Key Terms

Shades of Noir has been commissioned to deliver training provision and report more widely on the current situation regarding Teaching Within engagement. As well as practises towards anti-racism and intersectional social justice of all protected characteristics. Please note that some of the content within our glossary of key terms sections are considered highly offensive to People of Colour (POC). We have included them to support difficult discussions on the subject of race and ethnicity to aid understanding and thinking with the aim of transformation. Shades of Noir are aware that language is constantly changing and evolving as we work holistically with our TW academics. We invite all cohorts to contribute to our ever-evolving key terms which is an opportunity to evolve the creative communities pedagogic practises and shape the TW Programme.

Academic Specialist

An Academic specialist is someone whose training, education, or experience makes them an expert in a particular subject. Educated people and experts: expert, authority, specialist [only before noun] relating to learning or knowledge in a particular part of a subject or profession. specialist knowledge/training.

Aggressive

Behaving or done in a determined and forceful way.

Ally

A person of one social identity group who stands up in support of members of another group; typically a member of a dominant group standing beside member(s) of a group being discriminated against or treated unjustly.

Anti-Racism

The policy or practice of opposing racism and promoting racial equality.

Autoethnography

Autoethnography is a form of qualitative research in which an author uses self-reflection and writing to explore anecdotal and personal experiences and connect this autobiographical story to wider cultural, political, and social meanings and understandings. Autoethnography is typically defined as an approach to research that puts the self at the centre of cultural analysis.

Black

Belonging to or denoting any human group having dark-coloured skin, especially of African or Australian Aboriginal ancestry.

Brown

Dark-skinned

Changemaker

A term coined by the social entrepreneurship organisation, Ashoka, meaning one who desires change in the world and, by gathering knowledge and resources, makes that change happen.

Conscious Bias

Conscious bias is to be aware, intentional and responsive. Significant improvements have been made in identifying and addressing conscious bias in the workplace with laws and policies now in place to prevent explicit prejudices based on race, age, gender, gender identity, physical abilities, religion, sexual orientation and many other characteristics.

Critical Pedagogy

Critical Pedagogy is a teaching approach inspired by critical theory and other radical philosophies, which attempts to help students question and challenge posited ‘domination’ and to undermine the beliefs and practices that are alleged to dominate. Critical pedagogy is a philosophy of education and social movement that has developed and applied concepts from critical theory and related traditions to the field of education and the study of culture.

Critical Teaching

Teaching critically means that teachers and students are actively involved in constructing, questioning, and deepening the curriculum, probing its relevance and connection to the daily lives of students and their families. For both teacher and student, it means thinking critically and learning to learn.

Critical Race Theory (CRT)

A theoretical framework in the social sciences focused upon the application of critical theory, a critical examination of society and culture, to the intersection of race, law, and power. CRT proposes that white supremacy and racial power are maintained over time and that the law may play a role in this process and investigated the possibility of transforming the relationship between law and racial power.

Critical Consciousness

Critical consciousness, also referred to as ‘conscientisation’, or ‘conscientisação’ in Portuguese is popular education and social concept developed by Brazilian pedagogue and educational theorist Paulo Freire, grounded in post-Marxist critical theory Paulo Freire defines critical consciousness as the ability to "intervene in reality in order to change it." Critical consciousness proceeds through the identification of "generative themes", which Freire identifies as "iconic representations that have a powerful emotional impact in the daily lives of learners."

Cultural Capital

In the field of sociology, cultural capital comprises the social assets of a person that promotes social mobility in a stratified society. Hence, cultural capital is the accumulation of knowledge, behaviours, and skills that one can tap into to demonstrate one's cultural competence, and thus one's social status or standing in society.

Cultural Competence

Cultural Competence defines the ability to understand, communicate with, and effectively interact with people across cultures. Cultural competence encompasses. being aware of one's own world view. developing positive attitudes towards cultural differences. gaining knowledge of different cultural practices and world views.

Decolonise, Decolonization or Decolonisation

The undoing of colonialism, the latter being the process whereby a nation establishes and maintains its domination on overseas territories. The clarion call however for the decolonisation of the curriculum is a diverse one, not always based on similar concepts and ideologies when used by different individuals or groups. In some versions, the decolonisation of the curriculum is based on a broad understanding of curriculum which makes it necessarily bound up with the proposed decolonisation of the university – in other words, a fundamental change in the nature and identity of such institutions and a dismantling of the apparatus that is perceived to support and continue a colonial legacy, while in other versions ‘curriculum’ appears to be understood mainly as what is taught, requiring an Africanisation or indigenisation of the syllabus to become more relevant to a changing student population.

Democratise, Democratization (or democratisation)

The transition to a more democratic political regime, including substantive political changes moving in a democratic direction. ... Whether and to what extent democratization occurs, has been attributed to various factors, including economic development, history, and civil society.

Diaspora

A Scattered population whose origin lies within a different geographic locale. Diaspora can also refer to the movement of the population from its original homeland.

Diversity

An understanding that each individual is unique, and recognizing our individual differences. These can be along. the dimensions of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, age, physical abilities, religious beliefs, political beliefs, or other ideology.

Equal Opportunities

Equal Opportunities defines an individual's right to be treated fairly without discrimination, no matter what their sex, race, age or intersection.

Equality

A state in which all individuals or social groups are treated fairly, equally and no less favourably; be it by virtue of their race, gender, disability, religion or belief, sexual orientation or age. Equality stands for inclusion and is against discrimination.

Gaslighting

Gaslighting, or 'to gaslight', is a form of systematic psychological manipulation in which a person seeks to sow seeds of doubt in a targeted individual or in members of a targeted group, making them question their own memory, perception, and sanity. Gaslighting involves attempts to destabilise and delegitimise the victim's primary belief system.

Inclusive

An adjective with several meanings: It can be used to describe something that's broad or extensive, such as thorough, inclusive research projects.

Inclusive Education

Inclusion or ‘inclusivity’ in education refers to a model wherein students with special needs spend most or all of their time with non-special needs students. Inclusive education – also called inclusion – is education that includes everyone, with non-disabled and Disabled people (including those with “special educational needs”) learning together in mainstream schools, colleges and universities.

Inclusive Practice

Inclusive practice is an approach to teaching that recognises the diversity of students, enabling all students to access course content, fully participate in learning activities and demonstrate their knowledge and strengths at assessment.

Inclusive Teaching

Inclusive teaching refers to the creation of a learning environment that provides all students, regardless of their background, with the opportunity to fulfil their own learning potential and support other students who may wish to learn from them.

Institutional Racism

Institutional racism (also known as systemic racism) is a form of racism expressed in the practice of social and political institutions. It is reflected in disparities regarding wealth, income, criminal justice, employment, housing, health care, political power and education, among other factors.

Intersectionality

Intersectionality was coined in 1989 by Kimberlé Crenshaw, a civil and legal scholar in her paper for the University of Chicago Legal Forum; the term, therefore, is more often used to define the 'intersectional the interconnected nature of social categorisations such as race, class, and gender as they apply to a given individual or group, regarded as creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage.'

Internalised Racism

Internalised racism is loosely defined as the internalisation by people of racist attitudes towards members of their own ethnic group, including themselves.

Lived Experience

Denoting personal knowledge about the world gained through direct, first-hand involvement in every day, in qualitative phenomenological research (autoethnography), lived experience refers to a representation of the experiences and choices of a given person, and the knowledge that they gain from these experiences and choices.

Microaggressions

A microaggression is a subtle but offensive comment or action directed at a minority or other nondominant group that is often unintentional or unconsciously reinforces a stereotype.

Mutual Respect

Mutual respect is understanding that we all don't share the same beliefs and values.

Mutual respect is defined as a proper regard for the dignity of a person or position.

Neurodiverse or ‘Neurodiversity’

Neurodiverse or ‘Neurodiversity’ defines an individual who displays or is characterised by autistic or other neurologically atypical patterns of thought or behaviour; not neurotypical.

Neurodiversity refers to variations in the human brain regarding sociability, learning, attention, mood, and other mental functions. Neurodiversity is a portmanteau of 'neurological' and 'diversity that was popularised in the late 1990s by Australian sociologist Judy Singer and American journalist Harvey Blume. The term emerged as a challenge to prevailing views that certain neurodevelopmental disorders are inherently pathological and instead adopts the social model of disability, in which societal barriers are the main contributing factor that disables people. The subsequent neurodiversity paradigm has been controversial among autism advocates, with opponents saying that its conceptualization of the autism spectrum doesn't reflect the realities of individuals who have high support needs.

Passive

Accepting or allowing what happens or what others do, without active response or resistance.

Pedagogy

The method and practice of teaching, especially as an academic subject or theoretical concept.

People of Colour

Person/People of colour has been used and taken up at different points in history in different places to describe non-white, European people.

Prejudice

Preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience

Privilege

A special right, advantage, or immunity granted or available only to individuals in particular groups by institutions.

Politically Black

Political blackness is the idea that all non-white people can define themselves under one term black.

Protected Characteristic

The Equality Act covers the same groups that were protected by existing equality legislation – age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, marriage and civil partnership and pregnancy and maternity. These are now called `protected characteristics'.

Racism

An Act of prejudice, bigotry, and/or discrimination of individuals of one race against members of other races. These acts do not count as racism if they are coming from members of a marginalised race, i.e. black people, as they do not have the social, political or economic power to make their actions oppressive and effective. Racism also refers to institutional, systemic, linguistic and economic structures that perpetuate the idea of racial superiority and inferiority, allowing for a wide range of effects, e.g. skin-bleaching, the overrepresentation of PoC in prisons, under-representation of PoC in media, welcoming to all kinds of people.

Reflexivity

In epistemology, and more specifically, the sociology of knowledge, reflexivity refers to circular relationships between cause and effect, especially as embedded in human belief structures.

Safe Space

A Safe Space is a place or environment in which a person or category of people can feel confident that they will not be exposed to discrimination, criticism, harassment, or any other emotional or physical harm.

Scaffolding Teaching

Instructional scaffolding is the support given to a student by an instructor throughout the learning process, In education, scaffolding refers to a variety of instructional techniques used to move students progressively toward stronger understanding and, ultimately, greater independence in the learning process.

Self Reflection

Human self-reflection is the capacity of humans to exercise introspection and the willingness to learn more about their fundamental nature, purpose and essence. The earliest historical records demonstrate the great interest which humanity has had in itself.

Social Justice

Social Justice defines justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within society for all.

Social Justice Advocate

Social justice advocacy is informed by experiences of poverty and exclusion by providing individual/personal advocacy supports aimed at realising rights and entitlements. Its purpose is to influence public policy outcomes, with and/ on behalf of a vulnerable group or community or indeed the wider public good.

Social Justice Pedagogy

The notion of Social Justice Pedagogy has become pertinent in education, especially in urban communities that have a history of being oppressed through schooling. To practice social justice teaching and learning practices are to truly see students for who they are and where they come from, where the teacher's role is to equip students with the knowledge, behaviour, and skills needed to transform society into a place where social justice can exist.

Structural Racism

In comparison to institutional racism, structural racism speaks of a broader space made by a group of people, from dozens, hundreds, or thousands that all have the same biases and personal prejudices joining together to make up one organisation and acting accordingly.

Systemic Racism

Systemic racism accounts for individual, institutional, and structural forms of racism.

Trauma Porn

A form of hyper-consumption in the media of black/brown death and pain; trauma porn is or at least it can be defined as 'any type of media – be it written, photographed or filmed – which exploits traumatic moments of adversity to generate buzz, notoriety or social media attention' which is particularly rampant when it is Black bodies and/or people of colour who are the ones being displayed as victims.

Unconscious Bias

Unconscious bias (or implicit bias) is often defined as prejudice or unsupported judgments in favour of or against one thing, person, or group as compared to another, in a way that is usually considered unfair. ... As a result of unconscious biases, certain people benefit and other people are penalised.

Willful Ignorance

More informally, wilful ignorance is the practice of intentional and blatant avoidance, disregard or disagreement with facts, empirical evidence and well-founded arguments because they oppose or contradict your own existing personal beliefs.

White Fragility

The term ‘white fragility’ was coined by Dr Robin DiAngelo, a multicultural education professor at Westfield State University, who described the term as, “a state in which even a minimum amount of racial stress becomes intolerable, triggering a range of defensive moves”.

White Privilege

White privilege (or white skin privilege) is a term for societal privileges that benefit people identified as white in some countries, beyond what is commonly experienced by non-white people under the same social, political, or economic circumstances.

Whiteness

Seated in the history of the ideology of ‘race,' ‘whiteness' as the foundation of racial categories and racism and defined as a set of characteristics and experiences that are attached to the white race and white skin. In the U.S. and European contexts, whiteness marks ones as normal and the default. While people in other racial categories are perceived as and treated as 'other'. whiteness comes with a wide variety of privileges.

Whiteness Studies

An interdisciplinary arena of inquiry that has developed beginning in the United States, particularly since the late 20th century, and is focused on what proponents describe as the cultural, historical and sociological aspects of people identified as white, and the social construction of ‘whiteness’ as an ideology tied to social status.

White Supremacy

White supremacy is an ideology centred upon the promotion of the belief that white people are superior. It is argued by critical race theorists that all white people have a level of white supremacy values because the media, education and politics have embedded whiteness as superior in society.