Notes from ARLT SIG 7th Feb 2024 LTHE chat participation
By Dr Teeroumanee Nadan, ARLT SIG
This blog was originally posted on 12 Feb 2024 on Dr Teeroumanee Nadan’s blog teeroumaneenadan.com.
On 7th Feb Dec, I led an LTHEchat discussion on the topic of “The antiracism agenda in Higher Education – is it a showpiece or is there real impact?“ along with the ARLT SIG External Engagement officers Amin Neghavati & Rachel Branham, and the SIG Vice-Chair, Dr Olatunde Durowoju. Please check out our pre-event blog.
I summarise in this blog the questions asked and the responses as well as some of our reflections. Antiracism is not a frequent topic in the LTHEchat, so I kept some of the questions as generic as possible, also bearing in mind that it attracted participants from all departments/services within HE.
I commend the participants in attendance who contributed to the LTHEchat discussion and ARLT SIG officers listed above who took the time to join in the background logistics for getting this event going, and especially Rachel who was behind the official handle throughout the LTHEchat session.
I have provided a link to the thread as well as screenshots of some of the responses that stood out & reflections on them. Let’s delve into the questions.
Q1. Do you think it is important to have antiracism perspective embedded in the use of technology in the sector? And Why? 👉Do share with us tonight an example you have experienced/seen of how technology was used from a racist angle!
Here are some of the useful links shared from the ARLT SIG handle:
- Anti-racist Approaches in Technology with Liza Layne
- UK police use of live facial recognition unlawful and unethical, report finds
- Google Photos Tags Two African-Americans As Gorillas Through Facial Recognition Software
- Nikon Camera Says Asians: People Are Always Blinking
- Personal experience with renewing British passport online
A few tweets that stood out:
My personal thoughts: During the chat, I shared for the chat two reflective blogs:
- Race equality in learning technology – digital poverty
- Improvising it – My ARLT SIG activity for 10th Feb 2022
In response to a participant’s tweet, I also added another example of racial profiling within the medical system, which affects people of colour even more than technology.
Q2.What is the biggest challenge you have in moving forward the antiracism agenda in your department/institution/sector?
Here are some of the useful links shared from the ARLT SIG handle:
A few tweets that stood out:
My personal thoughts: Antiracism is one of the protected characteristics least understood because it does not directly impact White people. In the UK, racism is a daily occurrence, and yet very few people of colour would recognise when they are victims of racism and this racism can come from White people as well as people of colour. During the session, I shared a blog on navigating racism with pseudo-antiracist.
I also shared another blog, much more uncomfortable, for those who hide behind the excuse the change is slow – check out Change does not need to be slow.
Q3. If you had a magic wand, what 3 wishes would you grant yourself to make the sector more antiracist?
A few tweets that stood out:
My personal thoughts: During the session, I shared a few of my personal experiences and what I watch out for.
Q4.What have you done recently, in the last 3 months, to uplift a STUDENT (or group) of minority ethnicity in your institution: 👉What happened 👉Why it happened 👉What you did? Q4.What have you done recently, in the last 3 months, to uplift a STUDENT (or group) of minority ethnicity in your institution: 👉What happened 👉Why it happened 👉What you did?
Here are some of the useful links shared from the ARLT SIG handle:
A few tweets that stood out:
My personal thoughts: During my responses, I wanted to highlight that it takes a long way to support staff, and when done right, it has a huge impact on the students, and again here shared a personal experience that made a whole experience to me. My PhD 2ndary supervisor, a Canadian lady, had a huge impact on me, especially when I started the Women in Academia network (there was no female network at the time), and she supported me when I became a victim of some insecure male students and staff in my department. Between you and me, she gave me an office next to hers, it was in a completely different department and different building, and that was how I started to work less with the Engineering and more with the Biosciences.
Q5.What have you done recently, in the last 3 months, to uplift a COLLEAGUE of minority ethnicity in your institution: 👉What happened 👉Why it happened 👉What you did?
Here are some of the useful links shared from the ARLT SIG handle:
- Creating visibility for PoC colleagues who work in junior roles by Dr Teeroumanee Nadan
- Strategies for Change
A few tweets that stood out:
My personal thoughts: It was great to read that some people were supporting colleagues. However, as the Vice-Chair mentioned in tweet, when White people mentor people of colour, we should ensure that the mentees are directly benefiting from the mentorship. Let’s face it, I have had racist line managers. The best way to do impactful mentoring is to have people of colour mentor people of colour.
Q6. 👉Share one piece of resource with us which has influenced your practice to be antiracist 👉Share one piece of resource you think would be useful to empower a staff of minority ethnicity!
Here are some of the useful links shared from the ARLT SIG handle:
Other seful links shared by participants:
- Antiracism in Higher Education – An action guide for change https://arunverma.co.uk/book by Dr Arun Verma
- Antony Walker Foundation https://anthonywalkerfoundation.com/
- Cool Britannia and Multi-Ethnic Britain: Uncorking the Champagne Supernova – by Professor Jason Arday
- Building the Anti-Racist Classroom
- Reshaping HE https://teeroumaneenadan.com by Dr Teeroumanee Nadan
- Skillsforcare – Supporting a diverse workforce
- Teaching to Transgress and Freire Pedagogy of the Oppressed chrome by bell hooks
My personal thoughts: I was glad that the blogs that I take time to write for ARLT SIG events and discussions were mentioned by many participants as a reference that influence their understanding. At a more personal level, my blog space Reshaping HE seems to have a few readers among the participants too.
There was a suggestion that may be Advance HE, SEDA and Association for Learning Development in Higher Education (ALDinHE) may want to collaborate. Personally, I think these larger organisations should be the ones reaching out to ARLT SIG and support us, rather than us going to them. Recently, while wanting to extend our external engagement and dissipate the message of antiracism, we had a network seeking sponsorship from us. First of all, antiracism work should not be done for free, and expecting volunteers in a SIG formed two years ago to sponsor a more organised group is not exactly antiracist according to me.
Moving forward
The other ARLT SIG guests and I noted the unusually lower participation in LTHEchat compared to other previous weeks, it might be due to the discomfort on the topic, which means there is still so to be done.
I hope you have found some of the discussions that emanated from this event useful and hope you can discuss some of them in your own team, department, and institution.