Black boys and young men as troublesome, potentially aggressive and untrustworthy from the perspectives of White teachers, lecturers and university students is one aspect of this. The depiction of South Asian young people as potential terrorists through the Prevent Strategy with the related stereotypes and stigma that ensues is another. And the accusation of self-segregation by BAME people into
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‘their own’ communities or in the education arena into gangs is another. The adultification of BAME children is another development, whereby BAME children are not viewed as innocent children in the same way as White children (Mohdin 2022). Recent examples of this have come to light such as of the 15-year-old girl known as Child Q who was strip- searched by police in school without a parent or guardian present on the basis of an alleged accusation of carrying drugs (which was found to be false). Likewise, a 12-year-old boy known as Ahmed, an alleged rape victim, was treated as though he was the sexual predator and questioned in school without the presence of a parent or guardian. In both of these cases, the children were not treated as children but as adults and without recognition of their basic rights (Mohdin 2022). From the Black mothers’ accounts in Chap. 8, it was seen that Black children were not treated in the same fair way as White children were, and similarly the evidence of negative and low teacher attitudes and expectations discussed in Chap. 7 from Britain and across Europe demonstrates this. Creating fear of the Other legitimises certain policies and practices such as immigration controls and stringent police practice as well as the presence of police in schools, actions that Miller (2006) describes as a ‘technology of governance’, a device for control and management. In terms of teachers’ practice, fear is also a legitimation for failing to relate to the BAME students appropriately or ensure that they are engaging fully with their studies as in the case of the university lecturer in Chap. 6 or the White teachers in Chaps. 7 and 8. The fear of South Asian people and Muslims in particular became a global phenomenon as Miller (2006) also suggests, after the terrorist acts of the Twin Towers and other bombings in London, Paris and Indonesia, for example. As discussed, this was exacerbated for children and young people in the school and university with the Prevent Duty. In a similar way to immigration policies, the Prevent Duty frequently marked out young people, unjustifiably, as not only different but also dangerous. As discussed, the neoliberal Education market and resulting competitiveness between schools required student compliance and sameness just as did the wider societal policies of Community Cohesion and Citizenship. The struggle for their identity and a rightful place within the school, representing themselves and not someone defined by dominant Whiteness,
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is a hidden struggle for BAME children and young people. The focus on Black hair as a site of oppression, as Joseph-Salisbury and Connelly (2018) termed it, is a more overt expression of this, but the presentation of self and the struggle against “the internalization of the self as other” (Hall 1992, p. 256) are silent consequences of the discrimination and drive for assimilation. Donning the White mask is the most potent expression of this: pretending to be someone who is ‘acceptable’ whilst trying to maintain that sense of self, the double consciousness as Du Bois (1903) explained, is a profound contest and represents immense pressure. It is this that led Mrs Kerr, one of the parents whose experiences were discussed in Chap. 8, to remove her son from school to home-school rather than him suffer the loss of his personality.
ossibilities of Change and Challenging Racism P and Whiteness Referring to Said’s Orientalism, Burney (2012b) states: Orientalism has shown that it is the power of representation, writings, images, words in literature, art and culture, that has been passed down since antiquity and which still haunts through the idea of the Orient as Other in the West. (pp. 69–70)
Additionally, as we have seen, it is through culture and cultural representations that the notion of (White) Britain and the British Empire is and continues to be perpetuated as great (see also Burney 2012b). In relation to these arguments, we can see the significance of government interventions in the curriculum and teaching in a bid to maintain this status quo. Burney, Hall and others have argued that representation— including the absent presence—is an essential element in constructing ideology and people’s attitudes and understandings. For the same reason, this is why the decolonising movement is so important. But as I have said, it is not simply about representation. It is certainly not about a superficial display of ‘difference’ and ‘diversity’. If decolonising the curriculum is to avoid the mistakes of multicultural education and make a
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serious contribution to shifting White domination of knowledge, attitudes and behaviours, then much more than this needs to be done. Burney describes Said’s exposition of how the Other has been marginalised, denigrated and indeed racialised as a Pedagogy of the Other. Engaging with a Pedagogy of the Other would be a good beginning. Pedagogy in this sense is about a critical perspective, a critique of the discourse of the Other, a philosophy, developing an understanding of how the Other has been and is denigrated through literature, the arts, media and so on (Burney 2012a). In this way the pedagogy reveals what needs to be changed in order to root out racism and challenge White domination. Although Said did not use the term Whiteness, it is that, I suggest, that lies at the heart of his thesis. As I have discussed, there are a series of constraints upon teachers and university lecturers in trying to develop anti-racist pedagogy including changing their curricula. Teachers have limited opportunities to develop their understandings and reflexivity, and there are significant limits to the opportunities to develop critical understandings of Whiteness and the nature and operationalisation of racism. Nevertheless, there are some growing exceptions to the lack of anti-racist action in schools and recent evidence of anti-racist initiatives, such as in London and Manchester and other individual schools. By contrast to the stated constraints, the academisation of schools gives some autonomy to school initiatives notwithstanding the pressures from government as indicated. Schools in Hackney and Camden, for example, are addressing the absence of a ‘Black Curriculum’, and a Manchester MP has launched a ‘diverse curriculum charter’ for schools in his constituency (Batty et al. 2021). According to Batty et al. (2021), more than 660 schools in England have signed up to a “diverse and anti-racist curriculum developed by teachers and local authority staff in the London Borough of Hackney”. Various universities (although not enough (Arday et al. 2021)) are responding to the demand for anti-racist practices and a decolonised curriculum (see Decolonising the curriculum | THE Campus Learn, Share, Connect, timeshighereducation.com; Batty 2020; Liyanage 2020). Also Wales which has devolved powers for Education and thus control over their Education system is in the process of developing an anti-racist curriculum (Williams 2021; Hatch et al. 2021). But as discussed here the issue is not just about the
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nature of the curriculum as important as that is. A much more extensive anti-racist education approach needs to be developed throughout the system as well as in each school. The National Education Union has developed an anti-racist charter (National Education Union (NEU) Anti-racism Charter. Accessed 15/03/2022)—a framework for developing an antiracist approach to support teachers’ development which takes a wider approach than just focusing on the curriculum. Scotland, which also has devolved powers for their Education system, is beginning to promote and develop anti-racist education practice and has developed a Race Equality Framework for Scotland 2016–2030, although Meer et al. (2020) have expressed concern at the slow development of effective policies and practice to challenge racism. They suggest that there has been an inherent complacency about recognising racism in Scottish society. Others too such as Davidson et al. (2018) voice similar concerns about ‘the race blind narratives’ that remain pervasive in Scotland in spite of the devolved government’s more positive attitude to immigration (than their Westminster counterparts). Both sets of commentators recognise differences in attitudes between the governments of England and Scotland to racism and that the Scottish Government is currently constructively involved in some initiatives to address racial inequalities and thus is recognising the existence and importance of the issues of racism. The critique of this is just developing; as with all of these new developments, it remains to be seen how effective and enduring they will be. These overall efforts are a positive first step. They may be limited by the fragmentation of the Education system compared to the policy endeavours by Local Education Authorities in the 1980s which were responsible for all schools in their areas and were able to work with schools to develop anti-racist education policies and staff development (Crozier 1992; Troyna 1993). Nevertheless, these policies were not adopted nationally, and their demise demonstrates the fragility of such efforts. There is a major problem around the training of pre- and in-service teachers, and therefore collective action to challenge government curtailment of anti- racist initiatives and programmes by the unions and professional organisations is much needed. In spite of the post-race discourse in policy and government, there is ongoing debate and concern about ‘race’ and racism in Education, as well as society generally. There is an extensive number of
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organisations and small business enterprises that have organised around decolonising the curriculum and teacher training, for example, and are developing teaching resources, such as Show Racism the Red Card, BAMEed Network and The Black Curriculum, and there are grassroots organisations that provide support to local BAME people on a range of educational issues, and there are national organisations such as the Runnymede Trust. However, apart from the Black Lives Matter Movement which is a generic movement, we have not yet seen substantial organisation of social movements mobilising teachers and educational professionals around ‘race’ and education since the 1980s. The task for change is immense. In the words of Edward Said (1994): A huge and remarkable adjustment in perspective and understanding is required to take account of the contribution to modernism of decolonisation, resistance culture and the literature of opposition to imperialism. (p. 311)
We need a mass movement around Education to advance this, perhaps in collaboration with organisations already mentioned and the teaching and university unions. As interesting and as valuable as individual and localised efforts are, a fragmented approach will not be sufficient. But Education of course is only a part of the issue. To effectively root out racism and Whiteness, we need societal transformation.
References Advance HE. Race Equality Charter. https://www.advance-he.ac.uk, Accessed 1 July 2022. Akel, S. (2019) Insider-Outsider: The Role of Race in Shaping the Experiences of Black and Minority Ethnic Students. October London: Goldsmiths College. Arday, J. and Mirza, H. S. (Eds.) (2018) Dismantling Race in Higher Education. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Arday, J., Belluigih, D. Z., and Thomas, D. (2021) Attempting to Break the Chain: Reimaging Inclusive Pedagogy and Decolonising the Curriculum Within the Academy. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 53(3), 298–313. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2020.1773257.
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Correction to: Racism and Education in Britain
Correction to: G. Crozier, Racism and Education in Britain, Palgrave Studies in Race, Inequality and Social Justice in Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-18931-9 This book was inadvertently published with the wrong Copyright year whereas it has been changed to 2023.
The updated original version for this book can be found at https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-18931-9 © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 G. Crozier, Racism and Education in Britain, Palgrave Studies in Race, Inequality and Social Justice in Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-18931-9_10
C1
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© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023, corrected publication 2023 G. Crozier, Racism and Education in Britain, Palgrave Studies in Race, Inequality and Social Justice in Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-18931-9
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Index1
A
Abbas, T., 179 Achebe, C., 125 Achievement, achievement gap, attainment gap, 3, 8, 15, 17, 74, 75, 80, 84n2, 95, 96, 108, 135–137, 137n1, 141, 142, 161, 169, 170, 180, 184, 196, 198, 224, 228 Adams, R., 181 Adultification, 229 Advance HE, 184, 226 African Caribbeans, see Black; Black Caribbean Ahmed, F., 89 Ahmed, S., 13, 27, 35, 36, 122 Akel, S., 228
Akhtar, S., 9, 232 Alexander, C., 24, 111, 135, 136, 138, 140, 153 Ali, T., 3 Allen, R., 183 Anderson, E., 145, 151, 157, 158 Anthias, F., 27, 41 Anthony, A., 2 Anti-racism, anti-racist, 1–4, 13, 14, 17, 23, 24, 29, 39, 49–68, 76, 79–85, 89, 94, 96, 99, 111, 129, 140, 152, 168, 172, 173, 176–181, 185, 186, 223–233 Anti-terrorism, 74 Apple, M., 124 Arbitrary, cultural arbitrary, 16, 117, 213
Note: Page numbers followed by ‘n’ refer to notes.
1
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023, corrected publication 2023 G. Crozier, Racism and Education in Britain, Palgrave Studies in Race, Inequality and Social Justice in Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-18931-9
271
272 Index
Archer, L., 135, 136, 170, 196 Arday, J., 4, 124, 228, 231 Asians, see East Asians; South Asians Assimilation, 28, 58, 77, 78, 82, 87, 98, 99, 106, 110, 122, 139, 159, 212, 230 Associated Press, 11 Audit Commission, 143 Austerity, 30, 32, 33, 81, 96 Ayling, P., 118 Awan, I., 179 B
Badash, N., 91 Bailey, E. G., 88 Ball, S., 200 Ball, S.J., 139 BAME, see Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Bangladeshis, 8, 11, 17, 135, 137, 144–147, 149–151, 153, 196, 208, 209, 217 Banton, M., 26 Barot, R., 26 Barrett, J., 28 Basit, T., 169 Batty, D., 2, 138, 231 Beale-Spencer, M., 141, 143, 145 Behaviour, 6, 28, 29, 37, 42, 51, 54, 58, 109–112, 124, 127, 129, 139, 143, 144, 147, 151, 157, 161, 167, 171, 173, 175, 179, 203, 204, 209, 212, 224, 231 Belluigih, D. Z., 124, 231 Benson, M., 31, 32 Berger, J., 127 Bhabha, H., 107, 157
Bhopal, K., 4, 8, 40, 42, 92, 151, 181, 223 Bias, unconscious, 16, 227 Bibby, D., 183 Bilingual, 84n2 See also Multilingual Bird, J., 26 Black, P., 218 Black, 1, 3, 4, 7, 8, 11, 26–28, 33, 37–42, 50, 52–62, 65–68, 78–82, 91, 98, 107–111, 113, 115, 116, 119, 120, 127, 136, 138, 141–145, 149, 152–159, 161, 167, 169, 173–175, 182–184, 186, 196, 198–203, 205, 206, 208–213, 215, 217, 218, 228–230 Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME), 1, 3, 4, 6–11, 15–17, 28, 32, 33, 35, 37, 39, 40, 42, 43, 50–53, 55, 56, 58, 61, 68, 74–81, 87, 89, 90, 95, 96, 98, 105, 107, 111, 113, 117, 118, 120–125, 127–129, 135–137, 145, 149, 151, 152, 155, 156, 159–161, 169–171, 173, 175, 180, 183–186, 195, 196, 212, 213, 215, 216, 223–230, 233 Black Caribbean, 8, 11, 15, 17, 26, 80, 98, 111, 135–137, 139, 141, 155, 169–171, 196, 200, 201, 205, 210 See also West Indian Black Lives Matter Movement, 1, 2, 5, 24, 34, 37, 96, 107, 108, 123, 129, 186, 225, 233 Blair, M., 34 Blake, J., 85, 181
Index
Blood, D., 32 Bloom, A., 17 Bloor, M., 67 Boath, L., 118 Bodenhausen, G.V., 170 Bolliver. V., 137 Bonds, A., 6 Bonilla-Silva, E., 107, 116, 120, 145, 152, 175, 197 Bonnett, A., 23, 28, 29, 32, 34 Booker-Lewis, S., 179 Bourdieu, P., 7, 8, 16, 28, 39, 125, 157, 168, 176–178, 212–214, 216, 228 Bowe,R., 139 Bradbury, A., 183 Brah, A., 54, 112, 113, 116, 117, 121, 128 Brexit, 5, 5n1, 13, 30–34, 32n1, 43, 75, 90, 138, 139, 145, 151, 223, 227 Briggs, D., 143 Bristol Teachers’ Association (BTA, National Union of Teachers), 81 Britain, British, 1–17, 23–26, 28–38, 43, 54, 73–78, 82, 84, 86–93, 96–98, 105, 107, 110, 115–117, 120, 124–128, 135, 137n1, 159, 169, 178, 179, 214, 217, 227, 229, 230 British, 33 British colonialism, see Colonialism, British colonialism, coloniser British imperialism, 2, 34, 97, 124, 125, 129 The British Nationality Act, 77 Brown, R., 170
273
Bryan, H., 94 Burgess, S., 171 Burke, P. J., 8, 67, 110, 111, 118, 119, 174 Burney, S. (2012), 127, 129, 230, 231 Busher, J., 179 C
Camden, B., 138, 231 Campbell, A., 168 Cantle, T., 87 Cantle Report, The Report of the Independent Review, 86 Capital cultural, 36, 157, 176, 196–198, 200, 212, 214–216 economic, 211 social, 196, 200, 210, 211, 215–217 Carby, H., 50, 55, 120 Carrington, B., 50, 83 Centre for Contemporary and Cultural Studies (CCCS), 50, 82 Chang, D. F., 171 Chetty, D., 118 Cheung, P., 88 Chinese, people, 25 Choudhury, T., 179 Chubb, J. E., 139 CIPD (2021), 33 Citizenship, citizenship education, 39, 86–91, 97, 98, 115, 118, 120–122, 149, 184, 229 Civil unrest, 7, 74, 76, 86 Clandinin, D. J., 56, 63, 66
274 Index
Clarke, J., 41, 42 Class, 8, 12, 17, 27, 37, 40–42, 55, 96, 110, 115, 116, 118, 120, 121, 145, 150, 154, 157, 170, 177, 180, 196, 199, 200, 202, 205, 211, 213, 214, 217, 227 See also Social class; Middle-class; Working-class Clyq, N., 88, 89 Coard, B., 77, 139 Cohen, B., 92, 93 Cohen, P., 29 Cohen, S., 151 Colonialism, British colonialism, Coloniser, 2, 3, 24, 28, 34, 106, 110, 140, 180 Colour racism, 28 Colour-blind, 90, 116, 172 Colston, Edward, 2 Colston, Edward, Colston statue, 2, 97, 129 Commission for Racial Equality, 86, 90 Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities (CRED), Report, 5, 143, 196 See also Sewell Report Commission on the Future of Multi-Ethnic Britain; The Future of Multi-Ethnic Britain Report; The Parekh Report Community cohesion, 74, 86–94, 97, 98, 229 Connelly, L., 155, 156, 230 Connelly, S. M., 56, 63, 66 Connolly, P., 175 Connor, L., 231 Conservative, 2, 5, 90, 91
Control, manage, 7, 13, 74, 171, 178 Core Curriculum Framework, 85, 181 Cottle, M., 177 Cottrell, C. A., 174 Crawford, C., 135 Crenshaw, K.W., 8, 40 Critcher, C., 41, 42 Critical Race Theory, 7, 10, 12, 16, 24, 35–42, 50, 96, 179, 212n3, 225 Critical White Theory, 7, 8, 10, 12, 16, 24, 35–43 See also Whiteness, White Crozier, G., 4, 8, 15, 17, 55, 58, 61, 66, 79, 80, 84, 86, 87, 95, 98, 109–111, 117, 122, 123, 136, 139–144, 146, 151, 153–156, 159, 170, 174, 181, 196, 198, 200, 201, 203, 205–210, 212, 232 Crul, M., 88, 89 Cultural arbitrary, 16 Cultural diversity, 78, 80, 99, 107, 112, 121, 129, 172, 180 Cultural pluralism, 78, 82, 87, 106 Culture, 4, 6, 11, 14, 17, 24, 26, 27, 29, 30, 55, 78, 79, 87, 95, 99, 107, 108, 111–123, 125, 126, 128, 129, 153, 160, 183, 196, 212–217, 230, 233 Cunningham, C., 88, 216 Curriculum, 3, 4, 14, 16, 39, 40, 78, 79, 89, 93, 97, 99, 105–130, 138–140, 150, 152, 153, 168, 169, 175, 176, 179–181, 224, 225, 227, 228, 230–233 Cushing, I., 89
Index D
Dabiri, E. (2021), 66 Danechi, S., 140 Daniel, B-J., 109 Davidson, N., 9, 232 Davies, J., 61, 84, 86, 111, 136, 151, 153, 181, 182, 208, 210 Decolonising the curriculum, 124, 129, 225, 230, 233 Deficit model, 78, 143 Demie, F., 3, 136, 173 Demyan, A., 171 Denessen, E., 169–171 Department for Communities and Local Government, 87, 92 Department for Education and Science (DES), 77, 78, 82 Department for Education and Skills, 141 Department for Education (DfE), 3, 87, 93, 97, 135, 136, 141, 178, 179, 181, 183, 184, 225 Deracialisation, 95, 225 DiAngelo, R., 183 Difference, 5–7, 9, 11, 14, 24, 26, 27, 29, 30, 37, 38, 64, 78, 80, 91, 94, 108, 109, 111–121, 123, 124, 146, 153, 170, 173, 179, 200, 208–211, 223, 230, 232 Discrimination, 1, 3, 4, 9, 10, 12, 27, 30, 35, 42, 49, 50, 74, 76, 79–81, 83, 86, 89, 94, 96, 98, 99, 114, 115, 120, 121, 145, 151, 157, 168, 172, 179, 200, 215, 218, 223, 226, 230
275
Diversity, 7, 13–14, 33, 40, 73–99, 105, 107, 109, 111–123, 129, 130, 136, 140, 171, 172, 180, 181, 184, 223, 225, 230 Dixon, K., 34 Dorling, D., 34 Double consciousness, 159, 160, 230 Dresser, M., 42 Driessen, G., 89 Du Bois W. E. B., 159, 230 Dysconscious racism, 110, 150, 171, 172 E
Eagleton, T., 39, 125 East Asians, 11, 170 Eccles, J., 169 Edmond-Pettitt, A., 33 Educational achievement, attainment, 75, 82, 84n2, 95 Education Parliamentary Select Committee, 96 Education system, 3–5, 8, 10, 16, 17, 32, 39, 40, 43, 60, 76, 79, 81, 83, 137–140, 157, 160, 167, 168, 176, 178, 179, 185, 186, 214, 216, 217, 223–225, 227, 231, 232 Edwards, A., 3 Edwards, R., 60 Elahi, F., 14n3, 153 Elton-Chalcraft, S., 92–94 Elwick, A., 92–94 Emotional, investment, labour, 17, 25, 41, 136, 145, 175, 196–198, 202–205, 212, 217, 218
276 Index
Epstein, J. L., 195 Equalities and Human Rights Commission, 90, 98 Equality Act, 30, 89, 90, 138 Equality, inequality, equalities, inequalities, 1–6, 9, 12–14, 23, 24, 27, 35, 39, 49, 50, 73, 76, 79–82, 85, 89, 90, 94–97, 106, 113, 118, 120–122, 129, 150, 168, 172, 178, 183–186, 217, 223, 225, 232 Essentialising, 112, 117, 158 Ethnicity, 4, 11, 54, 80, 84n2, 89, 112, 113, 123, 136, 169, 170, 185, 213 See also ‘Race’; Racism Europe, Europeans, 4, 5, 10, 14, 23, 25, 26, 28, 32, 33, 36, 73, 75, 87, 89, 97, 107, 125, 126, 151, 159, 169, 229 Exclusion from school, 160, 203, 204 Exotic, exoticising, 108, 115, 116, 126 F
Fanon, F., 108, 111, 128, 152, 157, 159 Far-right, 13, 43 Fear, 5, 31, 33, 34, 86, 97, 110, 123, 137, 142, 143, 151–156, 159, 172–174, 179, 205, 228, 229 Fekete, L., 31, 33 Finch, J., 54, 55 Fine, M., 56, 57, 61, 62, 66 Finlay, B., 74 Fisher, J., 156
Fordham, S., 143 Fortier, A. M., 88, 89 Francis, B., 135, 136, 170 Freedman, S., 186 Fundamental British Values (FBVs), 87, 93, 94, 139, 153, 179 G
Garner, R., 95 Garner, S., 7, 23, 26–29, 35–37, 227 Gender, 8, 27, 40, 42, 54, 55, 80, 82, 90, 106, 112, 118, 145, 169 Gentleman, A., 91 Gewirtz, S., 139, 200 Giddens, A., 59–61 Gilkes, C. T., 206 Gillborn, D., 4, 6, 23, 29, 36, 95, 96, 141, 154, 155, 168, 170, 177, 180, 185, 204 Gillman, S. L., 108 Gilroy, P., 26, 27, 29, 30, 50, 76, 80, 94 Global, globalisation, 1, 4, 10, 14, 24, 30, 31, 33, 34, 75, 88, 118, 178, 216, 224, 227, 229 Goffman, E., 59, 60 Gold, Anne, 139 Gomolla, M., 89 Goodall, J., 196 Goulborne, H., 88 Gov.UK, 135 Gov.Wales, 183 Graham, B., 3 Graham, K., 139, 143, 155, 228 Gray, K., 174 Greaves, E., 135, 171
Index
277
Green, F., 94 Griffin, C., 110 Grove, J., 226 Gypsy’, Roma and Travellers, 11, 15, 24, 28, 84n2, 98, 136, 138
House of Commons Library, Research Briefing. Immigration Statistics., 31 Hugenberg, K., 170 Hughey, M., 108
H
I
Habitus, 176–178, 214, 216, 217 Hall, B.L., 66 Hall, S., 40–42, 50, 108, 111–113, 121, 230 Hallam, S., 170 Hancock, I., 11n2 Hancock, S. D., 183 Harber, K.D., 169 Harpalani, V., 141, 145 Harris, G., 179 Hatch, S., 231 Hatcher, R., 83 Held, D., 230 Hester, N., 174 Higher education, 8, 42, 109, 136, 154, 156, 159, 160, 174, 211n2 See also University Hill Collins, P., 110, 200, 205, 207 History, 2–5, 10–14, 23–43, 51, 75, 76, 97, 118, 123–125, 127, 129, 140, 157, 176, 203, 213 Hochschild, A., 197 Hodgen, J., 170 Holland, R., 169–171 Hollingworth, S., 169–171 Holt, M., 110 hooks, b., 57, 58 Hornstra, L. Horvat, E., 58
Identities, 3–5, 8, 9, 11, 14, 27, 28, 33, 34, 36, 40, 41, 49, 53, 54, 56, 75, 87, 88, 92, 94, 97, 108, 111–113, 115–117, 123, 155, 157, 160, 171, 180, 229 Ideology, 4, 5, 26, 27, 29, 35, 73, 74, 78, 94, 106, 114, 176, 177, 186, 223, 227, 230 Immigration, 5, 9, 13, 28, 30–35, 74, 75, 77, 88, 90, 91, 97, 151, 225, 229, 232 See also Migrant, migration The Immigration and Social Security Coordination (EU Withdrawal) Act 2020, 31 Indentured labour, 25 India, Indian, people, 110 Initial teacher training (ITT)/ initial teacher education (ITE), 84, 84n2, 85, 85n3, 85n4, 168, 177, 181, 182, 186 Institute of Race Relations (IRR), 25, 26, 82, 143, 224 Institutional racism, 5, 7, 23, 30, 50, 53, 83, 96, 184–186, 218, 226 Integration, 78, 88, 89, 98, 106, 110, 122, 151 Intersectionality, 8, 12, 35–42 Inwood, J., 6 Ireson, J., 170
278 Index
Irvine, J., 199 Islamophobia, 14n3, 30, 75, 87, 92, 93, 117, 153 J
James, D., 28, 55, 177, 208, 212, 215, 216 James, N., 197, 198, 218 Jefferson, T., 41, 42 Jerome, L., 92–94 Jiang, S., 10, 106, 125 Johnson, B., 2, 34, 90, 128 Jones, O., 29, 30 Jones, S., 74 Joseph-Salisbury, R., 136, 152, 154–156, 230 Jussim, L., 169 K
Kazim, R., 92–94 Khan, O., 14n3, 153 King, J., 110, 150, 172 Klein, G., 124 Komaromi, P., 33 Krysan, M., 151 Krzyżanowski, M., 151 Kubina, R. M., 195 Kundnani, A., 76, 86, 87, 92, 93, 120, 122 L
Labour, New Labour, labour, 25, 33, 41, 95, 98, 197, 202, 212, 217 Ladner, J., 56, 67 Ladson-Billings, G., 7, 35, 36, 199
Lammy, D., 3 The Lammy Review, 143 Lander, V., 94, 168, 181, 182 Lareau, A., 58, 213 Lawrence, E. (1982), 50, 56 Legifrance (2010), 115 Lentin, A., 95, 99, 115 Leonardo, Z., 28, 36 Lepore,L., 170 Levine-Rasky, C., 40, 172 Levitas, R., 139 Lewis, C., 183 Liinpää, M., 9 Lingard,B., 139, 178 Liyanage, M., 231 Lloyd, C. M., 195 Local authority, local education authority (LEA), 77, 83, 88, 138, 178, 179, 181, 231, 232 Loft, P., 140 Long, L., 152 Long, R., 140 Lorde, A., 29 M
Mac An Ghaill, M., 4, 28, 62, 80, 168 Macpherson, W., 30, 83 Macpherson report, 30 The Stephen Lawrence Inquiry, 83 Madon, S.J., 169 Manchanda, N., 5, 32 Marginalisation, 15, 76, 81, 96, 105, 107, 114, 124, 160, 208, 223 Marketisation of Education, 83 See also Neo-liberalism Markson, T., 225
Index
Marsden, E., 88 Marx, S., 11, 38, 168, 171, 172, 185 Maton, K., 177, 178 Mau, A., 135, 170 Maxwell, C., 212 Maylor, U., 4, 94, 168, 182–184 Mayorga, S., 120 McBride, M., 9 McConnell, B. M., 195 McGeever, B., 33, 34 McGrew, T., 230 McIntyre, N., 138, 153 McKinney, S.J., 118 McKown, C., 169 McLean, C., 3, 173 Mechtenberg, L., 171 Meer, N., 9, 232 Meetoo, V., 122 Mendick, H., 170 Michelle, F., 56 Middle-class, 16, 34, 42, 55, 57, 59, 62, 96, 109, 109n1, 110, 114, 136, 137, 154, 156, 157, 159, 195, 200, 207, 208, 210–217 Migrant, migration, 31–33, 41, 74, 90, 91, 96–98, 115, 151, 227 See also Immigration Miles, R., 24–27, 41, 94 Miller, B., 229 Miller, P., 128 Mills, C. W., 36, 37, 183 Mills, M., 183 Milner, D., 124 Mirza, H.S., 141, 228 Mirza, M., 54, 141 Misiaszek, L.I., 8, 67, 110, 111, 118, 119, 174 Mixed race, 38, 98, 115, 116, 200
279
Modood, T., 29, 117, 118, 120–122 Moe, T. M., 139 Mohammed, K., 183 Mohdin, A., 229 Moncrieffe, M., 124 Moore, R., 214, 217 Moreton-Robinson, A., 52 Morris, E., 154 Mouritsen, P., 115 Mullard, C., 78 Mullen, S., 2 Multicultural education, multicultural, multiculturalism, 7, 13, 14, 17, 23, 78–80, 83, 84, 87, 88, 92, 94, 95, 99, 111, 112, 115, 117, 118, 120–124, 128, 140, 186, 203, 223, 230 Multi-ethnic, multi-racial, 76, 114, 116, 120, 140 Multilingualism, multilingual, 84n2, 89, 216 Multiverse, 84, 84n2 Murray, J., 97 Muslims, 14n3, 30, 92–94, 115, 117, 123, 147, 153, 179, 208, 209, 211, 229 N
National Education Union (NEU), 232 Nationalism, 14, 30–35, 41, 43, 75 The Nationality and Immigration Act, 87 Neoliberalism, 16 Neuberg, S. L., 174 Newman, S., 2
280 Index
Nice, A., 29 Noguera, P.A., 173, 175 Noll, E., 143–145 Normalisation, of racism, 151 O
Oakley, A., 62, 63, 218 Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED), 85, 85n4, 125, 178–180 Office of National Statistics (ONS), 75, 117 Ogbu, J., 143 Okolosie, L., 125 Okwonga, M., 149 Olmedo, A., 195 Omi, M., 27, 91, 108 Onwuachi-Willig, A., 151, 156 The Other, Othering, the process of Othering, 5, 14, 16, 39, 56, 57, 62, 67, 76, 80, 83, 94, 97, 99, 105–107, 109–111, 115, 120, 124, 127, 128, 137, 207, 217, 228, 229, 231 P
Page, S., 170 Pakistanis, 8, 11, 15, 32, 98, 113, 135–138, 144–147, 149, 150, 153, 209, 211 Parameshwaran, M., 183 Parental involvement, parents, the ‘good’ parent, 16–17, 38, 42, 50, 55, 58–62, 65, 66, 68, 77,
81, 83, 111, 115, 136, 139, 141–147, 154, 155, 157, 160, 161, 169, 173, 178, 179, 181, 185, 195–218, 228, 229 Parsons, C., 173 Parveen, N., 138, 153 Passeron, J. -C., 8, 16, 39, 176, 213, 214, 228 Paton, G., 95 Paun, A., 29 Pearce, S., 168, 171–173, 175 Pedagogic habitus, 176, 177 Pedagogy, 4, 14, 16, 39, 40, 125, 129, 138, 140, 175, 185, 231 Phillips, T., 86 Phizacklea, A., 41 Picower, B., 168, 171, 172, 174 Polarisation, 8, 40, 41, 75, 86, 88, 96 Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022, 225 Portelli, J., 168 Post-race, 17, 24, 75, 94, 95, 97, 99, 112, 160, 223–233 Potter, S., 3 Preston, J., 8, 40 Prevent strategy/Prevent Duty, 14, 74, 92–94, 139, 153, 179, 228, 229 Prieswerk, R., 124 Probyn, F., 13, 51–53 Puwar, N., 110, 111, 157, 228 Q
Qing, L., 170
Index R
Race, 3, 5, 8–14, 23–29, 33, 35, 38, 40–42, 49–68, 73–99, 106–108, 112, 114, 115, 118, 120, 136, 138, 145, 159, 168, 169, 172, 173, 177, 181, 182, 186, 200, 213, 223–227, 232, 233 Race, R., 118, 120 Race Equality Framework Scotland, 232 Race Relations Amendment Act (RRAA), 30, 74, 76, 83, 84, 89 Racism Charter, National Education Union, Advance–H.E., 2, 184, 226, 232 Racism, racialisation, 1–17, 23–43, 49–68, 73–76, 78–87, 89, 90, 93–97, 99, 105–107, 110, 112, 113, 116, 120–122, 124, 125, 128, 129, 135–161, 167–186, 196–198, 200, 201, 208, 211, 214–218, 223–233 Radford, G., 88, 89 Ramadan, T., 122, 125 Ramdin, R., 25 Rampton report, 82 Rawlinson, K., 91 Reay, D., 8, 28, 55, 177, 205, 208, 212, 215, 216 Reflexivity, 13, 36, 49–68, 118, 120, 161, 231 Representation, 1, 3, 65, 79, 105, 115, 117, 118, 123–129, 143, 184, 186, 230 Reproduction, 9, 41, 43, 49, 99, 124, 125, 171, 176, 177, 185, 212, 227, 228
281
Research, researcher, 4, 8, 9, 11–13, 15, 17, 35, 43, 49–68, 80, 84n2, 94, 98, 106, 117, 118, 122, 137, 137n1, 140, 141, 143, 144, 146, 156, 157, 169, 172–174, 181–183, 196, 198, 209, 213, 215 Revell, L., 92–94 Rhamie, J., 8, 122, 140, 144, 158, 159, 181, 183 Rhead, R., 231 Riaz, N., 118 Richards, J., 127 Risk, 36, 56, 58–61, 90, 139, 145, 153, 155 Rist, R., 169, 171 Roberts, B., 41, 42 Rodney, W., 26, 128 Roediger, D., 28 Rollock, N., 136, 154, 184, 196, 211, 213 Rose, E.J.B., 78, 82 Rosenthal, R., 170 Ross, A., 182, 183 Rowland, O., 89 Rubie-Davies, C., 169, 170 Ruck, M.D., 169 Rule, N.O., 174 Rycroft, L., 29 S
Said, E., 106–108, 124–129, 230, 231 Salehjee, S., 118 Sameness, 114, 122, 139, 155–157, 229 Sammons, P., 141
282 Index
Sayer, A., 177 Scheurich, J., 51 School, 2–4, 6–10, 15–17, 30, 39, 42, 43, 55, 61–64, 68, 74, 75, 77, 79, 80, 82, 84n1, 86–89, 92–95, 98, 105, 106, 108, 113–116, 122–125, 128, 129, 135–161, 167–186, 195–218, 225, 227–232 Schubert, D., 39 Scott, J., 143 Scottish Government, Scotland, 183, 232 Searle, C., 81, 118 Sellar, S., 139, 178 Serna, I., 89 Sewell, T., 96, 143, 196, 198, 226 Shain, F., 76, 111, 153 Shankley, W., 24, 135, 136, 138, 140 Sharma, U., 218 Shilliam, R., 25, 34 Showunmi, V., 183 Simpson, F., 3 Sivanandan, A., 28, 33, 79, 82 Skerrett, A., 168 Slave trade, slavery, 2, 3, 24–26, 34, 97, 125, 126, 129 Slootman, M.W., 88, 89 Smith, H., 85 Social class, 12, 25, 28, 38, 40–42, 54, 76, 77, 80, 82, 84n2, 106, 112, 113, 118, 127, 136, 169, 170, 176, 210, 211, 213 See also Class Solomon, R. P., 168 Solomos, J., 26, 74 Solomos and Back, 26
South Asians, 2, 4, 7, 8, 11, 15, 17, 26, 28, 30, 33, 50, 54, 66, 80, 86, 92, 113, 117, 118, 136–138, 143, 144, 146, 147, 150–155, 159, 161, 169–171, 174, 184, 186, 198, 208, 209, 211, 213–218, 228, 229 See also Bangladeshis and Pakistanis Spaces, 7, 43, 63, 145–152, 156–160, 176, 214, 228 Spaces of exclusion, 145–152 Spencer, L., 143, 145 Spivak. G., 8, 90 Squires, P., 195 Standing, K., 57 Stereotype, 79, 93, 98, 124, 129, 152, 156, 158, 170–172, 204, 209, 211, 228 Stevens, P. A. J., 88, 89, 175, 180 Stoltzfus, J., 143–145 Stop and search, 4, 37, 152 Stop and Search-GOV.UK Ethnicity facts and figures, 4 Strand, S., 135, 136, 169, 170 Street, C., 3 Structural, structural racism, structural oppression, 6, 9, 12, 23, 26, 27, 29, 33, 37, 41, 43, 50–53, 80, 84, 86, 120–122, 145, 157, 168, 175, 176, 178, 196 Structure, structure and agency, 5, 7, 12–17, 30, 37, 43, 55, 60, 79, 96, 168, 175–182, 184, 213, 217, 225 Stuart Mill, J., 126
Index
Sveinson, K. P., 96 Swann Report, 78 Syal, R., 226 Symbolic domination, 39, 125, 129 Symbolic violence, 8, 16, 39, 111 Symeou, L., 58 T
Tandon, R., 66 Tate, W. F., 7, 35, 36 Taylor, C., 118 Taylor, W., 3 Teacher attitudes, 16, 154, 168, 170–175, 229 Teacher expectations, 16, 39, 161, 168–171, 185 Teaching Standards, 85, 168, 181 Tenenbaum, H.R., 169 Tereshchenko, A, 183 Terrorism, 75, 87, 97, 117, 137 Thomas, D., 4, 124, 228, 231 Thomas, P., 179 Thomas, T., 138, 153 Thomson, P., 176 Tidman, Z., 115, 155 Timmerman, C., 88, 89 Timpson, E., 139, 173 Tomlinson, S., 34, 74, 77, 78, 80, 81, 83, 87, 88, 95 Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA), 183 Trilling, D., 97, 226 Troyna, B. (1998), 50, 78, 81–83, 115, 232 Trust, 49, 50, 53, 58–62, 64, 65, 110, 205, 208 Tufail, W., 92, 93 Turvill, W. (2021), 38 Twiselton, S., 85, 168, 181
283
U
Ugwagba, O. (2020), 52 Unconscious, unconscious bias, 16, 150, 168, 171, 227 University, 2–4, 6, 7, 10, 15, 42, 43, 55, 60, 74, 85, 92, 95, 98, 105, 106, 108–111, 113, 125, 128, 135–161, 174, 175, 178, 179, 181, 184–186, 200, 210, 211, 226–229, 231, 233 Unsworth, A., 30 UUK/NUS (2019), 3, 136 V
Van den Bergh, L., 169–171 Van Houtte, M., 175, 180 Van Voorhis, F. L. M., 195 Versi M., 153 Vetta, A., 196 Vincent, C., 55, 58, 93, 94, 200, 212 Virdee, S., 33, 34 Voeten, M., 169–171 Vorhaus, J., 196 W
Wacquant, L., 214 Wales, 9, 183, 231 Wallace, D., 157, 160, 196, 213 Warmington, P., 4 Warner, D., 94 Warren, J., 55, 226 Warren, S., 55 Waterson, J., 97 Weaver, M., 91 Webb, J., 176 Webber, F., 31, 33 Weekes-Bernard, D., 140
284 Index
Weinstein, R. S., 169 Weis, L., 61 Wells, A. S., 89 Weseen, S., 61 West Indian, 38, 76, 77, 82, 91, 109, 126 West, western, western gaze, 24, 74, 106, 122, 125, 128, 129, 230 White, 1–4, 6–8, 11, 13, 15, 16, 24, 26, 28–30, 32–34, 36–43, 49–60, 62, 63, 65–68, 75, 77–81, 86, 88, 92, 94–96, 98, 107–111, 109n1, 113–118, 120–124, 126–129, 136, 137n1, 141, 142, 145–152, 154–160, 168, 171–174, 176, 177, 182, 184–186, 207, 208, 212 White, C., 3 White mask, 111, 157–159, 230 Whiteness, 5, 6, 10, 12, 13, 15–17, 24, 28, 35–40, 43, 49–55, 66, 68, 73, 75, 81, 90, 107, 108, 111, 114, 118, 121, 124, 125, 137, 150, 160, 167–186, 196, 223–233 White norms, 77, 111, 114, 118, 138–140, 150, 172 White people, 6, 28, 29, 35–38, 43, 49, 52–55, 125, 143, 151, 156, 158, 172, 173 White privilege, 6, 7, 9, 23, 36–38, 52, 53, 97, 168, 171, 178, 186, 226, 227 White saviour, 66, 128 White spaces, 145–152, 156–160
White supremacy, 6, 7, 9, 15–16, 23, 26, 27, 36–38, 43, 52, 73, 75, 89, 96, 98, 107, 109, 118, 121, 124, 129–130, 135–161, 198, 225–227 Whitworth, L., 94 Whyte, W. E., 62 Wilkins, A., 178, 195 Williams, C., 2, 231 Williams, E., 26 Williams, J., 78, 81, 83, 115 Williams, K., 182, 183 Williams, R., 25, 179 Wilson, J.P., 174 Winant, H., 27, 91, 108 Winckler, V., 9 Windrush, 38, 76, 77, 91 Wong, L., 61 Woodhead, C., 231 Working-class, White working- class, White working-class boys, 8, 16, 24, 28, 32–34, 37, 39–42, 53, 58, 78–80, 95, 96, 110, 111, 137n1, 155, 159, 195, 196, 200, 211–214, 217 Worley, W., 128 Wrench, J., 42 Y
Yosso, T., 128, 212n3, 213, 215–217 Youdell, D., 170, 180, 204 Yuval-Davies, N., 27 Z
Zubrinsky Charles, C., 151