Our social:

athena swan

The Listening Project – Part five: Athena SWAN represents me

By Tom Troppe, Doctoral Researcher at the Faculty of Education

You might ask how an organisation founded to advance the rights of women within Higher Education might represent someone like me, who presents as a cis-gendered male.

I came to CCCU in 2018 to study for an MA in Early Childhood Education, a field in which men form a tiny fraction of the work force. Before that, I worked as a stay at home dad for 20 years in the US. From the beginning, I definitely considered myself a feminist, but I don’t think I thought of myself until recently as an activist for gender equality. I am now a doctoral researcher, exploring the diary which I kept during those years, with an interest in better understanding the home learning environment co-created by the members of my family.

Over the past few months, I have been working closely with Naomi Lumutenga, reaching out to colleagues within the faculty in a Listening Project designed to better understand our experiences, how we might learn from them, and how such knowledge might celebrate and improve structures for justice within our faculty and university.

Naomi is a Ugandan-born Educationalist, and Alumni of Makerere University and University College London currently pursuing a PhD in Education. She is the Co-Founder, Coordinator and Treasurer of HERS-EA. Naomi taught Geography, Economics, Business Studies and Religious Studies at Maidstone Grammar School in Kent for 23 years and held various management positions. She established international study partnerships between UK and China, USA & South Africa. She is an activist for Social Justice, Equal Rights for women (especially in Developing Countries). She is a regular speaker and preacher; also, served as a Lay Representative of Canterbury Diocese, at the General Synod of the Church of England, for 11 years. She has also presented papers at 4 successive Engagement Scholarship Consortium conferences in USA, and published one of the papers.

Together, Naomi and I have been learning from each other, our postgraduate colleagues, and the Athena Swan team. We have heard issues of intersectionality—that experiences of gender bias affect the whole person and often intertwine with experiences of attitudes towards race, ethnicity, national origin, class, age, ability, sexuality, or any of the other markers by which we understand our identities. And we have questioned whether describing gender bias can continue to address ‘men’ and ‘women’ but not all genders. In doing this, we see that our faculty and university take gender justice seriously. We seek opportunities to grow toward justice, and make an ongoing commitment to continue to do so.

If anyone within the faculty should have any questions regarding the work of Athena Swan and how we might better serve our community, please contact me, Naomi or any member of our group, which is led by Kerry Jordan-Daus.

You can contact Tom, and thus the wider group, by clicking here.

The Listening Project

A group taking part in a sharing and listening exercise

Foreword

As part of the Faculty’s Athena SWAN team (SAT) communication plan, we will be sharing monthly blogs written by members of the SAT. Thank you Maria for sharing the first such blog of 2020.

Kerry Jordan-Daus

Faculty of Education

Athena SWAN Lead

***

The purpose of this blog is to reflect on my understanding of the Athena SWAN and the Faculty Plan and why this is important for me. The Athena Swan Charter (2005), was initially established to encourage and recognise commitment to advancing both the careers, and employment in higher education and research of women in science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine (STEMM). Since May 2015 this charter has evolved to recognise the work undertaken to address gender equality more broadly, and not just barriers to progression that affect women.  

I initially volunteered to become part of the Faculty Athena SWAN Self-Assessment-Team (SAT), with the understanding that it was a project concerned with inclusive practice. I have since learnt that it relates specifically to gender equality.  I imagine that this could have far reaching implications in terms of exploring the Faculty’s culture and commitment to equality and inclusive practice.  As the Programme Director for the BA Primary Education Part-time route, I have seen the impact of flexible learning and flexible working for many of our students. I am committed to widening participation and enabling those who cannot access full-time study achieve their professional goals and achieve qualified teacher status through part-time and flexible study. 

In our first team meeting in December, the SAT learnt about the background and status at Canterbury Christ Church University (CCCU) of Athena SWAN.  We already hold the institutional Athena SWAN Bronze Award (November 2016). The University goal is to progress to the institutional Silver Award. Before this can progress, all the Faculties/Schools need to have achieved at least Bronze.  Achieving Bronze requires a review against a series of criteria and the development of an action plan. As we embark on the Faculty’s plan, to submit for our Faculty Bronze award, I see this as an opportunity to celebrate inclusive practice. I am looking forward to learning more about the Faculty and how we can build on where we are; this is must be a listening project. For our plan to mean anything, in my opinion, it must be a true representation of the voices, views and actions of colleagues within the Faculty. 

At the initial meeting of the SAT working group on Tuesday December 10th 2019, there were discussions that arose from, and are perhaps inexplicably linked to inclusion and gender equality. These quite naturally included the reference to the staff profile of both the Faculty, and wider university. Currently, Bronze Award does not explicitly include professional services staff. We think this is unfortunate, but with Shelley McAuley, Faculty Manager, Operations and Quality, we are committed to including all colleagues’ voices going forward.  

The Faculty’s SAT represents a wide group of colleagues, who bring to the team different experiences and different ways of working and different personal perspectives. Whilst the SAT will be using key data sets, they have also agreed to hold focus group discussions. This affirms our commitment to the Faculty’s Athena Swan plan being based on staff voice. This is our listening project. I look forward to meeting and talking to colleagues as we move forward. 

Maria Elsam

Senior Lecturer – Primary Education (Science), Programme Director – BA Hons Primary (part-time)

Further reading

Athena SWAN Charter

Athena SWAN at Christ Church

What do my students see….

By Kerry Jordan-Daus, Principal Lecturer

I have been troubling over something one of my students wrote; all of my white teachers see me as trash.

How can I disrupt this awful narrative of learning and of education. How can I be a white teacher who lets this student know and feel cared for? These words have been in my head and in my heart. I need a pedagogy to address this.

The BAME attainment gap is real and it’s troubling. A combination of complex factors contribute to this. One of my BAME students has multiple caring roles. One of my BAME students has complex health challenges. One of my BAME students may think I will treat her like trash. All of my BAME students share experiences of racism, it’s normalised in their day-to-day existence. One of my BAME students told me she never talked about this stuff. It was too painful.

What do my students see, feel, hear when they walk into my classroom. Sharing a story I told my students about losing my trainers when I was in Year 7 and having no money to replace them, wearing a pair of black gym shoes. I loved PE and was a member of lots of school teams. The sole had come away from the plimsole, but I used sellotape to hold it together. Some girls in my class laughed at me. I was bullied because I was poor. There was no money to buy a replacement pair of trainers. I shared the story of how the PE teacher told me she’d found my trainers. They weren’t mine, but she said I could have them. I now wonder …..

One of my BAME students cried when I told this story. She then shared a story of personal poverty. But she also said she was shocked and upset by my story. When she saw me, she didn’t see that person who aged 11 or 12, was getting bullied for being poor. What she saw was white, middle class, privilege.

I teach the history of colonialism. I examine the social constructs of racism. I read widely to develop my own understanding. I recognise my own lived experiences of growing up in a very white working class context. I reflect on the normalisation of discrimination of Romani traveller communities that was embedded in my childhood community. I reflect on how this has shaped me, who I am now.

I reflect on the experience of marrying into a persecuted religious group. I seek to understand the longevity and implicit fear of anti-Semitism that is ever pervasive, every day, every moment in our lives. I reflect on how this has shaped me, who I am now.

I live each day fighting for acceptance of my daughter, now a young adult. Her ASD diagnosis gives us all some thing to hold onto, to sense make, to challenge the system to accept and fight for adjustment. I reflect on how being the mother of a young adult with neurological diversity has shaped me, who I am.

My pledge for #DiverseEd2020 is to be explicit about who I am. What my students see can be clearer only by me shining that lens on who I am. And firstly that means knowing myself better.

Kerry is a member of the Faculty of Education and is the Faculty’s Lead for Athena Swan.  You can find more Athena Swan-related blogs by searching ‘Athena Swan‘ in the blog search function.

The Listening Project – part three

Foreword

I was asked to join the Faculty’s ATHENA Swan Self-Assessment Team before COVID-19 had even been heard of, and so this blog if formed of two parts – the first is my reflection on why I felt it was important to be involved and the second offers some reflections on the place of ATHENA Swan in our current circumstances.

Finley Lawson, LASAR Research Fellow within the Faculty of Education

Having previously been involved in another school’s (now successful) submission as a postgraduate student representative I was aware that one of the things you are asked to consider as part of your submission is whether there are diverse role models within your school/faculty. For me, this question of having role models really gets to heart of why ATHENA Swan is important (and it isn’t because we should have role models). I am not saying that being able to see yourself within the leadership, staff or student body is not important, it is a central part of feeling that you “belong”.

However, the challenge I find with the question about role models is that it puts the onus on those who are diverse (whether race, gender, neurologically etc) to stand at the front and show that they are present and so you (as another diverse individual) can belong too, there is an assumption that they can, should and will want to be that representative for all people “like them”.

What I think comes before this is the creation of a community where whether you perceive yourself to be the only trans/non-binary member of staff/ student, or you know yourself to be one of a small number of PoC within a school there is a fundamental need to ensure that not only is your voice heard, but that you know it is genuinely listened to with interest. It isn’t enough to be included in a committee because you are “diverse”, but you should feel that you are included, or seen or heard because you matter and you are also “diverse”. In this sense, I feel that in important part of the Self-Assessment process is, as others have said, a listening project. It is about understanding what we are currently doing to make sure that the quieter voices, the minority voices, and the voices that feel that they are intentionally silenced or unintentionally unheard, are given space to be heard, and that in doing so we understand where we still need to develop to make sure that we are a community that role models what inclusivity and diversity look like, and therefore that the onus is on us, as group, to role model, rather than expecting others to want/have to speak “for”, be seen “for” others “like them” to know that we are a diverse community.

Secondly, with the move to online working (for those that can), despite the surrounding debate about whether this has led to a greater burden on women and those with caring responsibilities. I have found an increased awareness of the need for people to juggle their work and commitments, a greater understanding that just because email can be answered immediately doesn’t mean that I don’t have other priorities that might lead to a response in 24 hours not minutes.

It has been the small gestures I have noticed: a note attached to a meeting request asking if it fits around responsibilities, a greater willingness to ask if people have capacity to take on additional work, and a greater awareness of the need for flexibility – my working hours may not be your working hours. I wonder, and I hope that this requirement for flexibility, that has been brought about by the current situation, and recognition that working off site doesn’t mean working less, will stay with us long after lockdown has ended. The recognition of people’s capacity, and work-life balance has, at least in my experience, become a new part of scheduling work/meetings. People seem to be more aware that others may find it easier to meet “after work” because of childcare, or need a break in the day because of their own health needs, or simply that to be productive we need to be able to step away from the screen during “work hours”.

The ATHENA Swan process asks us to consider what diversity, progression, and representation look like, for us a faculty. I hope that this “new normal” of providing the flexibility for staff (and students) to manage their workload more around their needs and those of their family, will remain when we return to our offices and that we will remember to allow space and support so that we can be an inclusive community that listens to (and hears) the quieter voices.

Finley Lawson is a Learning about Science and Religion (LASAR) Research Fellow. Find out more about LASAR here.

The Listening Project – part two

Two women talk while sitting in front of a laptop computer.

As the Faculty of Education works towards its Athena SWAN submission, the team are committed to what we are calling A Listening Project. We need to hear from anyone in the Faculty who has a view on equality: how we currently manage this and how we might better do this in the future. What do we mean by equality issues?  This includes how opportunities for promotion, research and staff development are open to all. This includes our culture as much as our policies. Here is our poster that we completed for the recent Faculty Wellbeing Research Day. 

Athena SWAN screenshot image

Methodologically we are, as a group, keen not only to look at the facts and figures relating to equality but to explore these qualitatively, we want to hear from you, as people, to understand what issues relating to equality are pertinent within the Faculty. What does equality feel like? 

For myself, with two recent experiences of maternity leave it was an obvious choice to opt for a focus on maternity (before, during and after), flexible working practices and transition after career breaks.  

I’m not sure whether this would always have been something I would have had an interest in. But as a woman I would have hoped that would have been the case. The fact is, our experiences shape us and our interest but they also channel us in certain directions. As a mum of two young daughters it now feels to me, essential, that wherever I can I choose to be proactive in contributing to positive change in any institutions that I am part of.  

I’m writing this just after International Women’s Day on March 8th and having attended a wonderful @WomenEdSE conference the day before where I had a chance to listen to some fantastically positive and successful women speakers. Women Ed is a grass roots movement which grew out of women in education talking, giving each other support and collaboratively addressing issues of inequity and inequality in schools, colleges and universities. Now with more than 30,000 twitter followers across the world, women are talking and listening to each other.  

Saturday’s event reminded me of just how important women are in the workplace and the importance of ensuring that our Faculty is one that facilitates us in making the biggest and best possible contributions we can. Please do think about getting involved. I’d love to hear from you. 

So, stand by for news on our focus groups and how you can get more involved in the next few weeks and months.  

Katie Clemmey 

Faculty of Education Athena Swan Self Assessment Team 

Further reading

Athena SWAN Charter

Athena SWAN at Christ Church