Narratives of academic staff involvement in Athena SWAN and race equality charter marks in UK higher education institutions
TL;DR: The UK has, since 2005, taken a formalised approach to improving gender equality in academia in the form of the Athena SWAN charter mark; in 20 years, the UK has achieved an improvement in women's equality in higher education as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: In line with other national higher education systems, the UK has, since 2005, taken a formalised approach to improving gender equality in academia in the form of the Athena SWAN charter mark; in 20...
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TL;DR: The authors argue that the dominant articulation of the University, conditioned by economic value rather than humane values, has been reinforced and amplified during the Covid-19 pandemic, in order to highlight the processes by which intellectual work and the reproduction of higher education institutions connect value production and modes of settler-colonial and racial-patriarchal control.
Abstract: Universities in the global North are shaped against intersecting crises, including those of political economy, environment and, more recently, epidemiology. The lived experiences of these crises have renewed struggles against exploitation, expropriation and extraction, including Black Lives Matter, and for decolonising the University. In and through the University, such struggles are brought into relation with the structures, cultures and practices of power and privilege. These modes of privilege are imminent to the reproduction of whiteness, white fragility and privilege, double and false consciousness, and behavioural code switching. In particular, whiteness has historical and material legitimacy, reinforced through policy and regulation, and in English HE this tends, increasingly, to reframe struggle in relation to culture wars. This article argues that the dominant articulation of the University, conditioned by economic value rather than humane values, has been reinforced and amplified during the Covid-19 pandemic. The argument pivots around the UK Government policy and guidelines, in order to highlight the processes by which intellectual work and the reproduction of higher education institutions connect value production and modes of settler-colonial and racial-patriarchal control.
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TL;DR: This article conducted an empirical study of the Athena SWAN Ireland Charter (ASIC) implementation across three purposively chosen Irish universities, interviewing 26 key institutional actors tasked with implementing the ASIC locally.
Abstract: Due to the systemic inequalities enduring in career progression pathways in the Irish higher education sector, the Athena SWAN Ireland Charter (ASIC), a gender equality accreditation program, is being implemented. Using a theoretical approach, blending insights from feminist institutionalism with literature on the role of narratives in policy implementation, this article reveals the complex nature of subjective engagement with policy implementation processes. This article discusses an empirical study of Athena SWAN Ireland Charter implementation across three purposively chosen Irish universities, interviewing 26 key institutional actors tasked with implementing the ASIC locally. Narrative themes emerging as dominant from the data include a lack of operational knowledge, desire for a nationally contextualized program, ambiguity, championing, “happy talk,” and identifying points of resistance. Literature on the role of narrative accounts highlighting a diversity of perceptions in policy and program implementation is strengthened by this study's findings. A feminist institutionalist lens highlight the gendered nature of the operationalization of the Charter work and the vague and detached “happy talk” engaged predominantly by senior men leaders. Findings from this empirical study highlight the importance of exploring the narrative accounts of key actors in order to gain a holistic understanding of the nuanced implementation process, beyond the normative assumptions inherent in the Charter implementation.
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TL;DR: In this paper , the authors investigate how staff and students have understood the concept of decolonising, and evaluate the limits of this work, and suggest that decolonizing is losing its radical edge.
Abstract: Decolonising work in Higher Education (HE) has become increasingly mainstreamed. One issue is the relationship between such work and that of equality, diversity and inclusivity (EDI), or the potential reduction and co-option of decolonising for EDI purposes. This article discusses the characterisations of, and drivers for, decolonising inside UK HE, and then situates this against one, institution-wide programme of work. This programme sought to investigate how staff and students have understood the concept of decolonising, and to evaluate the limits of this work. Analysing surveys and interviews using a grounded theory approach suggested a moderate or limited view of decolonising work, and supports concerns that decolonising is losing its radical edge. Echoing work on the possibilities for epistemic and racial justice from inside capitalist institutions infused with the logics of coloniality, the argument questions whether it is possible to know the University otherwise.
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TL;DR: The Equality Pledge (EP) scheme as mentioned in this paper encourages staff to make a personal pledge to improve some aspect of EDI in their working lives, either individually or as a team, so as not to increase already high workloads.
Abstract: Higher education (HE) in the UK continues to prioritise equality (or equity), diversity and inclusion (EDI), but stark inequalities still exist, and non-inclusive cultures persist. We have created the Equality Pledge (EP) scheme which empowers HE staff to contribute to positive culture change by making a personal pledge to improve some aspect of EDI in their working lives. We encouraged staff to each set a manageable pledge, either individually or as a team, so as not to increase already high workloads. Staff recorded their pledges on an online form, and six-monthly updates were requested to capture impact, progress and feedback on the initiative. We recorded over 260 pledges from staff in the Faculty, aiming to tackle issues around teaching and learning, working practices, self-development, admissions, marketing and other issues. Over 100 staff have now recorded progress updates, which reveal significant impact. The EPs have also led to a significant increase in dialogue around EDI and, we believe, the beginning of a positive shift in culture. Within our own university, other faculties are now beginning to roll-out the EP. This initiative has relevance across HE and other sectors. It is a practical intervention to facilitate positive culture change.
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TL;DR: The authors examined how the Race Relations Amendment Act (2000) has shaped a new politics of documentation, which takes diversity and equality as measures of institutional performance, and concluded that such documents work to conceal forms of racism when they get taken up in this way.
Abstract: This article examines how the Race Relations Amendment Act (2000) has shaped a new politics of documentation, which takes diversity and equality as measures of institutional performance. Writing documents that express a commitment to promoting race equality is now a central part of equality work. Rather than assuming such documents do what they say, this article suggests we need to follow such documents around, examining how they get taken up. This article will interrogate the politics of documentation, by drawing on interviews with diversity and equal opportunities officers from ten universities in the UK. It focuses on how documents are taken up as signs of good performance, as expressions of commitment and as descriptions of organizations as “being” diverse. It concludes that such documents work to conceal forms of racism when they get taken up in this way. And yet, by allowing practitioners to expose the gaps between words and deeds, these documents can be used strategically within organizations.
359 citations
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors consider the role of teacher actors in policy-making and propose a typology of roles and positions through which teachers engage with policy and with which policies get "enacted".
Abstract: This paper considers the ‘policy work’ of teacher actors in schools. It focuses on the ‘problem of meaning’ and offers a typology of roles and positions through which teachers engage with policy and with which policies get ‘enacted’. It argues that ‘policy work’ is made up of a set of complex and differentiated activities which involve both creative and disciplinary relations between teachers and are infused with power. This is the paradox of enactment. The teachers and other adults here are not naive actors, they are creative and sophisticated and they manage, but they are also tired and overloaded much of the time. They are engaged, coping with the meaningful and the meaningless, often self-mobilised around patterns of focus and neglect and torn between discomfort and pragmatism, but most are also very firmly embedded in the prevailing policies discourses.
312 citations
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TL;DR: Thinking through the implications of the use of wearable technologies in workplaces, this article shows that these technologies introduce a heightened Taylorist influence on precarious working bodies within neoliberal workplaces.
Abstract: Implementation of quantified self technologies in workplaces relies on the ontological premise of Cartesian dualism with mind dominant over body. Contributing to debates in new materialism, we demonstrate that workers are now being asked to measure our own productivity and health and well-being in art-houses and warehouses alike in both the global north and south. Workers experience intensified precarity, austerity, intense competition for jobs and anxieties about the replacement of labour-power with robots and other machines as well as, ourselves replaceable, other humans. Workers have internalised the imperative to perform, a subjectification process as we become observing entrepreneurial subjects and observed, objectified labouring bodies. Thinking through the implications of the use of wearable technologies in workplaces, this article shows that these technologies introduce a heightened Taylorist influence on precarious working bodies within neoliberal workplaces.
286 citations
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TL;DR: In this paper, a multi-layered exploration of the diversity management field in the UK is presented, which aims to address two problematic tendencies in the current diversity research: the focus on single-level explorations, and the polarization between critical and mainstream approaches.
Abstract: This paper presents a multi-layered exploration of the diversity management field in the UK. In doing so, it aims to address two problematic tendencies in the current diversity research: the focus on single-level explorations, and the polarization between critical and mainstream approaches. Using Bourdieu’s concept of field, I develop a theoretical framework that conceptualizes the field of diversity management in three constituents: diversity discourse, diversity practice and diversity practitioners. The framework is used to analyse empirical evidence generated through semi-structured interviews with 19 diversity managers of large private-sector companies. This study reveals the presence of a gap between the diversity discourse and practice, and the absence of any standard set of qualifications and skills requirement for practitioners. The findings demonstrate the twofold role of discourse in drawing the boundaries of the diversity management field. First, it is instrumental in constructing diversity management as distinct from equal opportunities. Second, the use discourse functions as a mechanism to control the entry of practitioners into this field, which otherwise has low entry barriers. The paper offers a contribution to management research in general and equality and diversity research in particular through its original use of Bourdieuan sociology in an empirical study.
217 citations
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TL;DR: In this paper, the concept of identity taxation was introduced to encompass how other marginalised social identities (such as gender, race and gender, and sexual orientation) may result in additional non-academic service commitments for certain faculty.
Abstract: In 1994, Amado Padilla used the phrase ‘cultural taxation’ to describe the extra burden of service responsibilities placed upon minority faculty members because of their racial or ethnic background. In this paper, we expand upon Padilla's work and introduce the concept of ‘identity taxation’ to encompass how other marginalised social identities (such as gender, race and gender, and sexual orientation) may result in additional non-academic service commitments for certain faculty. Using qualitative interviews with faculty members at a large, public university in the Midwest, we examine identity taxation involving gender and the intersection of gender and race to demonstrate how women faculty (in general) and women of colour (specifically) feel their gender and racial group memberships influence their experiences in academia.
152 citations