Why are inclusive partnerships necessary for racial equality?

The number of BAME students is rising and will continue to grow over the next decade. BAME student participation in further education is currently at 30% of a 2.2 million cohort, alongside an overall UK BAME population of 14%. A striking trend, and were it any other group in any other kind of situation it would be attracting interest and resources and be hailed as a remarkable and progressive step forward. Which it is, of course! 

Typically, the presence of BAME students and staff is greater in the cities and urban conurbations. In smaller cities and towns, where the population density is less than in these areas, issues of poor attainment levels and low participation are significant.

But just how ready are we to embrace BAME students’ needs and enable an ‘equitable’ presence? The answer most probably is no, we are not! A ground-breaking recent piece of work by the Black Further Education Leadership Group generated a set of recommendations for educationalists and government aimed at eradicating racism from the education system.  Covering matters such as curriculum, culture, climate, and communications, it seeks to create a learning environment for BAME students that is inclusive and representative of the communities from which they are drawn. Taking inspiration from this starting point, it’s important to think about how we make our aspirations for equality a reality. 

Over the years we have shrunk away, if not flinched, from building understanding and seeking engagement with communities that are on the margins, and as a consequence suffer reduced access to public services in general, not just further education. 

The post-16 education sector often generates excellent examples of partnership work in such things as developing good practice in safeguarding issues through a multi-agency approach, pooling intelligence and resources between providers and other sectors and agencies. This is the very same strategy and model that we should be deploying to bring about the desired equality in learning for BAME students.

 In my view, this work starts with the curriculum. Staff, students, and leaders across FE need to influence the awarding bodies to ensure that subject specifications resonate with BAME students’ life experiences. For example, in Health and Social Studies, care for the elderly within joint household family structures is rarely mentioned.

 If one moves through the curriculum offer other issues become apparent, such as dealing with racial stereotypes in the teaching of history and literature; the diverse micro-economic systems operating within communities; the lack of appreciation of diverse cultures within art and music; awareness of the invention of the first ciphered numeral system, or the multi-racial contribution in developing the founding concepts of astronomy and physics, and so on. 

We might argue that teachers have a choice to integrate this already under the guise of the ‘equality and diversity’ agenda, but it isn’t sufficient if the learning of it is optional – it needs to be essential knowledge for all students who will be taking leading roles in serving multi-cultural communities in their future employment.  

We often see celebration of ‘other’ cultures in our colleges representing various BAME groups, mainly driven by staff and students, flying the flag of heritage and identity. This is commendable, and often illuminating and enjoyable. But the real test is to bring elements of other cultures into the curriculum and enrichment activities, even if BAME presence is quite low or next to none.

 In order for us to create tolerant and respectful communities, the positive contributions made by BAME communities in terms of their intellectual, cultural and artistic heritage need to be made explicit. For example, the use of ‘mbira’, ‘sitar’ or ‘tabla’ in musicals and performances doesn’t have to be on the fringes or presented as exotic! 

In the FE world, we place a great deal of importance on student voice. Students are central in the shaping and modifying of our policies and behaviours through constructive feedback.

 I reflect often on whether BAME representation is sufficient, constant and regular in our colleges and how we can avoid token representation. My college spans two sites, both accommodating some 20% students from BAME communities. We are setting up Race Equality Councils on both sites, run by students, to critically analyse three primary aspects of our work: curriculum offer, enrichment programmes, and the college’s policy and practice in enabling equality of opportunity for BAME students, thereby helping us to address the inequalities articulated in the ‘Ten Points’. This aspect of work particularly will help to grow the number of future BAME governors and trustees, who will see shaping FE as a moral responsibility because they felt rooted in the foundations of their learning institution when they were students.

The further partnership that we need to strengthen is with the local authorities, boroughs, and shires; dealings with children and social services often highlight the level of ignorance on family structures, prevalence of stereotypes and reluctance to ask questions with a fear of allegations of racism. 

May I pause for a moment and let me take you to the 90s and noughties where we faced similar challenges of social exclusion, low educational attainment, and economic deprivation in North East. A number of regeneration projects for BAME communities were developed to raise educational attainment and literacy skills to enhance work chances for families and young people. A strong partnership was put together to work in Stockton-on- Tees between the Workers Educational Association, local authorities, and the third sector to improve English language skills, offer interpretation service to assist access to public services, and most of all offer education, training and enterprise opportunities. 

Stockton as a town has been a settlement since medieval times (and has a claim to fame as having the widest high street in England with an ancient market); its prosperity and development was shared with its neighbour, Middlesbrough, with the advent of the steel industry. Its BAME communities arrived in the 1950s and now form some 8% of the population. The decline of industry made the town one of the poorest in the 80s and 90s. This had a major impact on BAME communities, many of whom worked in these heavy industries.

The purpose of this project, Everyday Language Solutions, was to establish a community business that could offer advocacy and translation services, create access to higher education, offer debt and welfare advice to families, promote family learning through reading and writing programmes, encapsulate community history by asking local BAME members to participate in creative writing, and work with sixth forms, Durham University and FE providers to promote higher education and increase the overall participation rates of BAME people in education. 

You wouldn’t be surprised to know that this programme was short-lived. It stopped around 2001 and funding cuts decimated such developments; the impact therefore was short-lived too. The moral of this story is that efforts, interventions, and policy change cannot be short term; our aspiration needs to be to make our work in pursuit of equality part of mainstream services. Over the last two decades, my work in race equality with police and other public services has taught me that exclusion is not the problem of the excluded, but of the one who excludes. 

Asma Shaffi is principal at Prior Pursglove and Stockton Sixth Form College.