Tuesday, 29 November 2011
Project Officer - Race On The Agenda
The project officer will lead and fully manage “Through the Generations” in partnership with the Tamil Community Centre (Hounslow) to conserve the multi-dimensional narratives of Tamil life and its impact in west London. The project manager will carry out an intergenerational oral history and research project which will involve the management of volunteers, data collection, social media and the production of a book. The project manager will undertake all duties and responsibilities within the context of ROTA's Equal opportunities policy.
Conference - Social exclusion in BME and migrant communities - How is the UK meeting its European obligations?
Black Voices Network steering group member is speaking at this event on 1 December in London. For more info, click here.
A studentship offer with Queen Mary Centre for Research in Equality and Diversity
This studentship offers an exciting opportunity for a suitably qualified candidate to work on a live equality and diversity project with Queen Mary's Planning Unit. Over the period 2012-2014 Queen Mary will be undertaking substantial Equality Impact analysis work as part of its preparations for the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2014 exercise. The PhD will both investigate and contribute to this important project. Closing date for applications - 27 Jan 2012
Meeting with Department for Education about EYFS
On Friday 7th October 2011, Patrice Lawrence, Haki Kapasi, Anita Bey and Meryl Shepherd all Black Voice Network (BVN) steering group members met two representatives from the Department for Education (DFE) to contribute our views on the revised Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) consultation.
The meeting was scheduled to last one and a half-hours. From the BVN perspective one of our long-term aims was achieved in that the DFE requested a meeting with us in response to our written consultation comments and a previous meeting we had contributed to during the consultation period earlier in the summer. The meeting followed a DFE format with a prepared list of six questions that we were given in advance to comment upon. Our response was to answer these questions as fully as possible but our priority was the BVN agenda which differed somewhat.
Having asked why we were invited to the meeting, the response was that they were hoping for our perspectives on children with English as an additional language which is clearly where they felt our strengths lay. It was suggested to them that though we spoke as the BVN, we and all of our members were not only multidisciplinary in our work, but offer a wealth of personal and individual, professional expertise that included but did not limit us to, the concerns of children and families with EAL skills. We pointed out that until national, regional, meetings, conferences, committees and quangos visibly included and represented a range of people like us, very little was likely to change.
We also discussed BVN members reporting similar experiences across the country of usually being the sole, visible, person of colour at most events and suggested that the very meeting we were in was unusual in that it included people like us. This was a good model to take forward. We ensured that they understood that our strengths and skills were our network as well as our blackness and that within our membership there are many voices that needed to be heard.
The meeting was amicable and we felt that our voices and views were noted. Whether or not we will be called upon again, given the fact that we hijacked their agenda remains to be seen. We look forward to future agencies approaching us to gain a range of black voices perspectives so as to contribute to the ongoing debates that we know take place regularly and that we are so often sidelined in.
Meryl Shepherd. October 2011
'Race', adoption and child protection #2
How far do we accommodate different child-rearing practices? What is 'right' and what is 'wrong'?
A nurse has been jailed for three years for killing her baby by force-feeding her in the first case of its kind in Britain. She argued that she fed her child in the same that her mother fed her and her siblings in Ghana. It certainly seems highly unlikely that she intended the child harm.
The local authority's child protection responsibilities were questioned. It was noted that although the baby was taken to see doctors, she was not on the “at risk” register.
However, as noted by Dr Liz Davies, Reader in child protection, London Metropolitan University, Diamond, the baby, was born in mid-2009,more than a year after the child protection register had been abolished – so there was no register for her name to be on. After April 2008, vulnerable and abused children no longer gained the protection that was so effectively afforded by the specialist and high-status multi-agency protocol.
Davies says “Professor Eileen Munro, in her recent review of child protection, saw no need to recommend the introduction of a national “signposting” service. However, Waltham Forest Local Safeguarding Children Board, in the serious case review relating to the death of Diamond, quite rightly recommend that Munro should revisit child protection protocols and their impact on the quality of investigation and risk assessment. The return of the child protection register should have been a a clear priority of the Munro review. If Diamond’s name had been on the child protection register, professionals would have been working within a strict formal process tried and tested over many years, and this may well have saved her life.
Hopefully, that 'strict formal process' includes understanding different child-rearing practices and having the knowledge and confidence to discuss the impact on the children with the parents.
'Race', child protection and child adoption #1
Hi folks,
This is a follow-up from the post in early November about adoption and child protection. Savita de Souza is one of our National Black Voices Network steering group members and leads on policy for black and minority ethnic communities at the British Association of Adoption and Fostering (BAAF). Savita recently took part in a live debate on adoption, fostering and transcultural placements on OHTV. I'm hoping that they will stream the programme on their website - I'll let you know if they do.
Back to the earlier discussions about adoption. BAAF released a statement earlier this year, with the following view around ethnicity:-
The policy of matching children with adopters who can support and promote their ethnic, cultural and religious identity has largely been successful. However, there are serious current issues about both delay and children not being placed and these do need to be addressed. BAAF is preparing new practice guidance on ethnic matching and adoption. These issues lend themselves to strong views especially within a context of racism on the one hand and changes in perspectives on the meaning and significance of ethnicity, culture and religion on the other.
This is a follow-up from the post in early November about adoption and child protection. Savita de Souza is one of our National Black Voices Network steering group members and leads on policy for black and minority ethnic communities at the British Association of Adoption and Fostering (BAAF). Savita recently took part in a live debate on adoption, fostering and transcultural placements on OHTV. I'm hoping that they will stream the programme on their website - I'll let you know if they do.
Back to the earlier discussions about adoption. BAAF released a statement earlier this year, with the following view around ethnicity:-
The policy of matching children with adopters who can support and promote their ethnic, cultural and religious identity has largely been successful. However, there are serious current issues about both delay and children not being placed and these do need to be addressed. BAAF is preparing new practice guidance on ethnic matching and adoption. These issues lend themselves to strong views especially within a context of racism on the one hand and changes in perspectives on the meaning and significance of ethnicity, culture and religion on the other.
Savita also pointed me to this article in the Guardian, which, I think offers a an honest and considered view of issues impacting on adoption of black and other minority ethnic children and by black and other minority ethnic people.
An alternative, less nuanced view is offered by Ben Douglas of the Daily Mail.
Issues around adoption and ethnicity/culture were referred to in a House of Commons debate on adoption earlier this month. Unfortunately, personal anecdote passes for any sophisticated analysis or discussion on why culture and ethnicity are considered important. Lee jasper offers black perspective on the Operation Black Vote (OBV) website, but the comments beneath show how deep feelings run about issues of identity, 'race' and cultural identity.
Racism in the news
Well - if there was ever a time for issues of 'race' and racism to be discussed in staff rooms and by water coolers, now would be the time. These are the conversations young children are hearing - these are the conversations those that work with them are having.
Let's start with the populist. Dig around the reality fora and Misha B will pop out. Some argue that she is too 'black' to be popular - a certain amount of stereotyping, not helped by judges' comments and a feistiness not appreciated by the voting public. Even Operation Black Vote has waded in, encouraging readers to vote for her. (Past form suggests that she'd be better off not winning - it hasn't harmed JLS or One Direction, if you're into that sort of thing...) Perhaps Louis feels uncomfortable urging the 'black' vote, the same way he calls for the Irish one. And that from a man who displayed his unique sensitivity by comparing a black male singer to a 'young Lenny Henry'.
But, whatever those of us who guiltily succumb to the shallow pleasures of X-Factor think, it shows that we are not a 'post-racial' society; we still have great difficult articulating how skin colour and racial identity shapes our perception of each other and, reading the comments on the Guardian X-Factor blog (gosh, I never thought I'd ever write those words) anyone who tries to introduce a sensible discussion on racial stereotyping will be told they don't have a sense of humour.
Next up, Sepp Blatter. I'm surprised out telly didn't explode with the fizzing indignation and choice words directed at it after the 'let's just shake hands after a racist comment' debacle.
Interestingly, racism in football taught me that talking about 'race' is wrong. I once was having a great conversation with a guy on a high speed train from Newcastle, in the 90s. I was a Liverpool supporter and used to play in a local women's team (badly). I mentioned that I'd had to turn off a Man City v Newcastle match because of the abuse the Newcastle fans were giving the black player, Danny Wallace. The bloke stopped the conversation and refused to talk to me for the rest of the journey. I suppose I was saved the indignity of an awkward date, but still.
The positive side of the Sepp Blether fallout was the way that the English football community, black and white, responded. It has taken 30 years, or so, to create an environment that is abuse-free for black players AND black fans. People of all colours didn't want to lose that. It was a pity that other countries seemed less bothered.
Talking of abuse - currently doing the rounds is the video of a woman with a small child on her lap racially abusing passengers on a tram in south London. It has taken over as the Twitter video of choice after the dog chasing deer in Richmond park.
I haven't watched and won't. Like many black people, I've had the real thing. A friend once told me that she walked into the Newcastle metro (sorry, Newcastle, I'm really not picking on you) and the carriage burst into 'there ain't no black in the Union Jack'. Funnily enough, a 6-year-old kid sang the same refrain to me on a train from Brighton. His parents were most embarrassed.
Last year, I was coming home on a bus through Islington at about 5pm. I was sitting at the rear, facing the back window, deep in my book. I gradually became aware of a monologue containing some rather unpleasant words. An older white guy was directing a racist tirade at a young, Asian guy, who was sitting hunched into his headphones trying to ignore him.
It was shocking - not least because most of the passengers were black. The passengers alerted the driver, who simply stopped his bus at the next stop, turned off the engine and waited by the front door until the racist realised his journey was over.
It was one of those times, though, I really wished I had done 'something'. Should I have alerted the driver? Should I have said something supportive to the victim? I understand that some of the passengers in the tram incident did intervene.
When it happened to me in the 80s and 90s, nobody did - so I am optimistic for change!
Not sure where to start with the racism rows? Try Show Racism the Red Card.
Let's start with the populist. Dig around the reality fora and Misha B will pop out. Some argue that she is too 'black' to be popular - a certain amount of stereotyping, not helped by judges' comments and a feistiness not appreciated by the voting public. Even Operation Black Vote has waded in, encouraging readers to vote for her. (Past form suggests that she'd be better off not winning - it hasn't harmed JLS or One Direction, if you're into that sort of thing...) Perhaps Louis feels uncomfortable urging the 'black' vote, the same way he calls for the Irish one. And that from a man who displayed his unique sensitivity by comparing a black male singer to a 'young Lenny Henry'.
But, whatever those of us who guiltily succumb to the shallow pleasures of X-Factor think, it shows that we are not a 'post-racial' society; we still have great difficult articulating how skin colour and racial identity shapes our perception of each other and, reading the comments on the Guardian X-Factor blog (gosh, I never thought I'd ever write those words) anyone who tries to introduce a sensible discussion on racial stereotyping will be told they don't have a sense of humour.
Next up, Sepp Blatter. I'm surprised out telly didn't explode with the fizzing indignation and choice words directed at it after the 'let's just shake hands after a racist comment' debacle.
Interestingly, racism in football taught me that talking about 'race' is wrong. I once was having a great conversation with a guy on a high speed train from Newcastle, in the 90s. I was a Liverpool supporter and used to play in a local women's team (badly). I mentioned that I'd had to turn off a Man City v Newcastle match because of the abuse the Newcastle fans were giving the black player, Danny Wallace. The bloke stopped the conversation and refused to talk to me for the rest of the journey. I suppose I was saved the indignity of an awkward date, but still.
The positive side of the Sepp Blether fallout was the way that the English football community, black and white, responded. It has taken 30 years, or so, to create an environment that is abuse-free for black players AND black fans. People of all colours didn't want to lose that. It was a pity that other countries seemed less bothered.
Talking of abuse - currently doing the rounds is the video of a woman with a small child on her lap racially abusing passengers on a tram in south London. It has taken over as the Twitter video of choice after the dog chasing deer in Richmond park.
I haven't watched and won't. Like many black people, I've had the real thing. A friend once told me that she walked into the Newcastle metro (sorry, Newcastle, I'm really not picking on you) and the carriage burst into 'there ain't no black in the Union Jack'. Funnily enough, a 6-year-old kid sang the same refrain to me on a train from Brighton. His parents were most embarrassed.
Last year, I was coming home on a bus through Islington at about 5pm. I was sitting at the rear, facing the back window, deep in my book. I gradually became aware of a monologue containing some rather unpleasant words. An older white guy was directing a racist tirade at a young, Asian guy, who was sitting hunched into his headphones trying to ignore him.
It was shocking - not least because most of the passengers were black. The passengers alerted the driver, who simply stopped his bus at the next stop, turned off the engine and waited by the front door until the racist realised his journey was over.
It was one of those times, though, I really wished I had done 'something'. Should I have alerted the driver? Should I have said something supportive to the victim? I understand that some of the passengers in the tram incident did intervene.
When it happened to me in the 80s and 90s, nobody did - so I am optimistic for change!
Not sure where to start with the racism rows? Try Show Racism the Red Card.
Tuesday, 1 November 2011
A week at the 'races' + events, resources and more golliwogs
It has been one of those weeks, hasn't it?
Yesterday, I was listening to the debate about adoption on the 'Today' programme and was completely dispirited by the 'discussion' on matching children's ethnic identity to families.
I am not against cross-cultural placements - I spent the first four years of my life in what's now called a private fostering placement. The love and security from the family buoyed me along for many years.
However, I find it very frustrating when racial identity is treated as a mere inconvenience, something that local authorities would do best to ignore to meet their targets. The discussion on Radio 4, of course, did not include any looked after or adopted young people, any people who have experienced a cross-cultural placement or, indeed, anybody who wasn't white. It was really poor journalism.
On Sunday, I went to the Deaths in Custody march. I know this is a bit outside our remit here and certainly outside my comfort zone... I haven't come from a background of community activism - there wasn't much of that going on in Mid-Sussex in my youth other than the occasional anti-nuclear march around Molesworth.
The protest was about more than deaths in custody and included families of people who had died while being arrested or been shot by police. Although unexplained deaths in custody have often been highlighted by black activists, the families speaking at the protest came from all backgrounds including the family of Brazilian Charles de Menezes and of white Scottish-born Harry Stanley, who was shot dead in the street when the chair leg he was carrying in a bag was perceived to be a gun. It was a deeply emotional day. Hugh Muir wrote about it in yesterday's Guardian.
Hugh |Muir also delivered the annual NUJ's Claudia Jones Memorial Lecture, last Thursday. He highlighted the recent stand off outside the Sutton shop selling golliwogs. There's an interesting article about this on the Operation Black Vote website. Hannah Pool has also written about the contentious doll.
This is particularly interesting in the early years context. When I was delivering the 'Mummy's Black, Daddy's Yellow, I'm Orange' training course, we deliberately offered a chance to discuss golliwogs. They have been part of the cultural landscape for a very long time, but mainstream discussion about their offensiveness has been relatively recent. Unfortunately, many early years workers had not previously had a chance to talk about and understand why the seemingly benign toy of their youth caused so much ire.
In the Psychoville Hallowe'en special last night, the aesthetically-challenged antique toy expert slept with his beloved golliwog called 'Jamjar'. The toy expert met a sticky end. Was it immature of me to laugh?
Free Event - on 17 November, Roehampton University are hosting a free seminar (Not) Belonging in the Creative World: Challenging HE Exclusions.
Yesterday, I was listening to the debate about adoption on the 'Today' programme and was completely dispirited by the 'discussion' on matching children's ethnic identity to families.
I am not against cross-cultural placements - I spent the first four years of my life in what's now called a private fostering placement. The love and security from the family buoyed me along for many years.
However, I find it very frustrating when racial identity is treated as a mere inconvenience, something that local authorities would do best to ignore to meet their targets. The discussion on Radio 4, of course, did not include any looked after or adopted young people, any people who have experienced a cross-cultural placement or, indeed, anybody who wasn't white. It was really poor journalism.
On Sunday, I went to the Deaths in Custody march. I know this is a bit outside our remit here and certainly outside my comfort zone... I haven't come from a background of community activism - there wasn't much of that going on in Mid-Sussex in my youth other than the occasional anti-nuclear march around Molesworth.
The protest was about more than deaths in custody and included families of people who had died while being arrested or been shot by police. Although unexplained deaths in custody have often been highlighted by black activists, the families speaking at the protest came from all backgrounds including the family of Brazilian Charles de Menezes and of white Scottish-born Harry Stanley, who was shot dead in the street when the chair leg he was carrying in a bag was perceived to be a gun. It was a deeply emotional day. Hugh Muir wrote about it in yesterday's Guardian.
Hugh |Muir also delivered the annual NUJ's Claudia Jones Memorial Lecture, last Thursday. He highlighted the recent stand off outside the Sutton shop selling golliwogs. There's an interesting article about this on the Operation Black Vote website. Hannah Pool has also written about the contentious doll.
This is particularly interesting in the early years context. When I was delivering the 'Mummy's Black, Daddy's Yellow, I'm Orange' training course, we deliberately offered a chance to discuss golliwogs. They have been part of the cultural landscape for a very long time, but mainstream discussion about their offensiveness has been relatively recent. Unfortunately, many early years workers had not previously had a chance to talk about and understand why the seemingly benign toy of their youth caused so much ire.
In the Psychoville Hallowe'en special last night, the aesthetically-challenged antique toy expert slept with his beloved golliwog called 'Jamjar'. The toy expert met a sticky end. Was it immature of me to laugh?
Free Event - on 17 November, Roehampton University are hosting a free seminar (Not) Belonging in the Creative World: Challenging HE Exclusions.
Speakers:
Professor Jocey Quinn, Plymouth University and Dr Kim Allen,
Institute for Policy Studies in Education, London Metropolitan University:
‘The Silence of the Curriculum: equality as an intellectual absence
in Higher Education for arts and culture’
Professor Penny Jane Burke, Roehampton University and Jackie McManus,
University of the Arts, London
‘Art for a Few: Exclusions and Misrecognitions in HE Admissions’
Panellists:
Mark Miller, Tate Britain and Tate Modern
Christine Atha, Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol
Dr Mehri Honarbin-Holliday, artist and writer
Laura Woodroffe, D& AD
Fergal Kilroy, D& AD
Places are free but limited, so please book a place soon to avoid disappointment. To book a place, please email ;Ada Mau (a.mau@roehampton.ac.uk).
Free resource -Hft’s Family Carer Support Service (FCSS) was commissioned by the Valuing People Support Team to develop this resource, to provide a range of information about meeting the needs of families from black and other minority ethnic heritage and seldom heard communities. Access it here.
Thursday, 27 October 2011
The Colored Museum - Review
Last Sunday, I went to a performance of The Colored Museum at the Victoria and Albert Museum, in west London. Unusual for me, I had no expectations, having read no reviews and without actually having any idea what it was about. I also arrived slightly delirious; something to do with cycling from Hackney, and the combination of traffic fumes and terror, topped off with a high impact scone and jam.
As we queued to go into the theatre, I bumped into a friend who had already seen it. She described it as very funny, but also depressing. Not, I was hoping, a black Eastenders.
And it certainly wasn't. An hour and a half later, I couldn't really find my own words to describe it. And for me - that's rare.
The Colored Museum pulls out and pokes African-American stereotypes and archetypes. It is shocking, opening by welcoming us to celebrity slaveship, instructing us how to put on our shackles. We're forbidden from laughing at this stuff, aren't we? It was like hearing your grandmother swear in public - you gasp in shock, but also want to giggle. The hostess also reminds us to substitute 'de' for 'the' should we choose to sing along.
Amongst other 'exhibits', we meet a soldier, resurrected from the dead to put other 'coloured soldiers' out of their future pain. There is a diva reinventing herself to tragedy, the Topsy-like waif who has laid a giant egg and the warring hairpieces, afro-with-attitude versus dramatic and swishy. So yes, it is surreal, as well as shocking. There are moments of extreme sadness as well as moments that I just didn't get.
I was hindered by the fact that is was written in 1985 and focuses on African American experience. The writer, quite rightly, does not want the audience to have an easy time; we are bounced from humour to discomfort within minutes. Most particularly, we are invited to laugh at/with the ultra-camp Miss Roj, resplendent in skintight gold lame and shimmery eye shadow. He flirts with the waiter and jokes about shutting up homophobes, all the while knocking back drinks. Gradually he reveals his utter despair and, of course, we feel ashamed at laughing in the first place.
But time and distance meant I didn't always undertand the points of reference, so I didn't know what I should have been thinking. This was nothing to do with the actors who were superb.
I understood that the work was about a society trying to patch together its psyche after deep-rooted trauma. I also understood that some of this 'patching' was destroying people, through consumerism, alcohol, self-denial and self-hate.
I understood the sum of it - I suppose I just needed a bit more help with the different parts.
As we queued to go into the theatre, I bumped into a friend who had already seen it. She described it as very funny, but also depressing. Not, I was hoping, a black Eastenders.
And it certainly wasn't. An hour and a half later, I couldn't really find my own words to describe it. And for me - that's rare.
The Colored Museum pulls out and pokes African-American stereotypes and archetypes. It is shocking, opening by welcoming us to celebrity slaveship, instructing us how to put on our shackles. We're forbidden from laughing at this stuff, aren't we? It was like hearing your grandmother swear in public - you gasp in shock, but also want to giggle. The hostess also reminds us to substitute 'de' for 'the' should we choose to sing along.
Amongst other 'exhibits', we meet a soldier, resurrected from the dead to put other 'coloured soldiers' out of their future pain. There is a diva reinventing herself to tragedy, the Topsy-like waif who has laid a giant egg and the warring hairpieces, afro-with-attitude versus dramatic and swishy. So yes, it is surreal, as well as shocking. There are moments of extreme sadness as well as moments that I just didn't get.
I was hindered by the fact that is was written in 1985 and focuses on African American experience. The writer, quite rightly, does not want the audience to have an easy time; we are bounced from humour to discomfort within minutes. Most particularly, we are invited to laugh at/with the ultra-camp Miss Roj, resplendent in skintight gold lame and shimmery eye shadow. He flirts with the waiter and jokes about shutting up homophobes, all the while knocking back drinks. Gradually he reveals his utter despair and, of course, we feel ashamed at laughing in the first place.
But time and distance meant I didn't always undertand the points of reference, so I didn't know what I should have been thinking. This was nothing to do with the actors who were superb.
I understood that the work was about a society trying to patch together its psyche after deep-rooted trauma. I also understood that some of this 'patching' was destroying people, through consumerism, alcohol, self-denial and self-hate.
I understood the sum of it - I suppose I just needed a bit more help with the different parts.
Wednesday, 26 October 2011
Job vacancy and events
Community Project Officer - National Archives
Closing date extended to 9 November, the National Archives in Kew are looking for a Community Project Officer for their Caribbean Archives
LiteracyActionNet Awards 2011
There are two categories for this year’s LiteracyActionNet Awards 2011 for work to improve speaking, reading and writing for school children and socially excluded adults and young people. A prize of £1,000 will be awarded for the winners in each category.
Closing date 4 November 2011
Media and the Riots – Big Debate – 26 November 2011 10am to 3pm
London College of Communication, Elephant and Castle, SE1
The Runnymede Trust, a leading race equality charity, has taken over an empty shop and has temporarily converted it into an exciting discussion hub.
Individuals can pop in anytime for a chat over a free cup of tea and slice of cake, or attend one of Runnymede’s planned events.
People can share their views on how to end racism a generation through a number of activities, including:
· Film their own video testimony on their experiences and views of racism
· Watch a documentary made by Runnymede on race equality in Croydon
· Write their own manifestos on how to end racism
· Share their thoughts over a cup of tea in Runnymede’s discussion zone
· Participate in a Q&A session with local politicians (4 November)
· Engage in a discussion on the recent riots (5 November)
Click here for details
Census: consultation on the ‘Beyond 2011 Programme’
On 17 October 2011, the Office for National Statistics launched a consultation as part of the ‘Beyond 2011 Population Statistics Programme’ looking at alternatives to the Census.
The Programme was formally established in April 2011 to investigate and assess alternative options for producing the population and socio-demographic data required by users in England and Wales.
The consultation will provide a first opportunity for users to contribute to the discussion and help inform this important work. It closes on 20 January 2012.
To support the consultation, workshops are planned for the following dates and locations –
· 3 November 2011 – Leeds
· 8 November 2011 – Cardiff
· 14 November 2011 – London – FULLY BOOKED
· 25 November 2011 – London (extra event added)
Individuals wishing to register for one of the workshops are asked to email beyond2011@ons.gov.uk stating the date and location of the preferred workshop and the name of the organisation they represent (if any). Places are limited and will be allocated on a first come first served basis.
Click here for consultation
Click here for details of the Beyond 2011 Population Statistics Programme
Email beyond2011@ons.gov.uk to be kept informed through the Beyond 2011 Programme newsletter (first edition planned for November 2011).
The European Commission published a ‘Compendium of practice on Non-Discrimination/Equality Mainstreaming’ in October 2011.
The Compendium offers guidance on supporting and implementing mainstreaming and sets out a broad range of best-practice examples from different member states.
Click here for link to publication (pdf)
Click here for further European Commission information on tackling discrimination
In October 2011, the TUC published an Equality Duty Toolkit.
The toolkit includes:
· a brief overview of the new equality duty in s.149 of the Equality Act 2010 which requires public authorities and those carrying out public functions to have ‘due regard’ to equality in all that they do
· a section explaining what having ‘due regard’ to equality means in practice, drawing on case law decided under the former race, disability and gender equality duties
· an ‘FAQ’ section
· checklists for union negotiators when dealing with a public authority that is making a decision which will impact on equality and when negotiating implementation of the new duty
· a draft letter which can be adapted and sent to public bodies who are not intending to carry out equality impact assessments.
The TUC has worked with John Halford of Bindman’s solicitors, who has successfully run public duties cases, and Barbara Cohen, independent discrimination law adviser, in developing this toolkit and the TUC thanks them for their contribution.
Click here for details
(This is a free download)
‘Are we there yet?’ is a collection of essays written by progressive conservatives that explores some of central questions around the party’s race agenda. It provides a key insight into whether conservatives really believe that race equality has been achieved or if there is still some way to go. The essays explore the extent to which the complex issues around race in the UK have been addressed and what conservatives would do to resolve them.
Click here for details
In October 2011, the United Nations launched the ‘Let’s Fight Racism’ campaign and website.
The campaign includes downloadable postcards, ways to get involved through Facebook and Twitter, and other resources to help people fight racism.
Click here for website
Do we start off with morals and go backwards?
Haki Kapasi, one of Black Voices Network's founding members and the director of Inspire, brought my attention to an article about the findings of recent research on very young children.
According to Jessica Sommerville at the University of Washington, babies as young as fifteen months are able to distinguish between fairness and unfairness in the uneven distribution of food. She says:-
Our results challenge current models of the development of fairness and altruism in two ways. First, in contrast to past work suggesting that fairness and altruism may not emerge until early to mid-childhood, 15-month-old infants are sensitive to fairness and can engage in altruistic sharing. Second, infants' degree of sensitivity to fairness as a third-party observer was related to whether they shared toys altruistically or selfishly, indicating that moral evaluations and prosocial behavior are heavily interconnected from early in development. Our results present the first evidence that the roots of a basic sense of fairness and altruism can be found in infancy, and that these other-regarding preferences develop in a parallel and interwoven fashion.
For a link to the full article, click here.
I can't help smiling at the thought that children may be born with an innate sense of social justice. Now, what do we have to do to stop them losing it?
According to Jessica Sommerville at the University of Washington, babies as young as fifteen months are able to distinguish between fairness and unfairness in the uneven distribution of food. She says:-
Our results challenge current models of the development of fairness and altruism in two ways. First, in contrast to past work suggesting that fairness and altruism may not emerge until early to mid-childhood, 15-month-old infants are sensitive to fairness and can engage in altruistic sharing. Second, infants' degree of sensitivity to fairness as a third-party observer was related to whether they shared toys altruistically or selfishly, indicating that moral evaluations and prosocial behavior are heavily interconnected from early in development. Our results present the first evidence that the roots of a basic sense of fairness and altruism can be found in infancy, and that these other-regarding preferences develop in a parallel and interwoven fashion.
For a link to the full article, click here.
I can't help smiling at the thought that children may be born with an innate sense of social justice. Now, what do we have to do to stop them losing it?
Wednesday, 19 October 2011
White families, black generations and a female boxer
Last night I went to Black History event in a local, thankfully still-standing library. A storyteller was encouraging us to tell stories based on our own histories.
There were a few of us there from different backgrounds, including one white mother with her small child. At the end of the session, we were encouraged to share small stories about our lives. The white mother sat her child on her knee and the two of them told us a wonderful, obviously well-loved story about her Bajan grandfather who went AWOL from military duty in Hull, so he could have a sandwich.
It was a story that had been passed down through generations, connecting the young child to his Caribbean roots. Oral history at its best.
Of course, I also smiled at the assumptions we often make about people just by sight. I still hear tales of early years managers reluctant to understand how racism works, or to promote positive attitudes to people of different backgrounds, because no visible minority ethnic families attend. I won't waste blood pressure challenging that particular excuse at this moment, but I do wonder how many family trees are more diverse than appears on the surface.
People of Caribbean backgrounds often expect to find some European heritage - our histories left us no choice. But white families also find unexpected black relatives. The Guardian journalist Phil Hogan was surprised (and then surprised at his surprise) to find that his great-grandfather was an itinerant Antiguan musician. He invested considerable time and money trying to find more details.
A similar moment crops up in the Runnymede Trust's first fictional film 'Clench - What are you fighting for?' Filmed at the iconic - well, iconic if you're a Smiths fan - Salford Lads Club, 'Clench' is part of Runnymede's 3.0 Project, aiming to end racism in a generation.
A young woman of Pakistani and white heritage opts to learn boxing as part of a community rehab programme. The film touches on issues from overt racism to insidious stereotyping, including between different racialised groups. Does that make the film sound ponderous and heavy? I enjoyed it and it could be a really good resource to kick off discussions about racism as long as you don't mind some pretty realistic language.
There were a few of us there from different backgrounds, including one white mother with her small child. At the end of the session, we were encouraged to share small stories about our lives. The white mother sat her child on her knee and the two of them told us a wonderful, obviously well-loved story about her Bajan grandfather who went AWOL from military duty in Hull, so he could have a sandwich.
It was a story that had been passed down through generations, connecting the young child to his Caribbean roots. Oral history at its best.
Of course, I also smiled at the assumptions we often make about people just by sight. I still hear tales of early years managers reluctant to understand how racism works, or to promote positive attitudes to people of different backgrounds, because no visible minority ethnic families attend. I won't waste blood pressure challenging that particular excuse at this moment, but I do wonder how many family trees are more diverse than appears on the surface.
People of Caribbean backgrounds often expect to find some European heritage - our histories left us no choice. But white families also find unexpected black relatives. The Guardian journalist Phil Hogan was surprised (and then surprised at his surprise) to find that his great-grandfather was an itinerant Antiguan musician. He invested considerable time and money trying to find more details.
A similar moment crops up in the Runnymede Trust's first fictional film 'Clench - What are you fighting for?' Filmed at the iconic - well, iconic if you're a Smiths fan - Salford Lads Club, 'Clench' is part of Runnymede's 3.0 Project, aiming to end racism in a generation.
A young woman of Pakistani and white heritage opts to learn boxing as part of a community rehab programme. The film touches on issues from overt racism to insidious stereotyping, including between different racialised groups. Does that make the film sound ponderous and heavy? I enjoyed it and it could be a really good resource to kick off discussions about racism as long as you don't mind some pretty realistic language.
Monday, 10 October 2011
Urban classroom culture and early childhood development
URBAN CLASSROOM CULTURE - Realities, dilemmas, responses
This book by Roxy Harris and Adam Lefstein draws on a 3 year ethnographic research project (2005-2008) in a London comprehensive School, funded by the Economic & Social Research Council.
It is a publication for teachers, designed to encourage discussion and analysis of the
realities and dilemmas of classroom life in contemporary urban comprehensive
schools; and the possibilities for workable responses.
Central to the book is a series of transcripts and audio recordings of interactions between teachers and students in classrooms. The recordings are included on an accompanying DVD. The publication is planned for use in Continuing Professional Development and Initial Teacher Training contexts.
For details of the findings see - http://www.open.ac.uk/socialsciences/identities/findings/Rampton.pdf
Order your copy by sending a cheque made out to ‘King’s College London’ –
@ £6.00 per copy for postage, packaging and administration, to Dr Roxy Harris, Dept of Education and Professional Studies, School of Social Science and Public Policy, King’s College London, Franklin-Wilkins Building (WBW), Waterloo Road, London SE1 9NN.
THE LANCET has published a series of articles about early childhood development in 'low-income and middle-income' countries. Access to the full articles are free, once you register.
Inequality in early childhood: risk and protective factors for early child development
'Inequality between and within populations has origins in adverse early experiences. Developmental neuroscience shows how early biological and psychosocial experiences affect brain development. We previously identified inadequate cognitive stimulation, stunting, iodine deficiency, and iron-deficiency anaemia as key risks that prevent millions of young children from attaining their developmental potential. Recent research emphasises the importance of these risks, strengthens the evidence for other risk factors including intrauterine growth restriction, malaria, lead exposure, HIV infection, maternal depression, institutionalisation, and exposure to societal violence, and identifies protective factors such as breastfeeding and maternal education. Evidence on risks resulting from prenatal maternal nutrition, maternal stress, and families affected with HIV is emerging. Interventions are urgently needed to reduce children's risk exposure and to promote development in affected children. Our goal is to provide information to help the setting of priorities for early child development programmes and policies to benefit the world's poorest children and reduce persistent inequalities.'
Strategies to avoid the loss of developmental potential in more than 200 million children in the developing world
'This paper assesses strategies to promote child development and to prevent or ameliorate the loss of developmental potential. The most effective early child development programmes provide direct learning experiences to children and families, are targeted toward younger and disadvantaged children, are of longer duration, high quality, and high intensity, and are integrated with family support, health, nutrition, or educational systems and services. Despite convincing evidence, programme coverage is low. To achieve the Millennium Development Goals of reducing poverty and ensuring primary school completion for both girls and boys, governments and civil society should consider expanding high quality, cost-effective early child development programmes.'
For further information, see http://www.thelancet.com/series/child-development-in-developing-countries-2
This book by Roxy Harris and Adam Lefstein draws on a 3 year ethnographic research project (2005-2008) in a London comprehensive School, funded by the Economic & Social Research Council.
It is a publication for teachers, designed to encourage discussion and analysis of the
realities and dilemmas of classroom life in contemporary urban comprehensive
schools; and the possibilities for workable responses.
Central to the book is a series of transcripts and audio recordings of interactions between teachers and students in classrooms. The recordings are included on an accompanying DVD. The publication is planned for use in Continuing Professional Development and Initial Teacher Training contexts.
For details of the findings see - http://www.open.ac.uk/socialsciences/identities/findings/Rampton.pdf
Order your copy by sending a cheque made out to ‘King’s College London’ –
@ £6.00 per copy for postage, packaging and administration, to Dr Roxy Harris, Dept of Education and Professional Studies, School of Social Science and Public Policy, King’s College London, Franklin-Wilkins Building (WBW), Waterloo Road, London SE1 9NN.
THE LANCET has published a series of articles about early childhood development in 'low-income and middle-income' countries. Access to the full articles are free, once you register.
Inequality in early childhood: risk and protective factors for early child development
'Inequality between and within populations has origins in adverse early experiences. Developmental neuroscience shows how early biological and psychosocial experiences affect brain development. We previously identified inadequate cognitive stimulation, stunting, iodine deficiency, and iron-deficiency anaemia as key risks that prevent millions of young children from attaining their developmental potential. Recent research emphasises the importance of these risks, strengthens the evidence for other risk factors including intrauterine growth restriction, malaria, lead exposure, HIV infection, maternal depression, institutionalisation, and exposure to societal violence, and identifies protective factors such as breastfeeding and maternal education. Evidence on risks resulting from prenatal maternal nutrition, maternal stress, and families affected with HIV is emerging. Interventions are urgently needed to reduce children's risk exposure and to promote development in affected children. Our goal is to provide information to help the setting of priorities for early child development programmes and policies to benefit the world's poorest children and reduce persistent inequalities.'
Strategies to avoid the loss of developmental potential in more than 200 million children in the developing world
'This paper assesses strategies to promote child development and to prevent or ameliorate the loss of developmental potential. The most effective early child development programmes provide direct learning experiences to children and families, are targeted toward younger and disadvantaged children, are of longer duration, high quality, and high intensity, and are integrated with family support, health, nutrition, or educational systems and services. Despite convincing evidence, programme coverage is low. To achieve the Millennium Development Goals of reducing poverty and ensuring primary school completion for both girls and boys, governments and civil society should consider expanding high quality, cost-effective early child development programmes.'
For further information, see http://www.thelancet.com/series/child-development-in-developing-countries-2
Wednesday, 5 October 2011
Dark and lovely -
Or not.
One hopes that LSE 'social scientist' Dr Satoshi Kanazawa is not currently sniggering into his copy of Psychology Today. See today's Guardian. For once a few decent comments as well.
One hopes that LSE 'social scientist' Dr Satoshi Kanazawa is not currently sniggering into his copy of Psychology Today. See today's Guardian. For once a few decent comments as well.
Racism and skin colour: the many shades of prejudice
Deeply entrenched attitudes towards colour, and the increasing promotion of skin-lightening products, are placing a 'horrible burden' on dark-skinned women
'Dress witches in pink' - Challenging media bias
"With skillful manipulating of the press, they're able to make the victim look like the criminal, and the criminal look like the victim..
One of the shrewd ways that they use the press to project us in the eye or image of a criminal: they take statistics. And with the press they feed these statistics to the public.. ...at the local level, they'll create an image by feeding statistics to the press--through the press showing the high crime rate in the Negro community. As soon as this high crime rate is emphasized through the press, then people begin to look upon the Negro community as a community of criminals. And then any Negro in the community can be stopped in the street.
"Put your hands up," and they pat you down. You might be a doctor, a lawyer, a preacher, or some other kind of Uncle Tom. But despite your professional standing, you'll find that you're the same victim as the man who's in the alley."
Malcolm X, extracts from speech made in February 1965. Researched by Ahmed Sule, taken from Black History Walks newsletter
The 'Telegraph' recently ran one of its deliberately sensationally-named and undeniably biased articles about antiracism in early years education.
Dress witches in pink and avoid white paper to prevent racism in nurseries, expert says
You just know that the journalist, Julie Henry, would prefer to be writing in green ink. The article is the usual misintrepretation of anti-racist practice, quoting Margaret Morrisey, who appears to be on the journalist's speed-dial for these matters. It's heartwarming to see the 'Baa Baa Black Sheep'myth regurgitated, even if spelt incorrectly.
'Margaret Morrissey, a spokeswoman for the Parents Outloud campaigning group disagrees. She said: “I’m sure these early years experts know their field but they seem to be obsessed about colour and determined to make everyone else obsessed about it too.
“Not allowing toy witches to wear black seems to me nonsense and in the same vein as those people who have a problem with 'Bar Bar Black Sheep’ or 'The Three Little Pigs’.
Children just see a sheep in a field, whether it be black, grey, white or beige. I have worked with children for 41 years and I don’t believe I have ever met a two year old who was in any way racist or prejudice.”'
Media bias is a troublesome and enduring foe. I've recently been looking into the life of Claude McKay, a Jamaican poet and revolutionary, who worked along side Sylvia Pankhurst in early 20th century London. He tried to take on the the British labour movement's newspaper, the 'Daily Herald', whose editor endorsed the most objectionable views about France's use of African troops in Germany :-
'The African race is the most developed sexually of any. These levies are recruited from tribes in a primitive state of development... Sexually they are unrestrained and unrestrainable.'
In short, the paper asserted, completely without evidence, that the black soldiers were rapists and all white women and girls in Germany were at risk. McKay embroiled himself in a big row trying to challenge this, finding few alliances, other that Sylvia Pankhurst, to support him.
Jump forward nearly a hundred years to modern day USA. The Diversity in Media Institute has published a case study highlighting the media's negative bias against Islam, using Park51 as an example. The Muslim community centre, including a fitness centre, a culinary school, a September 11 Memorial and a book store, received approval to be built a couple of blocks away from the World Trade Center site in New York. Conservative bloggers affiliated with “Stop Islamization of America,” launched a campaign against the project, renaming it the "Ground Zero Mosque”. An international controversy was born.
The report concludes:-
Citizenship education should address questions relevant to the role of media in multicultural societies.
Individuals should be aware of how the media deal with migrants, multiculturalism, and, in this particular case, Islamic culture and religion.
They should be enabled and encouraged to develop critical thinking skills in order to differentiate media messages and identify stereotypes, Islamophobia, radicalism, and racism within the media discourse.
But perhaps there is something more than that? Claude McKay had to fight his battles in isolation. What should we be doing to support each other when faced with similar challenges?
For information about Black History Walks and to sign up to the newsletter http://www.blackhistorywalks.co.uk/
For more information about Uncovering Media Bias: The “Ground Zero Mosque” Case Study, please visit: http://uncoveringbias.wordpress.com/
For more about the Media Diversity Institute see http://www.media-diversity.org/en/
For more about Claude McKay - start with Winston James's chapter 'A Race Outcast from an Outcast Race' in West Indian Intellectuals in Britain edited by Bill Schwarz, published Manchester University Press, 2003
For more about the Daily Telegraph - sorry, you're on your own with that one
One of the shrewd ways that they use the press to project us in the eye or image of a criminal: they take statistics. And with the press they feed these statistics to the public.. ...at the local level, they'll create an image by feeding statistics to the press--through the press showing the high crime rate in the Negro community. As soon as this high crime rate is emphasized through the press, then people begin to look upon the Negro community as a community of criminals. And then any Negro in the community can be stopped in the street.
"Put your hands up," and they pat you down. You might be a doctor, a lawyer, a preacher, or some other kind of Uncle Tom. But despite your professional standing, you'll find that you're the same victim as the man who's in the alley."
Malcolm X, extracts from speech made in February 1965. Researched by Ahmed Sule, taken from Black History Walks newsletter
The 'Telegraph' recently ran one of its deliberately sensationally-named and undeniably biased articles about antiracism in early years education.
Dress witches in pink and avoid white paper to prevent racism in nurseries, expert says
You just know that the journalist, Julie Henry, would prefer to be writing in green ink. The article is the usual misintrepretation of anti-racist practice, quoting Margaret Morrisey, who appears to be on the journalist's speed-dial for these matters. It's heartwarming to see the 'Baa Baa Black Sheep'myth regurgitated, even if spelt incorrectly.
'Margaret Morrissey, a spokeswoman for the Parents Outloud campaigning group disagrees. She said: “I’m sure these early years experts know their field but they seem to be obsessed about colour and determined to make everyone else obsessed about it too.
“Not allowing toy witches to wear black seems to me nonsense and in the same vein as those people who have a problem with 'Bar Bar Black Sheep’ or 'The Three Little Pigs’.
Children just see a sheep in a field, whether it be black, grey, white or beige. I have worked with children for 41 years and I don’t believe I have ever met a two year old who was in any way racist or prejudice.”'
Media bias is a troublesome and enduring foe. I've recently been looking into the life of Claude McKay, a Jamaican poet and revolutionary, who worked along side Sylvia Pankhurst in early 20th century London. He tried to take on the the British labour movement's newspaper, the 'Daily Herald', whose editor endorsed the most objectionable views about France's use of African troops in Germany :-
'The African race is the most developed sexually of any. These levies are recruited from tribes in a primitive state of development... Sexually they are unrestrained and unrestrainable.'
In short, the paper asserted, completely without evidence, that the black soldiers were rapists and all white women and girls in Germany were at risk. McKay embroiled himself in a big row trying to challenge this, finding few alliances, other that Sylvia Pankhurst, to support him.
Jump forward nearly a hundred years to modern day USA. The Diversity in Media Institute has published a case study highlighting the media's negative bias against Islam, using Park51 as an example. The Muslim community centre, including a fitness centre, a culinary school, a September 11 Memorial and a book store, received approval to be built a couple of blocks away from the World Trade Center site in New York. Conservative bloggers affiliated with “Stop Islamization of America,” launched a campaign against the project, renaming it the "Ground Zero Mosque”. An international controversy was born.
The report concludes:-
Citizenship education should address questions relevant to the role of media in multicultural societies.
Individuals should be aware of how the media deal with migrants, multiculturalism, and, in this particular case, Islamic culture and religion.
They should be enabled and encouraged to develop critical thinking skills in order to differentiate media messages and identify stereotypes, Islamophobia, radicalism, and racism within the media discourse.
But perhaps there is something more than that? Claude McKay had to fight his battles in isolation. What should we be doing to support each other when faced with similar challenges?
For information about Black History Walks and to sign up to the newsletter http://www.blackhistorywalks.co.uk/
For more information about Uncovering Media Bias: The “Ground Zero Mosque” Case Study, please visit: http://uncoveringbias.wordpress.com/
For more about the Media Diversity Institute see http://www.media-diversity.org/en/
For more about Claude McKay - start with Winston James's chapter 'A Race Outcast from an Outcast Race' in West Indian Intellectuals in Britain edited by Bill Schwarz, published Manchester University Press, 2003
For more about the Daily Telegraph - sorry, you're on your own with that one
Events coming up
Tuesday 25 October, the British Educational Research Association are holding a seminar at the University of Chichester - 'Children, schools and teachers - does 'race' and ethnicity really matter?'
It's 9.30 to 3.30 and cheap - £20 for members and £25 for non-members.
Keynote 1 Dr Uvanney Maylor, Reader, University of Bedfordshire - It’s not a big issue’: ‘Race’ and ethnicity in the classroom
Drawing on data conducted with teachers, pupils and parents in a range of schools, this paper examines the extent to which issues of ‘race’ and ethnicity matter in 2011. In illuminating experiences of in/exclusion, the paper challenges the omission of ‘race’ and ethnicity in school and policy discourse.
Keynote 2 Dr Kalwant Bhopal, Reader, University of Southampton - This is a school, it’s not a site’: teachers’ attitudes towards Gypsy and Traveller pupils in schools in England, UK
Abstract – This paper will examine teachers’ attitudes towards Gypsy and Traveller pupils in one primary and one secondary school in an inner London borough, in England UK. The research is based on in-depth interviews with twenty teachers, heads, deputies and classroom assistants.
The main aims of the study were to examine examples of ‘good practice’ in schools and to explore strategies that would improve the educational outcomes for Gypsy and Traveller groups. The paper will argue that, despite schools taking positive inclusive measures for Gypsy and Traveller pupils, this alone does not encourage positive attitudes or change attitudes towards them. In some cases, such practices work to emphasise the difference and outsider status of these groups.
Plus workshops.
For further information, please contact: Dr Vini Lander, University of Chichester
E-mail: V.Lander@chi.ac.uk Tel. 01243 812058
RSVP: Mark Donoghue at BERA E-mail: mark.donoghue@bera.ac.uk
Telephone 020 7612 6987
If you have an interest in empire and literature, the British Academy and Queen Mary, University of London are holding a free seminar/panel discussion pondering it over.
End of Empire and the English Novel
Wednesday 2 November 2011 5.30pm - 8.00pm,
British Academy, 10-11 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1
'The purpose of this discussion is to open up the connections between the end of the British Empire and the English novel. The main focus will be with English fiction more narrowly defined – Joseph Tey, John Masters, William Boyd, A S Byatt, Penelope Lively, Alan Hollinghurst, Ian McEwan and popular feminine romance.
These authors are not conventionally read as postcolonial, but they have much of interest to say about the fate of England after the Empire. There has been no sustained discussion of these writers and their relationship to the end of the Empire. The discussion will illuminate both questions to do with the properties of the English novel, and with English history since 1945.
First session: THE ISSUES
Second session: RESPONSES
Attendance is free, but registration is required for this event. http://www.britac.ac.uk/events/2011/End_of_Empire.cfm
17 November 2011 - Free Early Years Event in York
As part of NCB and C4EO’s Peer to Peer Quality Improvement programme, NCB is running a series of regional events for local authority (LA) staff who are members of its early years networks (Local Authority Early Years Network, National Quality Improvement Network and Young Children's Voices Network).
These events are an opportunity to:
Share and celebrate LA practice
Learn about aspects of quality improvement and how to improve quality within your LA/setting
Discover materials and tools to support your practice
The events are free to attend and up to three delegates can apply from each LA. However, places are limited and early booking is recommended: priority will be given to members in the host region for each event.
The first event, which focused on communication and language within the EYFS, took place on 3 October in Manchester: papers from the event will be available to download soon.
http://www.ncb.org.uk/ecu_network/events.asp1
Human Rights lecture by EHRC Chief Executive – 7 December 2011
Mark Hammond, Chief Executive of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission and Visiting Professor at Canterbury Christ Church University is giving a public lecture looking at 783 years of human rights in the UK, starting with the revolt against King John and how this led to the human rights act of 1998.
This event is open to the public and free to attend. It takes place on 7 December in Canterbury http://www.edf.org.uk/blog/?p=13696
1st Call for papers
4th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE - CELEBRATING CHILDHOOD DIVERSITY
9TH-11TH JULY 2012.
To celebrate the 10th year of the establishment of the Centre for the Study of Childhood and Youth at Sheffield University, (CSCY) this conference addresses the theme of diversity in the lives of children and young people.
Issues to be explored include, but are not restricted to:
Children’s and young people’s diverse social and cultural worlds
Understanding identity and difference
Structures and institutions as indices of childhood diversity
Time, space and place
Methodological innovations in childhood research
Theorising similarity and difference
Those wishing to organise small symposia around a specific theme are also invited to submit a proposal.
Abstracts:
Abstracts of no more than 200 words (for papers) 400 words (for symposia) should be sent to the conference administrator, Dawn Lessels, by January 31st 2012. E-mail: d.j.lessels@sheffield.ac.uk.
Check out our conference page: http://www.cscy.group.shef.ac.uk/activities/conferences/index.htm
It's 9.30 to 3.30 and cheap - £20 for members and £25 for non-members.
Keynote 1 Dr Uvanney Maylor, Reader, University of Bedfordshire - It’s not a big issue’: ‘Race’ and ethnicity in the classroom
Drawing on data conducted with teachers, pupils and parents in a range of schools, this paper examines the extent to which issues of ‘race’ and ethnicity matter in 2011. In illuminating experiences of in/exclusion, the paper challenges the omission of ‘race’ and ethnicity in school and policy discourse.
Keynote 2 Dr Kalwant Bhopal, Reader, University of Southampton - This is a school, it’s not a site’: teachers’ attitudes towards Gypsy and Traveller pupils in schools in England, UK
Abstract – This paper will examine teachers’ attitudes towards Gypsy and Traveller pupils in one primary and one secondary school in an inner London borough, in England UK. The research is based on in-depth interviews with twenty teachers, heads, deputies and classroom assistants.
The main aims of the study were to examine examples of ‘good practice’ in schools and to explore strategies that would improve the educational outcomes for Gypsy and Traveller groups. The paper will argue that, despite schools taking positive inclusive measures for Gypsy and Traveller pupils, this alone does not encourage positive attitudes or change attitudes towards them. In some cases, such practices work to emphasise the difference and outsider status of these groups.
Plus workshops.
For further information, please contact: Dr Vini Lander, University of Chichester
E-mail: V.Lander@chi.ac.uk Tel. 01243 812058
RSVP: Mark Donoghue at BERA E-mail: mark.donoghue@bera.ac.uk
Telephone 020 7612 6987
If you have an interest in empire and literature, the British Academy and Queen Mary, University of London are holding a free seminar/panel discussion pondering it over.
End of Empire and the English Novel
Wednesday 2 November 2011 5.30pm - 8.00pm,
British Academy, 10-11 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1
'The purpose of this discussion is to open up the connections between the end of the British Empire and the English novel. The main focus will be with English fiction more narrowly defined – Joseph Tey, John Masters, William Boyd, A S Byatt, Penelope Lively, Alan Hollinghurst, Ian McEwan and popular feminine romance.
These authors are not conventionally read as postcolonial, but they have much of interest to say about the fate of England after the Empire. There has been no sustained discussion of these writers and their relationship to the end of the Empire. The discussion will illuminate both questions to do with the properties of the English novel, and with English history since 1945.
First session: THE ISSUES
- Bill Schwarz, Queen Mary, University of London (Chair)
- Cold War and the End of Empire in the Late 1940s
- Patrick Parrinder, University of Reading
- William Golding
- Rachel Gilmour, Queen Mary, University of London
- Tim Parks
- Suzanne Hobson, Queen Mary, University of London
Second session: RESPONSES
- Elleke Boehmer, University of Oxford (Chair)
- Catherine Hall, University College London
- Susheila Nasta, Open University
- Marina Warner FBA, Novelist/University of Essex
Attendance is free, but registration is required for this event. http://www.britac.ac.uk/events/2011/End_of_Empire.cfm
17 November 2011 - Free Early Years Event in York
As part of NCB and C4EO’s Peer to Peer Quality Improvement programme, NCB is running a series of regional events for local authority (LA) staff who are members of its early years networks (Local Authority Early Years Network, National Quality Improvement Network and Young Children's Voices Network).
These events are an opportunity to:
Share and celebrate LA practice
Learn about aspects of quality improvement and how to improve quality within your LA/setting
Discover materials and tools to support your practice
The events are free to attend and up to three delegates can apply from each LA. However, places are limited and early booking is recommended: priority will be given to members in the host region for each event.
The first event, which focused on communication and language within the EYFS, took place on 3 October in Manchester: papers from the event will be available to download soon.
http://www.ncb.org.uk/ecu_network/events.asp1
Human Rights lecture by EHRC Chief Executive – 7 December 2011
Mark Hammond, Chief Executive of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission and Visiting Professor at Canterbury Christ Church University is giving a public lecture looking at 783 years of human rights in the UK, starting with the revolt against King John and how this led to the human rights act of 1998.
This event is open to the public and free to attend. It takes place on 7 December in Canterbury http://www.edf.org.uk/blog/?p=13696
1st Call for papers
4th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE - CELEBRATING CHILDHOOD DIVERSITY
9TH-11TH JULY 2012.
To celebrate the 10th year of the establishment of the Centre for the Study of Childhood and Youth at Sheffield University, (CSCY) this conference addresses the theme of diversity in the lives of children and young people.
Issues to be explored include, but are not restricted to:
Children’s and young people’s diverse social and cultural worlds
Understanding identity and difference
Structures and institutions as indices of childhood diversity
Time, space and place
Methodological innovations in childhood research
Theorising similarity and difference
Those wishing to organise small symposia around a specific theme are also invited to submit a proposal.
Abstracts:
Abstracts of no more than 200 words (for papers) 400 words (for symposia) should be sent to the conference administrator, Dawn Lessels, by January 31st 2012. E-mail: d.j.lessels@sheffield.ac.uk.
Check out our conference page: http://www.cscy.group.shef.ac.uk/activities/conferences/index.htm
Monday, 11 July 2011
Free resources. Safe and healthy - what's different for black children?
In Saturday’s Guardian, Hugh Muir queries whether female genital mutilation is safeguarding issue or simply ‘cultural’? (For the answer, see http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/jul/05/hideously-diverse-britain )
I recently completed a chapter on children and social policy for a book on 'race' and social policy to be published by Policy Press next year. As I was revisiting the wealth of guidance on Every Child Matters, an old anger was reignited - why was reference to racial equality so absent?
Acknowledgement of the specific experiences of people from different ethnic groups and the impact of assumptions, prejudice and racism was absent from Every Child Matters policy. While the Common Core of Skills and Knowledge for the Children’s Workforce, developed following Every Child Matters, omitted mention of racism and ethnicity. It also did not include ‘race’ equality legislation on its list of relevant legislation, even though the public bodies who trained and employed the majority of the children’s workforce were legally required to comply with the public sector ‘race’ equality duties.
In 2009, Lord Laming compiled a progress report on safeguarding children in England following another tragic murder, that of a White British child, Peter Connelly, (‘Baby P’) in Haringey. Laming’s remit was –
‘…. to evaluate the good practice that has been developed since the publication of the report of the Independent Statutory Inquiry following the death of Victoria Climbié, to identify the barriers that are now preventing good practice becoming standard practice, and recommend actions to be taken to make systematic improvements in safeguarding children across the country.’
Again, in this progress report there is no specific mention of competency in working with children and young families across many ethnic backgrounds, nor delivering effective services to a culturally diverse society. The opportunity to explore how statutory services can benefit Black and other minority ethnic children and young people was not taken up.
Beverley Prevatt Goldstein gives a provocative analysis of this lack of will in this article.
So where are we know?
BRAP, the Birmingham-based ‘think fair tank’ has published a report of a May conference on child protection and black and minority ethnic children.
Chapters include:
- A pressing issue – find out why protection of black and minority ethnic children is such an important issue
- Getting the fundamentals right – an overview of the disparities relating to child protection and black and minority ethnic children, and a look at some of the causes behind them
- Managing equalities change – find out what stops equality working for you, your colleagues, and your organisation
- Forwarding the agenda – ideas, issues, and concerns from professionals working in the field
Meanwhile, if you were listening to Dotun Adebayo’s BBC London show last night, you would have heard the Afiya Trust CEO, Patrick Vernon, talking about Afiya’s new report on mental health and black and minority ethnic children and young people. Just as in safeguarding, a colourblind approach has permeated health policy. ‘Enjoy, Achieve and Be Healthy’ analyses the current policy context and, even more importantly, gives a voice to young people to tell service providers what is needed for good emotional health.
The report highlights that a worrying profile at national policy level, of BME children receiving insufficient and ineffective consideration due to their age and ethnicity, is emerging.
In relation to the coalition government’s ‘No health without mental health’ strategy, the report shows:
- Around 20 percent of children and young people are believed to have a mental health problem, yet there is no indication how many are from a BME background
- Despite a breakdown of disorders being available for BME adults, none is available for BME children and young people, and has yet to be explained why
- Risk factors highlighted for children and young people regarding mental health fail to include racism, racial harassment or racist bullying
Patrick Vernon, Chief Executive of The Afiya Trust, said: "The Afiya Trust commissioned this report in recognition that BME children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing is being systematically failed by education, criminal justice, health and social care services. The report captures the challenges they face, the ineffectiveness of service provision and the woeful lack of the most basic information about them.”
Report author Mhemooda Malek added: “The overall picture is that mainstream public services and programmes, with some notable exceptions, are failing to meet the mental health needs of BME children and young people. They are more likely to come to the attention of services at the point of crisis, yet there appears to be no significant progress in redressing this injustice.”
Children's film 'Rio' from a black perspective
For those who continue to insist that colour doesn't matter - and by strong implication, those who say it does are just troublemakers - it may be worth referring to the following analysis of the recent animated film 'Rio'. It is taken from the newletter of 'Black History Walks' - you can sign up http://www.blackhistorywalks.co.uk/
Rio 3D from a black perspective
At an average price of £9 for adults and £7 for kids. Parents had an expensive day out. Rio was one of the top ten box films recently but what of the black image in this blockbuster movie?
Set in Brazil a country which holds the biggest black population outside of Africa (only Nigeria has more African people), were there black people in the movie and how > > were they portrayed?
The human white American male and a white Brazilian female form a loving couple. The human thief is portrayed as a black boy who lives in a shack. The thief is however later adopted by the loving white couple after he changes his ways. The criminal gang who kidnap Blu are composed of one white Brazilian and two black Brazilians males (black women are absent from this movie) the black Brazilians are particularly noticeable because it is so rare to see black characters in animation on the big screen. These characters are naughty/ bad as well as stupid.
Three of the supporting animal characters are played by black actors Jamie Foxx, Tracey Morgan and Will.I.Am. Their accents and terminology are identifiably African American although they play Brazilian birds and dogs. The toe-tapping music is undeniably African as it was composed by Will I Am using traditional African-Brazilian beats and musicians.
Then there are the monkeys...the monkeys are another set of bad characters who work with the kidnappers. They wear lots of jewellery, oversized watches and could be said to be 'blinging'. The first time we see them they are 'break-dancing' on the street. They are doing acrobatics and handstands to funky music. The monkeys are also thieves and have a gang. Anyone who has ever visited Rio will know that it is a daily occurrence to see groups of young men on the street with a Berimbau practising the unique form of martial arts/dance /acrobatics known as Capoeira . This is a traditional African cultural practice that was used by Africans to resist European slavers. It was banned in Brazil up to the 1970's. These groups are normally young black men. ..
All of this can be dismissed as 'just several of those things' but in summary.. all the white humans have positive characteristics while all the black humans have negative characteristics, apart from the black boy who is originally a thief but later becomes part of a white family. An African-Brazilian art form which signified African resistance is used by a gang of criminal monkeys as recreation when they are not being an anti-social nuisance. A film set in a country where the majority of the people are black does not have a single black human character in a starring role and black women don’t exist.
These images/stories as defined by white animators can have a huge impact of the minds of black and white people especially children. African-American playwright Augustus Wilson replied when asked why is there a need for black people to tell stories from their perspective -"Self-definition is the first step to self-determination".Wednesday, 6 July 2011
'Rio', 'Thunderbirds', stereotypes are go! (But not Cbeebies!)
When I give public talks, I often compare having a black perspective to taking off your 3D glasses in the middle of 'Avatar'. Some things look the same; others are distorted. But who on earth is going to take off their glasses and share your perspective if it ruins their viewing experience? It's just an annoying interruption.
Film and TV itself is such a rich area for exploring how children learn insidious messages about themselves. (And remember - children pick up those negative messages pretty early. If you didn't see the 'A Child of Our Time' programme that touched on racial bias, John Siraj-Blatchford describes the research in this paper.)
As a child growing up in the 70s, I never expected to see people like me on TV - other than Derek Griffiths, a nurse from 'Angels' and the mighty Floella. I grew up in a predominantly white area, so, to be honest, that just reflected my reality! For me, that's just the way it was.
In my 20s, prompted by bell hooks (check out 'Real to Reel', it's dead cheap on Amazon at the moment), I felt brave enough to think about how black (if any) and white actors are used in film.
As a parent in my 30s, it became even more urgent to understand the ways my daughter was learning about her place in the world, through books, TV and film. I also completed a Masters in Writing for Film and TV, researching my dissertation on black fathers in film. That gave me a bit to munch on.
Meanwhile I came to adore CBeebies. Black presenters abounded and one year there was an impressive series of short films called 'Open A Door', where children living in different places in the world (Mongolian yurt, Brazilian favella etc.) opened their door and went about their business. Which usually involved playing.
Personally, I feel that CBBC has also tried hard to include presenters and children of all backgrounds, so some of their few lapses are just forgivable. (The trailer from 'The Sparticle Project' with the Caribbean/African kid acting like a gangsta is only, only just forgivable... The otherwise fab black boy in 'The Sarah Jane Adventures' has to be called 'Clyde' and have an absent father...)
And in Doctor Who, black heroes and heroines are plentiful. (Though, the scary, black father in the wardrobe was a bit of a wobble. And when Matt Smith yelled that it was 'a black day for earth!', I presume he wasn't announcing Obama's inauguration.)
But what about blockbuster fare?
Name a black child hero.
Dre Parker in the karate kid.
Okay. One that isn't played by someone related to Will Smith.
Walt Disney's Princess Tiani. I haven't seen it, but I understand that the black princess spends much of her time as a frog.
Another one...?
Well, there's a few sidekicks. Vanessa Lee Chester plays Becky (a servant) in 'A Little Princess', but turns pretty heroic in the second Jurassic Park film.
Wybie in 'Coraline'? I have a soft spot for a geek, but his lips are sewn shut in much of the main adventure.
And 'Tin Tin' in the execrable 2004 'Thunderbirds' movie. Vanessa Hudgens plays 'TinTin' - the servants' daughter. (For some reason, I believe the character is supposed to be Malaysian. Vanessa Hudgens isn't.) She is pretty heroic.
But the villains? The one black character, Mullion, a grunting, inarticulate man mountain, whose sole role is to provide muscle for villain, The Hood. Transom, is an intellectually gifted woman, who consequently must be socially inept and cartoon-ugly. (Go compare with Lady Penelope...) And The Hood, played, as one reviewer describes by Ben Kingsley, 'in a creepy, vaguely racist, Ming the Merciless mode'.
And the heroes?
The trailer will give you a clue.
'Thunderbirds' is pretty overt in the way it depicts heroes and villains. But what about the more subtle messages?
Well, there is 'Rio'...
See the next posting.
Film and TV itself is such a rich area for exploring how children learn insidious messages about themselves. (And remember - children pick up those negative messages pretty early. If you didn't see the 'A Child of Our Time' programme that touched on racial bias, John Siraj-Blatchford describes the research in this paper.)
As a child growing up in the 70s, I never expected to see people like me on TV - other than Derek Griffiths, a nurse from 'Angels' and the mighty Floella. I grew up in a predominantly white area, so, to be honest, that just reflected my reality! For me, that's just the way it was.
In my 20s, prompted by bell hooks (check out 'Real to Reel', it's dead cheap on Amazon at the moment), I felt brave enough to think about how black (if any) and white actors are used in film.
As a parent in my 30s, it became even more urgent to understand the ways my daughter was learning about her place in the world, through books, TV and film. I also completed a Masters in Writing for Film and TV, researching my dissertation on black fathers in film. That gave me a bit to munch on.
Meanwhile I came to adore CBeebies. Black presenters abounded and one year there was an impressive series of short films called 'Open A Door', where children living in different places in the world (Mongolian yurt, Brazilian favella etc.) opened their door and went about their business. Which usually involved playing.
Personally, I feel that CBBC has also tried hard to include presenters and children of all backgrounds, so some of their few lapses are just forgivable. (The trailer from 'The Sparticle Project' with the Caribbean/African kid acting like a gangsta is only, only just forgivable... The otherwise fab black boy in 'The Sarah Jane Adventures' has to be called 'Clyde' and have an absent father...)
And in Doctor Who, black heroes and heroines are plentiful. (Though, the scary, black father in the wardrobe was a bit of a wobble. And when Matt Smith yelled that it was 'a black day for earth!', I presume he wasn't announcing Obama's inauguration.)
But what about blockbuster fare?
Name a black child hero.
Dre Parker in the karate kid.
Okay. One that isn't played by someone related to Will Smith.
Walt Disney's Princess Tiani. I haven't seen it, but I understand that the black princess spends much of her time as a frog.
Another one...?
Well, there's a few sidekicks. Vanessa Lee Chester plays Becky (a servant) in 'A Little Princess', but turns pretty heroic in the second Jurassic Park film.
Wybie in 'Coraline'? I have a soft spot for a geek, but his lips are sewn shut in much of the main adventure.
And 'Tin Tin' in the execrable 2004 'Thunderbirds' movie. Vanessa Hudgens plays 'TinTin' - the servants' daughter. (For some reason, I believe the character is supposed to be Malaysian. Vanessa Hudgens isn't.) She is pretty heroic.
But the villains? The one black character, Mullion, a grunting, inarticulate man mountain, whose sole role is to provide muscle for villain, The Hood. Transom, is an intellectually gifted woman, who consequently must be socially inept and cartoon-ugly. (Go compare with Lady Penelope...) And The Hood, played, as one reviewer describes by Ben Kingsley, 'in a creepy, vaguely racist, Ming the Merciless mode'.
And the heroes?
The trailer will give you a clue.
'Thunderbirds' is pretty overt in the way it depicts heroes and villains. But what about the more subtle messages?
Well, there is 'Rio'...
See the next posting.
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