Month: July 2023

Witness: unconscious bias

I do agree with Josephine Kwhali when she discusses the “unconscious bias” being used a free out jail card. Racism and issues around bias have been discussed for far too long for people to use ignorance as an excuse. The discourse that people still need to be educated and called out is somehow quite convenient for the perpetrators of the status quo. It really brings back the question of ‘educated by whom?’ by the same people that already feel oppressed, pretered and having to prove their abilities twice as hard? Not very fair and just another way of maintaining the inequalities without being called out.

https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/knowledge-hub/retention-and-attainment-disciplines-art-and-design

After reading some SON passages, I started questioning my place in talking about race with students. Is it my place to bring this conversation when the context of my teaching practice does not touch on the subject of race or minorities? Science is quite controversially racist with many problematic moments of eugenistic points of view, but aside from ALL THAT, science in its core of experimentation and questioning is rather democratic. When a student comes to observe a plant or a microbe on the microscope we start dealing with the interspecies relationships and not human interactions. When we talk about working with DNA or experiment with chemistry, we are not looking into one’s skin colour or cultural background.

Perhaps is not up to me to bring race in the teaching practice but to think about it when creating a space where students feel welcome and heard. Where they won’t feel they don’t belong or they need to prove themselves to be heard, which should apply for any space within the University and beyond. Of course, that does not mean that I wish to wash my hands and step away from the subject, I’m just weary of my place and limitations and don’t want to shoe horn subjects in the wrong place and time. Perhaps I need to reflect further on how to make people feel welcome and how can I contribute to decrease the amount of drop-outs and all those worrying statistics that were brought up.

I, myself, grew up as white/mixed Brazilian and soon after moving to the UK found out that I’m indeed not white, I’m Latina (apparently). I always knew that I have the most wonderful mix of bloods within my family, Brazilian indigenous, black, European white, Brazilian white. Here in the UK I’m mixed race (other). Then I get questioned about which mix, if Caribbean or Asian. None. I’m none of that. Should I go back being just white even though I know I don’t pass as one? It’s a weird set of boxes that we are forced to fill and although the statistics are important and the questions need answering, when we don’t have enough boxes to fill, we become no one or inflate the wrong numbers.

Maybe my place of rediscovering my own race based on the eyes of others (this country in this context) can be a starting point to exercise the empathy with our diverse body of students. The difference between how we see ourselves and how that changes based on the environment we are it, can be the parallel I need to explore this subject in the context of science and nature.

• Comments found on:
  • https://mira.myblog.arts.ac.uk/2023/07/14/inclusive-practices-race/
  • https://relearning.myblog.arts.ac.uk/2023/05/29/decolonising-the-university/
  • https://anz2023.myblog.arts.ac.uk/2023/07/16/blog-3-race/

I do approach this task with initial apprehension and questioning where religion feature in my practice and workshop. In my experience with religious discourse, I associate it with quite negative connotations and oppressive history. It doesn’t sit well with me, the rebranding of religion without acknowledgment of the scars religious practices left in countries, communities, and people’s lives.

Not to say that is up to me to approve or not of religious practices and I truly believe in personal choices and freedom. What bothers me is how some religious groups consider themselves as having a free ticket to judge and point rules for all to follow. The sense of entitlement comes from a history that had for too long put religion above all.

As a scientist that runs science workshops in a laboratory, I have very little experience with dealing with religion. However, I do understand that some religious beliefs go against some core concepts of science and that might drive some students away. It is not up to me to force science onto the students work and they are free to come and learn as they see fit, it’s up to them whether they will go against some core beliefs to apply science or not, and not the other way around.

I always had the impression that most of our students come from a secular background or don’t bring their religion to their practices. However, Mark Dean pointed out some interesting statistics from CSM students where 50% of respondents claim to have religious beliefs regardless of that being an ongoing practice. This belief, as he reiterates, can come from following a structured religion or just a belief in some sort of spiritual life, not necessarily engaged with a set of rules and traditions. I question if part of belief in spirituality in a response to the fear of the after-life embedded in our culture by traditional regions, but it is not up to me to argue that.

Kwame interestingly points out that religion is not only a matter of beliefs, but also community and cultural backgrounds. One can belong to a community without believing in God or one can believe in scriptures without understanding them. I can resonate with this in my work as I don’t want students to approach their learning with blind faith in the subject or reading material. Critical thinking is important whether in science or religion, nothing should go unquestioned. Making sure the students understand the premises, limitations, and the scope of what is being thought is important. The freedom to question and challenge premises is the outcome I desire.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07z43ds

https://shadesofnoir.org.uk/journals/higher-power-religion-faith-spirituality-belief/

http://www.tariqmodood.com/uploads/1/2/3/9/12392325/6379_lfhe_stimulus_paper_-_modood_calhoun_32pp.pdf

Comments can be found on: https://relearning.myblog.arts.ac.uk/2023/05/29/learning-to-create-space-for-dialogue-and-understanding/