Understanding Race and Educational Leadership in Higher Education: Exploring the Black and Ethnic Minority (BME) Experience

© 2018, British Educational Leadership, Management & Administration Society (BELMAS). This is an author produced version of a paper published in MANAGEMENT IN EDUCATION uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self- archiving policy. The final published version (version of record) is available online at the link below. Some minor differences between this version and the final published version may remain. We suggest you refer to the final published version should you wish to cite from it

Same storm, different boats: the impact of COVID-19 on Black students and academic staff in UK and US higher education

The permanence of systemic racism in the UK and USA means that Black people are disadvantaged in myriad ways, including within the Academy. While the disproportionate impact of COVID-19, alongside the Black Lives Matter movement, has increased awareness of the challenges faced by Black communities, these issues remain, both in and beyond higher education. Furthermore, there is still a paucity of research individualising the experiences of Black people, who are often homogenised with other ethnic minority groups. This paper explores the impact of COVID-19 on UK and US Black students and academic staff, utilising a critical race theory (CRT) framework. Analysis revealed that Black students and staff experienced COVID-19 against the backdrop of racism as a “pandemic within a pandemic” (Laurencin and Walker, Cell Systems 11:9–10, 2020), including racial (re)traumatisation, loneliness and isolation. Other themes included precarious employment and exploitation. Recommendations are offered for penetrative interventions that can support Black students and staff in the wake of strained race relations neglecting their adverse experiences and a global pandemic

Attempting to break the chain: Reimaging Inclusive Pedagogy and Decolonising the Curriculum within the Academy

Anti-racist education within the Academy holds the potential to truly reflect the cultural hybridity of our diverse, multi-cultural society through the canons of knowledge that educators celebrate, proffer and embody. The centrality of Whiteness as an instrument of power and privilege ensures that particular types of knowledge continue to remain omitted from our curriculums. The monopoly and proliferation of dom- inant White European canons does comprise much of our existing cur- riculum; consequently, this does impact on aspects of engagement, inclusivity and belonging particularly for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) learners. This paper explores the impact of a dominant Eurocentric curriculum and the Decolonising the Curriculum agenda within higher education and its influence upon navigating factors such as BAME attainment, engagement and belonging within the Academy. This paper draws on a Critical Race Theory (CRT) theoretical framework to centralize the marginalized voices of fifteen BAME students and three academics of colour regarding this phenomena. Aspects examined con- sider the impact of a narrow and restrictive curriculum on BAME students and staff and how the omission of diverse histories and multi- cultural knowledge canons facilitates marginalization and discrimin- atory cultures

Supporting Early-Career Academics in the UK Computer Science Community

The early career of a computer science academic in the United Kingdom (UK) — as with most other disciplines — is challenging in terms of balancing research aspirations, learning and teaching responsibilities, wider academic service commitments, as well as their own professional development. In terms of learning and teaching development, this commonly involves working towards Fellow- ship of the Higher Education Academy (now known as Advance HE), either by direct application or via successful completion of an accredited institutional taught postgraduate course. Typically, if a course is required (often as part of their academic probation), the focus will be general higher education learning and teaching pedagogy rather than specifically focused on computer science and cognate areas. The formal institutional course requirements are normally supplemented by mentoring from within their department from experienced academic colleagues. Thus, the quality of development for an early-career academic will be enhanced in part by the strength of the community of practice operating within the department and the communities of practice that exist at a national and international level, often through professional bodies, learned societies and sub-disciplinary groupings. This paper presents the work-in-progress to address some of these structural, cultural and community challenges at both the institutional and national level in the UK, based on empirical themes collected from a workshop held at UKICER’20. We identify a number of specific actions and recommendations to supplement the current formal institutional requirements with enhanced national-level academic practice support and professional development, alongside local and regional professional mentoring

No One Can See Me Cry: Understanding Mental Health Issues for Black and Ethnic Minority Academic Staff in Higher Education

Black and minority ethnic (BME) communities continue to experience differential outcomes within the United Kingdom (UK) mental health system, despite increased attention on the area. The trauma of racism for BME academic and professional staff within higher education remains problematic against a backdrop of cultural and organisational institutional racism. Within higher education (HE), BME staff consistently face barriers in terms of accessing contextually appropriate mental health interventions that recognise the sophisticated nature of insidious racism in all its overt and covert manifestations. This paper attempts to address the issues facing ethnic minority staff within the Academy with regard to accessing mental health services at university. Importantly, this paper explores the impact of racial discrimination on BME faculty within the sector and the impact upon mental health, in addition to considering the paucity of psychological interventions available in dealing with discriminatory episodes and the need for universities to diversify healthcare professional cohorts. This study utilises the narratives of 40 BME academic and professional university staff to examine the impact of negotiating racial inequality and discrimination at university and the impact upon mental health. Other aspects examined consider the impact of belonging, isolation and marginalisation on mental health and how this consequently affects BME university staff. Conclusions and recommendations provided advocate greater diversification of mental health support systems for BME staff within universities. Conclusions drawn will also consider how existing systems can function to dismantle racial inequality and improve mental health invention for ethnic minority service users