Freddie’s PGCERT Blog

Intro

The aim of this report is to reflect on my process in designing an inclusive learning intervention, within the context of my positionality as well as key literature on critical pedagogy and inclusive practices explored during this PGCERT and feedback received along the way.

Who am I?

I am the Performance Programme Production Manager and Sound Specialist Technician at Central Saint Martins. I support students in realising their designs and teach sound for live performance.

My positionality

As a privileged white middle class woman born in Rome in the 70s and raised in Italy, I have been brought up and educated in an austere way.

As a student, I had immense support but also the pressure to reach top marks. Although successful, I was solely exposed to the “banking model of education” (Freire, 1970), which didn’t give me permission to express my own opinions. Despite my privileged background, this felt disempowering. As an educator, I aim to ensure students can engage in dialogue with teachers so both can learn at once, honouring Freire’s social justice model of critical pedagogy.

Being privileged and frequenting less privileged environments left me feeling a lot of shame and a desire to deconstruct my roots and re-build my identity from the ground up. My “Intersectionality” (Crenshaw, 1993) was more complex than I could understand. I felt excluded in terms of my sexuality (a Lesbian in homophobic Italy), but also very guilty because of my “White Fragility” (Diangelo, 2018). I was lucky to ‘escape’ and experience more inclusive societies, both in New York City in the 90s and London from the 00s.

This PGCERT helped me come to terms with my white fragility. Whiteness is powerful, yet power-evasive. We whites often ignore or deny power by using different techniques, including colour blindness, safe self-critique, letting others off the hook (Haviland, 2008).

More aware of my limitations, promoting a safe place to empower diverse people and experience a sense of community is my commitment: something I’d like to warrant for our students.

Who is this for?

Aiming to impact early in the higher education journey, my intervention is aimed at 1st year BA Performance Design and Practice (PDP) students.

The Active Dashboards show how, in keeping with UAL, more than half of Performance students are from Overseas (51.5%). The majority are mandarin speakers from China, some are from Korea, some from Japan, some Europe. This student makeup highlights how solely using spoken/written English can be an issue in terms of communication, not only literal, but also cultural, considering how language reflects our background.

Alongside language diversity, most Performance students are white (75.5%), Female (73.1%) and very few have declared a disability (24%), also in keeping with UAL.

Based on this knowledge, I will inevitably make assumptions and my awareness of this is key to the success of my intervention. Ignoring assumptions, engaging with students from my perspective alone would be exclusive and lead me to lose trust and engagement altogether. As Grace and Gravestock (2009: 6) explain: “[whilst we can] try to split the students on the basis of identity, such as gender, age, ethnicity, disability […] we might start to make assumptions about our students’ background, nature of prior learning and anticipated degree of participation; however, there are some potential problems with these assumptions: what we cannot see, hidden impairments.

Why?

As a theatre practitioner, I know a live performance cannot be brought to life by one individual alone. It needs a team to come to life. With professional experience we develop the confidence to expose personal work and trust the team. As students, more vulnerable, this can be daunting.

Within our Programme, although students are supportive of each other’s work, they don’t understand the importance of collaboration. As educators, we want to celebrate individual voices and see students succeed in their own work, but also foster a sense of community, inclusivity, collaboration and reciprocal support. As the BA PDP Handbook (Handbook) confirms: “We encourage creative risk-taking by cultivating a supportive and accepting environment in which unique individual and collective perspectives can develop.” 

My intervention intends to eliminate this self-centred approach and motivate students toward a more inclusive and collaborative one, where they can rely on each other to create successful work: “A feeling of community creates a sense that there is shared commitment and a common good that binds us” (Hooks, 1994: 40).

I will encourage a dialogic approach in my intervention where not only students and educators share respective experience and knowledge (Freire, 1970), but also students with each other: “The course focuses on the dialogical and collaborative skills of performance making that are required for new and emerging creative cultural economies” (Handbook).

Given this context and our student makeup, my intervention is centred on a more inclusive form of communication, not just verbal or written, but one that engages physical sensory experiences: “Using variable approaches within students is also likely to be a more inclusive approach to learning than a single teaching method” (Grace-Gravestock, 2009:33).

What is it?

My intervention is a workshop inspired by Pauline Oliveros’s deep listening exercises.

Oliveros (2005) focuses on the profound difference between hearing and listening: we may hear sounds, but unless we voluntarily listen, we won’t experience the full physical, intellectual and emotional impact that sound can offer helping us connect with and relate to each other.

The workshop is in three sessions/stages:

1. Connecting through a shared language – Based on Oliveros’s “Earth: Sensing/Listening/Sounding”: the students are guided with different prompts to hear and feel any sounds, vibrations the room/peers may be producing
2. Collaborating – Based on Oliveros’s “Sound cycles”: the students are asked to ‘play’ an object individually first, then after one another and then together responding to each other
3. Celebrating diversity – Each student is asked to voice a sound that represents them. At first, they would explain its context, then voice it and then the other students would voice it back.

As Hooks (1994: 40, 85) explains: “One way to build community in the classroom is to recognise the value of each individual voice. […] Our collective listening to one another affirms the value and uniqueness of each voice. […] It helps create a communal awareness of the diversity of our experiences.” Our programme believes in the importance of diversity: “as a community, we are deeply committed to the idea that diverse environments are the most vibrant creatively and we actively celebrate difference.” (Handbook)

Testing the outcome

At the end of the workshop, I will hold a group discussion to gain feedback on students’ experience. I’ll enquire on the effects of the workshop on:

• The sense of community in the group
• Inclusivity and respect for diversity
• The need to collaborate with one another

Challenges

• Sound can trigger emotions and sensations. Students may find the workshop distressing. To aid a sense of safety I will set etiquettes, empowering them to leave at any point and/or not participate.
• As the workshop leader and essentially an “insider researcher” I am faced with potential barriers (Fleming, 2018):

• Researcher bias – my familiarity with the group and my positionality may influence the workshop outcome. I’ll need careful awareness of my assumptions
• Power dynamic – my being staff has potential for “implicit coercion” where students could feel compelled to take part regardless of comfort. Ensuring they feel empowered to follow the etiquettes is key. In keeping with a dialogic approach, I’ll encourage students to take on the role of leader when prompting peers
• Consent –  will I be able to be a co-participant? This would break down hierarchical barriers fostering inclusion, but would blur students/staff boundaries

Feedback

Staff feedback has encouraged me to consider physical disabilities whilst asking students to engage with sound. Going forward, I’d like to expand on the sensory aspect. The work of Christine Sun Kim has been inspirational in revealing approaches to visualised sound.

Positive feedback highlighted how the non-verbal modes of communication of my intervention, appeal not only to the need for diversity and inclusivity, but also to that of transculturality and interdisciplinarity. It also resists the neoliberal demand for relentless production and fights isolation and disconnection, exacerbated by the recent pandemic.

Peer feedback suggested to have students explore the antiphonic style of call and response. This would support working as a team: choir not soloists.

It also recommended to try different contact points: students could meet independently as smaller groups and then share with the cohort.

Conclusion

This project has been quite an intense journey as it has compelled me to revisit my personal defiance and positively channel it through my practice to support our students’ journey. With my intervention I hope to provide a sense of community where students feel safe to express themselves, celebrate diversity and create knowledge through shared experiences. As Hooks (1994: 13) reminds us: “to teach in a manner that respects and cares for the souls of our students is essential if we are to provide the necessary conditions where learning can most deeply and intimately begin”.

Bibliography

Bertram, S. (2020) In-Visibility Creating a sense of place at  https://shadesofnoir.org.uk/in-visibility-creating-a-sense-of-place/ (Accessed on15th May 2022)

Bridger, K., Reid, I. and Shaw, J. (2013) Inclusive Higher Education. An International Perspective on Access and the Challenge of Student Diversity Faringdon: Libri Publishing

Crenshaw, K. (1993) Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color at https://www.jstor.org/stable/1229039?origin=JSTOR-pdf (Accessed on 10^th May 2022)

Davis-Bonnick, C., Rouse, L., Connolly, C., Salisbury, L. (2022) Seeing is believing – Contour designer student with vision impairment showing how to draft a bikini at https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PHjK7K4VgVfY2geInHob4lvW6vskNJUg/view (Acccessed on 10th July 2022)

Diangelo, R. J. (2018) White Fragility in Peekaboo we see you: whiteness. Shades of Noir at https://issuu.com/shadesofnoir/docs/peekaboo_we_see_you_whiteness / (Accessed on 23rd June 2022)

Freire, P. (1970) Pedagogy of the oppressed London: Penguin

Fleming, J. (2018) Recognizing and resolving the challenges of being an insider researcher in work-integrated learning in International Journal of Work-Integrated Learning, Special Issue, 2018, 19(3), 311-320 at https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1196753.pdf (Accessed on 19th June 2022)

Grace, S. and Gravestok, P. (2009) Incllusion and diversity. Meeting the needs of all students Abington: Routledge

Haviland, V. S. (2008) “Thinds get glossed over”. Rearticulating the silencing power of whiteness in education in Journal of Teacher Education, Vol. 59, No. 1 Jan/Feb 2008 40-54 at https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0022487107310751?casa_token=L21p5956X3wAAAAA:SGUT-ACOm-hCvv7W2XSbmgm8J-7OcxySngJ2o-cqGAfDGifPep5FsccrNRJudjIWI2vBPcAJOUyzEw (Accessed on 19^th June 2008_

Hooks, B. (1994) Teaching to Transgress Education as the Practice of Freedom Abington: Routledge

Mortiboys, A. (2012) Teaching with Emotional Intelligence. A step by step guide for higher and further education professionals – Second Edition Abingdon: Routledge

Oliveros, P. (2005) Deep Listening. A Composer’s Sound Practice Bloomington: iUniverse

Shades of Noir, 2017 Safe Spaces: what are they and why they matter at http://shadesofnoir.org.uk/safe-spaces-what-are-they-and-why-they-matter/ (Accessed on 25^th May 2022)

Sun Kim, C. (2012) Christine Sun Kim [online video] Vimeo 2012 10 mins at https://vimeo.com/31083172 (Accessed on 28th April 2022)

Tuan, Y. (1977) Space and Place. The perspective of Experience Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press

UAL (2022) Active Dashboards at https://dashboards.arts.ac.uk/dashboard/ActiveDashboards/DashboardPage.aspx?dashboardid=29c2e5b2-f8c5-4c3b-a5ad-5a27ad4ace4b&dashcontextid=636529875869474104&resetFilt=true (Accessed on 25^th June 2022)

UAL (2022) BA PDP Handbook at https://artslondon-my.sharepoint.com/:b:/g/personal/f_lippi_csm_arts_ac_uk/EffNj-AoUdpIi2Ud8sif1r8BgDDDLsrD1omAL7-PJRmCzw?e=SWoYFB (Accessed on 15^th July 2022)

UAL (2022) Experimental Pedagogy Group at https://eprg.arts.ac.uk/24hrs-on-earth-recordings/ (Accessed on 10^th July 2022)

UAL (2021) Student EDI Report 2020-21 at https://artslondon.sharepoint.com/sites/CanvasContent/Documents/Committees/Education%20Enhancement%20Committee/EEC%2001%20-%2025%20February%202021/Item%207.1_Student%20EDI%20Report%202020-21.pdf (Accessed on 20^th July 2022)

Tate, S. A. (2018) Whiteliness and institutional racism: hiding behind unconscious bias at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lur3hjEHCsE (Accessed on 11^th June 2022)

The concept of white fragility is new to me, which is intrinsically reinforces the concept itself. I have learnt about it from the Inclusive Practice Unit of this PGCERT and have found it transformational: getting uncomfortable during each session of the unit had become the norm and just took it on the chin every time (not without emotional response), but never questioned it.

I now completely understand what is happening and it raises even more discomfort, but it also brings clarity and disappointment. As a white privileged woman, I simply did not realise how much racism is in my imprinting, so to speak.

Robin Diangelo’s idea of humility as an antidote is what I try to live by every day, but it still does not make it any better. I am trying to understand, trying to do more, trying to earn my forgiveness and a part in making society less racist, but I realise I barely scratched the surface. It turns out that my desire to embrace people of colour in my life as friends and family is not enough, in fact it makes me colour blind. Instead I ought to be more active and deconstruct my position of privilege by working through my discomfort and action my beliefs.

In terms of my practice, I should work harder in creating a more inclusive and diverse environment, an environment where everyone is celebrated for who they are as opposed to accepted in the sameness of the white world. I ought to create a safe space where students are happy to share their identities and help each other understand challenges and work through them together.

My artefact may hopefully help with this: creating a space safe enough for people to listen to each other’s stories, stories that start from pure vibrations, sounds made by the human body and then extend to personal experiences ‘played’ by the body and the voice.

This text was incredibly useful as I found it almost like a compendium of many of the pedagogical concepts I have been focussing on so far in the PGCERT: most poignant in my journey have Freire’s principles of education as a route to freedom through the dialogic approach to teaching as a way to help students develop their own voice vs the ‘banking’ approach and Orr’s ambiguity of the Art and Design Curriculum among others.

I find very interesting and very much what is happening on our courses Orr’s idea of the ambiguous pedagogy and the sticky curriculum: if project centred work and encouraging risk taking resonates well with creativity it can also generate stress and insecurity, especially at the beginning of a student’s HE journey and I have encountered many students who experience this sort of stress. Nonetheless, the same students seem to get used to it and eventually thrive on this sense of openness and freedom. How can we find a balance between the two to avoid the initial stress altogether whilst still not imposing on students creativity?

The text also put into perspective how behind we still are in securing diversity in persistence and attainment and how important the above principles are to try and promote positive change.

The lack of understanding that one’s socio-economical-racial background affects how one learns and determines the tools one has at their disposal to start with when interpreting Art and Design in this case surprised me. I believed that part of being an educator was to try to understand students, their background, their learning styles and as such offering diverse tools to support their learning. Evidently this is not generally the case. How can we make it so? Some of the suggested methods, such as giving students a sense of ownership over their environment, a safe environment where sharing work become a comfortable and exciting perspective seem a very positive suggestion, but how can we ensure that?

Josephine Kwhali’s reflections on this video, together with the talk by professor Shirley Anne Tate, which we watched recently on the concept of unconscious bias really opened up my mind.

As part of my job I did the unconscious bias training and passed the test and of course, exactly as the two talks pointed out, I felt I had done my part, I scored high, I could not possibly be racist and not even unconsciously! How arrogant and naïve of me to think so.

I now could not agree more that there is no such a thing as unconscious bias, not the least after so much work has been done to make us aware of bias. Indeed if we are still unconscious we are in trouble as Josephine Kwhali points out.

How disappointing though to see that a university that prides itself for being so ahead, so politically right on, is not ahead here. Why are they still offering training in unconscious bias instead of actually making us work harder in defeating racism in the first place? Why this box ticking exercise, why such hypocrisy?

I found this article very interesting and hopeful as on one hand it clarified the concept of pedagogy of social justice education and on the other it validated my favourite part of teaching, which is sharing my own experiences.

Although I have never been formally taught how to teach, I have taught in different institutions for quite sometime now and the best part has been that I have been practicing for a few years, then land a job at a university teaching, than I would go back to the industry to practice some more and then back in education. This helped me collect a well of experience that I could draw upon when teaching the subject. Giving practical examples allowed me to bring the subject to life, to show the students how the theory that we learn is applied and has a practical implication once we apply it to real life situations. Theory is useful, it has a purpose, it is not just dry and difficult material we ought to learn, but it helps us be better practitioners. I believe in this so much that when I studied sound engineering and I was asked to teach it immediately after graduating, although I took the job and taught for a while, I soon realised I was an impostor and quit to go and gain some experience before going back to teach it!

The paper also introduced me to the concept of ‘contact hypothesis, which I didn’t know anything about. I find this very exciting: the idea of deconstructing conflict by creating an environment where apparently incompatible students can meet and tackle differences to find a common ground sounds incredibly positive and effective. But my question is: how do we create such a ‘positive constructed environment’? How much conflict will there be between the students before they can find the common ground? Is this a potentially dangerous territory? How do we make it safe enough to provide reconciliation opportunities?

• The website offers a variety of resources that span from text, to photography, to moving image
• It also presents articles both from contemporary more informal contributors through to academics and seasoned activists of all ages.
• I have found it was very inclusive to present both ‘conversations’, journals, articles and case studies as well as photographs and films.
• The language is also quite inclusive as it branches from more academic, e.g. in the journal, through to more informal, e.g. in the conversations.
• This is very useful for my own practice as it offers a very effective example of how information can be organised in order to reach the widest group of recipients, namely students in my case.
• In terms of students’ work, it is a very useful and rich starting point for students to explore a wide variety of accessible subjects, experiences and literature, not only race related, but in general related to underrepresented communities.
• It offers an very powerful opportunity for students to land on a safe space, a welcoming community

This case study really shocked me. It surprised me to see that even those that are meant to be inclusive and non-discriminatory, such as teachers, indeed aren’t. It ties in with the general a priori dismissal of religion that I often experience.

I don’t consider myself religious, although I was brought up Catholic. I consider myself spiritual and I practice mindfulness. Nonetheless I find it infuriating when people are so dismissive of religion. Why? Is it because religion encourages belief in something that cannot be scientifically proven? Is therefore religion is false? But can we not respect those that believe? Can we not listen to what positive there is to take from religion and incorporate even in a secular approach to life?

In the case study I found it particularly offensive that the tutor would not listen to the student, that the student had no opportunity to explain her religious identity and that the tutor allowed for religious illiteracy and for other students to express their discriminatory assumptions without stopping them.

This event re-iterates the importance of providing students with a ‘safe space’ (on-line and in person), a space that is welcoming and not oppressive where they can be themselves and free to express their identity and live by it. This space should be the university as a whole, not some special segregated ‘room’ they go to, to find protection.

This space should be safe not only from religious discrimination, but also from any other discrimination. Students should feel they can be free of any kind of judgement. A safe space is “a place in which as a minority you are not to be “challenged on account of biological sex, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, cultural background…”(SoN, 2017).

The case study booklet makes some very useful suggestions about how this space can be achieved. Students should discuss positive and negative scenarios and explore what they think makes them so, whilst ultimately arrive at a set of agreed rules that they should all follow to foster said safe space.

Some suggestions from the booklet include:

• Always get explicit verbal consent before crossing boundaries
• Be aware of the space you take up
• Recognise that we try not to judge, put each other down or compete
• Foster a spirit of mutual respect
• Listen to the wisdom everyone brings to the group
• Give each person the time and space to speak
• Respect the person; challenge their behaviour

Although the suggested ‘rules’ above are of course sacrosanct, the idea of students coming up with their own set seems more effective as this would give them a sense of ownership of them and as such hopefully a sense of responsibility towards them. Creating a dialogue where these rules can emerge from seems to be the best starting point.

References

Shades of Noir, 2017 The Little book of big case studies: Faith At https://www.shadesofnoir.org.uk/education/people-of-colour-copy/ Accessed on 25^th May 2022

Shades of Noir, 2017 Safe Spaces: what are they and why they matter At http://shadesofnoir.org.uk/safe-spaces-what-are-they-and-why-they-matter/ Accessed on 25^th May 2022

In Mundair’s (2017) article I found many similarities with my own spiritual journey. Although I started off as Catholic and Mundair started off as Sikh, I find that we both started from a religion with very strong beliefs and customs and somehow, we both felt the need to question these and explore other beliefs or spiritual approaches to life.

I found myself in a very suffocating and uncomfortable place. As a young person every time I entered a church I felt inadequate and forced to go through a channel that was in the way of my communicating with God. I felt this was not right and so proceeded to ‘escape’ both by moving to a different country (perhaps a bit drastic I know, but other reasons where at stake) and by looking for different spiritual approaches.

I too like Mundair, explored yoga and meditation and appreciated the sense of acceptance and community.

In meditation, I found the positive sense of slowing down and of letting go of judging myself. The idea of allowing myself some space, time, silence was medicinal.

Somehow though, possibly as Mundair experienced too, I then felt the need to take on something more established, rather than an independent practice. Who knows, perhaps the strong catholic background, the rules, where pressing me and so I needed to commit to something more official. So I explored Hinduism a lot further, but then I found not only that I was becoming so fanatic about it that I was starting to lose my connection with the day to day life (letting go a bit too much perhaps); but that the very founders of the Hindu yoga centre I affiliated myself with, had been accused of sexual harassment by several of his female disciples.

How could I reconcile this disappointing finding with a practice I thought was good for me? What should I do? Was there a perfect religion after all?

And so in terms of teaching practice the same questions arise again: how do we support students in their beliefs whilst ensure they are safe? Should we help them to question their beliefs or simply observe and protect?

I don’t even know if it’s ok to incorporate a teaching practice that questions religion vs one that accepts it full stop. Perhaps the way forward is to encourage students to voice the positive aspects of their practice and share them with other students, whilst slowly identify and modify those that are discriminatory.

Reference

Mundair, R. (2017) Guru Nanak and the realm of Chlorophyll Cathedrals In Shades of Noir, 2017 Higher Power: Higher Power: Religion, Faith, Spirituality & Belief at https://issuu.com/shadesofnoir/docs/higher_power Accessed on 25th May 2022

This lecture was quite the eye opener as, believe it or not (pun unintended), I never really thought of all that makes us who we are. Well I did, just never put it all together. I used to identify with one of the characteristics at a time or perhaps two, for some reason. And yet, I am always interested in peoples’ origins, customs, journeys as well as their present.

Our identity is a dense combination of country, ethnicity, religion, culture, sexual identity, gender, history, education. Not only one of these characteristics.

When someone asks: “where are you from?”, what assumptions have they already made? This happened a lot to my ex-partner: she is mixed raced and so constantly asked: “where are you from?”. In India, people would say: “You have Indian face!”, sort of meaning: “you are lying, you are not British!” It almost seemed endearing, almost a way of their saying: “you are one of ours, you are welcome here!”, but still, not the truth. And yet, where one is born is only a small portion of who one is, especially if one was not born in the country of their biological parents and if one was brought up by different parents altogether as the case was here.

So, as professor Appiah explained in the lecture, a sense of self is shaped by nationality, gender, class, race, religion and by one’s family, the way one is brought up.

In this lecture though what’s being discussed more thoroughly is the religious identity. Here we understand that religion, a body of beliefs, is not only what we do (the practice), but also who we do it with (the community) and so it is not only a matter of orthodoxy (believing right), but also what prof. Appiah identifies as orthopraxy (behaving right). This is quite key, because believing in the scriptures does not make us of that religion, e.g. convincing ourselves of the principles of the Torah does not make us Jewish: fellowship is at the core of the religious experience.

Another key learning I took away from this lecture is that religious identities are transformed through history. Scriptures are open to interpretation, not just because they are translated from the original language and that in itself is an interpretation, but also because when they were written they reflected the culture of the time and as such they need adaptation as history progresses: “the story of sacred text is the story of their readers of shifting and clashing interpretations”.

Question: how do we adapt the scriptures whilst keeping their core values alive?

I often experience is an inclination to judge all religion and all spirituality in the name of science, in the name of what we can and cannot prove, but should we not at least take what’s good from religions, e.g. the principles of generosity and kindness, the sense of community and of supporting one another during hardship?

Reference

BBC Radio 4 – The Reith Lectures, 2016 Mistaken Identities At https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b080twcz Accessed on 20th May 2022-05-29

From ‘We don’t do God’? the changing nature of public religion

By Professor Tariq Modood, University of Bristol

Western European Moderate Secularism

What I have learnt:

• Given its expression in public ceremonies, cultural heritage and its close relation to political issues, organised religion is just as public as it is a private matter.

• Given its power to unite people and act together toward a common goal (driven by the religious belief), organised religion can be a public good as well as a public bad

• The interest of the stage is not theological, in fact it is toward the ‘secular’ public good.

Questions/provocations:

• If religion can be a public bad, how can we encourage students to question whether to follow it at all? Is it not better to be independent from such a strong and potentially dangerous drive?

• Given how the state could potentially use its link to religion, should we not aim at a complete secularisation of the state?

Multiculturalism

• Multiculturalism: a new way of categorizing minority-majority relations, connected to post-immigration ethno-religious minorities.

• New concept of equality: not just equal rights despite of difference, but equality as accommodation of difference, i.e. respect of difference, not just acknowledgement. “We acknowledge that […] equality requires the abandonment of the pretence of ‘difference-blindness’ and allowing others, the marginalised minorities, to also be visible and explicitly accommodated in the public sphere”; need to recognise distinct disadvantages and special needs.

Questions/provocations:

• Where does the fine line break between wanting to know how to best support ‘special needs’ and invading people’s privacy?

• Is there a different approach for the above depending on what aspect of multiculturalism we are approaching (gender, ethnicity, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation)?

• Should disability fall within the definition of Multiculturalism?

From Religion, the public sphere and higher education

By Professor Craig Calhoun, London School of Economics and Political Science

Religion and dissent in universities

What I have learnt:

• Gender is framed in religious terms. Gender segregation and differentiation in rituals is a practice of different religions, like “in rituals like washing before prayer [and is not] necessarily associated with deeper social inequality”.

• Gender bias is often “of customs appropriated from specific cultural contexts. Religiously expressed gender bias may fade with social change – or it may be renewed as a marker of cultural distinction”.

• Gender hierarchy justified by religion is a challenge to universities that advocate equality

Questions/provocations:

• Is there a hierarchy in social justice? Is intolerance acceptable when it defies inequality?

Reference

Modood, T. and Calhoun, C., 2015 Stimulus Paper Religion in Britain: Challenges for Higher Education at http://www.tariqmodood.com/uploads/1/2/3/9/12392325/6379_lfhe_stimulus_paper_-_modood_calhoun_32pp.pdf Accessed on 21st May 2022