Thread by @UWankings

Your regular reminder:

UK Higher Education IS institutionally racist…

…not least because the UK is institutionally racist, and these issues are highlighted (and magnified) in educational experiences and outcomes.

An evidence-based thread…🧵
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Before we get going, there is no profusion or absence of ability/talent or aspiration/ambition in any racial or ethnic group. Assuming the former is true is racist; the latter is used to explain away social inequalities. We do NOT live in a meritocracy.
tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…
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There are deep racial inequalities in education, with major variations between groups. These are gendered and classed (among other things) but factoring in these other dimensions still exposes racial inequalities. @NicolaRollock @CarolVincent100
tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…
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A major issue is that the school curriculum is evidently exclusionary, denigrating and erasing the histories and perspectives of ethnic minorities while the PREVENT agenda specifically targets - and others - Muslims. @amna_kaleem
journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.11…
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It's a cultural issue, too: the teaching profession is predominantly white, and as a corollary, Black children are more likely to be excluded/punished more severely at school than their white counterparts.
tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…
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The recruitment of BAME teachers has been a priority, but it is difficult when a) the school system treats those people with disdain and b) undertaking teacher training and then being a teacher is harder for them.
tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.108…
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These issues in education then transfer into university admissions - and not simply because of the uneven distribution of grades between ethnic groups - the ‘top’ universities are also the most racially exclusive. @VikkiBoliver
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00…
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Then there is an 'attainment' (i.e. awarding) gap, where BAME students aren’t enabled to do as well due to systemic, curricular and other everyday racisms which reduce their capacity to engage fully with their student experience. @L_Bunce @NabeelaTalib
tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…
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This is certainly not helped by the fact that support services – including mental health support – are often not well set up to understand BAME students’ experiences; this is a fault in the system, not those students 'deficits'.
mdpi.com/2076-0760/7/10…
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Racism is endemic in the labour market, and even those from ethnic minorities who attend the ‘best’ universities have a disadvantage relative to their white counterparts from those unis. @DrLaurenceLP @VikkiBoliver
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/14…
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For those who want to progress to doctoral study, the fact that scholarships are largely located in (whiter) ‘top’ unis makes accessing (and graduating from) doctorates more difficult for BAME students.
tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…
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If they do get a doctorate and then find jobs post-PhD, BAME Drs are at the sharpest end of the dire situation facing ECRs, being more likely to be in fixed term, temporary contracts than their white counterparts. @KalwantBhopal @HendersonHollyC
birmingham.ac.uk/Documents/coll…
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Within the university the workforce, systemic and everyday racisms make what is already a difficult job more difficult than it should be.
tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…
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Thus progression through the ranks - which is also heavily classed and gendered - make it very difficult for BAME staff to progress to senior leadership positions. The UK professoriate and leadership is therefore overwhelmingly white. @KalwantBhopal
tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.108…
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Perhaps it’s no wonder that the (university) policy system doesn’t take race issues seriously – even if there is policy specifically on race - it doesn’t go far enough, imposing superficial and incomplete systems for equality. @KalwantBhopal
tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.108…
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Alongside things like the Race Equality Charter, more bottom up approaches like decolonising can place heavier workloads on BAME staff (while their white colleagues instrumentalise that work to further their own careers). @PhD_NDoharty @mannymadriaga
tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…
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UK HE is institutionally racist. We need to do much, much better.

Apologies to scholars whose work has been mentioned but who've not tagged (couldn't find you). Also the emphasis has been for journals for easy access. Feel free to add names and literature to this thread.
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