Vision

 

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Based in Scotland, The Anti-Racist Educator is a collective of educational stakeholders (including students, teachers, parents, academics and activists) working toward building an education system that is:

• equitable

• free from racial injustice

• critically engaged with issues of power, identity, and privilege. 

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It’s easy to think you’re not-racist by treating everyone equally, regardless of race. But educators need to consider what it means to actively be anti-racist. Anti-racist education acknowledges that just following the status quo is not enough to truly counter the deeper roots of racism. 

 

Anti-racist educators need to constantly reflect on their teaching, realising their power to inadvertently reinforce racial hierarchies. With that power to perpetuate racism (be it implicit/explicit, interpersonal, internalised, institutional or structural) comes the power to intentionally dismantle those racial hierarchies.

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Values

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1. COLLABORATION

The Anti-Racist Educator seeks to engage in partnership work with members of local communities of colour, including allies, as well as established organisations conducting anti-racist work across institutional, educational, political, and personal contexts. The Anti-Racist Educator values practices of inclusivity, integrity, and solidarity that affirm racially diverse identities and experiences. 

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2. COMPASSION

The Anti-Racist Educator aims to work in responsive and affirming ways that include, respect, and value a variety of lived racial experiences of (anti)discrimination in accessible ways. The Anti-Racist Educator therefore values the curiosity and courage needed to engage in anti-racist dialogue.

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3. CRITICALITY

The Anti-Racist Educator adopts an understanding of race and racism as intrinsic to issues of socio-cultural and institutional power across its intersections with faith, gender, sexuality, (im)migration and citizenship, age, (dis)ability, and so on. The Anti-Racist Educator recognises that identities are fluid and bound to context, requiring critical engagement with the broad range of both minority racial identities and whiteness as the racial position of power. 

 

 

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Goals

(actions we take to achieve our vision)

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1. Disrupt racism and develop critical awareness:

• Work with educators to develop critical culturally-responsive pedagogies.

• Raise educators’ racial literacy by making critical understandings of race and anti-racism more accessible. 

• Address explicit and implicit racial violence against racialised minorities in education.

• Working with white allies who are confident in challenging racism.

 

2. Strengthen agency and empower (by harnessing difference as a productive resource):

• To value, share and construct different forms of knowledge and understandings of power, identity, and privilege by providing safe spaces for people of colour

• Providing safe spaces for people of colour involved in education to reach their full potential.

 

 

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Objectives

(things we do to achieve those goals)

 

1. Make The Anti-Racist Educator:

• A sustainable platform for people of colour in education to share perspectives, knowledge and practice

• An established part of the anti-racism landscape in Scotland

• An autonomous, member-led organisation

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2. Inspire and be inspired by people designing, leading and practising anti-racist education in their establishments

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Tactics

(what we have done and continue to do to meet the objectives)

 

A. Writing blog posts

B. Sharing teaching and learning resources      

C. Podcasting 

D. Designing and delivering workshops (in schools, universities, trade unions and other establishments)

E. Developing a glossary of key anti-racist terminology

F. Building links with strategic partners in Scotland and beyond

G. Making knowledge accessible, sharing events and the work of others via our platform and social media

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You can support the work we do by making a donation. All donations will be used to:

• sustain this platform

• fund ongoing projects 

• value the labour and time invested by the people of colour producing content and running the collective. 

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People Involved

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Co-Founder: Mélina

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My name is Mélina, I teach English in a secondary school in Scotland and I am an avid anti-racist activist. With a particular interest in academic research, I am currently a member of the Reframing Race programme run by the Runnymede Trust, I completed my MEd dissertation on anti-racism in Scottish educational policy and I received a scholarship to visit the USA and explore racial dialogue in education.

A lot of my anti-racist activism also stems from my involvement in the Scottish and British trade union movement. It has given me opportunities to engage with racial matters in education and society at wide, network with local communities, speak at conferences and design and facilitate workshops on racism. All of the above experiences feed into my contributions to this platform.

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Co-Founder: Hashim

 

 

 

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Hashim is an early-career primary teacher based in Glasgow. His energy for anti-racist activism and research come from both his experiences of being a Muslim from a Pakistani family, and seeing the structures of racism persist in wider society. Thinking about where our Nike trackies come from, who gets space to speak, and what constitutes "refined" culture are things often on his mind. He also writes poems.

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Organisers:

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- Sangeeta

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Sangeeta is a Team Leader for a youth health and wellbeing programme delivered in schools across Glasgow City Council. With a background in youth development, Sangeeta has a continued passion about the youth voice and social justice. In 2017, Sangeeta participated in an Erasmus project which seeked to bring together five European countries to develop a network of trainers to design training and tools for youth workers to tackle hate speech. This experience, along with growing up in Scotland as a woman of colour, led to Sangeeta’s interest to engage in anti-racist activism. Through the anti-racist educator, Sangeeta has facilitated workshops for educators, hosted podcasts and collaborated with other anti-racist/youth work organisations to seek to create change in education.

 

 

- Lewis Hou

 

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Lewis is director of the interdisciplinary education organisation Science Ceilidh and runs the Culture & Wellbeing Community Network Scotland.

He is particularly passionate about supporting anti-racism and decolonising across science, research, arts and culture in education and practice.

As a facilitator, he works to support equitable partnerships, dialogue, community building and cultural democracy - where everyone's voice, creativity and expertise is valued.

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- Navan Govender

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Navan N. Govender is a Lecturer in the School of Education at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom. He holds a Bachelor of Education degree (specialising in secondary English teaching), and Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Applied English Language Studies, and a PhD in Applied Language & Literacy Education in the field of critical literacy. His PhD investigated how critical literacy could be used to engage student teachers with issues related to sex, gender and sexual diversity in South Africa. Currently, he is working to understand critical literacy's role in Scottish English language and literacy education as well as in initial teacher education.

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Other organisers: Franklin, Khadija, Titi, Hashim and Mélina. 

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Content Contributors:

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              - Nighet Riaz

Dr Nighet Riaz is an early careers researcher at the School of Education at the University of the West of Scotland. Nighet’s research explores how young people and communities can become ‘othered’ fuelled by moral panics to tackle the perceived disaffection of young people who have been identified as ‘at risk’ of social exclusion through policy and practice.

 

              - Smina Akhtar

Smina Akhtar is a PhD student at the University of Glasgow researching experiences of anti-Muslim racism within state institutions and the strategies used by communities to resist racism. Her interests include the historical development of racism, the role of the state and anti-racism with a particular focus on political activism. Smina has been active within the anti-racist movement in Scotland for over 20 years and before returning to academia she held senior management and community development posts within the housing and voluntary sectors.

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              - Tony Adams

Tony Adams is a black Lecturer and EIS equality rep at City Of Glasgow College. He writes for the Scottish Left Review and he has published in the Asian Times, Caribbean Times, Morning Star and Weekly Journal.

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              - Aneel Singh

As the grandchild of migrants that came from India to Scotland in the 1950s and 1960s, my concern for the wellbeing of people from minority communities has always been strong. By volunteering and working on pioneering schemes projects that encourage the empowerment of minority communities, I have been, and am, fortunate enough to work with organisations that vehemently promote equalities and human rights issues and take an inclusive stance.

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Get involved:

We are inviting people of colour and parents/guardians of children of colour in Scotland to contribute to our blog and our podcast by sharing their unique perspectives and to create a collective voice that can spark change.

If you identify as BME, BAME, a person of colour, and/or politically black, or you are a parent/guardian of a child of colour in Scotland, you may contribute by joining as a member, becoming an organiser and/or becoming a writer for The Anti-Racist Educator. Please get in touch!

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