The two readings1 “bookend” the educational experience of racialised students in the UK. The first, their entry into the education system when starting school. The second, the Phd and contemplating academia as a career. Both articles do so from a Critical Race Theory (CRT) perspective. Also, in terms of their positionality, both are published in academic journals.
The policy of the ‘one-size fits all’ is not necessarily beneficial to any student. But Bradbury (2020), developing a CRT framework, shows how a baseline assessment policy can particularly affect the outcomes for students with English as an Additional Language (EAL). And this also may intersect with race.
The framework offers a range of questions on the development and application of the policy to see not ‘who benefits?’ but rather, how white people benefit/white dominance is prioritised. Examining the ‘policy silences’ might show not ‘who is disadvantaged?’ but rather ‘how are minoritised groups disadvantaged?’.
The ‘context of influence’, Bradbury argues, is a ‘color-blind’ one. ‘White people gain in that they do not appear ‘racist’, but neither are they accused of ‘political correctness’ in creating particular conditions of assessment for EAL children’. Whether ‘white people’ created the policy, in literal terms, I think Bradbury means how the idea of ‘neutrality’ as such, in this framework, supports systemic whiteness.
Whether ‘white people’ create the policy, in literal terms, I think Bradbury means something about how the idea of ‘neutrality’ as such, in this framework, supports systemic whiteness.
This is like how Eddo-Lodge asserts, ‘When I write about white people…I don’t mean every individual white person. I mean whiteness as a political ideology. A school of thought that favours whiteness at the expense of those who aren’t… It affords an unearned power; it is designed to maintain a quiet dominance.’ Or more briefly, ‘Neutral is white. The default is white’. (2017).
This definition, to me, seems to be multivalent: “not all white people, (but also, yes, all white people!).” And there might be good reason for this, from a social justice/reparative perspective.
Garrett (2024) introduces intersectionality to better explore experiences of Phd students. I was struck by the experience of a student who found their racialised identity had been acknowledged/accepted by the institution as something they could speak to, but not their experience of neurodiversity. The implication is that if neurodivergent needs had been better met, they would be less excluded (and, in this context, therefore, less likely be another “statistic” of a person with a racialised minority identity, excluded from academia).
This connected for me to the task of resisting some of the generalisations, and who can speak to what, which I think Asif Sadiq is trying to navigate through in his talk.
Bradbury (2020) critiques ‘interest convergence’: ‘how even seemingly progressive moves may, in fact, benefit whiteness’. This reminded me of my own failure to focus on one specific intersectional identity in my teaching intervention.
In future, I will consider, better, how focusing on making things inclusive for a particular student experience might have wider positive impact.
However, in addition, for me, I believe that the task of building the ‘world of the you’ (Fanon, 1952), also involves a political commitment, with and through class action. My positionality here is guided by my private political commitments, separate from the professional role I play, but also “intersecting” with work.
This is not really addressed in the scope of these resources. But it is for this reason I want to promote the current campaign of staff and students at UAL, to End the Outsourcing of cleaning staff .
And also, for myself and for students, a prayer, ‘make of me always a [person] who questions’. (Fanon, 1952; 1986).
—
Bibliography
Bradbury, Alice. 2020. A critical race theory framework for education policy analysis: The case of bilingual learners and assessment policy in England. Race Ethnicity and Education, 23(2), pp.241-260
Eddo-Lodge, Reni. 2017. Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People about Race, London: Bloomsbury
Fields, Barbara J. & Fields, Karen E. 2012. Racecraft: The Soul of Inequality in American Life. London: Verso
Fanon, Frantz, 1986. Black Skin, White Masks. London: Pluto Press. (First published in the French, 1952)
Garrett, Rihanna. 2024. Racism shapes careers: career trajectories and imagined futures of racialised minority PhDs in UK higher education. Globalisation, Societies and Education, pp.1–15.
Sadiq, Asif. 2023. ‘Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. Learning how to get it right’. TEDx [Online}. Youtube. 2 March. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HR4wz1b54hw
UAL End Outsourcing Campaign, https://www.instagram.com/ualendoutsourcing/?hl=en, Accessed 21/06/2025
- I choose to focus on the two readings, as I did not feel the space to be able to also address the videos, although I do refer to Asif Sadiq’s talk. ↩︎