Finnegan and Richard’s 2016 report, “Retention and Attainment in the Disciplines of Art and Design,” provides urgent statistical data for the need to address racial disparities in retention and attainment in art school. What I found particularly important about this report is that it thought about the challenges that relate specifically to an art school context and considered them in a multi-dimensional way; consequently, any response will need to be multi-pronged, from addressing curricular content and teaching methods, to hiring practices and support for faculty of color working in PWIs. Because art and design not only reflect but also shape culture, addressing these disparities becomes an urgent political task.
The incredible short film, “The Room of Silence,” puts a human face to the statistics mentioned in the report, showing the emotional and psychological toll placed on students of color in a leading art school by the avoidance of directly and sensitively addressing racial issues present in student work. An absence of an actively anti-racist pedagogy only serves to reify the status quo. The flip side of this silence is painfully explored in Aisha Richard’s interview with a senior academic, “White Academia: Does this Affect You?” Looking at Richard’s interview in conjunction with the RISDI film paints a damning portrait of white ignorance and fragility amongst white faculty members who have not “done the work” to best support their students of color by educating themselves on how to lead discussions of race in the classroom. In that sense, the Shades of Noir glossary of terms serves an invaluable tool providing both a prompt for discussion in and of itself and also by providing the vocabulary and critical concepts with which to begin these necessary conversations.
“Social justice education,” a rich, theoretical, pedagogical framework for thinking about a classroom-based approach is presented through Hahn Tapper’s case study. His organization rests on three primary philosophical pillars: a Frierian experiential pedagogy, social identity theory, and intersectionality. From Paolo Friere, what I think is most pressing to remember is that education is never neutral; it can either reinforce or seek to undo forms of oppression. Social identity theory requires us as tutors to acknowledge the impossibility of relegating every conflict to the individual and interpersonal, acknowledging the social constructivist aspect of identity formation. This ultimately leads to the theory of intersectionality, which recognizes the complex interplay of different and overlapping aspects of identity, demanding of us as tutors to consider our students in all of their individual complexity while recognizing the hegemonic forms of power within which each individual is struggling. Again, I think back to both the RISDI interview and Richard’s interview and the need to hear and see students both as individual and the larger systems of oppression in which we are all enmeshed, and which privilege some students over others.
This report also encouraged me to think more specifically about acting and performance (my sub-field) and the discipline-specific challenges students from diverse backgrounds on my course may face. For example, a “crit” is not really a theatre-related term, feedback often being part of a dynamic rehearsal process as opposed to a discreet moment of evaluation looking at an object. On the other hand, personal characteristic such as appearance, speech, and accent, particularly in a globally diverse cohort of student, are highly salient personal characteristics related to student success which are irrelevant in visual art and design media but require careful thinking through on behalf of acting tutors. A whole additional set of theories and practices are necessary when students’ own bodies and voices are their artistic medium, as it is with acting. My artifact for the Inclusive Practices Unit sets out to support this development amongst the acting staff as a collaborative endeavor in an academically rigorous, yet accessible way.
Thanks for your interesting post Andrew. You’re absolutely right of course about the role of art and design in shaping culture and this is also brought up in the Room of Silence film. I hadn’t watched this before, but did so as a result of your post. It is incredibly depressing especially when you look at the comments below and see how little anything seems to have moved for a long time.
One of my frustrations with working in HE is the seemingly scant attention paid to real teaching skills. I come from a background where it’s all about the teaching (albeit imperfectly) rather than the academic knowledge. It feels like this conflict is still alive and kicking in HE, are academics teachers or academics/practitioners? I feel if there were more emphasis placed on teaching skills, it would be possible to have more open doors to more balanced discussions. It might even start to break down the massive power structure that the students at RISDI mention so often. As I say, I’m relatively new to HE but I wonder if the art and design school is even more hierarchical than other subject areas precisely because of the subjective nature of the work. If so, it’s interesting given how social justice is so foregrounded.
I can see this is slightly different in the performance space and I’m interested in what you say here; ‘A whole additional set of theories and practices are necessary when students’ own bodies and voices are their artistic medium, as it is with acting.’ That is a challenge. I wonder if your students have been able to offer some insights into this?
In the interview, White Academia: Does this Affect You?, it is surprising, a white senior academic staff was nervous and out of place for the interview. It is revealing how distant this person was to students of ethnically minority backgrounds. The senior staff is white, and her social environment is white friends and colleagues. Very little knowledge about ethnically diverse students. This interview illustrates the distance between decision-makers and students. Why would the senior academics not want to educate themselves? is it, not their issue? is it a ‘complex’ societal one? or they might say something to offend? There seems to be an option to divorce yourself from the issue. In contrast to the article Witness in Higher Education by a senior academic from Royal College of Art, Andrew Illman is much more aware of his privilege and willingness to learn and show solidarity and support towards racism and injustice.
In the interview, White Academia: Does this Affect You?, a senior white academic was nervous and out of place for the interview. It is revealing how distant this person was to students of ethnically minority backgrounds. The senior staff is white, and her social environment is white friends and colleagues. Very little knowledge about the students she represents. Why would a senior academic not want to educate themselves? is it, not their issue? is it a ‘complex’ societal problem? or they might be scared to say something to offend? There seems to be an option to divorce themselves from the issue. In contrast, in the article in SoN, Witness in Higher Education by a senior academic from the Royal College of Art, Andrew Illman is much more aware of his privilege and is willing to learn and show solidarity with his black staff and students