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Colleague spotlight Vini Lander

Colleague spotlight | Vini Lander

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Vini smiling in front of James Graham

Why we need to talk about race

Professor Vini Lander is Professor of Education and the Director of the Centre for Race, Education and Decoloniality (CRED) in the Carnegie School of Education. Vini’s Lets Talk about Race presentation has been delivered to hundreds of organisations across the UK. Her mission is to better educate people on issues of race, racism, and race equity, empowering the future generation of teachers to better support and teach children in our multi-ethnic society. 

 

Tell us a bit about you and what led you to working with Carnegie School of Education?

I trained to be a teacher in the 1980s and my serendipitous journey into teacher education started in 1992 as a science educator. In my thirty years in higher education I have led teacher education programmes, developed my research, and gained professorial roles in three universities. In the early days of my career as a teacher if you’d told me I would one day be a professor of education I would never have believed you! The previous professorial positions were managerial as well as academic. They were interesting and I learnt a lot about managing and leading a research environment. I wanted to, as they say, make a difference and whilst I enjoyed working with colleagues supporting their research careers and watching them progress, I felt the need to work more closely within my own area of research on race and teacher education in such a way as to make change happen. 

I heard there was a Centre for Race, Education and Decoloniality within the Carnegie School of Education at Leeds Beckett University.  I just thought how great. I would love to work there. So, when the opportunity arose, I applied for my current position. I am now Professor of Education and the Director of the Centre for Race, Education and Decoloniality (CRED) in the Carnegie School of Education. It is a privilege to work with academics, professional services staff, education professionals and anti-racist activists to challenge and tackle racism in all its forms within and beyond education. You can find out more about the work of CRED here.

 

What makes you passionate about issues of race in education, and why is it important in today’s society?

Ever since I was a child, I have been acutely aware of the damaging effects of racism on the lives of children and youngsters. I can recall the very day I became aware of this fact and the impact of the racist incident I suffered. It is that incident which has been the antecedence of my research and writing.  You could say that was the day, at the age of eight or nine that I became an anti-racist.

Throughout my higher education I have read about and researched the topic of race and education, specifically race and teacher education. I am a passionate advocate for teachers to be much better educated on the topics of race, racism, and race equity. If we don’t educate future teachers about the damaging effects of racism in all its forms (overt, institutional and structural) on the learning and lives of youngsters of colour then how will we create a better society in the future for all our young people to live in. It is imperative we prepare our teachers to teach in our multi-ethnic society. 

Over a third of the pupil population in England identify as Black, Asian and minority ethnic (a term used by the Department of Education), but the teacher population is much less diverse. This is another dimension of the debate I am keen to improve. The teacher population must reflect the diversity of the pupil population.  As they say, you can’t be what you can’t see!

So, I have been working with colleagues in the initial teacher education team within the Carnegie School of Education to try to organise an event to attract more Black and Asian people, but particularly black men into teaching. We must act to play our part in diversifying the teacher workforce and for that matter the leadership of our schools and academies. Only 7% of headteachers are from racially minoritized backgrounds. I know I went to school many years ago, but I only had one teacher of colour in all my years of education in schools and at university. We have got to change this static and persistent status quo.

There are many reasons why this situation persists nowadays, one reason is the ever-present effects of structural racism which keeps the leadership of schools and universities predominantly white. We ought collectively to instigate and sustain action to improve this situation.

How is collaboration integral to your work, and what are one or two collaborations that have been most meaningful to you?

Collaboration is essential in any field of education. It is a collaborative profession. I have been lucky to work with some very talented colleagues and students in my time in higher education. For me collaboration is not just about working with others but also in my position to provide colleagues and students with opportunities to advance their careers through these collaborations.

It has been an honour to work with Professor Heather Smith at Newcastle University and with the support of her university and the National Education Union we have undertaken research to ascertain the work undertaken in higher education institutions to educate pre-service teachers about race and racism. We conducted a literature review to identify good practice across the global North in terms of teacher preparation on race and racism; we issued a survey to all initial teacher education providers across England and interviewed teacher educators. This research then led to the writing and dissemination of an anti-racist teacher education framework. This work is essential and urgently needed within the sector.

Another recent collaboration is the work I have undertaken with colleagues, Dr Kavyta Raghunandan in Carnegie School of Education and Dr Tiffany Holloman (Bradford University). CRED has an annual call on Twitter for a working paper series. In 2020 the call was focussed on Covid-19 and racism. We had an overwhelming response from academics, teachers, students, and activists across the country. We were approached by a publisher to turn the working paper series into an edited ‘research shorts book. The book entitled, Covid-19 and Racism: Colliding counter-stories of pandemics new and old will be published in Autumn 2022.

I have also worked with several academics to research the effects of racism on academics of colour this has resulted in collaborative academic journal papers and book chapters.

What achievements have you been most proud of whilst working in the Centre for Race, Education and Decoloniality?

In 2020 I won a contract to work with the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA) to support their ambition to become an anti-racist organisation.  The work has been challenging and rewarding and as I continue to work with the Academy in the second year of the contract, I can see the green shoots of change within the institution.  I am very proud of the change I have helped to support within RADA.

Following the brutal murder of George Floyd in May 2020 I wrote to all of CSE’s partnership schools asking them to examine their race equity processes and the curriculum. But I knew this was insufficient and set about the task of devising the anti-racist school award. There are now over 150 schools which have signed up for the award. The schools are supported by a coach who work with them to change and adapt working practices and policies to improve race equity within the school. The award is at three levels bronze, silver, and gold. It takes two years for the schools to work through the five key components of the award and to evidence the change within their school.

It is one way in which we can raise the profile of race and racism in schools in such a way as to support the health, well being and educational outcomes of Black and Global majority students. The schools are encouraged to examine the curriculum and challenged to find ways to diversify and decolonise it recognising that the latter takes many years to achieve. The schools that have started the journey have found it challenging because staff and students have had to consider their positionality and how it orientates them with reference to race and racism. The coaches who lead the award have been senior managers in schools, CEOs of academy trusts and most of them are also doctoral researchers.

I am proud of the work that I undertook to train 600 GP trainers in Yorkshire and Humber in 2020-21 for Health Education England. There was very real interest and commitment from the Dean of Postgraduate Medical Education to advance the understanding of GP trainers and their students with regards to race and anti-racism. I have also worked with NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups and their governors to support the development of anti-racist perspectives within health care and to raise the understanding of health care professionals.

I am not a medical educator and had to read and research the area before devising and delivering training for this group of professionals. The more I read the more I realised how racism operates in healthcare in the same way as it operates in education and other sectors. It is pervasive and to tackle it you must be cognisant about its effects and modes of operation. I know that the colleagues in Yorkshire and Humber are still rolling out this training based on the inputs I provided. This is really satisfying, and I hope it leads to lasting change in the care and health outcomes for Black and global majority people.

Why do we need to talk about race?

I have delivered my Let’s Talk about Race presentation to over a hundred organisations since 2020. It is a talk about the basics of race and racism. It is challenging and very thought-provoking as the feedback has noted. As I read and observe the litany of racist incidents which seem to appear frequently in the media such as the racism endured by the Yorkshire cricketer Asim Rafiq or the treatment of child Q a Black teenage girl who was strip-searched in her school by two Metropolitan police officers without a parent or carer present to the historical examples of the racism suffered by early immigrants to this country, myself included, the more I know there is an urgent need to educate society about racism – its history, the different forms of racism and their damaging effects.

Knowledge is power and knowledge about racism should support and empower people, be they students or teachers to call it out and to make a difference. This is what I have been trying to do for thirty years and borne the injurious toll of denial and dismissal. But I will keep educating people about it because it is morally right to do so.  Education is anchored in hope and an act of freedom not complicity (Freire 2001).

Professor Vini Lander

Director Centre for Race, Education and Decoloniality / Carnegie School Of Education
Vini Lander is Professor of Race and Education and Director of the Centre for Race, Education and Decoloniality in the Carnegie School of Education.

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