Category: Inclusive Practices

Inclusive Practices Reflective Report

Typographic identity

Context of your teaching practice, your positionality in relation to your practice?

I teach on the BA Graphic Communication Design programme at CSM, specifically teaching typography across all three stages of BAGCD, as part of GCD Practices.

I am a white, middle-class male, 42 years of age, British, heterosexual and married. I don’t have any disabilities, and I’m not religious. I have been educated within the UK educational system, including state comprehensive at secondary level and undergraduate design education at Central Saint Martins. 

I have grown up within Western society and have been influenced by Western cultural references, design education and aesthetics. My views and knowledge of the subject of graphic design and typography largely align with the Eurocentric position. When talking about students, views and knowledge from marginalised communities, I acknowledge that I have power in this situation as my views align to the dominant Western canon of design.

What is the intervention you have designed in your teaching practice (what is the aim, when will it take place, what resources, training, support is required)?

The intervention is typography exercise that aims is to enact intersectional social justice by asking students to explore and experiment with how typography can be used to express the meaning of a quote of their choosing, around the issues of identity.

The aim is to diversify the curriculum of graphic design and typography within my teaching, to welcome and learn from alternative knowledge bases and views of communities from outside of the Western canon of art and design, and to nurture alternative perspectives and approaches to the subject and discipline of typography.

The teaching sessions will take place during Stage 2 of BAGCD (second year), during a 4/5 week block titled ‘Expressive Typography’. This is an adaption of an existing GCD Practices task and balances equipping students with practical and technical knowledge, theory and skills with encouraging students to explore, experiment and critique established forms of visual communication.

In the first iteration of this intervention the brief asks students consider their own positionality / intersectional identity when choosing a quote and therefore how they design an effective typographic approach to communicate it (see blog post: ‘Intervention (version 1)’). After receiving feedback from colleagues and students, I have adapted this approach (see blog post: ‘Intervention (version 2)’), mainly to avoid students being required to “reveal hidden parts of their identity which leads to vulnerability and unpredicted exposure” (Thomas, 2022).

The second iteration asks students to choose a quote that they like and has meaning for them, and to also choose an audience/community they would like to share the quote with. They are then asked to research the author and the context of the quote and reflect upon the positionality / identity of the author and their chosen audience and to consider their own positionality in relation to this. This means that students explore positionality and intersectionality from the perspective of their role as a graphic designer (someone who typically is employed to communicate other people’s messages). It also means they don’t have to make their own identity the main focus of the project.

Training for staff would be around intersectionality, privilege, and being mindful of students’ own identities, that they may not wish to reveal. Resources would be the usual class /teaching resources that we have in place already.

Why and how is it inclusive? Include references that cite critical pedagogy, social justice theories and data that supports your designs

This intervention seeks to make a contribution to addressing the attainment gap between Home BAME / International students and Home white students on the BA Graphic Communication Design course at Central Saint Martins. Current UAL statistics show attainment for Home White students is 90%, Home BAME is 81% International 80% (UAL, 2022/23).

The intervention aims to promote inclusivity by valuing / amplifying voices (both textual and typographic) from outside of the dominant White Eurocentric perspective. This may include issues around race, but also other aspects of intersectional identity, positionality and bias. Students will be encouraged to consider how multiple aspects of identity intersect, addressing “the need to account for multiple grounds of identity when considering how the social world is constructed” (Crenshaw, 1991). Depending on the quotes chosen, this might include aspects of faith, disability, gender and a multitude of other aspects of intersectional identity.

It is important to acknowledge that there is power in the classroom, created by the location and history of the institution, the tutor, and percentage of white European students in the class. There is an invisibility to white privilege, Peggy Macintosh refers to as “White privilege is like an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, assurances, tools, maps, guides, codebooks, passports, visas, clothes, compass, emergency gear, and blank checks.” (1988). This undoubtedly benefits white, male students in the teaching environment, particularly in retaliation to typography as their viewpoint is consistently backed up by the curriculum. Rhianna Garrett describes this as “Whiteness is more than an optical privilege but an ‘ecology of hostile structures and practices that shape what we consider to be daily norms” (Garrett, p.3). It is important to create a teaching environment that doesn’t “maintain the illusion of inclusion, but in reality, serves to preserve white, middle-class models of knowledge, expertise and value (Mukherjee 2022).

The task coupled with class discussion and tutor feedback encourages and values exploration of knowledge and typographic approaches from communities outside of the Western design canon. By providing a broad set of visual and textual references (see blog post: ‘Intervention (slides)’) and through rewarding experimentation and critique of the Eurocentric perspective on typography, we will aim to create an environment where all viewpoints are seen as equal and avoid potential epistemic injustice (Fricker, 2007), situations where “individuals can be harmed in their capacity as knowers when their testimony is wrongly diminished according to inequalities in social power.” (Rekis, 780). If we are seeking to discover a new “truth” about approaches to typography, then we need to be able to actively “listen” for it, Rekis refers to situations where marginalised speakers are not heard: “Either the speaker or the hearer loses out on some piece of knowledge being exchanged, which reflects “a moment of dysfunction in the overall epistemic practice or system” (Rekis, p.781) and avoiding what Rekis refers to as “Prejudice therefore operates as an ‘obstacle to truth’” (Rekis, p.781). This learning environment is important in helping to not “shape specific understandings of what is considered to be professional, and this can result in pressure to assimilate to white, Eurocentric patterns of behaviour to avoid reputational damage” (Garrett, p.3)

The final project review will involve students displaying their posters on the studio walls. The scale of the poster format amplifies the message and as Christine Sun Kim states in her video “scale equals visibility, that has the ability to shape social norms”. This also relates to Paralympian Ade Adepitan’s interview, where he states the importance of providing tools and opportunities that “gives people opportunities to shine”. Idea of giving students a platform, if they wish, to explore their identity through the subject, or the identity of the author / audience. The format of the poster, and its historical connections to protest, raising awareness, creates an appropriate platform for ‘giving voice’ to issues of social justice, beginning in the classroom but suggesting how graphic design and typography is a powerful tool for speaking out / raising awareness / protest / changing opinion.

There are questions that come up in my research into Critical Race Theory that suggest that attainment gap is not only caused by acts of individuals in classrooms, but wider issues to do with institutional policy, that may include how assessments are carried out, how students are labelled in terms of ‘EAL’ students (English as an additional language) and the bias this creates in assessments as the student progresses through the course, this label stays with them and “operates as a self-reinforcing mechanism for maintaining disparities in attainment” (Bradbury, p.244).

This relates to bell hooks writing about art criticism and race and how minorities need to be given the platform and the security to express opinions and speak critically about the work of others, for art criticism and art practice to develop

How have you reflected on feedback from peers, colleagues, students on your idea? Where possible, include how the intervention impacted inclusive teaching and learning (if you were able to deliver this)

I have received really insightful and useful feedback on the intervention from teaching colleagues and GCD students/graduates. As a version of this project was delivered to stage 2 students earlier this year, current students have been able to feedback based on Bothe their experience of this version of the project and the addition of the new intersectional / positionality aspect of the task.

Catherine Dixon (GCD Stage 1 Leader and Senior Lecturer in Typography) highlighted the need to approach this subject sensitively and that students shouldn’t be forced to engage with their own identity / cultural backgrounds, as this can surface trauma or be exhausting for them. Catherine made some really useful suggestions about changes that could be made, whereby the student considers the identity / positionality of the author and a chosen audience/community. They then would have to consider their own positionality and biases in relation to others. This provides an opportunity to ‘step outside of themselves’, consider their roles as designer and therefore in service of a message, but still include intersectionality and positionality in the project.

Joles Wong, an international student who did the previous iteration of the project and has made typographic work about their own intersectional identity, talked about the nuances involved in identity. They also pointed out that identity is not something all students are ready to disclose, talk about in class, and made visible (something the project asks them to do). They said they didn’t feel the GCD classroom to be an unsafe space but identity is a personal thing that people with past negative experiences or are still discovering would rather keep private. 

These two elements of feedback both highlight the need to be sensitive around the subject of identity. As I mentioned in my proposal, this project asks students to “reveal hidden parts of their identity which leads to vulnerability and unpredicted exposure” (Thomas, 2022), and therefore it’s important to adapt the project so that students are not forced to make work about their own identity.

Joles also talked about the complexity and nuance of intersectional identities  and that “people identify themselves with things far beyond these categories that a visa application asks you for, like ethnicity/gender/sexuality/religion etc.” … “the concept of intersectionality goes far deeper than simply having multiple labels attached to oneself as a condition of birth. A lot of identities at the end of the day aren’t static, but rather sustained action(s).” I need to be mindful to not over simplify the concept of intersectionality, through my own lack of understanding and the project needs to acknowledge and allow for that complexity to surface.

Bibliography

Adepitan, A. (2020) Ade Adepitan gives amazing explanation of systemic racism. Youtube [Online]. 16 Oct 2020. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAsxndpgagU&t=2s

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, 23(2), pp.241-260.

Crenshaw, K. (1991). Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color, Stanford: Stanford Law Review 

Fricker, M. (2007), Epistemic Injustice: Power and the Ethics of Knowing, Oxford University Press

Garrett, R. (2024). Racism shapes careers: career trajectories and imagined futures of racialised minority PhDs in UK higher education. Globalisation, Societies and Education

hooks, b. (1994) Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. New York: Routledge

Kent, C. (1992) Learning by Heart: Teachings to Free the Creative Spirit. New York: Bantam

McIntosh, P. (1988). ‘White privilege and male privilege: a personal account of coming to see correspondences through work in women’s studies’. Working Paper 189, Wellesley Centers for Women

Rekis, J. (2024). Religious Identity and Epistemic Injustice: An Intersectional Account, Cambridge University Press 

Sun Kim, C. (2023) Christine Sun Kim in “Friends & Strangers” – Season 11 | Art21. Youtube [Online] 1 Nov 2023. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NpRaEDlLsI&t=1s

Thomas, C. (2022) Overcoming Identity Threat: Using Persona Pedagogy in Intersectionality and Inclusion Training. Social Sciences 11: 249. 

Intervention (version 2)

Second iteration of my intervention, amended based on feedback from colleagues and students

Changes were made including the additional text:

Approach

Choose a quote that resonates with you and your outlook on the world. What message would you choose to broadcast and to whom? This workshop will help you explore ways of reconsidering how you use typography to express the voices of others and to better understand your own position in relation to the methods you use to communicate.

Your chosen quote might be from a song, film, tv show, book, political speech, sports, comedy. 

By designing a poster, you are in effect making a public message, a piece of communication, so also consider who the audience of this message might be.

Think about your relationship to the quote and why it matters and your position in relation to the words. Consider your own intersectional identity, positionality, biases and why it’s important to refect on these when designing for others.

Reflect on why you like the quote, and what community you would like to share it with. Find out about the author and consider the various positions of themselves, the author and the community.

Positionality

“Positionality refers to where one is located in relation to their various social identities (gender, race, class, ethnicity, ability, geographical location etc.); the combination of these identities and their intersections shape how we understand and engage with the world, including our knowledges, perspectives, and teaching practices. As individuals and as instructors, we occupy multiple identities that are fluid and dialogical in nature, contextually situated, and continuously amended and reproduced” (Alcoff, 1988).

When reflecting on the quote and why you like it. Find out about the author and the community you would like to share this message with. Consider the various positions of yourself as a designer, the author of the quote and the community you would like to share the message with. Be aware of the biases, unconscious or otherwise, you (all) bring. Why is it important to consider this?

When designing, think about the positions that are at play, and think about how these are communicated. This is how you can start to explore alternative visual voices to the Western canon of design and typography.

Intervention (version 1)

Typographic Voice

The first iteration of my intervention, in the form of a GCD Practices task

Background
In the first session of this block we explored how the visual arrangement of typography can be used to express meaning/emotion. In previous units we have explored typographic approaches to hierarchy, organisation, grids, legibility/readability. Building upon this knowledge, this task asks you to further explore, experiment and challenge these fundamental aspects of typography.

The task
We often talk about typography as being a visual ‘voice’ for language. For this task you are asked to design a poster that uses typographic means to visually communicate a quote of your choosing.

This task asks you to do two things: 
– Explore how typography can be used to express and enhance the meaning of a chosen quote
– Consider your own positionality/identity in terms of the quote you choose and how you approach the design. By doing this you are aligning yourself with the message (content) and the design methodology (form).

Practical considerations / specification
– Format: A2 portrait poster (420 × 594 mm)
– Typography only (You may use more than one typeface and any glyphs contained in the typeface)
– 2 spot colours (these would be specified as Pantone colours to a printer, you can set these up in InDesign using the colour swatches)
– No images, graphics, shapes, etc. Typographic elements are allowed such as underlines, modifying typefaces, hand lettering, etc (in discussion with your tutor and see references for examples)
– You will need a laptop with InDesign and access to Adobe Fonts for this task
– You will need to print an actual size poster by the end of the session, the print can be tiled and printed on 2 x A3 sheets and stuck together to make A2

Approach
Consider your own intersectional identity as a way to ‘frame’ this project. Can you find a quote that speaks to your own identity in some way? Our intersectional identities might include aspects of our identities such as: gender identity, gender expression, race, ethnicity, class (past and present), religious beliefs, sexual identity and sexual expression.

Research the quote, author and context. Your typographic decisions should be informed by the quote you have chosen, the themes of the message, the inherent structure, language and rhythms of the text. Consider how typographic decisions such as: choice of typefaces, size, arrangement, use of colour, etc can express / enhance the meaning of the words. 

How might your design challenge the Eurocentric canon of Western typography? Challenge conventions of what is considered ‘good’ or ‘correct’ typography. 

In terms of visual references and research, you might look at visual or conceptual ideas relating to your own identity, these might include those from indegenous cultures, queer culture, vernacular sources, religious manuscripts, non-latin scripts and layouts.

References
– The People’s Graphic Design Archive
– Anoushka’s ‘Ways of Seeing’ workshop (students do this in Stage 2?)
– Anoushka Khandwala, What Does It Mean to Decolonize Design?, AIGA Eye on Design
– Paul Soulellis, What is queer typography?
– Black Panther Newsletters, published by UAL’s Shades of Noir
– New Black Face: Neuland and Lithos as Stereotypography
– Robert Brownjohn, playful approach to typography
– Amandine Forest, CSM GCD alumna who’s work explores themes of decoloniality and typography
– Black Joy Archive 
– Rose Nordin

Schedule

Prior to the session

– Choose a quote that in some way connects to your own intersectional identity / positionality

Week 1

2pm: Briefing and intro

2.45–3.30pm: Positionality workshop

3.30–3.50: Break

3.50–4.30pm: Initial ideas, sketching, work quickly and loosely, try different typefaces

4.30–5pm: Review sketches/ideas/trials with peers on table

Week 2

2–3.30pm: working on final designs 

4.15pm: Pin-up on wall for review / feedback

Blog Task 3

A critical race theory framework for education policy analysis: the case of bilingual learners and assessment policy in England
– Alice Bradbury

This paper explores how Critical Race Theory and policy sociology can be used to analyse policy, with the aim to interrogate how policies that are seemingly there to bring about change for the better can have hidden intentions – “how policy is a tool for the continuation of white dominance, not a neutral bystander.” (Bradbury, 2019, p.244).

CRT is used to question the motivations of policy and to consider race when creating policy: “the aim in building a framework is to re-centre the issue of ‘race’ in studies of policy, at a time when it is too frequently an ‘absent presence’ (Apple 1999)” (Bradbury, p.242)

There were two authors in particular that I’d like to follow up on more in my own research:

“Scholarship on new teacher training routes has also used a CRT framework to consider the policy as an expression of white power and a tool for the continuation of white dominance (Chadderton 2014).” (p.245)

“Leonardo’s work on policy as ‘acts of whiteness’ (Leonardo, 2007” (p.245)

There are some interesting points here about how how intentional the inequality created by policy is: “In education, policy is always political” (Bradbury, p.256). “As Gillborn argues ‘although race inequity may not be a planned and deliberate goal of education policy neither is it accidental’ (2005, 485); there are many who gain from the continued inequalities that exist within the education system” (Bradbury, p.256).

In this example, the paper looks at how children’s educational trajectories are affected by labelling EAL students as ‘low-achieving’, and “explore how assessment operates as a self-reinforcing mechanism for maintaining disparities in attainment at age five” (Bradbury, p.244)

Policy is often biased, towards those creating policy, often systematically disadvantage minority groups and only bringing about progress where it is in the interest of white elites. So we should analyse who is creating the policy, and what their agenda might be. Also to consider diversifying the group who creates policy. This relates back the readings from Blog Task 1, and the example of Chay Brown, who spoke about the importance of those with lived experiences of disabilities in charge of making decisions and this will result in more empathetic decisions and understanding of needs. This should also apply to policy decisions, to ensure that policy will positively affect those who it is designed to help.

Key aspects of CRT

The article explains how rather than focussing “on the ‘what’, ‘how’ and ‘why’ of policy (Gale, 1999)”, a CRT perspective, uses three questions as prompts:

  • Who drives policy and how does it prioritise?
  • Who benefits from the policy?
  • What are the effects? 
    (Gillborn, 2005, 492) (P.246)

The author goes on to to say, if racism is endemic then questions can be reframed as:

  • ‘How do white people gain?’
  • ‘How does this damage or disadvantage minoritised groups or individuals?’
  • ‘How does this disadvantage one group more than another? What is the purpose of this?’
    (Bradbury, 246)

Bradbury breaks policy down into three stages of policy:

Context of Influence
“Where policy develops, where various actors, including politicians and lobbyists, operate”

Context of text production
“the way in which the policy is presented”

Context of Practice
“where is policy is implemented, interpreted or enacted”

This made me thing about my own teaching context. Racial inequality is presumably not be and intended aspect of UAL policy or created with an agenda, but is this inequality (suggested by the attainment gap) created by policy decisions that are unconscious / endemic?

Racism shapes careers: career trajectories and imagined futures of racialised minority PhDs in UK higher education
– Rhianna Garrett

Overview

The paper looks at the experience of racialised minority PhD students in UK HE and the affect of these ‘white spaces’ on their career trajectories and imagined futures.

The paper argues that institutions need to do more than just diversify staff and student populations but need to implement cultural and structural changes that value intersectional identities and academic knowledge. “Inspired by the work of Campbell (2022), who argues cultural elements around assessment must be considered alongside diversifying curriculums to close awarding gaps, this paper aims to push institutions to take a more nuanced approach to intersectional cultural institutional change that goes beyond optical diversity.” (Garrett, p.2)

Quotes of interest

“Whiteness is more than an optical privilege but an ‘ecology of hostile structures and practices that shape what we consider to be daily norms” (Garrett, p.3)

“These are all elements of what is considered to be a professional work environment, which is also a constructed identity that works to code and maintain the illusion of inclusion, but in reality, serves to preserve white, middle-class models of knowledge, expertise and value (Mukherjee 2022)” (Garrett, p.3)

My teaching practice

Lots of useful information here about thoughts I’ve been having around decolonizing my teaching / curriculum. That the creating a more inclusive teaching environment is about more than simply diversifying references (although this is still important). What are the cultural and structural changes could I could make to my teaching? How do I value intersectional identities and academic knowledge from marginalised communities?

“For students, postgraduates and ECRs, these practices shape specific understandings of what is considered to be professional, and this can result in pressure to assimilate to white, Eurocentric patterns of behaviour to avoid reputational damage, that could affect career progression into higher education (Bhambra, Gebrial, and Nişancıoğlu 2018; Bonner-Thompson, Mearns, and Hopkins 2021).” (Garrett, p.3)

I found this quote interesting in relation to typography (or any practice). Do students assimilate their design practice/approach to the dominant pattern of behaviour, in order to fit in? Do marginalised students do this to fit in with the white-Eurocentric space of UK HE? Understanding this and trying to encourage students to react against this, could be one key to a decolonial approach in typography.

Formative Submission

Teaching intervention enacting intersectional social justice within GCD at CSM

This intervention seeks to make a contribution to addressing the attainment gap between Home BAME / International students and Home white students on the BA Graphic Communication Design course at Central Saint Martins. Current UAL statistics show attainment for Home White students is 90%, Home BAME is 81% International 80% (UAL, 2022/23).

The canon of graphic design and typography is historically Eurocentric and male-dominated, resulting in teaching materials, references, and models of taste measures of excellence that are highly biased towards the white European male perspective. This privileges white middle-class male students. While “we sometimes don’t notice our own privilege because it is so ingrained within our culture” (Harding, 2024), being aware of this can help us diversify and decolonise the teaching environment.

My intervention is a short typography project. Students will be asked to choose a quote and design a poster that communicates the meaning of the words through typographic means. Although not explicit in the brief, my hope is that students will choose a quote that they connect to through their own, potentially intersectional, identities. Their choice will also be framed by each student’s positionality, acknowledging “the need to account for multiple grounds of identity when considering how the social world is constructed” (Crenshaw, 1991).

I’m conscious that these kinds of projects encourage students to “reveal hidden parts of their identity which leads to vulnerability and unpredicted exposure” (Thomas, 2022), and this is something to be mindful of.

By starting with language, students can explore the relationship of typography to various religious, cultural, social themes, allowing them to explore a decolonial approach. Language will create empathy, enabling students to step outside of their own experience and to understand the emotions, mindset, attributes of their peers’ diverse (religious/racial/social) backgrounds. Learning from diversity is a key aspect of the project, as Sister Corita Kent says “we are each other’s sources” (Corita Kent, 1992).

This intervention takes a small step in hope of changing this situation, creating what bell hooks calls “the most radical space of possibility within the classroom” (hooks, 1994). The hope is the work created, conversations had, empathy created, critique will lead to further challenging of the European perspectives on graphic design and typography and creating experimental new visual languages that will permeate out into design practice and industry, and as Sydney J Harris states as the purpose of education “to turn mirrors into windows”.

Bibliography

Crenshaw, K. (1991). Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color, Stanford: Stanford Law Review 

Harding, M (2022) Instructions for running the Privilege Walk, University of Warwick. Available at: https://warwick.ac.uk/services/dean-of-students-office/community-values-education/educationresources/privilegewalk/ (Accessed: 20 May 2024)

hooks, b. (1994) Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. New York: Routledge

Kent, C. (1992) Learning by Heart: Teachings to Free the Creative Spirit. New York: Bantam

Thomas, C. (2022) Overcoming Identity Threat: Using Persona Pedagogy in Intersectionality and Inclusion Training. Social Sciences 11: 249. 

UAL Dashboard, Available at: https://dashboards.arts.ac.uk/dashboard/ActiveDashboards/DashboardPage.aspx?dashboardid=cdf319c3-c4df-49aa-abcd-00cbdb5186e2&dashcontextid=638524406282856029 (Accessed 23 May 2024).

#positionallity #intersectionality #privilege #decolonisation #diversity

Blog task 2

Religious Identity and Epistemic Injustice: An Intersectional Account
Jaclyn Rekis

Rekis article talks about how religion intersects with other identities to create unique ways in which people experience epistemic injustice. This is particularly felt for people from minority religions with intersecting identities. 

Secular and naturalistic-worldview contexts, such as academic environments are spaces where this epistemic injustice is felt.

Epistemic injustice ultimately results in voices from these people not being heard, or viewpoints and ideas not given credit or taken seriously. 

“Either the speaker or the hearer loses out on some piece of knowledge being exchanged, which reflects “a moment of dysfunction in the overall epistemic practice or system” (Rekis, p.781)

“Prejudice therefore operates as an “obstacle to truth” (Rekis, p.781)

This thinking has some really interesting ramifications for my teaching in that we may create an echo-chamber of Western/Cristian viewpoints, fail to be challenged by voices from outside of that community because they are dismissed and not given enough credit, or people from those minorities are not confident to offer opinions and challenge ideologies and methodologies.

This relates to bell hooks writing about art criticism and race and how minorities need to be given the platform and the security to express opinions and speak critically about the work of others, for art criticism and art practice to develop.

Is religion good or bad?
Kwame Anthony Appiah

Kwame Anthony Appiah talks about the differences between major religions and how it’s a focus on the differences that often has caused aggression, violence, wars etc.

Is he talking about the intersection of religion and socio-economic status? Power? Idea of white Christian travellers and colonisers finding beliefs that were different to their own and wanting to convert these people to Christianity.

Appiah also talks about moment in the 19th century where there was the separation of science and religion. “was a kind of deal that was cut between science, this new way of organising intellectual authority, and religion.” (Appiah, 7.34 mins). So that thought no longer had to be framed by the assumptions of religion.

Is this about intersection of religion and science? Religion and power? Or about how the academic institution is in the position of power, the tutors are in a position of power and if the institution has the perspective of secular, naturalistic worldview then there is a danger that viewpoint is positioned as the dominant one in the classroom? Within the societal background of Christianity?

Or is it about us all acknowledging that intellectual thoughts no longer have to align with the assumptions of religion so we should not discriminating against the thinking of people from other belief systems, assuming that they are framing these thoughts by the assumptions of their religious beliefs?

“So there’s a big change, and that division, that intellectual division of labor occurs as I say, I think, and it sort of solidifies so that by the end of the 19th century in Europe, there’s a real intellectual division of labor, and you can do all sorts of serious things, including, increasingly, even philosophy, without being constrained by the thought, “Well, what I have to say has to be consistent with the deep truths that are given to me by our religious tradition.” (Appiah, 9.04 mins).

Appiah gives the example of the Asante people, of modern day Ghana, where “This is not a world in which the separation between religion and science has occurred. Religion has not being separated from any other areas of life”. So is this about being respectful of religious views and being mindful that in some cultures, religion has not separated from science?

Challenging Race, Religion, and Stereotypes in Classroom 
Simran Jeet Singh

Simran Jeet Singh talks about challenging stereotypes. In his context, he talks about the US as a society founded on equality and justice but also founded on discrimination and racism. Giving current examples of race issues manifesting, protests in Charlotte, police killings of young black men. Singh also talks about how we tend to paint entire communities with a single brushstroke, whereas each community is diverse.

“These sorts of things are issues that we like to think don’t exist in our society today but we can’t help but notice that they really do and we need to confront them. Though I think one of the real challenges we’re facing in our society is a tendency to try and paint entire communities with a single brush stroke” (Singh, 0.50 mins)

He looks to challenge basic stereotypes to highlight the difference in communities and states that in his teaching he will “Try and show students that there are multiple ways of looking at everything. Everyone has their own experiences. Everyone’s their own perspectives and if we can try and understand where people are coming from with empathy and sort of a human element then that allows us to really engage with difference in a way that I constructive rather than destructive.” (Singh, 1.54 mins)

In terms of intersectionality this piece relates to ideas around being aware that within religious and racial groups, there are differences. So not to apply stereotyping and think that discrimination will affect each person the same. Kimberlé Crenshaw’s theory of intersectionality tells us that other aspects of a person’s identity will intersect with religion and create unique experiences of discrimation.

Key terms

  • Epistemic injustice (Miranda Fricker)
  • Testimonial epistemic injustice
  • Hermeneutical epistemic injustice
  • Worldview
  • Social Identity

Bibliography

Trinity University (2016) Challenging Race, Religion, and Stereotypes in the Classroom. [Online]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CAOKTo_DOk

Reki, J. (2023) Religious Identity and Epistemic Injustice: An Intersectional Account. Hypatia 38, pp779–800.

Appiah, K. A. (2014) Is religion good or bad? (This is a trick question). Youtube [Online]. 16 June. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2et2KO8gcY

Blog Task 1

Intersectionality

The three video interviews present examples of how intersectionality affects individuals in different ways: 

Paralympian Ade Adepitan talks about his intersecting identity of race and disability and how events such as the death of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement created a “crossroads for humanity”. This opportunity, with global public awareness of race and discrimination at a high point to bring about change in how society “gives people opportunities to shine”. He argues that “society is what holds us back” and that accessibility to opportunities, equipment, coaching and platforms then people from marginalised communities will succeed. He also talked about how progress has been made, but this can be token measures that perhaps play lip-service to the idea of equality and access but there is still systemic racism and discrimination around disability that is ingrained in society and easy to disguise in places such as employment opportunities. The interviewer also mentioned how, by making a space on public transport for disabled people, this becomes a form of segregation as disabled people are still treated differently to the rest of society, labelled, put in a special placed.

Christine Sun Kim spoke about her arts practice and her intersectional identity as a deaf mother and how government polices in Germany have enabled her to have an arts practice. Free childcare and affordable living costs mean she has time and space to practice as an artist – the “benefits of a government that supports its citizens”. Something that is much more difficult in the US for example, where her friends and family live. Through her work Christine has raised awareness within the hearing world for the deaf community and she talks about the importance of scale, that “scale equals visibility, that has the ability to shape social norms”. Her aim is for “deaf lives to be in your mind and be part of what we consider acceptable”. 

In the third video, Chay Brown, a trans man with mental health difficulties, spoke about his intersecting identity being somewhat hidden as a cis passing man with disabilities that are not immediately obvious, and he has a lot of privileges. It’s important therefore to consider that disabilities can be hidden or not immediately obvious. His mental health difficulties meant that he found the subtleties of non-verbal communication, particularly with the gay community, difficult to understand, leading to challenging situations that caused more anxiety for him. Some really important things he said were about providing all aspects of accessibility as the norm: accessible venues for wheelchairs, but also accessible toilets, closed captioning, etc. Importantly, he said that people should be asked what their access needs are, creating ‘person-centred’ environments, putting people with lived experiences of disabilities in charge of making decisions will result in more empathetic decisions and understanding of needs, that there should be budgets for accessibility. An important point he made towards the end was about giving people a forum to talk about their needs and that this will empower others to come forward and take about their needs, therefore normalising the situation. 

There were several common themes I picked up on in each of the interviews, these were to do with making accessibility the norm and not something to be done under special measures for those with disabilities as this can create a new kind of segregation and not result in inclusion.

This will be a challenge for society as there is ingrained systemic discrimination in society. Government policies can play a huge determining factor here as adequate funding for facilities, equipment, financial support, etc will result those from marginalised communities being able to shine.

In my own teaching context, considerations for students with disabilities have included sign language translators for deaf students, accessible text files, captioning for videos and audio files for students with learning difficulties and ISAs detailing specific learning circumstances for students.