Shade of Noir Website

I was mostly drawn to the journals on the website, which cover an array of subject areas that center on marginalized identities. What I find powerful about the journals is that each topic is explored through various voices and perspectives. No one voice is more authoritative on the subject, allowing for different experiences to be foregrounded. As my own teaching practice aims to engage students on the social and economic inequities embedded within the built environment, I see the potential to refer to the SoN website, specifically the journals, as part of my evolving teaching practice, sharing the resources from the SoN website with students where relevant to their design projects. As architecture is about people and how we experience our built spaces, learning to design for our diverse needs can only help us to be more considerate designers. There is not a standard or average that can fit the wonderful ways in which we are all different. Our identities sit at various intersections.

A pedagogy of social justice education: social identity, theory, and intersectionality

I was familiar with Paulo Freire’s ‘Pedagogy of the Oppressed,’ which has influenced my own teaching practice, although not with the intentionality of teaching students ‘social justice.’ The article reminded me that Freire’s approach goes beyond how one might teach in a way that empowers students, but also includes how the student’s and educator’s subjectivities and identities are crucial to the process of education fulfilling socio-political objectives. The emphasis being to create a learning environment where there can be a dialogical exchange. I had used the term ‘debate’ in the ‘Faith’ blog post, but debate suggests a winner or convincing of the other, whereas dialogical leaves open the room to understand other identities without taking up a binary position to ‘agree’ or ‘disagree.’

Friere ‘asserts that one way to move students toward freedom is to create an educational structure whereby both teachers and students engage in habitual, critical reflection, a model that takes into account their identities.’ Critically reflecting with students on the learning process is something that I would like to explore in my teaching practice. The development of their design projects takes all the focus, however, creating a space to allow for reflections on the project brief, the delivery and how the studio is developing for everyone would be useful for making sure that students’ needs are being met.

I agree with Friere’s position that ‘most educational milieus solidify patterns of inequality, ultimately reinforcing and regenerating domination.’ My provocative question is that can a pedagogy of social justice be developed inside the structures of the university, without addressing the ‘canon’ and the erasure of knowledge and voices of marginalised groups.

Retention and Attainment in the disciplines: Art & Design

I was surprised by the extremely low representation of Black British and British Asian in data for student numbers, although I am not surprised by the conclusion that Art & Design courses are predominantly white. There also appears to be a gender disparity with women having a notable higher representation amongst the Art & Design student body than men. The attainment gaps between students from higher social economic and those from lower, and between white students and Black British students seems to reflect the privileges and advantages of the wider world beyond the university. It supports the argument that universities reinforce and cement existing social power structures.

I found the following quote of interest:

Certain kinds of art can only be decoded and appreciated by those who have been taught how to decode them (Bourdieu, 1984). The cultural capital of the working classes, and certain ethnic groups, is devalued and delegitimised (Bourdieu, 1984). (Burke and Mcmanus 2012, p. 21)

Imperialism and colonization have determined which art is valued in our culture and as a result, in arts courses. Moving towards more inclusion in academia therefore requires diverse ways of making value judgements through students’ journeys including at selection stage. Learning outcomes have been developed with consideration to process and investigation. Having sat on selection panels for prospective students wishing to attend UAL, could similar sets of criteria be developed at the interview stage?

Witness Unconscious Bias

As someone who identifies as Black and as a woman, I think ‘unconscious bias’ has become a euphemism for ‘racism.’ I have used the term myself when trying to explain situations and experiences to others so as to avoid causing offence or triggering defensive responses. As the video alludes to, there are situations that are stark for all to see and need no explanation. The term is not useful and if anything allows unequal or ‘racist’ structures to remain unchanged. The first step for change to occur is the understanding and acceptance that a situation needs to change.

SoN Article: ‘I am drowning’. Anonymous, PhD University of the Arts London

Note: I am writing this from the perspective of a Black woman.

I chose this as it highlights in simple terms the problem white supremacy poses for everyone that is not white. We are unable to see ourselves reflected in what are supposedly our shared public institutions. This serves to categorise us as ‘Other’, ‘Not the Standard’, ‘Less Important’ and therefore are required to adjust to ‘fit-in’ with the majority. At the same time, cultural references with origins from marginalised cultures are assigned value and worthy of recognition mostly when they are performed by white people, whilst at the same time erasing their source.

It is a reminder why diversity in the staff body is so important in academia. The lack of diversity impacts the curriculum and knowledge that is valued. I see my role in academia as being one of enacting change. And I do this by making possible the option for students to investigate how architecture intersects with socio-economic status, which also intersects with race. I hope students will explore the questions; who is architecture for, whose culture is reflected in its aesthetics and how does it empower/disempower?

Room of Silence

The various experiences described in the video reflect the issues when there is not enough diversity amongst the teaching staff and among the student body. It skews the curriculum, feedback, and discourse towards Eurocentrism. As conveyed in the video, it limits the realm of exploration for students where they can receive adequate support from educators and peers, especially in an arts school environment where ‘the personal’ is often the basis of the work. ‘The personal is political’. Questions of belonging and the right to be here are raised alongside lack of cultural sensitivity – ‘blackface’.

The students also convey that silence does not challenge the status quo in their determination to explore the subjects that their tutors and peers would prefer not to talk about. I also understand why some students might choose to leave courses where they are having to bear the burden of challenging the status quo, which a significant population of their peers do not have.  

What I learnt from the video is the importance of creating space for dialogue and critical reflections for students rather than avoidance for fear of causing offence. It reminded me on my position on ‘Faith’ (refer to Faith blog post). It is fair to say that I would be more in my comfort zone should students choose to explore race, gender, and socio-economic class through their work. Less so if they explored faith given my own position. However, creating the space for discussion and understanding is important for the development of critical thinking and reflection.