Student sense of belonging
The resources on this page look at how students experience inequality and prejudice at university and how it affects their sense of belonging as part of their cohort and wider academic community.
Questions to consider as you review the resources on this page:
How would you support students who frequently go above and beyond your expectations in terms of productivity and the time they spend working?
How would you manage a situation where you overhear a student or colleague tell a joke with a punchline which made you feel uncomfortable as it reinforced a negative stereotype of a particular group?
Has a fear of saying the wrong thing ever stopped you from expressing yourself or intervening in a situation?
Which strategies could you use to ensure you don't avoid students for fear of getting their name wrong?
Microaggressions
Copy of Understanding Microaggressions.pptxThese slides have been taken from University wide training on how to work inclusively and be an ally.
The prevalence and incidence of these racial microaggressions remains a key marker of the continuing power and privilege of Whiteness in educational practice and wider society as they continue to wound, constrain and denigrate the validity of the presence of persons of color. Yet these very acts are ‘missed’ as being racist not just because of their subtlety but because of an inherent misconception that ‘nice’ people cannot be racist.
Rollock 2012
"In her critical philosophy of race, Sullivan (2006) asserts that in a racist society, people of colour are prevented from “direct[ing] their transactions with the world in significant ways” (p. 146); instead, they are obliged to acquiesce to the transactions that are thrust upon them. Such everyday encounters may have made them interpret their own views, interests, skills, experiences and backgrounds as inferior: “I don’t have anything to talk about” (Participant 23: East Asian, no religion, female, 18–21, exchange UG, Geology BSc)/“I don’t have that much to share” (Participant 27: East Asian, no religion, male, 18– 21, international UG, Planning BSc). This compelled some minoritised ethnic students to retreat to their homes, so the space of the campus (which was at their White counterparts’ disposal), became less accessible. Sullivan’s account describes a restricted sense of being in space. We found that this was heightened for international students, whose pillars of support are located in faraway locations".
Singh et al. 2023
The Everyday Sexism Project aims to take a step towards gender equality, by proving wrong those who tell women that they can’t complain because we are equal. It is a place to record stories of sexism faced on a daily basis, by ordinary women, in ordinary places. To show that sexism exists in abundance in the UK workplace and that it is very far from being a problem we no longer need to discuss. To provoke responses so numerous and wide-ranging that the problem becomes impossible to ignore. To report the way you have been treated, even if it has not been taken seriously elsewhere. To stand up and say ‘this isn’t right’, even if it isn’t big or outrageous or shocking. Even if you’ve got used to thinking that it is ‘just the way things are’.
These entries were found by searching for the keywords “STEM”, “Engineering”, “Science”, “Maths” and “University”. Website accessed 13/4/23
"In a recent interview for a European newspaper the journalist conducting the interview shared that he is multiracial. He has a circle of white friends whom he has know for decades and who "definitely" identify as progressives. Yet across all those years, he has tried repeatedly to talk to them about the racism he experiences, and they refuse to listen. They insist that they don't see anyone as different, that we are all human and have a human experience, that we shouldn't talk about race as if it mattered, and so on. When he shared with one of those friends that he was going to be interviewing me about my book White Fragility and that he was excited, this friend replied, "I don't like that term. I think that divides people." Here is a person of color who has just shared that he is looking forward to talking to a white person whose work on race he appreciates. His white friends have an exceptional opportunity to understand the perspective of a person of color who they claim to love. And yet they refuse. Confident that they know all they need to know on the matter and having the last word, the subject is closed. Their confidence exists in spite of the fact that they have very few racialized friends, have not had any education on racism, have not engaged in dialogues on race, and are living in a moment when a global Black Lives Matter movement has swept Europe, where they reside.
"How can I get them to hear me?" he implored. I could only sigh. These friends likely cite this journalist of color as their evidence that they are not racist whenever the topic comes up, even as they have silenced him on race for years. This is the maddening daily invalidation of people of color by so-called open-minded white people."
DiAngelo, 2021
"Less than 60% of LGBT+ people in STEM are out. One in three US physicists has been advised to remain in the closet. Half of transgender or gender non-conforming people have been harassed in their department. Little wonder, then, that lesbian, gay and bisexual students are 10% less likely to enter a STEM career than their straight peers. ...
Lisa believes it is extremely important that people can be who they want to be in the work environment – otherwise, interpersonal relationships are hampered. In science, collaboration – cooperating with others, sharing ideas, giving honest feedback – is essential. And collaboration is built on trust".
Taking pride in our researchers, University of Cambridge
Jokes
"I have been in untold situations where something racist is said, and, as the only black person present, the responsibility has fallen on me to challenge it -not one of the white people present has said anything. It used to be wildly hurtful, exhausting and disorientating when none of my 'friends' would defend me, especially on the unbearable occasions when they also turned on me, with the accusation that I was making everyone feel uncomfortable by defending myself....
..A joke told to a white audience where the punchline is a racist stereotype isn't a joke, again it's just racism; if there is only one black person present, it's also cowardly and it's bullying..
...Growing up, I had countless friends make openly racist slurs which they defended as craic. On one occasion, I reminded a white friend of a racist slur he had called me -as 'a joke' - a few weeks earlier. Through an unusual series of events, he found himself in a room full of black people, so I asked him if he cared to repeat the 'joke' again. Funnily enough, for some reason he didn't feel like it. The experiece allowed him to understand that he only got away with saying certain things to me because of the whiteness of our environment. I think often white people can't even begin to imagine what it would be like to be the minority (and even when they are, it's not equivient, as the entire history and power dynamic is so different). Nonetheless, in this instance it was a short, powerful lesson that racist jokes are not universally recognized as funny and that, once you spend time out of entirely white spaces, they become much harder to justify."
Dabiri, 2021
Tone policing
If you see someone who is angry and upset about something that was said or done to them, don’t tell them they should be nicer. Instead: Recognize their emotions as valid. Recognize that their emotional state is an indication that something extremely harmful was done to them, whether it was by you, or someone else. Work to understand why the action was oppressive. Take all that energy that you’re wasting being so concerned with how people are responding to their own oppression, and channel it into fighting oppression. — Do or Die
Perceptions of particular groups
"Though disclosing a disability is a choice, receiving accommodations requires disclosure, which means many disabled people have to decide when and to whom they disclose their disabilities. For students and faculty alike, disclosing a disability on an application comes with the fear of rejection based on biased stereotypes that cause people to equate disability with being unprepared, incapable, or a liability"
Peterson and Welch, 2021
This video shows how people respond to passers by respond differently to a white woman, a white man and a black man who are all openly stealing a bike.
The cumulative cost of being part of an under represented group
"One postdoctoral scholar felt that any behavior that diverged from what these racist people deemed acceptable would reflect badly on the entire Black race: 'A lot of times, some of the classes I struggled in, I struggled in because I didn't want to go to the professor's office hours, or I felt like the professor was unreachable. I felt like maybe I had to kind of seem strong, and maybe visiting office hours would be seen as a sign of weakness or something like that. I just felt like, by going to their office hours, they would make me feel dumb or they wouldn't listen to me as a person and they would just say, "See? These Black kids can't cut it.'
McGee, 2020
"In comparison to the standardized concepts around what constitutes ability, disability is often constructed as deviant from the norm and synonymized within effectiveness and lower productivity (Jammaers et al.,2016). This creates a problem known as an identity threat for many academics with disabilities, by pressuring them to “make up” for their impairments and to prove their worth to respective institutions and academic communities. Such pressure often creates a great deal of self-sacrifice(e.g., health, work-life balance, etc.) that non-disabled academics do not necessarily experience (Horton &Tucker,2014)".
Kwon, C. (2023)
