Inclusive Practice Blog Task 2

Faith

Stimulus paper (Modood & Calhoun, 2015)

Summary

Tariq Modood’s writing on Multiculturalism discusses a different approach to multiculturalism from the 1960s that did not only focus on anti-discrimination and equality, but expanded this to a respect for diversity. Moddod describes abandoning “the pretence of difference-blindness”, allowing marginalised communities to become more visible and explicitly accommodated in the public sphere. I found this refreshing, especially the acknowledgment that there are accepted norms within the public sphere, versus the private sphere. Mamoood describes this as becoming less popular as a term recently, and a journey from “what we might call ethno-racial diversity to ethno-religious pluralism” (Religion in Britain: Challenges for Higher Education). Rather than being neutral, multiculturalism is described as being actively supportive of diversity.

Mamood goes on to explain the Public Sphere. The expanding discourse around multiculturalism has developed new policy frameworks with regard to religion and race. Within this section it’s suggested that those religions and belief systems not connected to state do not have a directive to impact or control state and therefore, the religion that has aims to control or impact on state rule (Christianity, in the UK) has a stronger connection to government. This means that the minority religions have to negotiate the accepted norms of majority religions within state funded institutions.

Professor Craig Calhoun discusses ‘Religion and dissent in universities’ within the paper ‘Religion, the public sphere and higher education’, and the impact religion has on suppressing free speech, whilst the act of supporting free speech can inadvertently support intolerant speech. Calhoun details the challenges universities face in protests relating to Israel and Palestine. The impact fo religion on understanding the conflict between Israel and Palestine and the impact of religion on identity politics highlights the religious framing that issues perceived as secular sit within. “Religiously expressed gender bias may fade with social change – or it may be renewed as a marker of cultural distinction” but gender hierarchies can be expressed in religious terms which poses a further challenge to universities.

Response

How could you apply the resources to your own teaching practice?

The main takeaway I had from reading Mamood and Calhoun is that there is a dialogue that precedes every instance you will face the challenges religion poses within university, and this dialogue takes place in both the public and private spheres, with cycles of responses and layers of nuance. It’s a daunting task to try to accommodate, and therefore have knowledge of, all of the discussion and nuance. I believe the best way to apply this in my teaching is to create a space for this discussion to continue, within safe boundaries and with ground rules for tolerance. As a white Lecturer, my role is to create the safe space for discussion and facilitate it, my voice is not necessarily what needs to be heard in the discussion other than to moderate. I’m really interested in what happens when this discussion can take place, when all the voices in the room can be heard and listened to. There are so many possibilities for this to enrich our experience as a collective, as well as benefit the individual.

How could you integrate the research/work your students do on this subject into your teaching/professional practice?

I’ve been using an example of a student’s work in their Audio paper in reflective meetings at the end of the year with teaching staff. The audio paper focussed on the work of Rumi, Qawwali, and the dilution of the cultural capital of Rumi’s writing when translated for western audiences. The audio paper ends with a recording of the student’s parent speaking in Urdu, and we discussed the use of voiceover, text translation, and the supremacy of a voiceover on top of the recording. I suggested that the student leave the recording untranslated as part of their conclusion, as their theme was the dilution of a culture through translation. A a westerner who does not speak Urdu, why should I expect the recording to be translated? More and more, I am trying to support students to embrace the opportunities in their work to question the existing USA and European centric canon and its inherent relationship to colonialism.

The Reith Lectures

Kwame Anthony Appiah – Mistaken Identities, Creed

Summary

Appiah discusses his personal experiences of being asked where he comes from, and the process of recounting his lineage on both sides of his family. There is an interesting disparity in the tracing of lineage through different genders, in different countries. He goes on to investigate themes of belonging, sense of self, and identity. Within this, there is a nuanced interplay of different faiths within his family.

“If we distort the nature of religious identity by a fixation on faith, this fallacy is entwined with another, that I’ll call scriptural determinism”.

“Read the manual, stupid!”

There is a playful hint here, within the nuanced discussion, to prompt us to do our own work, to do our own research, into faiths we are less familiar with. The text books are there, in the scriptures. Appiah elucidates the similarities in the methods of interpretation and implementation, such as social regulation.

Response

How could you apply the resources to your own teaching practice?

I found it interesting to listen to this this talk after the presentations by recent students on the PG Cert on their Action Research Projects, as one of the student’s project was about the pitch and tone of speaking voices and the attachments the listener places on them. My students tend to respond more positively to voices that they can identify with. This talk, hosted by the BBC, had someone speaking with a very upper class accent, and I reflected on the impact of the tone and pitch, the pronunciations and the accent. My own positionality informs the assumptions I make about this voice, and about what my ears anticipated, and the fact that I hoped for someone who sounded as if they were lower or middle class and has infiltrated the institutions and establishment to a high level. This is based on my own experience, as someone of a middle to working class background who experiences a certain amount of imposter syndrome. However to project this onto a voice that has yet to be spoken shows that I am used to seeing that struggle, that infiltration, reflected in the voices of speakers of colour, and therefore there is a lack of representation and multicultural diversity that is inclusive of diverse socioeconomic background in the voices we are used to hearing on these institutional platforms. Within my own teaching practice, this resource could take place as an example for us to analyse our listening habits, which would connect to sound art theory and provide a more thorough representation of diversity rather than echoing the identity of the listeners. I usually choose voices that link to the identities of those students facing socio-economic barriers, as a way to make the resources more accessible to them. . In addition, the content is well paced and explains the nature of religious doctrine through scripture in detail. I usually choose resources using clear and simpler language, and while this resource explains the different approaches to scripture in different faiths, and our own assumptions in a very useful form, I think they would engage with the content more via text than via the recording. I would have to pause the recording to explain certain terms, and this is easier with text.

How could you integrate the research/work your students do on this subject into your teaching/professional practice?

Recently I have used this in discussion on the theme of sense of place (Relph), as this relates strongly to identity, and by opening up about my own imagined sense of place students then spoke about their sense of place, allowing for a broader landscape to be created. In particular, I addressed the idea that when working with VR, as we were in this unit, we have the opportunity to decide what we represent virtually, and what we don’t. In future, I would like to do a lot more to investigate the representation of faith in sound works, this is something I have stayed away from to avoid causing offence, however I realise that I have a responsibility to expand the representation of faiths by encouraging more students to create works that relates to their faith. I can do this by exploring more resources to playback as examples that approach themes of faith, and create a space within which students can work on this subject more.

Shades Of Noir: Higher Power: Religion, Faith, Spirituality & Belief,

Key Terms and Alia Youssef, p50.

Response

How could you apply the resources to your own teaching practice?

The key terms resources is very valuable as a glossary and I’ll be referring to this in my teaching to embed further intersectionality around faith, in particular when working with students on site specific practices and collaborative methodologies. I would also like to use this in year leader discussion forums as I think it could be very useful for year leaders to be aware of this resource when facilitating pastoral care.

Youssef’s description of her identity of ‘being a minority within a minority within a minority” is a really good example of the layers of marginalisation someone can experience with an intersectional multicultural identity. She begins by describing the tea ceremony as a dialogue, and I chose this resource because the tea ceremony is found in many faiths and I could use this as an example of celebrating diversity with empathy. Going back to the stimulus paper, the ideas of multiculturalism is to celebrate difference, and this article does this through celebrating the voices of 3 muslim women on their identity and how they would like to be perceived.

How could you integrate the research/work your students do on this subject into your teaching/professional practice?

I’ve found that the most interesting and open discussions with students emerge towards the end of the year, when they have become more confident and we have got to know each other well. I’d like these discussion to occur earlier in the year and lead to more of them feeling able to make work on their faith, so by embedding these resources on faith earlier in the year they will make more work relating to faith. At present, there is definitely an idea that it isn’t ‘cool’ to discuss your faith in your work, so I will continue to research for more examples of sound work that relates to faith. I’ve played some examples of past work by students on faith to current students, to inspire them and reassure them that it is a safe space to create this kind of work in, and as we are in a revalidated curriculum there will be more examples as the course progresses.

You can read my comments on related blogs here and here.