Tuesday 19th March 2024 – 4:15pm-5:30pm // free and online // Eventbrite registration required for non-UWE colleagues
By Malcolm Richards – Senior Lecturer in Education, School of Education and Childhood
The third in an exciting series of collaborations by Network for Black Studies in Education, in collaboration with UWE ECRG, Bristol Caribbean Kitchen, Bookbag (Exeter), and Phoenix Agenda Supplementary School (Leicester).
Overview
Culture Club: Words, Sight and Sounds remixes traditional book club formats, using digital sources to encourage a creative learning space for teachers, student teachers, community educators, and academics. We are specifically interested in developing deeper understandings of the wide-ranging area of Black Studies scholarship, and its relevance to local-global contemporary education.
Our guest discussant
We are delighted to welcome as our guest, Dr Rita Gayle (University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK).
Rita Gayle (she/her) is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow for The Conjunctures Strand of The Stuart Hall Archive Project at the University of Birmingham. Rita is a co-founder of the research group, Global Black Geographies with Dr Agostinho Pinnock in 2019. Rita can be found online on X : @rita_gayle
How it works:
Ritahas selected THREE digital resources inspired by Words, Sights, and Sounds, for us to respond with. Two of these stimuli are freely available from digital sources, with URL links provided on registration.
Attendees will have several weeks to engage and reflect with the resources.
Event structure:
On the day, Dr Rita Gayle will explore THREE which stimuli speak to how creativity, place and space affect the production and transfer of Black knowledges.
· (from 4.15pm) Embodiment of Black Life – a specially curated SOUND playlist by Dr Rita Gayle
If you would like to hear any more about joining the Network for Black Studies in Education with UWE, or this event, please contact Malcolm Richards malcolm.richards@uwe.ac.uk
Malcolm Richards, Senior Lecturer in Education, Malcolm.Richards@uwe.ac.uk
Black studies is an interdisciplinary academic field that primarily focuses on the study of the history, culture, and politics of the peoples of the African diaspora and Africa and extends knowledge and experiences to include contributions as dynamic as ancient African histories to world civilisations. There remains growing frustration over the absence of black studies across the UK higher education sector, citing significant concerns that broader range of knowledges is excluded from the academy, which counters initiatives which respond to the disproportionate outcomes for marginalised student and staff communities.
Led by Malcolm Richards (Senior Lecturer in Education) and facilitated through UWE New Starter Research Scheme (2023-2026), this project seeks to establish a Network for Black Studies in Education research across Britain with UWE. This exciting project brings together ongoing and new interdisciplinary projects across UWE ECRG (Education and Childhood Research Group), alongside the Equity in Education strand, principal partners, and wider educational communities to foster deeper understanding around research which focuses upon philosophical, intellectual, pedagogical, creative, and transformational experiences of peoples of African descent in education across Britain.
The aim to establish a globally recognised Network for Black Studies in Education research at UWE. This project brings together ongoing and new interdisciplinary projects at UWE and with principal partners and wider educational communities to foster deeper understanding around the broad range of research which focuses upon philosophical, intellectual, pedagogical, creative, and transformational experiences of peoples of African descent in education across Britain, to better understanding and connect universities to the communities they serve.
Project priorities:
Identify, examine, and strengthen valuing of theories, research, and pedagogical practices from Black Studies in Education scholarship.
Contribute to collaborative production and advancement of Black Studies in Education scholarship in the areas of research and pedagogy, curriculum development.
Engage UWE staff and students, research partners and local-global educational communities by sustaining accessible and inclusive spaces for critical dialogue surrounding issues of race, racism, identity, culture, indigeneity, social justice, and more.
Facilitate and encourage networking and collaboration with study programs, UWE staff and students, research partners and community organizations to better understand the field of Black Studies in Education, research, pedagogy, and practice.
Curate and archive local-global knowledge production and exchange and active research partnerships on issues of importance across the field of Black Studies in Education in Bristol, and beyond.
Through the development of a virtual campus (site in development), we will engage audiences inside and outside the academia through a diverse programme of collaborative research activities, including publications, online symposiums, digital reading groups, exhibitions, and collaborations with our principal partners and wider local-global communities. We hope such activities can generate significant impact in other areas of strategic importance, including educational policy, sustainable education, health, and wellbeing, and support future research and funding opportunities.
For more information about the Towards a Network for Black Studies in Education at UWE ECRG project, please can contact Malcolm Richards malcolm.richards@uwe.ac.uk directly. The project’s virtual campus launches in early 2024.
Over the last few years we have watched the sound of young people’s voices get louder in response to global climate change. Before lockdown we saw thousands gather to protest in public places around the world demanding change. Demanding action. Young people leading young people to insist that the global community act now, and act quickly to ensure a fairer, more sustainable future for all.
Here in Bristol the voices of young people are not overlooked. This year I have been privileged to work with the Global Goals Centre; an exciting new visitor centre that will offer immersive ways of learning about the climate and ecological emergency framed around the Sustainable Development Goals. Learning about these important issues through fun and engaging ways – with an emphasis on what we can do to make a difference – is a key theme running through all stages of development.
As young people will be an important audience for the Centre, I ran workshops across the city to enlist their help in the designing the first of the immersive experiences. Through the Youth Design Challenge young people were invited to design a space around the theme of fast fashion. Entries were judged on creativity, engagement with the theme and consideration of different learning experiences. Whilst knowledge of ocean plastics and the need to reduce carbon emissions was acknowledged, few young people had previously considered their connection with the fast fashion supply chain, but they did not disappoint with their thinking and creative response to the situation.
On 23rd November a host of dignitaries gathered on a zoom call to celebrate the work of those who had entered the competition. Marvin Rees (Bristol’s Mayor) was delighted to make the presentations after the young audience listened to Bristol’s leading young climate activist, Mya Rose Craig (also known as BirdGirl). Finisterre, a Cornwall based company specialising in sustainable clothing donated the prizes.
The competition was not a token nod to the voices of the young. It was not a cheap marketing technique to get buy in from sponsors and lead the headlines. Instead, this competition is just another step in engaging and enabling young people’s voices to be heard in the development of the Centre. These designs will now be used by the creative team to inform pilot designs which are hoped to be tested later in 2021.
Young people aren’t just making noise about wanting a sustainable future, they are full of amazing ideas and ready to think through difficult problems in new ways. We mustn’t just listen, Instead, we need to provide ways in which young people’s voices can inform change. It is not up to our youth to make the change – such pressure is both unfair and untenable with many experiencing eco-anxiety and grief as a result. Instead, we need to work together – old and young – for a better future.
For
most of us, a visit to the museum is a chance to relax, to learn interesting
stories from our past. We can probably remember school visits to museums when
we were younger. However, for some children, the visit can be challenging:
namely autistic children.
Some research highlights that involving children with autism in
recreational activities helps to support inclusion, reinforces positive
behaviours, and enhances well-being. Within
this context, a museum visit is considered a pleasant way to spend leisure
time, as it provides interesting stories to inspire and engage visitors; while offering
opportunities for experiential learning through play-based activities.
In response to the growing international drive for equal rights
and diversity, museums have been encouraged to embrace new ways to provide
access to services, with a focus on providing access to people with a diverse
range of disabilities. This coupled with an ongoing rise in diagnoses of autism
has led museums to address issues of integration. Considering the needs of autistic
visitors, museums have attempted to integrate an individualised supportive
environment and to provide sensory-friendly activities. In addition,
improvements have been made to the physical spaces of these environments.
Responding to the prevalence of digital media, museums have gone one step
further to consider digital practices as a means of engaging visitors with
various impairments. However, the adoption of mobile services in museums seems
to target specific groups, and there is little work regarding digital platforms
developed specifically for autistic people.
With
technology for autistic users being well researched with many attributed
benefits, the role of technology in museums represents a timely area of study –
this is the focus of my PhD work.
Benefits
of technology for autistic users includes:
Slower presentation of
information/communication;
Reduced pressures of completing activity
(with others);
Computers and technologies can be
predictable, systematic and logical; all supporting the strengths of the autistic
communities.
With
this in mind novel technology programs have been
developed to promote various aspects of education, communication, and
entertainment, as well as social skills.
My PhD study has been focused on addressing the potential of using
digital services in a museum for autistic visitors. It investigated the views
and impact of a digital museum experience (through a museum-based app) of
autistic children. One of the main aims was to examine whether a museum-based
app could be a mediating tool to enable groups of autistic children to have an
inclusive experience in a barrier-free environment.
My study was conducted in several stages, and cycles of an
iterative process were included to help build an optimal version of the touch-screen
interface. This study was conducted in collaboration with a special educational
needs school and the M Shed museum in Bristol. The design and development of
the app was based on existing literature coupled with recommendations and
feedback from the participating children.
So far, the findings suggest that a museum-based app was viewed as
a useful tool to provide equal opportunities for autistic children in which to
participate with museum-related activities.
Given that autistic people can encounter profound challenges in their
daily life and feel marginalized from society, a specific adaptation is
necessary in this context (a museum). The use of the app during the visit
seemed to act as a bridge and to guide the children by focusing on specific
exhibits in the gallery. The data also revealed that the choice of the exhibits
through play-based activities encouraged the children to be more motivated and
to remain focused on the requested tasks.
Overall, the findings from this study support the idea that:
The use of technology-based museum activities can contribute to
the inclusion of the autistic community.
The role of partnerships with specialists from different fields
are an important aspect of providing high quality outcomes.
This study aimed to shed light on an under researched area and to inform future policy and services provided by museums. This, in turn, could help young autistic people (and their caregivers) access museums in meaningful and supportive ways – and so they can get more out of the experience.
Author: Dimitra Magkafa is a doctoral researcher at the Faculty of Arts, Cultural Industries and Education, the University of the West of England.
The impact of digital media on the social world is a global phenomenon that presents the education sector with a set of new challenges. Even though there is considerable body of research engaged in problematising the effects of digital media on education, the contexts in which these perspectives take place are to a great extent western and often lack social theoretical considerations. In this regard, the Global South has largely been portrayed through a conception of technical divides (access to technology) whereas questions of how new digital and social media interrupt, extend, transform and/or create new, alternative education practices from a multitude of perspectives is far less common. This approach, no doubt, relates to the epistemological and ontological stance one adopts for their research, and where, more often than not, western knowledge is confused with universal knowledge. Santos (2014) names the practice of privileging one type of knowledge over another ‘epistemicide’ and calls for the need to unlearn the dominant criteria by which we conceive the social. Understandings of the role(s) digital media play in education in the Global South would therefore benefit from engagement with different knowledge lenses.
The concept of the ‘Global South’ is one that surpasses geographical location to focus on how colonialism, patriarchy and/or capitalist action has led to deep and ingrained social suffering (see Santos, 2016). It is however true that most research on phenomena that afflict the Global South finds its location in the southern hemisphere. With it then comes the care and the concern that the reality under study is (re)presented from the perspective of those who are part of and/or affected by it. With regards to the focus of this book, this means to explore not only the ways in which digital technologies – especially those associated with the web – drive or hamper education practices, but also whose practices they most affect, how and why.
One of the key purposes of obtaining knowledge from the Global South is not just that of simply giving voice, but rather of sharing voice with those implicated and affected by the phenomena being explored (Santos, 2016, p.21). This requires methodological attention not only to what types of knowledge are being produced through research practices, but how these are developed and by whom. This presents a clear case to connect social theory to method as a core research activity, one that this book aims to promote and exemplify in its different chapters. In this sense, we are interested in exploring how social theories – such as those developed by Arjun Appadurai, Pierre Bourdieu, Judith Butler, Franz Fanon, Michel Foucault, Nancy Fraser, Paulo Freire, Stuart Hall, Jürgen Habermas, Edward Said, Amartya Sen, Gayatri Spivak etc. – can be applied (individually or hybridly) to digital education phenomena in the Global South. We are equally, if not more, interested in examining the application of alternative social theories that may help develop new understanding on the issues at hand.
Hybridized forms of theory will be of particular interest to this collection as a form of advancing new knowledge through the intersection of different and/or emerging theories, as for example, works linking Gramsci to Freire, Foucault to Spivak, etc.
In this regard, this book aims to explore the interplay between digital media practices and education (primary, secondary, further, higher, and adult and community education, as well as informal education) in the context of the Global South. We are particular keen on chapters which can advance existing theories and/or propose new theoretical debates. Chapters focused on the thematic of the book can explore a wide range of issues, as for example: Civil society; Colonialism; Culture; Curriculum; Identity; Language; Knowledge ecologies; Modernisation; Patriarchy; Social justice; The state, etc.
Chapter Proposals
Proposals for chapter contributions, in the form of a 400 word abstract, are requested (deadline: June 30, 2019). The chapter abstract must clearly detail:
The focus of the research and the specific research question/aim.
The social theory/ies and/or theorist(s) drawn upon for the conceptualisation of the research problem as well as how social theory-informed methodologies influenced the research process, i.e., research design, method, and analysis
Explicit reflections of how the theory/ies used offer unique ways of thinking about the issues being explored.
Abstracts received by June 30, 2019 will be reviewed by the editors and authors notified of review results no later than September 1st 2019. A book proposal will then be sent to Bloomsbury Publishing: Social Theory and Methodology in Education Research Series.
Authors invited to submit full chapters will have until May 30th, 2020 for their submission, which will be followed by a peer-review process. Publication of the book: December 2020.
Cristina is Associate Professor in Digital Education and Society in the Department of Education and Childhood, University of the West of England, Bristol, UK. After completing a degree in Modern Languages and Literatures, Cristina worked as an EFL teacher in the Portuguese Navy. During that period she developed an interest in Learning Technologies and completed an MPhil in Educational Technologies at the University of Lisbon, Portugal. In 2007 she moved to the UK to take up a post in the field of Learning and Research Technologies at the University of Salford. In February 2013 she completed her PhD study on The participatory web in the context of academic research: landscapes of change and conflicts. From March 2013 to March 2018 she worked as a Lecturer in Digital Education at the University of Strathclyde. She was named Learning Technologist of the Year 2010 by the Association for Learning Technology (ALT).
