Understanding Pedagogic
Discrimination: Strategies for
improving performance of BME
students in HE
Eddie Blass, Kathy Weston and Mick
Broadbent
Context
• The ‘idea’ of the university
• White male upper class history
• Shift to multicultural, international student
body
• Government target of 50% participation
• Pressure to recruit overseas students for
financial reasons
• How has the provision changed in response?
Case Study Context
• Post-92 University
• Approaching 50% non-white student population
• Mirrors national picture of differential attainment
rates by ethnicity
• Typical in commitment to enhancing Teaching
and Learning (ie CELT centre, enhancement
awards, etc)
• International student induction and accelerated
skills unit
• Mentoring schemes for any students who buy-in
Methodology
• Student focus groups specific to ethnicity
• Staff focus groups
• One-to-one interviews with high performing
students within low performing categories
• Analysis of teaching and learning
methodologies
• Seminar observations
• Questionnaire (forthcoming)
Baseline Position
• Students will segregate themselves if we do
not do something actively to encourage
behaviour otherwise.
– Loss of opportunity to extend base of knowledge
– Loss of opportunity to improve language schools
– Exclusive behaviour in the classroom
– Differential grade outcomes
– BUT safe and secure position for students to take
Response of Academics
• Four options:
1. Deny the situation and ignore it
2. Acknowledge the situation and accentuating it
through classroom action
3. Acknowledge the situation and continue to
ignore it, often due to lack of strategies to
address the situation
4. Acknowledge the situation and seek out
strategies to address the situation
Example 1
• Lecturer finds the names of students from
BME groups difficult to pronounce and hence
avoids addressing those students by name in
the class.
• Intention is not to embarrass themselves or
the students.
• Implication is students are more excluded in
the classroom.
Example 2
• Groupwork assignments are set with random
allocation of group members.
• Intention is to integrate between groups of
differing ethnicity.
• Implication is that some students feel they are
carrying others and resentment between
ethnic groups increases.
Example 3
• Lecturers select case study examples to
illustrate theory from current newspaper or
Western textbooks.
• Intention is to bring the theory to life.
• Implication is that organisations operating in
non-Western cultures are excluded and nonWestern students are disadvantaged at
contributing to the discussion.
Student Response
• Students are very positive about their
experiences of teaching and learning in HE.
• Students appear unaware of any indirect
discriminatory practice.
• There is no evidence of direct discrimination.
• Students attribute underperformance to each
other based on gender and specific ethnic
groups, eg home Asian Males and overseas
Chinese.
Academics Response
• Large amount of guilt experienced for not
being able to redress the situation,
particularly amongst women.
• Some anger expressed at admissions
procedures when English language clearly is
not ‘good enough’.
• Some evidence of staff stereotyping students
to explain their levels of motivation and
participation in seminars.
Academic Responses
• Academics do not know how to support
international students and some express
ambivalence as to whether or not they should.
• Tailored support offered for disability but not
for other sources of disadvantage.
• Acknowledgement of cultural unawareness
and reliance on stereotypes.
• Insecurity surrounding the issues and hence a
‘whispering’ culture
Suggestions for ways forward
• Development of international case studies to situate
the learning in a variety of ethnic contexts.
• Greater use of peer assisted learning strategies to
embed social relationships across ethnic groups.
• Development of inclusive seminar teaching strategies
amongst academics.
• Greater use of technology to mediate language use.
Are sessions podcastable?
• Development of materials to support overseas
students in the UK model of assessment, including
samples and model answers to demonstrate
differences between assessment questions.
• Staff development to overcome stereotypes.
On-going activity
• Still consider this to be pilot work
• Seeking funding for extension
• Questionnaire being developed to test wider
experiences
• Possible extension to alumni
Any Questions
THANK YOU FOR LISTENING