In August 2023, I became the inaugural recipient of the BERA Equality in Education Award in recognition of my race equity work in education. In this blog post I reflect on how race and racism have impacted on education in the past and the present; how educators committed to racial justice continue to address racial inequities and why we persist. This award builds on decades-long foundations laid by courageous, dedicated academics promoting race equity and seeking to establish racial justice. I stand on the shoulders of Professors Heidi Mirza, Uvanney Maylor, Shirley Anne Tate, David Gillborn and long-time colleague, the late Professor Chris Gaine – and many other champions of race equality in education.

A cunning shapeshifter, racism is normal and not an aberrant facet of our society. It permeates at three levels: first, in everyday interactions via racial microaggressions such as the oft-quoted, ‘Where are you from? No, where are you really from?’ Second, in its ugly forms, such as name-calling I experienced in childhood, one vitriolic remark has stayed with me forever: ‘I hope you two P*kis get run over!’ spittingly hurled at me and my sister by a White woman holding her daughter’s hand while standing on the pavement waiting to cross the road. That utterance abruptly kickstarted my anti-racist journey at age nine, so my anti-racist journey started in childhood. And third, racism persists hidden in the structures and systems of our institutions – evident, for example, in the ethnic pay gap and the absences of people of colour at higher levels within institutions.

‘You have to be hopeful that change will come one day. I am ever hopeful that shining a light on issues of race and racism will achieve change.’

Critical Race Theory (CRT) acknowledges race is a social construct, that race and racial groups are an invention and not a ‘biological or genetic reality’ (Delgado & Stefancic, 2017, p. 9). Warmington (2024, p. 22) reminds us that while race may be unreal ‘its effects are real and significant’. Race structures society and the resulting inequities which maintain the racial hierarchy. In my work I have sought to utilise the tenets of CRT to illuminate the operation of racism in education. Throughout my career I have challenged racism in all its forms, be it racist attitudes, racial microaggressions or discriminatory institutional practices.

At a recent continuing professional development (CPD) event I led I was asked by a Black participant, ‘How do you keep going with this work?’ To which I replied, you have to be hopeful that change will come one day. I am ever hopeful that shining a light on issues of race and racism will achieve change. Freire (1994, cited in Jacobs 2005) noted that hope is an ontological need underpinning critical pedagogy, and bell hooks argued the classroom is a hopeful space:

‘Hopefulness empowers us to continue our work for justice even as the forces of injustice may gain power for a time. To live by hope is to believe that it is worth taking the next step’ (hooks, 2003, pp. xiv–xv).

Hope is social, only possible as ‘we’ not ‘I’. In having responsibility for ourselves and for others, hope-filled goals act ‘as spurs to concrete action’ writes Jacobs (2005, p. 785). He describes hope as ‘working together toward a future in a relationship of praxis’ (Jacobs, 2005, p. 786).

We need new frontiers of sustained, active and meaningful allyship which isn’t tokenistic. True allyship lies in the hegemonic majority taking on the Sisyphean boulder-rolling which leads to racial battle fatigue, (Grant, 2023) with its attendant physical and psychological symptoms and conditions for those of us from the Global Majority who’ve rolled the boulder uphill for centuries.

As Director of the Centre for Race, Education and Decoloniality (CRED) I am proud of our work. CRED as a research and practice centre aims to challenge everyday racism and structural race inequalities through research, evidence-based practice and the professional development of pre-service and in-service teachers. We research the ways systemic racism impacts learners at all education levels and those within the workforce. For example, the ‘Collaboratives on Addressing Racial Inequity in Covid Recovery Education’ briefing paper commissioned by the Race Equality Foundation.

Professor Heather Smith at Newcastle University and I researched, devised and launched the Anti-Racism Framework for initial teacher education and training as a means for teacher educators to find pockets of possibility to counter the persistent deracialisation of teacher education policy and practice (see Smith & Lander, 2022). It has already gained purchase in England, Japan and Australia, and is adaptable for social work, nursing and other professional programmes.

CRED supports organisations to embed anti-racism to improve the experiences and outcomes of racially minoritised people. More than 250 schools have committed to the CRED Anti-Racist School Award – a two-year programme where each school’s designated coach collaborates with the in-school award lead to identify development areas and actions to be taken. Set at bronze, silver and gold levels, because the road to race equity is long and arduous, we want schools to continue developing and transforming education for the wellbeing of all youngsters even after they’ve gained the bronze award. CRED is supporting Anti-Racist Schools’ Networks in Leeds and Liverpool, providing CPD around governance, leadership, the curriculum, pedagogy, parents and the community. It is important to acknowledge we need research-generated knowledge; it is even more important to use it as a launch point to turn knowledge into impactful action to improve the lives of those who suffer racism and disadvantage.

My great hope is that in the future the courageous and positive engagement with teachers and practitioners will continue and flourish into hopeful anti-racist action leading to a more racially just society.

References

Delgado, R., & Stefancic J. (2017). Critical race theory: An introduction. New York University Press.

Freire, P. (1994). Pedagogy of hope: Reliving the pedagogy of the oppressed. Continuum.

Grant, G. (2023). What is racial battle fatigue? A school psychologist explains https://theconversation.com/what-is-racial-battle-fatigue-a-school-psychologist-explains-192493

hooks, b. (2003). Teaching community: A pedagogy of hope. Routledge.

Jacobs, D. (2005). What’s hope got to do with it?: Theorizing hope in education. JAC: A Journal of Composition Theory, 25(4), 783–802. https://www.jstor.org/stable/20866715

Smith, H., & Lander, V. (2022). Finding ‘pockets of possibility’ for anti-racism in a curriculum for student teachers: From absence to action. Curriculum Journal, 34(1), 22–42. https://bera-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/curj.177

Warmington, P. (2024) Permanent Racism Race, Class and the Myth of Postracial Britain Bristol: Policy Press.