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.
Grass is green, sky is blue and an umbrella could be purple. People also come in different colours. This blog shares research, practice and news to help people living and working with children talk about 'race', racism and skin colour.
Thursday, 27 October 2011
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