‘You end up doing the document rather than doing the doing’: Diversity, race equality and the politics of documentation

Ahmed, Sara

doi:10.1080/01419870701356015

Cited by 393 publications

(256 citation statements)

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“…In this audit culture, as long as the policy document meets the requirements, the day to day practice, being outside the reach of the auditors, need not match (Ahmed 2007). Such institutional pressures to silence race talk accord with individual teachers' desire to avoid the personal risks associated with addressing complex and controversial issues (Dickar 2008 Leah followed the policy in good faith, but in doing so she was not supported by her managers.…”

Section: Leahmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, the political discourse of all aspects of education policy and practice (including ITE) has been dominated by the priorities of the neo-liberal performative agenda that has characterised public sector management in England for the past two decades. Central to this agenda has been the focus on 'standards' and 'accountability', and this focus can be seen to marginalise issues of equality and social justice (Ahmed 2007;Morrison 2007;George & Clay 2008  ITE Inspection reports 203 inspection reports of university-based ITE programmes over a 5 year period are analysed to identify the extent to which race equality-related issues are 'headlined' by inspectors and the ways in which providers' 'performance' in this respect impacts on overall inspection grades;…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This superficial approach can negate any understanding of racism as a structural phenomenon, and in an institutional context, can create barriers to institutional change. Challenging inequality is seen as a matter of 'procedural compliance' rather that a genuine attempt to change culture and practices (O'Cinneide 2003;Ahmed 2007;Morrison 2007). From this perspective, education (and teacher education) policy should be judged primarily by its practice and outcomes, rather than its intention.…”

Section: Race Equality Legislation and Its Impact On Itementioning

confidence: 99%

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Special Issue Race Ethnicity and Education: Initial teacher education: developments, dilemmas and challenges

Lander

2013

Race Ethnicity and Education

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dilemmas and challenges IntroductionVini Lander University of Chichester v.lander@chi.ac.ukThe education of new teachers is a fundamental aspect of education provision within any country in the world. The education of pre-service teachers is known to have a direct impact on the outcomes for children in our schools. In England, teacher education within universities has been subject to erosion with the introduction of more school-based training and greater scrutiny by the government inspection agency, the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) (DfE 2011). The education of teachers in England continues to be an arena within which greater and greater government control is being exercised (DfE 2011). The preparation of teachers in England within the higher education sector has recently had to demonstrate greater flexibility as market forces have been brought to bear with the forthcoming introduction of School Direct in September 2013 (DfE 2011). This new training route reinforces the conception amongst some of the teacher as a technicist rather than an intellectual (Down and Smyth 2012). Under this new School Direct training regime new entrants will be trained to become teachers in one year, in one school, in one locality with minimum input from a higher education institution. The outcomes of such parochial preparation to teach will no doubt be documented in future years.In England, as in most countries, such as Australia and Norway, the pupil population is becoming increasingly diverse whilst simultaneously neo-liberal ideology plays out (Ball 2012) through government policies to limit the content of the teacher education curriculum to a list of classroom related competencies which include little or no reference to diversity, 'race', ethnicity or culture. The significance of these factors on the lives of children within a diverse society are absent within the official Teachers ' Standards 2012 (DfE 2012. This mismatch between the content of the teacher education curriculum, the ethnicity of the candidates who enter pre-service courses [in 2011, 12% of primary trainee teachers in England were from Black and minority ethnic groups (NCTL) and in the US approximately 21% of teachers are from African American or Hispanic groups (Nolet 2013)] and the demographics of the pupil population (in 2011 26.5% of primary/elementary pupils were from Black and minority ethnic groups) seem to be a concern for only a minority of teacher educators across the UK, US, Europe and Australia. In England, we continue to struggle to maintain a foothold (at times this feels like a fingernail hold) to introduce new teachers to issues related to 'race', ethnicity and the education for the benefit of all children in our schools. This special issue is intended to highlight the factors that student teachers, especially new candidates of colour, face in their pursuit to become teachers in what appear to be, at times, hostile or indifferent attitudes to ethnic diversity and the pursuit for social justice. As a teacher educator who has worked in t...

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Section: Leahmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Race Equality Legislation and Its Impact On Itementioning

confidence: 99%

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Special Issue Race Ethnicity and Education: Initial teacher education: developments, dilemmas and challenges

Lander

2013

Race Ethnicity and Education

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“…The concept of performativity (Ball 2003) offers a way to understand why, in a tightly monitored environment, maintaining the appearance of harmony may be more important than risking the disruption and negative publicity that may come with an open engagement with the problem. In this audit culture, as long as the policy document meets the requirements, the day to day practice, being outside the reach of the auditors, need not match (Ahmed 2007). Such institutional pressures to silence race talk accord with individual teachers' desire to avoid the personal risks associated with addressing complex and controversial issues (Dickar 2008).…”

Section: Leahmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dealing with racist incidents: what do beginning teachers learn from schools?

Pearce

2013

Race Ethnicity and Education

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This article focuses on how schools respond to racist incidents, and what new teachers learn from their involvement in those processes. It analyses four incidents involving the pupils of four beginning teachers. The article suggests that in each case, schools either partly or wholly avoided addressing the incident, and that this avoidance can be understood in terms of the colour and power evasive discourse, which is the dominant discourse on race in Western societies, and in most schools. One aspect of this discourse is that racism is defined on the basis of individual intentions, not outcomes. The article argues that it may be possible to adopt a more race cognisant approach with student teachers and staff in schools, building on nascent understandings of institutional racism, which shifts the focus to outcomes rather than intentions. The article demonstrates this approach, analysing each incident in terms of its consequences for the learning of the new teacher, and for the promotion of race equality in the school. While the small number of incidents may initially appear heartening, their negative impact on both teacher confidence and children's understanding may be significant. The findings suggest that in the changing context of initial teacher education in England, approaches to supporting both schools and new teachers in this often misunderstood area are much needed, and that one way forward may be to give teachers time and support to critically reflect on and discuss their experiences.Keywords: race, racist incidents, institutional racism, student teachers, beginning teachers, whiteness IntroductionRacism remains an important problem in UK schools. In 2012 the BBC's news website reported that the number of racist incidents logged by schools rose steadily between 2007 and 2010, the year in which the current Coalition Government removed the obligation for schools to keep records (BBC 2012) 1 . In some areas, the number of reported cases increased by 40% in that period. The BBC website reported a leading anti-racism campaign group describing the 88,000cases as 'the tip of the iceberg', since such cases are very often under-reported (BBC 2012). Yet one popular newspaper reported the story of the release of the figures under the headline, '88,000 children branded racists' (Daily Mail, 2012). In taking this stance, the newspaper drew on the dominant discourse on race in British society and elsewhere, which fails to understand the purpose of monitoring such incidents, and sees racism only as extreme and violent acts, rather than a subtle and pervasive feature of our social structures. The headline suggests that the act of logging a racist incident automatically defines the individual involved as 'a racist': racism is only ever understood as personal prejudice. But some of the individual cases quoted in the story suggest another aspect of this discourse: some senior managers in school appeared to have defined any direct reference children made to race as a racist incident. According to this colourblind way of th...

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“…Since strategic and policy documents often serve as the public face of the university, an inordinate amount of time can go into getting them just right. This can mean that writing documents and having good policies becomes a substitute for action: as an interviewee in one study puts it, "you end up doing the document rather than doing the doing"" (Ahmed, 2007).…”

Section: Pilkington A; Crofts Mmentioning

confidence: 99%

Liberalism and race equality in higher education: The shift from the mandatory to the persuasive

Pilkington

Crofts

2017

Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Higher Education Advances

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‘You end up doing the document rather than doing the doing’: Diversity, race equality and the politics of documentation

Cited by 393 publications

References 5 publications

Special Issue Race Ethnicity and Education: Initial teacher education: developments, dilemmas and challenges

Special Issue Race Ethnicity and Education: Initial teacher education: developments, dilemmas and challenges

Dealing with racist incidents: what do beginning teachers learn from schools?

Liberalism and race equality in higher education: The shift from the mandatory to the persuasive

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