I recently joined the anti-racism & learning technology group. If you’d like to learn more about the work of the group, there is a series of blog posts on the #altc blog which provide a great starting point:
- The Anti-Racism & Learning Technology Community of Practice: An Introduction-Part 1 of 4
- The Anti-Racism & Learning Technology Community of Practice: Guidance for Content Developers -Part 2 of 4
- The Anti-Racism & Learning Technology Community of Practice: Research Connected Activities -Part 3 of 4
- The Anti-Racism & Learning Technology Community of Practice: Recruitment and Staff Development- Part 4 of 4
There is also a really interesting post focused on frameworks as a starting point for anti-racism content development.
Quoting from the first post:
The AR<CoP has been meeting since November 2020 to address these challenges and currently encompasses three areas of activity:
- Guidance for Content Developers. The focus of this area of activity is to create a set of recommendations to incorporate anti-racism in digital learning content.
- Research Connected Activities. Research, seminars and advances in the field of digital education are covered in this area. For example, diversity and digital leadership, and the influence of biases in Artificial Intelligence and machine learning.
- Mentoring & Coaching. This area of activity aims at creating connections between colleagues who wish to support and receive support for career advancement and managing the complexities of an increasingly fast-changing work environment.
I am particularly interested in the mentoring and coaching area and also recruitment. I am currently in the process of recruiting for a member of staff and post no. 3 is very relevant to me, encouraging us to ‘disrupt the current procedures in place, and to ensure that we can action diversity rather than pay lip service to racism issues in the sector’. Specifically, looking at:
- Gender empowerment and more diverse students/staff pool
- Unequal pay between white staff and other ethnicities
- Demographics of the UK and the geographical locations of applicants
Reflections
The first meeting I was able to join in with was on 29 July, and this introduced Bold Conversations for Equality, Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging – activities planned for the autumn term. I really appreciate the opportunity to join the group’s discussions and the opportunity to educate myself, challenge my ideas and blind spots.
The main part of the session was about setting up circles for discussion and coaching each other, offering safe spaces for mindful listening and voicing issues around the core areas of activities. I found it really interesting to hear and listen to the approach modelled here and how it reflects the values of the group.
It was good to learn about a particular strand of work of the wider group, and I am particularly interested in the coaching approach used.
Come the new autumn, I am looking forward to being more actively involved in the work of the group and I am grateful to the inspiring group facilitators for moving this forward.
Image: Photo by Andrew Ridley on Unsplash .