Thanks Dominick for raising this issue. I've been trying to use Gloria Ladson-Billing's phrase 'educational debt' instead because of the issue you have raised:
http://edr.sagepub.com/content/35/7/3.abstract
Cheers
Manny
Manny Madriaga, MA, PhD , FHEA
Course Leader
Foundation Degree Education and Learning Support
and BA (Hons) Education and Learning Support (top up)
SIoE’s Education Research Network
Research Profile
·
New article: Madriaga, M, and K. Morley (2016) Awarding teaching excellence: ‘what is it supposed to achieve?’ Teacher perceptions
of student-led awards, Teaching in Higher Education
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13562517.2015.1136277
-----Original Message-----
From: Higher Education Race Action Group alerts and communications [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Dominik Jackson-Cole
Sent: 22 February 2016 10:51
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: BME vs ethnicity attainment gap
Dear all,
I don't know if this issue has been raised before (I did a quick search on here and couldn't find anything though) but I was just wondering if it was worth looking into the names we give to the attainment gaps, and consider the possible
shift in the name we use and potential implications?
So we use the words 'Gender attainment gap' - as opposed to boy's/men's attainment gap. This seems more neutral and doesn't implicitly suggest that there's something wrong with boys/men... the same applies to social class attainment
gap - not 'working class' attainment gap.
Whereas we usually (not all the time, and I know my own institution is also guilty of it) say 'BME attainment gap' - which is not neutral and one might argue locates the issue within the BME students. Wouldn't it be more neutral/ better
to start using the phrase 'Ethnicity attainment gap'? After all we all have/ can have an ethnicity that we identify as... or that people racialise us as, just as we have a gender identity (not necessarily in a binary sense of course!).
What would be the implications of this? Do you think it's a better name? (of course by this name I do not wish to distract anyone from working on the actual issues - which is the gap and which needs to be addressed)
Kind Regards,
Dominik Jackson-Cole
EDI Senior Advisor
Kingston University