Conference Agenda

The Danish educational system is associated with equal access to education and a high educational mobility, and all students are entitled to receive state grants during their education. As a part of the Danish educational system, the educational program for a Bachelor Degree in Social Education is characterized by a very high educational mobility which is reflected in the fact that the majority of the students come from lower economic background and have parents with low educational degrees. Despite the equality discourse circulating in the educational program for a Bachelor Degree in Social education, we are witnessing an uneven distribution of belonging and participation among the students. In the paper, we approach diversity as a question of belonging for all students. Following this, the longitudinal study is based on the research question: How to initiate more diverse educational settings and a more even distribution of belonging and participation?

The longitudinal study of students´ participation and belonging draws on studies that conceptualize students’ participation and processes of in/exclusion in educational settings as a matter of belonging. From other studies we know that educational and pedagogical practices that enhance students ´sense of belonging and ´connection´ are crucial for the diversity dimension within the educational setting (Thomas 2015). In youth studies, belonging refer to young peoples´ social and emotional work in relation to connect to people, places and issues that matters to them (Cuervo & Wyn 2014). The concept of belonging is a personal and intimate feeling as well as an orientation toward the surrounding places and social settings (Antonsich 2010). In relation to educational settings Gravett & Ajjawi (2021) emphasize belonging as a phenomenon intertwined with processes of identities and learning and as a phenomenon unfolding in relation to the academic content, the social relations in classroom and the places of campus.

The study is also grounded in poststructuralist and feminist gender and intersectionality studies (Butler 1993, Davies 2006, Staunæs 2003, Kofoed 2004, Wetherell 2008) that pay attention to how the construction of gendered, racialized, ethnicized, and classed differences and identities are being regulated and negotiated in the everyday life in different social settings – i.e., educational settings. Drawing on this theoretical perspective we think of students´ sense of belonging and participation as intertwined with social cultural categories - such as gender, ethnicity, and social background - and the way social categories intersect and affect each other in the educational setting and classroom culture. The interplay between different social categories and the impact on students´ belonging and participation is related to the cultural practices in classroom. Social categories work as ´tools´ by which students (and teachers) are dis/connecting to - and in- and excluding - other students and produces the criteria for what is recognized as ´appropriate student´ and ´inappropriate student´. In that sense social categories and the intersection between social categories affect differentiation and difference-producing practices in the classroom culture and the possibility for belonging and participation.

The presentation will present some preliminary findings based on the qualitative parts of the study conducted during the students first year at the Social Education Programme. The presentation is based on three themes: 1) group work, 2) student participation, 2) the framework and structures of the education.

This paper presents the preliminary findings of a small-scale qualitative study examining racialised faculty and student experiences of internalised racism within Higher Education (HE) within UK. The paper specifically sheds light on experiences of internalised racism enacted by one BPoC member towards another member of the racialised community and how racialised staff and students make sense of such incidents. Whilst there is established and growing scholarship highlighting how racism in higher education is sustained within higher education through racist attitudes, policies, unwritten codes, and formal and informal practices that promote racial silence among faculty and students of colour (Bhopal, 2015), less is known about internalised racism within racialised groups. Race scholars researching higher education have examined the narratives of faculty and students of colour around microaggression (Pittman, 2010), bullying, citation politics (Ahmed, 2017), gatekeeping practices in knowledge production (Johnson and Joseph-Salisbury, 2018), implicit and explicit bias in course evaluations (Saul, 2013) and deliberately reducing employability and career progression by White management, faculty and/or students (Sensoy and DiAngelo, 2017). However, there is an absence of narratives around internalised racism, frustration and anger affecting relationships between people of colour, whether between senior management and faculty, senior and junior faculty, faculty and students, or between students themselves.

Black feminists such as bell hooks (1995) and Lorde (1984) have highlighted that there has been a reluctance to research internalised racism within academia for fear of airing dirty laundry in public, which limits us in finding meaningful solutions. They suggest that we need to uncover more narratives from faculty and students of colour about how they experience internalised racism at various intersections, to gain a more nuanced understanding of the ways in which it feeds into the racist structures of neoliberal universities. Whilst Kohli (2014) has examined the narratives of Black, Latina and Asian American women students in teacher training programmes in the USA, and Harper (2007) has researched the accounts of African American students in US universities, there is a dearth of research within a British context. This research draws on critical feminist perspectives of intersectionality (Hill Collins and Bilge, 2017) to shed light on individual narratives of internalised racism between people of colour at various intersections within UK HE is setting. Hill Collins and Bilge (2017) posited that, combating the social injustice faced by women with hybrid identities was only possible if we understand their experiences of social inequality, which were constructed by an intersection of race, gender and class. The current research explores the experiences of racialised staff and students at the intersection of racism, AntiBlackness, patriarchy, ableism, and Islamophobia.

Following the death of George Floyd in the USA, the movement driven by the pressing question ‘why is my curriculum white’ was reignited. Student and public protests followed around the world and in the UK, Universities responded with a recognition of the need for further work in social justice, diversity and inclusion (Advance HE, 2021). The University of Leeds, similar to other universities (e.g. UCL and SOAS in London) initiated a programme to decolonise education. This project is a journey which demands that educators willingly question the origins of the knowledge they teach and identify the colonial legacies that are replicated within curriculum and pedagogy, as well as wider university structures and practices (https://studenteddev.leeds.ac.uk/developing-practice/decolonising/). Student and staff co-production of education as well as student voice are central to this journey. Educational research is one way we can collect this student voice and engage students in devising strategies and solutions for reform where this is needed. More specifically, research that illuminates the lived experiences and critical insights exemplified by those who have been silenced or ‘othered’ by these colonial legacies can support be understood as compassionate research. Here I am using ‘compassionate’ as described by Gabor Mate (2022) as ‘the compassion of curiosity and understanding’ which is based on the belief that there is a reason behind the ways people behave. It is driven by a desire to understand someone’s context and source of pain that could be behind the outcomes observed. Compassionate research, I argue, would engage in questions of curiosity and understanding. While this does not necessitate qualitative methods, such methods are well-suited to interpretivist and subjectivist paradigms (Denzin & Lincoln, 2005). The argument presented in this paper is that a) the decolonising project involves educators having opportunities to critical analyse and reflect on their discipline, and b) one way to prompt this critical analysis is presenting data which explores the reasons behind some observed inequality.

The observed inequality considered in this project is the under-representation of Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic (BAME) graduates in academic posts which tend to require post-graduate study (see https://www.arts.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0030/375735/ERI_Ethnic-Representation-Index.pdf). This Ignite presentation will share the coding framework used to analyse data collected through focus groups with recent undergraduate graduates from one University in the North of England. The framework is used to explore the potential for applying colonial theories in a critical analysis of the factors influencing BAME graduates’ academic career considerations.

Reasons for this racial and ethnic disparity may relate to practical reasons that the academic track is not appealing. Or one might simply argue that the pathway is not of interest and other options presented themselves. This project, however, explores specifically the ways in which racial ideology may be considered a mechanism behind these patterns (van dijk, 1998). This ideology emerged as a tool of colonial powers, separating ‘us’ and ‘them’ (Bhabha, 1984) and has implicitly shaped various structures, policies and practices within higher education and the various disciplines represented therein. The project therefore explores BAME student perceptions and experiences of various structures, policies and practices in HE and explores ways this could implicitly inform post-graduation education and career decision-making. As post-graduate study typically involves research, this project will ask critical questions about how knowledge is constructed and the explore traces left by colonial legacies on the meaning and practice of research. The project proposes that such colonial legacies may be implicit barriers to the pursuit of an academic path.