ANSHI SINGH
DIVERSIT Y AND INCLUSION
Embracing difference Educators and training providers need to help eradicate any form of discrimination, allowing students and teachers to achieve their full potential, says Anshi Singh f you don’t see colour, you don’t see me. If you say you are indifferent to colour, ethnicity or background in your interactions, you don’t see me. I want you to see different colours. I want you to see different races. I want you to see different genders. I urge you to see that we come from different backgrounds. I want you to see that we are different. Because if you see me as I am, then you accept me as I am. Because it’s not about ‘you’ or ‘me’; it’s about our colleges which are committed to their communities. It is about where we want to be in terms of diversity and inclusion. It’s about bridging the attainment and achievement gaps. Every time there is a movement to increase the representation of black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) people or an opportunity to voice an opinion, it makes me overtly positive that change is round the corner. But it also makes me sad that we actually need these movements to remind everyone that we are different and we have to be more inclusive, not just in our lesson planning but in our lives. A few years into further education (FE), an educator with high aspirations should be focusing on their teaching practice and leadership skills but I balance my full-time job with my work of representing the voice of the BAME community across the FE sector. Whenever I would talk to someone about my aspirations, my BAME colleagues and friends only had one piece of advice for me: ‘They’ will never let you into ‘leadership roles’. Their
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I CANNOT GIVE MY BEST TO MY WORK, UNLESS I FEEL I BELONG AND STAND AN EQUAL CHANCE TO GROW argument was always backed up by data and experience. I cannot give my best to my work, unless I feel I belong and stand an equal chance to grow. Also, I realised, it is important that my fellow educators and students feel they belong and have a positive learning environment that promotes aspiration and equal opportunity for everyone. ‘Them’ vs ‘us’ is not what we need as educators building our next generation. As a sector that prides itself on education for people from diverse backgrounds, we must work together to bring change we want to see in society. The impact of ignorance of our cultural differences on our younger generation is something that will take years to repair and, with the decline in the ethnic visibility in senior leadership roles, it looks like we are not getting any closer. I have lost count of the number of incidents shared by students where they felt they were not trusted, not listened to or not given an opportunity because they are from BAME background.
OPINION
No matter how much I tried convincing them, it did not change their perspective because the bias they face in their everyday interactions was far greater than what one Asian teacher was telling them. If you watch critical thinking discussions on #BlackLivesMatter by Scott Hayden on Instagram, it gives you an insight into how much representation matters for our younger generation. We need to push for the change collectively. Hosting a Twitter UKFEChat on the issue, and listening to my fellow educators’ views on how much they want to be part of this change, makes me feel that I belong and the work we are doing to raise awareness is heading in the right direction. The Black Lives Matter movements have given me the confidence to be who I am and say what I want to because I know people want to change and to be more inclusive. For my BAME colleagues, if my vulnerability – me being braver by saying ‘yes’ to every opportunity that comes my way to represent us, either by writing an opinion piece or by standing up in a hall full of people – can bring hope to even a single person that they can aspire, grow and achieve what they want, then my work here is done. I am hopeful that I will see a change in policies, which will take pride in inclusion, and not on the quota or plans to fulfil diversity. I am hopeful that we will work together to raise awareness on different cultures and racial prejudice, and that there will be allies to lean on when we need support from each other. I am hopeful that when the younger generation start their careers as educators, their aspirations will not be bound by the facts and figures from various organisations, but they will be guided by the diversity of people they will see around them in different roles. Because I am hopeful – yes, I am!
ANSHI SINGH is course director for computing at Basingstoke College of Technology @TeachAnshi
AUTUMN 2020 INTUITION 9
08 opinion_Intuition September 2020_Intuition 9
09/09/2020 12:20
