Background: The under-representation of women and other minority group members in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) academia is a problem internationally and is attributed in part to hostile workplace cultures. We draw on the social identity perspective to examine the dynamic inter and intragroup processes entailed in these…

Uncontested narratives of normality in primary teacher training are located and demonstrated in heteronormativity, whiteness, able-bodiedness and femininity. Early-Career Teachers who know and feel they lie outside of these are positioned uneasily as they try to locate spaces to express their identities and enable self-agency. This article…

This Point of Departure ponders the question of decolonizing assessment of learning in higher education. In addressing this question, we, as scholars of color who work in the academy in the US and the UK, have leaned on the work of Shahjahan, Estera, Surla, and Edwards' (2022) '"Decolonizing" Curriculum and Pedagogy: A comparative review…

The lack of diversity in some areas very much ties in with the data on school staff promotions and moving into senior positions. The United Kingdom government's schools workforce data shows black and Asian people are underrepresented in the teaching workforce. According to recent figures covering state schools in England: Just 4.7% of teachers in…

This article examines how schools are produced as spaces for heterosexual, cisgender citizens. Lefebvre's spatial triad is employed to analyse how conceived, perceived and lived spaces interact to produce a space that is often experienced as one of surveillance for LGBT+ people. This surveillance can lead to the internalisation of negative social…

Legislation such as the Equality Act 2010 has ensured that considerable progress has been made in tackling discrimination in relation to the 8 protected characteristics that are defined in law. UK HEIs are well-versed in monitoring the diversity of their workforce and ensuring that recruitment is compliant with the legislation. However as HEIs…

The use of zero-hours contracts (ZHCs) has been associated with the transfer of risk away from corporate employers and towards individual employees. In universities increasing numbers of teaching staff are employed on such contracts. Academics from Black and minority ethnic backgrounds (BME) are disproportionately more likely to be employed on…

Replete with espoused discourses of equality, diversity and inclusion within public bodies, is the UK, wherein lauded initiatives reward its universities' commitments to increasing the access and positioning of 'women' in higher education. This paper contributes a critical quantitative analysis of the state of representation and participation of…

Black and minority ethnic (BME) communities continue to experience differential outcomes within the United Kingdom (UK) mental health system, despite increased attention on the area. The trauma of racism for BME academic and professional staff within higher education remains problematic against a backdrop of cultural and organisational…

In the UK, government and educational stakeholders perceive the problem with boys' disaffection and underachievement in school as due to a lack of role models. In political role model discourses Black or Ethnic Minority (B.E.M.) teachers are recruited to modify the behaviour of B.E.M. boys, without attaching any blame to the systemic racism they…

UK Higher Education is characterised by structural and institutional forms of whiteness. As scholars and activists are increasingly speaking out to testify, whiteness has wide-ranging implications that affect curricula, pedagogy, knowledge production, university policies, campus climate, and the experiences of students and faculty of colour.…

This article explores the experiences of academics of colour in elite universities in the UK and the USA. Drawing on interviews with 34 respondents and using a critical race theory perspective, the findings indicate that academics of colour experience racism in the White space of an elite university. To counter the racism they experience, they…

This critical autoethnography is an account of my experiences as a woman of color (WoC) academic at a predominantly White institution in the times of COVID-19 and the consequential turn to online teaching and learning. It reflects on how the pandemic has exacerbated my experiences of discrimination, marginalization, isolation, and the struggles to…

Research into the impact of neoliberalism has shown that institutional and individual pressure on staff working in Higher Education (HE), has changed over the last 30 years. Our first research study showed that the changes resulted in mostly negative experiences for White staff. In a second study we have investigated the impact of neoliberalism on…

From the moment a child is born, they create a self that it is influenced by their external world, this includes social and political factors. As the sense of self develops one cannot ignore the importance of interpersonal relatedness and social interactions. School experiences are therefore key. This paper addresses the experiences of mixed…