Discussions about race within education are often uncomfortable, but data from institutions like UAL make it clear that these conversations are not only necessary but urgent. Our statistics show that white British home students consistently achieve the highest academic grades, while Black, ‘other’ home, and international students frequently fall behind – creating a large attainment gap. This persistent gap highlights the need to actively address the structural inequalities embedded within not only UAL but the whole educational system.
Starting as early as primary school Bradbury (2020) sheds light on the disparity in outcomes between white British students who speak English as their first language, and students of other racial backgrounds who use English as an additional language (EAL). Students are assessed upon entering school and again at later stages, but these assessments rarely account for language proficiency. While EAL students often show improvement over time as they acquire greater English fluency, their final outcomes remain lower than those of their British peers. Despite this the education system celebrates the percentage improvement rather than tackling the root causes of underachievement.
These statistics influence policy, which Bradbury says often considers bilingual students a ‘challenge’ and ‘establishes and re-inscribes particular ‘regimes of truth’ about what matters in education, and who can be recognisable as successful or failing’.
The bias doesn’t end in primary or secondary education – it extends all the way to the highest academic levels. Garret (2024) explores these issues within PhD education, arguing that UK higher education is steeped in what he terms “historical and ecological whiteness.”. This normalization of white cultural practices, traced back to colonial hierarchies, continues to shape academic norms today. In interviews with PhD students of colour Garret found that most did not wish to remain in academia after their studies, citing feelings of alienation and lack of support, particularly from white supervisors. The few who had supervisors of similar racial backgrounds said the experience was incredible, and made them realise how white dominated the rest of their education had been; ‘whiteness is only exposed when not normalised’.
This journey from primary school to doctoral education demonstrates that change is necessary at every level. Fortunately, institutions like UAL, which are not bound by a national curriculum, have more freedom to enact meaningful reform. Decolonising the curriculum and increasing diversity within staffing is one way to disrupt the white domination of tertiary education.
Within my role in technical it could be thinking about our online content, and what languages this is offered in – currently everything is only in English but with such a large international body of students (who the uni relies on for funding) it would make sense to ensure that our taught content is accessible to everyone, especially when we talk with complex specialist technical terms. Ensuring our equal treatment of all students, no matter their racial background, is very important too. Students will often tell us what their projects are about, and it is of course easier to relate to students who’s projects center experiences similar to your own, or are about topics you are familiar with; it is then these student’s who I find myself able to talk to more, giving them references, similar artists to look at, etc. Going forwards I think all of us on our team need to be a bit ore impartial, ensuring we give equal attention to students working on projects we may not understand the cultural intricacies of, while also furthering our own knowledge of other cultures.
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Bradbury, A., 2020. A critical race theory framework for education policy analysis: The case of bilingual learners and assessment policy in England. Race Ethnicity and Education
Garrett, R. (2024). Racism shapes careers: career trajectories and imagined futures of racialised minority PhDs in UK higher education.
Hi Jules
You tracing of racial bias, through the key texts on racial bias, from primary education to academic careers is very clear. I find your observation at the end that ‘of course easier to relate to students whose projects center experiences similar to your own’ so useful. I know this in my own teaching, but I also find it hard to resist when a student focuses on something that’s close to my way of working. Things feeling easy is perhaps the most seductive way colonialism reasserts itself. It’s subtle and requires a surprising amount of effort not to follow comfortable habits of practice and knowledge. I love the idea that teams consciously choose to focus on projects they are less familiar with as a form of decolonising and a form of learning.
Hi Anna, love your sentence “things feeling easy is perhaps the most seductive way colonialism reasserts itself”. It’s definitely something we need to be mindful of, and can be so hard to fall out of the habit. I definitely find myself able to talk to and relate more to trans and queer students, but this doesn’t mean that I should be ignoring anyone who’s work does not center around these aspects of identity. I think one of the key things to tackling this is to ask open and honest questions – we can learn from our students as much as we can teach them. Students coming into the workshop often already have a pre-concieved notion that technicians are just there to get things done and not to talk about their projects, so often don’t even volunteer the context of what they are working on to us, however with usually a few prompting questions they will open up and elighten us on what they are working on. I think going forward I’m going to try and ensure I do this for every student I work with, rather than just ones that I can already see I am comfortable with the topics of – sitting in these spaces of discomfort is one way we can start to truely learn from our students and become aware of practices based on experiences different to our own.