The awarding gap for Black students compared with their white peers stood at 19.3 per cent in 2020-21 and widened to 21.6 per cent for the 2022-23 academic year. This disparity is concerning and unacceptable. University and regulatory bodies, like the OfS and Universities UK, regularly collect and analyse data to understand the scale of the problem and the causes of the awarding gap.
In the Universities UK report “Closing the Gap Three Years On”, one of the key recommendations to tackle awarding gap disparities is to allow space for open and honest conversations about race between students themselves, and also between staff and students. For example, creating spaces where staff can listen to, and engage with, the voices of Black students can help to reduce systemic barriers and inequalities.
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We emphasise the importance of facilitating these conversations, while recognising and identifying issues around race and racism that are highlighted. We also advocate for the adoption of anti-racist teaching and learning as an important approach to reducing the race degree awarding gap.
What is anti-racist pedagogy?
Anti-racist pedagogy is “an organising effort for institutional and social change that is much broader than teaching in the classroom”. Anti-racist pedagogy focuses on teaching and learning, calling on educators and institutions to be explicit in identifying and addressing race as a matter of power and equity, centring lived experience, and highlighting the politicising nature of education to uncover and dismantle the structural roots of inequality. The three principles of anti-racist pedagogy are as follows:
(1) incorporating the topics of race and inequality into course content
(2) teaching from an anti-racist pedagogical approach
(3) anti-racist organising within the campus and linking efforts to the surrounding community.
Practical implications
We collaborated on a chapter of Yaz’s upcoming edited book How to Transform the Business School: Embedding Anti-Racism, Decolonisation, and EDI in Practice (Elgar). In it, we offer strategies to embed anti-racist pedagogy in teaching and learning. Here they are:
1. Establishing clear expectations at the beginning of courses and modules is essential for communicating the intentional approach to embed anti-racist praxis and pedagogies into teaching and learning. Examples include initial discussions across teams at the start of the term, and teams reviewing course and module handbooks with students in class to emphasise the adopted approach and the rationale for its integration.
2. Empowering all students by recognising their assets, including the knowledge and lived experiences that they bring into the classroom, to enrich the learners’ experience.
3. Challenge the established discourse. Integrate critical inquiries that begin with a thorough review and a commitment to revising curricula and methods to incorporate anti-racist pedagogy. Engaging in this process allows us to deconstruct and confront dominant narratives, biases and racism. It also allows space to question how power structures and historical events have shaped current inequalities, giving space to anti-racist praxis.
4. The adoption of a holistic approach across the university is vital in preventing anti-racism efforts from operating in silos with minimal impact. Adopting a whole-institution approach can also encourage widespread contributions, rather than the work undertaken by colleagues who typically engage in anti-racist, decolonial and equality, diversity and inclusion work.
5. Presenting colleagues with data related to the race awarding gap and other key performance indicators and metrics focused on continuation, retention and progression is essential. It showcases evidence of the value of anti-racist pedagogy in benefiting not only racially minoritised students, but the student body more generally.
Academics, course leaders and academic developers must recognise the impact of institutional and structural racism. Together, we call for a commitment to developing the skills needed to question and address the underlying ways of knowing that shape teaching and learning practices.
Yaz Osho is director of academic professional development at the University of Westminster. Danielle Chavrimootoo is director of Dorcas Inclusive education consultancy.
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