No end and no beginning; race equity in higher education

Abstract

Purpose

To provide insights around navigating, coping and tackling racial inequalities at university through three key areas: peer support through sharing stories, motivating others in the call to action through developing an anti-racist socially just consciousness and student staff co-creation to build belonging and community at university.

Design/methodology/approach

Varied approaches are included around pedagogy, curriculum, peer support, using creative outputs, sharing stories and valuing student wisdom through co-creation underpinned by empirical research.

Findings

I concede that establishing race equity in higher education continues to be an ongoing struggle, complete with trials, tribulations and trauma. As “The Forced Silence” outlines, to affect any changes in the institution or in the community and wider society, the changes have to take place at the peer level initially, as it is people and individuals who make up the system. This means that tackling racism is everyone’s business and we all have a responsibility for this work. Privileged folks who are seemingly disaffected by racial discrimination are indeed misguided, as racism is an illness in society and significantly harms our global community. Within higher education institutions, educators occupy a position of power (Hearn, 2012), which I argue we must use in a socially just manner to support all our students to succeed. By embodying and enacting care, compassion and respect within our practice, we can then instil the same in our students, just as we would do for our own children. Our students, just like our children, can then go into society as holistic and socially just conscious members of our community, which I argue is even more important than graduating with a good university degree.

Originality/value

I use a range of original poetry and theory with a view to supporting my academic professional practice in higher education.

Citation

Shakir, S. (2024), "No end and no beginning; race equity in higher education", Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-05-2023-0171