CDN Curriculum and Teaching Lead Suzanne Marshall writes about the important resources that are available to support colleges and universities to recognise and address on-campus racism.
The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) set up an initiative in response to the 2019 Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) enquiry into racial harassment at universities in the UK. The report revealed that racial harassment was a common experience for students and staff. That initiative funded Advance HE to design and deliver a suite of resources to help tackle the issue of racism on college and university campuses. A steering group of experts from colleges and universities in Scotland, chaired by Khadija Mohammed, a senior lecturer at the University of the West of Scotland, oversaw the development of the resources, which draw on the expertise and lived experience of a diverse range of staff and students working and studying across Scotland’s colleges and universities.
The resources consist of 4 packs of .zip files, some of which can be edited for institutional customisation. They include a race literacy glossary, utilisation guides, diagnostic tools, templates, animations, videos, posters, images and brand guidelines.
Raising awareness and creating the conditions for confident conversations
As part of the same project, there are also a number of blogs from Steering Group members, as well as webinars discussing race, racism and whiteness.
CDN is also involved in two working groups as part of the same project which looks at tackling the under-representation of ethnic diversity in the college and university workplace and the development of an anti-racist curriculum.
Difficult conversations
As part of CDN’s Pedagogy Matters podcast series, Jonny Rees, Head of Professional Development at CDN, spoke to Sam Messam, Senior Lecturer in Sports Coaching at the University of Lincoln. The focus of the discussion was on how to have difficult and challenging conversations with students, lecturers and managers. Part of the discussion centred on the need for open and honest conversations around race, equality, and inclusion. Click here to listen to the podcast on Spotify.
