Interrogating Spaces
Interrogating Spaces
Decolonising the Arts Curriculum: Perspectives in Higher Education - the story behind the zines
This podcast tells the story of the two zines on decolonising the Arts curriculum, co-produced by staff and students from UAL and the Arts Student Union. Both Zines make space for the expression of different perspectives and experiences of decolonisation, through a wide variety of media, from the literary to the visual.
Narrator Bios:
Anita Waithira Israel:
Anita is a photographer and alumni of London College of Communication. She recently stepped down as Arts SU Education officer and was instrumental in delivering the second Decolonising the Arts Curriculum Zine. During her time as Education Officer Anita ran a number of successful anti-racist campaigns and she continues to challenge structural inequality through her community based activism. Anita is a multidisciplinary artist whose main focus is documentary photography. She uses her photography to change the negative depictions of race , raise awareness for her community and amplify the black voice.
Lucy Panesar:
Lucy was the academic lead in the production of Zine 1 (2018) whilst she was in the role of Educational Developer (Diversity & Inclusion) at UAL’s Teaching and Learning Exchange. She also contributed original content for Zine 1 and Zine 2 (2019) and is currently managing projects at UAL’s London College of Communication to decolonise curricula as a means of achieving equitable progression and attainment for students.
Rahul Patel:
Rahul is an Associate Lecturer at UAL. He is also a researcher and content developer in contemporary art history and theory. He co-led on Reading Collections: The African-Caribbean, Asian and African Art in Britain Archive and most recently Decolonising Narratives. He co-curated the Decolonising the Arts Curriculum: Perspectives on Higher Education zine1 and 2 with Arts Students Union.
Other Contributors:
Jheni Arboine: Senior Lecturer Academic Enhancement Model
Angela Drisdale-Gordon: Former Head of Further Education at UAL, Retired FE/HE Education and Social Justice Consultant
Dr Silke Lange: Associate Dean of Learning, Teaching and Enhancement, Central Saint Martins
Carole Morrison: Senior Lecturer: Academic Enhancement Model
Dr Clare Warner: Educational Developer within the AEM and Attainment Team at UAL
Key Credits for the Decolonising the Arts Curriculum Zines:
Decolonising the Arts Curriculum Zine is a production of Arts Students' Union and the University of the Arts London, Teaching, Learning and Employability Exchange
zine2 was collated and curated by Rahul Patel with editorial support from Annie-Marie Akussah, Anita Waithira Israel, Hansika Jethnani, Zina Monteiro & Clare Warner
Copy editing by Elizabeth Staddon, UAL
Graphic design and layout by Hansika Jethnani
Links and references from the podcast:
Decolonising the Arts Curriculum Zine can be found here: decolonisingtheartscurriculum.myblog.arts.ac.uk
Shades of Noir: https://shadesofnoir.org.uk
Image Credit: 'Don't forget to Celebrate' by Anita Waithira Israel
Welcome to interrogating spaces, a podcast that examines ideas around inclusivity and attainment in higher education. We speak with staff, students, and practitioners to explore questions around democratic and decolonized teaching practices.
Speaker 2:In this episode of interrogating spaces, we look at the second decolonizing, the arts curriculum Xen. We speak with the organizers of the Xen project to understand a little about background hopes and aspirations, as well as speaking to contributors and audience members of the Xen to launch event.
Speaker 3:So in front of us are two copies or zenes they called decolonizing the arts curriculum perspectives in higher education Xen one and Zim two, which more printed a couple of weeks ago.
Speaker 4:I've got, yeah, I've got the scene with me actually. So, um, let me have a, there was a page, ah, guests, it's the, um, I'm going to find it page 86. Um, it's, it's an anonymous account from a student and international student, our URL and, um, yeah, it just, it just spoke to me because I know how many students, this is like their lived experience and to sort of have it on paper, um, was just really powerful. Okay. So the piece is called anonymous. The whole nine months of studying our curricular has not given us a global outlook or covered global industries. Everything is concentrated around knowledge systems forms and content of industries in Europe, on the us. If the world began and ended with Europe and the U S that would be okay, what makes it even more problematic? And regressive for me is that UAL has 60% international student body. In my class alone. There are 18 students in my class and 14 of the 18 or international students for the remaining four students. There are two EU students and two UK students. And two out of the four are black. I feel like my experience as an international student at UL doesn't matter, black students, black students do not seem to matter either curriculum. That's important to us. Doesn't matter. We're in the neo-colonial curriculum. And we are being asked only to reproduce Eurocentric views of media and communications.
Speaker 5:My name's Lucy Panasonic. Um, I'm currently the progression entertainment project manager at London college of communication. Yeah, it was in my former role was educational developer in diversity and inclusion at the teaching and learning exchange that I was in touch with the then education officer at the SU student union hand seeker, Jeff nanny, and having conversations with her around the importance of kind of decolonization movement at this time as a kind of discourse that could help us in or guide us or give us insights in the work that we're trying to do to address some racial inequalities, like the BME attainment gap. So that's having conversations with her. And I was also teaching on the PGCert, which is how I met Rahul Patel. Who's PGCert project was also on the, the importance of the colonization. And what do people make of that? As a, as a concept, he did some really valuable work around what senior management make of that as a concept we're hope Italo gives his overview of any project.
Speaker 3:The feeling amongst students and a number of staff was we cannot carry on what with, with what we have been doing for the last few decades. Students and staff have been dissatisfied with a deeply embedded enlightenment project Eurocentric Western century week, that there is only one knowledge system and others are either not worth talking about not worth having a dialogue with and not worth integrating into a daily teaching and learning process. I believe the students movement across the world, starting out in South Africa, then ending up here in the UK, uh, demolished that, which said that we want to be part of a teaching and learning process, which takes into account the total historical knowledge that are at the hands of human beings. And we've been denied that by a particular hierarchy, people who want to have and continue a particular privilege, uh, through their own, uh, uh, method that they have through colonization through imperialism, through a capitalist power system, uh, which has dominated arts education for an incredibly long period of time. This collaboration came because we started to go, three of us started to go to a lot of meetings where this issue was discussed, not only decolonization, but also the attainment gap where students of color black and Asian students politically black, our that's the term I would use compared to white students, white home students came in with the same grades and left with worst grades than white homeless students. It's called the attainment gap. And at UL until a couple of years ago, it was 21%. In some courses, it was a lot, lot higher. And now it's 18% because of the interventions through various discussions around breaking down that team again.
Speaker 5:And it's been quite interesting, cause that was a couple of years ago now. And at that time there was a lot of people were quite dubious about whether that was the kind of inappropriate term for us or discourse for us to be following as an institution. And people concerned about it being alienating, you know, just by saying de colonizing, it sounds quite kind of violent. Like you want to get rid of something, you know, shake things up in quite a revolutionary way. Um, so there was kind of quite a lot of initial concerns. So just going ahead directly with some kind of how to guide on how to decline. And I think we feel appropriate. It felt like we needed to first give space to people in the broadest sense to the people of the academic community, students, staff, and of any level to share with us what that means to them. And that includes, you know, even if they wanted to contest it, like we don't like that term. So we put this open call out for Xen one, um, to just see what responses we would get. Um, and it was such a fascinating and compelling like series of responses in a whole range of different media that we, you know, we had to include everything so that we could represent such a diverse range of views on this topic.
Speaker 4:My name is Nita Y thera Israel, I, um, the previous education officer, um, and also, uh, previous UAL governor. Um, I was a student at LCC. I studied photojournalism. Uh, yeah. And also I'm one of the, uh, co-creators of the second scene. So I sort of got involved in the decolonizing, the curriculum scene stuff when I was, um, a student. Cause I remember sort of asking questions, like, why is my curriculum? Why, what can I do about it? Where can I find out more information about, um, just find more like resources on my heritage basically. And that's when I sort of met hand seeker and she urged me to get involved in the decolonizing, the curriculums in, um, stuff that was happening. I didn't submit any work for it, but then obviously later on, I ran to, uh, be education officer. Um, and then as when I started the role, I realized how important that Xen was, uh, and how necessary it is for other people to know about that scene and to just continue on the work. So when re-haul and Lucy approached me about doing the second scene, I was like, absolutely. Like, I want to push this work as far as it can go and also use my platform to share other people's work. So we have entries from students, from staff and, um,
Speaker 5:Yeah, it's just important that those voices are heard and recognized.
Speaker 3:And it was this idea that we need to create a narration, which is accessible, which is not extremely academic, extremely inaccessible, and extremely geared towards a particular academy, which has no relevance to what has taken place in the classroom. And therefore we decided to get both student and staff voices to talk about, uh, the issue of decolonization in their subject field in arts university, whether it be designed, whether it be fashion, whether it be fine art, whether it be ceramics and Xen, one came out of that. And, um, the story started since its publication part two. The second scene is the story of the interventions as a result of that, I believe that the two scenes need to be used together. Um, and, uh, they will provide a very successful method of approach, which opens up the whole notion of decolonization in practice.
Speaker 5:The first one seeing did end up attracting a lot of student content. The second one, there's more staff that are encouraged. And I think the staff have felt encouraged by the first Dean. I think they were probably quite nervous to put anything into the first scene around, you know, who, who am I to comment on this topic, especially staff who are not of color white staff. I think I felt quite nervous about wanting to enter into the discussion on this topic. So I was quite, I was personally quite happy to see that in scene two white colleagues are speaking to their own identity in relationship with this topic. Um, I think that's a really, uh, important part of this. Otherwise it does. There's also that there's a danger that it's only for certain ethnic groups that get to talk about like this topic. And then that kind of perpetuates the idea that it's still the burden of students and academics of color to undo the thing that they, that oppresses them, you know, but I think that's kind of collaboration element of this where it's kind of all, all members of the community commenting on what is essentially our shared history and our shared current situation of living in this multicultural society and in an institution that is so diverse.
Speaker 3:I must say this, uh, this is not about us, those of us who are involved involved in the, um, curation, the editing, uh, putting it together, uh, it's the submissions, uh, that, that make the zenes and that collaboration, um, uh, although of the submitters, haven't talked to each other, but it is a collaboration. Uh, I believe that has produced, uh, uh, a significant piece of document, which, um, will have its, um, uh, role, uh, in this answer university,
Speaker 6:Hello, I'm circle Langer, I'm associate Dean for learning, teaching and enhancement at central Saint Martins. And I was one of the contributors to Xen number two, the decolonizing, the curriculum zing. And, um, I felt really inspired after reading the, uh, first version of the Xen and felt that I would like to contribute to it. What I also really value about the Xen is that it gives space to, uh, for people to voice their views around these issues that affect attainment. And in a way what we really need is of course the data on attainment is important, but actually these are the real stories of people that have been captured here. And this is what we need to hear and this, we need to listen to their stories and they will pave the way forward, um, for the institution.
Speaker 4:And I think one thing that happens within institutions is that they like to censor a lot of the work, even though that this is an arts institution, a lot of work that's, um, controversial or ex extremely honest around subjects like racism, it's censored and it's, um, sort of Dole down so that it is pleasing to other people. But what this does is it takes all these authentic experiences and, um, puts, puts, it has a platform for it basically. And it's not just about the experiences, it's about the work as well, the art, the, um, and even the Xen itself, like the fact that it's kind of made out of newspaper paper newsprint, it, it feels so much more radical. It's not shiny, it's not glossy. It's just, you know, it's in its purest form, which I thought was fantastic. And, um, we've re-haul as well. I remember when we first started, he was like, no, we're just going to take, we're not gonna act anyone out either. We're going to take all the contributions, which is why it's much longer than the second scene, because we took all of the submissions, uh, and it was open for everybody
Speaker 5:That, but that keeps that idea that it's not peer reviewed. It's not heavily, it's not really edited at all. You know, that, that the pieces appear as, as the authors wish them to be providing the not completely offensive, you know, that there, they all, yeah, well, our community believe and how they wish to express. Cause some of them are more expressive than others in terms of like visual expression is not more abstract and views on, on the topic. Buffing, that's really important part of that for our community.
Speaker 7:[inaudible],
Speaker 4:I'd say sort of what made me feel like it was an important project to get involved in was the fact that I had lived through being a black student at UAL. And I remember being so ecstatic to be at UL and not realizing the huddles I was going to come up again. And you slowly sort of come to this realization by third year that all this stuff has happened. Um, and you're surrounded by a systemic racism and the erasion of, uh, black academics and, and um, black curriculum. It's not there and it's not apparent. So I knew that it was important because when I got into my role, I started to have black students coming to me with the same problems that I was experiencing. And I was like, you know, like the first scene was such a fantastic resource, but it only reached a certain amount of people. And I was like, we need to push this out, which is what we did through the series of events and the workshops and stuff that came out with the first seat. And then in the second scene, you sort of see it's a bit difficult. It's a bit different in the way that, um, contributors are sort of responding with a sort of confidence about what they're talking about, because it's almost like the first thing was, was an introduction and the second scenes of realization. Um, so that's why it was, that's why it was important to me because I didn't want other students to have to experience what I was experiencing.
Speaker 5:Um, and the museum has just got so much more rich content and I feel like it's really advancing the discourse moving definitely from what it means to decolonize the curriculum, which is essentially our kind of course, content, the material substance of what we learn to the kind of institution itself, the practices and cultures of an arts academy. I think the second scene definitely speaks a lot to that. And how arts academy is situated more broadly in, in culture and society.
Speaker 3:I do, I do want to say that actually ezine also has a role to play. Not only in terms of the curriculum, the curriculum is not just the reading. This is not what takes place within the classroom. It is the institution itself for me, that's the curriculum from top down to the bottom. It is how the library service works is how the book shop works. How's how, where the shop works. How, what is the atmosphere in the canteen? How does a student's union work? How does the total university work for me, that is the curriculum. And I think the Xen kind of, uh, promulgates that in some way or the other, that the curriculum is not just one or two bits on the reading list that is not going to make the changes that total institution
Speaker 4:First and foremost, like universities have to start listening to their students. Um, this Xen tells it, it's basically a letter to the university asking for change. And I think that they need to, you know, I don't know if they've read the Xen for example, but that's one thing, um, and being in touch with what students need and what students want, um, I think is really important, but I think as well, just putting more, um, funding and resource into things like this, you know, this works now been done. UL has it very easy. All they have to do is sort of come up with a way to, you know, make this, make this a priority, like get this out into, into classrooms and start using this as a, as a sort of platform to sort of push off other initiatives that, that can sort of come out of the Xen, whether it's workshops, exhibitions, even if it's just an artist directory, we've, you know, a list of, you know, artists and resources that's available to students. So th there's so, so much that, um, I could say, uh, about it. And I think the Xen has sort of been a gateway and a platform for students to connect with staff. Um, and I think creating more of these platforms would be really beneficial.
Speaker 3:The way I see that this second scene is going to proceed is that it's going to be embedded in course teams. And of course, teams will get a chance to look at it or to engage with it, to criticize it, to affirm it, to then produce something else from it. Xen one did that Xen one completely opened up the library spaces, produced exhibitions produce and engagement that you just really talked about. It produced a sense that we are part of a movement, which we want to be engaged with. So library staff felt that they want to be part of this, uh, new movement, which is challenging the old notions of how things have continued for such a long time. Um, and you know, the walls need to be brought down. Um, and, uh, this is part of the engagement. So it's not just a lot of the staff we know in every course across the university. And it has had some impact of the other in some form or other if the tutors or the lecturers haven't, uh, picked up the pattern the students have within those courses. And it's worked vice versa as well. And the students themselves felt inspired that their tutors have a running with it as well. So I have discussions literally every day with everyone about how much this two documents are needed and what needs to happen with that
Speaker 2:In January, 2020 and event was held at Chelsea college of arts to celebrate the launch of seem to.
Speaker 8:So today we had a decolonization of the curriculum seen on side of event and, uh, we had a couple of readings from, from the scene.
Speaker 9:I thought it was a really intriguing and interesting evening. We'll be sharing the ideas. And I think it's important anyway, that change and sort about everybody's participation to make that change because we can't do it on our own. Um, so, um, um, this is the beginning of new exciting things. And, um, I, I asked anyone to, to read the scenes and it should be just go through in terms of not simply new AOL, they should also be outside of UL. What other places can catch up and learn really important. I'll be taking this with me actually into schools. So, um, see what their responses
Speaker 2:And Angela Drew's Del Gordon head of the further education office and employee for 25 years at UAL started up the speeches.
Speaker 10:Now it's wonderful in terms of the Xen, how it's just enabled. I think some of us are sort of really kind of own the issue. I obviously, in terms of my career here have sort of no, that I suffered in the sense that, you know, for a long time, this has been an issue that has, it's not new. As I keep saying, it's not new. It's something that we've had debates about the hasn't felt as if it's gone anywhere. But I do feel now that the university is in a position where I can really see tangential change, I think we're ready. I think we're ready because we have to be, we can't no longer go on with the awarding gaps that there are, and we can no longer, you know, we can no longer stop sort of ensuring that all of our students bought student bodies get a fair crack of the whip, right. Or have opportunity to really Excel at their best. So I think there's a backdrop of really hideous stuff going on out there. And I think it's our responsibility to ensure that we're constantly calling that out, but I would make a plea in terms of the university is to just ensure that everybody understands the context of what we're talking about. This should be, I think part of the references or all of our courses, I feel as well as I think the resource of shades of law. But I ultimately do feel that we all in some sort of way have to make some contribution by ensuring that we own the issue we admit when things are not working, but we try and make sure that in terms of our systems, our culture, that we just move in the direction of ensuring that all of our students achieve the best that they possibly can. All right. Thank you.
Speaker 2:And amongst many other speakers we hear from Dr. Claire Warner educational developer within the AEM and attainment team.
Speaker 11:So I had the privilege of working with Ragu and Anita and seek on the Xen. And I think we established quite unorthodox ways of working, which is midnight phone calls and things of that nature. But I think that's, for me, what's going to make it really, really memorable of all the things I do at UL. I will remember it because it was on Orthodox and it was messy. Um, but I'm really, really proud that actually our commitment to the work was always much greater than whatever differences of opinion we had or our own individual egos. So we were really United in our commitment to the work. And I think that there's a message in that for all of us who are committed to these issues. Um, I've been at the university for just over 10 months. And when I first joined the first thing that struck me was what long history of anti-racist work there is at this university. So I want to pick up on what Angela said that we can't frame this. We can't afford to frame this as a new movement. Um, as I think there's always a risk that when institutions get hold of agendas and when agendas migrate from the margins to the center is danger that they get co-opted. And that those kinds of, uh, the kind of activism that people of color have been involved in gets erased and the institutions overwrite their own narratives around equality and diversity. So I think we really need to think about, um, how we have gotten to this point. Um, so as it's been said, the contributors really make the scene what the Xen is, and it's the gift of the stories that you've given us. And I think it's such a powerful collection of voices, which are going to be critical in moving us forward and enhancing our kind of collective understanding of structural inequalities. So for me, this agenda is about much more than reading lists. It's really about dismantling the structural inequalities, which create and sustain racial hierarchies, which are so prevalent in our society. And then which in turn are mirrored within our institutions.
Speaker 12:Okay. So my name is Jenny, our boys, and currently my role at, um, UAL is, um, as an academic enhancement module, senior lecturer, well, it's been a really emotional evening looking at the, the second scene of decolonization and hearing from different speakers, talking about their perspectives on the Z. I think it's been quite humbling to see white staff say something because we're so used to black staff, black academics, academics of color saying they're bets, but to have a white member of staff Silka in particularly talking, you know, that you have actual authentic allies, and that makes the journey so much better.
Speaker 2:Carol Morrison, senior lecture within the AAM and attainment team at UAL.
Speaker 13:It's just that the evening has made it even clearer, how kind of emotional and challenging some of the issues are. And, um, the fact that people need to sort of consider the impact on not only the sort of psyches, but physicalities of remembering and well learning and hearing about this stuff and its impact on other people. Like, so if you suddenly, um, understand and recognize the impact on the different communities of the histories of behavior and histories of variations, and it suddenly brings it home to you and then you, you, you react to it in quite an emotional way. And then you share that emotionality. It actually means something it's really important to share the impact of like having your eyes open. You know, it's like, it's like the matrix, isn't it. When you take the pill, you know, and you can't unsee what you've now seen. So I, for me this evening really been about that, you know, the senior management talking about that Alex, and sort of sharing the emotionality of this agenda is really important. It's a really important thing to acknowledge that it's hard work, it's mental, emotional, and physical work, this, and that's, what's going to make it harder. But if people at the top and at all levels of the university, do that work and acknowledge that that is what is happening for me. When I'm talking about these issues, then I think we have a chance. Do you know what I mean?
Speaker 4:Going back to the title of what the Xen actually says, um, is de colonize in the arts curriculum. And I think that that in itself needs to happen we've yeah. Is ezine, it's a platform, it's a resource, but the fundamental reason why it exists is because students and staff didn't feel like they could challenge the curriculum. Um, and they didn't feel like the curriculum was challenging them and it's it lacks inclusivity. And like I said before, it's selective. So I think that, although this is a great piece of work and we can talk about it as a piece of work, we have to kind of go back to the message and go back to the reason why it exists. And that is because we need to decolonize Bart's education.
Speaker 5:I just think this is such an important time to be doing this work and it's, and it can be seen as, oh, do institutions. Co-opt the idea of D column. And there's a lot of fear around that kind of using it as a tokenistic term as kind of diversity and inclusion. It's like a tick box exercise, but I don't know. I think this particular piece of work with zenes, there is evidence that is happening a bit more authentically on, you know, in a lot of ways I think. Um, and it just gives, I think it's just so important to give the time and the space for people to think about these topics and to reflect, because it's not something you can just like do overnight, just radically transform. Everything is a kind of evolution, you know? So I think, yeah, I think these kinds of materials, just having them around in an accessible format, it doesn't get too threatening, um, can help to promote that, that eventual evolution to what it is that we, I think we hope, you know, a decolonized curriculum might look like and feel like fast.
Speaker 3:Uh, I thought at first Xen one would have a fairly short lives shelf life. Um, and it hasn't, it's still continuing people wanted together with, uh, Xen two as well. Scene one was 64 pages. This is 96 pages, uh, with well over 70 contributors. Um, so it's, uh, it's, uh, it's a super thank you to all the people who, uh, submitted. I mean, there are so many exciting pieces in the Xen. Uh, it's difficult over in audio to kind of provide what it is, but barter the imagery that people have produced, whether in a text form or in a visual form in terms of illustrations, in terms of photographs, in terms of drawings, in terms of sketches, uh, has really, uh, produced something, uh, that I believe a large group of both staff and students want to be part of
Speaker 1:This podcast is brought to you by the attainment team at the university of the arts London, for more information search for UAL teaching and learning exchange attainment.