The swan song: a long farewell to the academe

I will be leaving my beloved academia in the next few months to take up the role of Organisational Lead for Equality and Diversity at Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (BHFT). It was always going to take a significant role and/or a progressive organisation to wrench me from the academe. BHFT is committed to facilitating a culture of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: ‘respect for everyone, serving the population well, and building a fair and just culture within the organisation’. The role and organisation’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion strategy are consistent with my espoused ethical leadership and transformational leadership values.  

Intellectual Influence

This is an emotional farewell to Higher Education (HE) – a sector that has given me the only wealth that tyrants cannot despoil: the ethos of interrogating closely and an understanding that things social are rarely, if ever, as they seem, truth lies hidden behind the mask of everyday life (Jenkins, 2002). Therefore, as an educator my philosophical position draws on the critical ideology of writers such as Karl Marx and Paulo Freire who questioned why individuals should be content to merely understand the world without attempting to change it. I reject the claim that education is innocent – it does not produce objective value-free knowledge of social reality. It is embedded within social context (Horkheimer, 1937; Scherer, 2009). University lecture theatres are not neutral or objective spaces: university is a political site where dynamics of power in society are produced, reproduced and perpetuated. There is prioritisation and validation of certain epistemology over others in the curriculum. How and why does this happen? What are the ideological implications? This highlights that the lecture theatre has incredible potential to illuminate, contest and dismantle the inequalities that negatively impact on students from marginalised sections of the population and inequalities that are still glaring in the workplace and society in general (Bhopal, 2018; Ono-George, 2019). I consider myself as an advocate of social reform, I do not shy away from unmasking and challenging systematic inequality: established social conditions and organisational culture and practice that systematically favour certain groups, their interests and privileges at the expense of those who are disadvantaged by them (Alvesson et al, 2009). 

Professional and Pedagogical Values

I have been involved in a range of teaching, training, lecturing, tutoring and management roles in the Further Education (FE) and Higher Education (HE) sectors in the UK for nearly two decades. I was professionally reared in the FE sector before moving to HE. FE is a multifaceted sector that is difficult to define: it is the “everything else” sector that is expected to tackle all kinds of issues – from moral standards of the young to the nation’s industrial and commercial skills deficit (Nash et al, 2008; Finlay, 2009; Simmons, 2009). The sector has always been overshadowed by policy priorities of primary, secondary and HE and regarded as a ‘Cinderella service’ with a low status due to its technical and vocational ethos and the working class section of the population that it serves (Randle and Brady, 1997; Wahlberg and Gleeson, 2003; Simmons and Thompson, 2008; Simmons, 2009). The sector is often a near neighbour to people in deprived regions and communities for whom universities are a distant and unfamiliar notion. A significant part of the population believes that FE colleges are institutions better suited to ‘other people’s children’ (Richardson, 2007), thus the elite usually do not have to resort to studying at their local college (Simmons, 2009). 

As a lecturer in the FE sector, I raised the aspirations and educational attainment of students from lower socio-economic groups, students that are usually marginalised and misunderstood because of their backgrounds.  I derived great satisfaction in giving a second chance to students who for whatever reason were not initially as successful as they would have originally liked in their educational careers. FE has always been at the forefront of helping people who are perceived as not academically attaining or academically gifted to re-engage with education and achieve after 2, 5, 10, 15 or even 20 years. In FE, I gave this student cohort opportunities to fill in the gaps that were missed at secondary school and helped them acquire employability and/or academic skills to facilitate their progression into employment or transitioning to HE. Looking back, I have always contributed to Social Mobility, Widening Participation and Social Justice. I am aware that in spite of the rhetoric about Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, British society and the HE system are still inherently elitist: it is 2020 but differences remain and are glaring - it is still difficult for students from lower socio-economic groups to enter and succeed in HE. Post university, these students are less likely to find professional jobs; if they do they are likely to be paid less than their counterparts (Augar Review, 2019, HEFCE, 2015; TUC, 2016; CIPD, 2017; UUK & NUS, 2019). Also, they are less likely to be in senior managerial roles, ‘They are more likely to be ruled out of promotion and feel they have to be “twice as good” as their colleagues from privileged backgrounds’ (ECU, 2015; Bhopal, 2018). Without doubt, the consequences of one’s background continue beyond graduation – only one in eight children from underprivileged backgrounds is likely to become a high income earner (Social Mobility Commission, 2016). What is still going on in society?

When I moved from FE to HE, it dawned on me that educational leadership and management were characterised by endemic irony: there is a gap between intention and outcome (Hoyle and Wallace, 2007). HE institutions were largely judged on mission statements and documents that frantically shouted and gesticulated the diversity card, safe spaces and a unique liberal positioning. However, beneath that grandeur the reality was/is sobering: there is an unexplained Awarding Gap of 13-20% points between the proportion of White students and their peers from Black Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) backgrounds achieving 1st or 2:1 – having progressed from A Level with similar grades (Amos, 2019; Augar Review, 2019; Bhopal, 2018; HEFCE, 2015; UUK & NUS, 2019). These attainment differentials are always explained in safer and more palatable ways other than race – why is that so? There are around 17,130 Professors in academia in the UK, 115 of them are Black. There is a “fuzzy promotion criterion and poor feedback on applications” (N. Rollock, 2019). These are uncomfortable issues, they are not easy to talk about, particularly if one wants to be perceived as an academic and not an activist. Also, we should never underestimate the power of discourse, structure and agency. Initially, I always exercised self-censorship in order to be perceived as collegial and a team player - accepted and trusted. Sometimes, individuals are socialised to become unreflective participants in the lifeworld: some are carefully taught not to recognise their unearned priviledged status in society (McIntosh, 1988) and others are taught to be obedient students and employees incapable of imagining an alternative more humane, rational and just education system and society (Scherer, 2009). Reflective participants problematize any of the taken-for-granted norms of the lifeworld: they can neither be victims of a superiority complex nor enslaved by an externally imposed inferiority complex – they have agency and engage critically and creatively with social reality.  

I must conclude this swan song with a direct plea to the following groups: 

·      Policymakers and Senior Leaders in HE: strong ethical leadership is required. Significant progress has been made over the last few years to address issues of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, however there is a long way to go. There is an Educational Debt and it is humongous – there are groups out there in society that were denied education for years. We can no longer deny this. There is need to formulate policies and strategies that will facilitate resilient culture change. No more disingenuous and tokenistic initiatives please!  

·      Academics: there is need to embrace ethics and duty of care – the curriculum needs inclusivisation / decolonisation. Unwillingness to challenge injustice facilitates the production and perpetuation of prejudice. Where necessary, force students out of their comfort zones (understanding of their privileged social position, power and sense of entitlement is key in producing informed and fair-minded citizens and future leaders). Pedagogy can facilitate race equity in a system that is out of balance. 

·      Students from disadvantaged backgrounds: if you come from the disadvantaged / marginalised section of the population, soldier on and hold on to your dream(s), no matter how gloomy or intimidating the maze is. One African proverb comes to mind, ‘The moon moves slowly, but it crosses the town’. So, do speak the truth, even when your voice is shaking. Audre Lorde said, ‘My silences had not protected me. Your silence will not protect you’. So, do not remain silent, exercise your agency overtly or covertly if need be. One day you will be visible in the HE curriculum. One day you will not be struggling to fit in. One day you will have a sense of belonging. As one of my heroes, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, said, “May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears”.

·      Students from privileged backgrounds: you are a more progressive generation, support your peers from marginalised backgrounds – be their allies. ‘For the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house. They may allow us temporarily to beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change’ (Audre Lorde). Your peers need you to stand with them as they struggle to dismantle injustice, stereotypes etc. They need you to facilitate safe spaces for healing.

·      My own kids (see picture above): As Field said, “It ain’t what they call you, but what you answer to”. Chinua Achebe said, “A man is never more defeated than when he is running away from himself.” So, I decided to stop running away from myself a few years ago, grabbed the nettle and started having very uncomfortable discussions and presentations across the country about a monocultural HE curriculum that is underpinned by Eurocentric colonial logic. I have challenged students, lecturers and managers in the sector to do the right thing and contribute to the dismantling of injustice – there were times when I was reminded that social justice was not part of my remit, at times I was overwhelmed, and my voice did shake. However, I did not stay silent so that privileged members of the academe could stay comfortable. To use the words of John Adams, who was a USA Diplomat and Politician (1735-1826), “I have studied politics and war so that you may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy”. I hope you will not have to have these difficult and uncomfortable conversations when you progress to HE. However, if you have to, do not run away from yourselves. 

I am moving to Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust now as Organisational Lead for Equality and Inclusion, to facilitate a culture where people from marginalised and disadvantaged sections of the population are visible, heard and allowed to move from the margins of their discourse into the centre (England, 1994). I am committed to contributing to the Trust’s strategic policy initiatives with the hope that you will not hit the buffers by the time you enter employment. I will consistently advocate for more humane, just, transparent, meritocratic and resilient recruitment and internal promotion processes and procedures. I will continuously challenge those who want to defend their unearned privileged status in society and those who illegitimately claim discrimination to mask their own limitations in equal measure. This is a moral obligation – it’s the right thing to do.