BE-ME: PROVIDING MODELS OF GOOD PRACTICE.
(Tools for learning and teaching in a multi-cultural Britain)
Report of the conference held at Light House, Wolverhampton
9 February 2001
* click on the headings below to go directly to that text..
Background
The purpose of the conference was to explore ways of designing
and developing a curriculum for the 21st century, which
engages with the ethnically plural and diverse nature of
British society.
The programme drew on the Wolverhampton-based (BE-ME) Black
and Ethnic Minority Experience Project that had, in its
first phase, conducted over 100 in-depth interviews within
the black and Asian communities. The results recorded on
video and audio, form the basis for an important archive
that will preserve the experiences of those who settled
in Wolverhampton during the fifties and sixties.
This report summarises the main events of the day and presents
an account of the principal debates, which will steer and
guide the development of BE-ME as it progresses into its
second phase.
Dr Clive Harris, Lecturer in Cultural Studies and Sociology
at the University of Birmingham, chaired the conference.
In his introduction, Clive Harris noted the importance of
BE-ME in responding to the needs of ethnic minorities in
a multicultural and democratic society. He saw BE-ME as
a critical strategy in responding to some of the concerns
voiced about the content of the National Curriculum by the
MacPherson Report.
Derrick Anderson, Chief Executive of Wolverhampton City
Council, provided an opening address in which he applauded
the work of BE-ME, and its unique role in bringing together
the historical, sociological and educational experiences
of black and minority ethnic people in Britain.
The conference was pleased to welcome Marika Sherwood, Senior
Research Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies
and Secretary of the Black & Asian Studies Association,
who gave a keynote address that reminded the audience of
the long history of racism in Britain. This was centred
on the BE-ME archive. The video extracts she had selected
dealt with experiences of many forms of racism. Marika,
whose background is Jewish-Hungarian, emigrated to Australia
and from there to England, thinking she was coming to 'a
land of milk and honey'.
However, the reality she found while working as a schoolteacher
was very different. She talked about her anger over the
way in which children in schools were being damaged by the
notion of white superiority that was being taught at all
levels, and the racist indifference and damaging attitudes
of teachers, especially to primary pupils newly arrived
from the Caribbean. Marika highlighted the historical roots
of racism and talked of the British involvement with trade,
in enslaved Africans and slavery, and in the mythologies
of white supremacy deliberately propagated from the mid-nineteenth
century. These were used to justify the new exploitations
of Africa after the legal abolition by Britain of the slave
trade (which many Britons involved in the trade ignored),
and of slavery in the 'British' Caribbean in 1838. She talked
about the perpetuation of personal and institutional racism
which she blamed mainly on the continuing indoctrination
(with notions of white supremacy) in our schools, promoted
through the teaching of history, geography, science, music
and other subjects, at all levels. In these courses there
is no recognition or acknowledgement of non-European contributions
or achievements. Marika was critical of the role of the
OFSTED inspection framework in that inspectors receive no
training on how to assess 'diversity' issues within the
curriculum.
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BE-ME The Story So Far
Richard Sargeant, a member of the BE-ME Steering Group,
then joined Marika Sherwood to give an account of the origins,
development and aims of BE-ME in the form of an on-stage
interview. Richard Sargeant said that the BE-ME project
was a result of a series of events in Wolverhampton marking
the anniversary of the arrival of passenger ship Windrush
from the Caribbean in 1948. This led to the (BE-ME) project
to look at the history of those people who migrated here
after the Second World War in order to ensure that these
experiences would be embedded in the curriculum from early
years to university level. The work was taken forward by
a broad partnership that was led by Delva Campbell from
Wolverhampton City Council. In February 1999 this resulted
in the BE-ME archive. Richard informed delegates that the
University of Wolverhampton has plans for a PhD linked to
the work of BE-ME and that a conference of the Oral History
Society in June 2001 would be featuring the work of BE-ME.
Clive Harris then invited questions and comments. Richard
was asked if there were plans to condense the information
and make it more widely available. He said that Phase One
was concerned with collecting research outcomes and that
the consortium was now trying to attract funding for a Phase
Two that would produce a whole range of products. The masters
of audio and videotapes have been deposited with Wolverhampton
City Archives and Local Studies and copies are available
for reference by individuals and groups during opening hours.
He was then asked whether individuals would be able to access
the material via the Internet. He said that Light House
had formulated a bid to secure funding to digitise the research
outcomes throughout Phase One. If successful, this will
produce a number of learning programmes that would be available
on the web.
A number of points were made by delegates:
- Teachers are crying for help as they do not know how to
deal with issues of racism and equality;
- We need to talk to teachers, as teachers do not know about
the children they are teaching; they are only trained to
educate;
- Information about black people in Wolverhampton must be
categorised in Black British history not race relations;
- BE-ME should look at ways in which it can work with organisations
looking at social inclusion.
After lunch, delegates took part in a choice of workshops
that looked at the ways BE-ME could contribute to the educational
curriculum.
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The BE-ME Workshops
The workshops were designed to generate further discussions
and thinking on how the product of BE-ME could be used for
innovative curriculum development and design purposes within
the Primary, Secondary, Further and Higher Education sectors.
The following action points emerged from the workshops:
Primary Education Workshop
The workshop focused primarily on practical suggestions
for the dissemination of the BE-ME materials.
Key Themes
BE-ME archive can be used in the curriculum as part of anti
racist education:
- As part of Initial teacher training courses: to support
and develop understanding of cultural diversity. This could
be within specific subjects or within sessions about developing
a schools anti-racist policy;
- For Inset training;
- As Teaching Resource.
The following suggestions were made:
- BE-ME material should be differentiated so that it will
be accessible by different age groups and individuals with
varying levels of understanding;
- Individual life stories need to be set in some historical
context;
- Background notes should be provided to teachers, thus
creating a 'bank' of existing materials that are accessible;
- Materials should be edited and re-interpreted in various
ways to support children of different ages and levels of
understanding;
- Short transcripts on particular topics eg journeys and
childhood could be produced, as this would provide a starting
point for discussions around the children's own experiences,
similarities and differences. Children in the last two years
of primary schooling consider biographical writing within
the literacy hour;
- Music could be added to selected footage related to childhood;
- Interviewees could be invited to visit schools to talk
to children;
- Photographs and transcripts could be added to the video
footage.
Other Points Emerging
- Knowledge and cultural pattern of individuals using these
materials is important. Therefore people developing the
training materials need to be sensitive;
- Educational resources would be improved by the acheivements
of the interviewees.
Secondary Education Workshop
The workshop explored a number of issues relating to secondary
education. The main themes that emerged were multi-cultural
education, citizenship, the role of parents and community
leaders, the role of teachers, and how the BE-ME work can
be used.
Key Themes
Multi-Cultural Education
- It is important that black peoples' contributions to society
are given prominence within the school curriculum and not
just during Black History Month;
- Advisors and inspectors should be trained to support teachers
so that they can deliver a multicultural curriculum.
Citizenship - what's it about?
- There is concern over whether teachers are adequately
prepared to deliver the citizenship curriculum. To deliver
the citizenship curriculum teachers will need training supplemented
with multicultural resources;
- OFSTED inspectors must be trained on how to look for evidence
of the effective delivery of the citizenship curriculum.
The Role of Parents and Community Leaders
- Parents and community leaders should also be responsible
for the education of black and minority ethnic children.
They should be taught about black
history as this will help to empower them, and raise their
self-esteem.
The Role of the Teacher
- Equality issues are an integral part of PGCE and BEd courses
but lecturers often shy away from discussing racism, whether
personal or institutional. It is believed that teacher trainees
seldom get any instruction/ advice on how to deal with issues
of racial bullying/ harassment in school.
The Role of BE-ME: how can the work of BE-ME be used?
The work of BEME should be available to teachers, community
leaders, children and parents. This should be available
on the internet as well as in other mediums that will ensure
maximum accessibility.
Acknowledging the fact that some white people are confused
about how to address black people we need to form effective
partnerships to educate them.
The work of BE-ME can be used to:
Facilitate empowerment and identity;
Facilitate the production and distribution of materials
to parents that demonstrates examples of the type of resources
that should be available in schools;
Empower teachers by letting them know what materials are
available;
Challenge teachers and encourage individuals from minority
ethnic communities to enter the profession.
Other Points Emerging
The black and minority ethnic community must not depend
too much on institutions to offer help or to tell us about
institutional racism. We knew about institutional racism
before MacPherson. We need to work towards setting up our
own schools as the current system corrupts our children.
Education should follow and promote examples of good practice.
Further Education Workshop
The workshop focused on how BE-ME's archive material could
be used to inform, steer and guide curriculum development
and design within the FE sector. It also presented an opportunity
to reflect on BE-ME phase one and look at the processes
employed to engage elders from BME communities and expose
these processes as a model of good practice in terms of
the current government policies on widening participation
and lifelong learning. A range of practitioners working
in numerous settings including colleges, universities and
custodial institutions, contributed to the discussion.
Key Themes
- The existing curriculum did not reflect the experiences
of people from ethnic minority
communities in any substantive way;
- BE-ME archive material could be utilised to produce more
inclusive curricula, which would appeal to a wider audience;
- It is important to identify curriculum areas where BE-ME
archive material would have the most impact. For example,
to support teaching and learning in a wide range of existing
curricula areas including History and Social Studies;
- The archive material could be a catalyst for the development
and design of new curriculum.
In order to make a successful transition from BE-ME phase
one - retrieving the hidden histories to BE-ME phase two
- utilising the archive material for curriculum development
and design within the further education sector, certain
issues would need to be resolved.
A number of themes were identified as being essential to
the successful development of BE-ME phase two, these include:
The active involvement of educational practitioners;
- Funding for BE-ME phase two;
- Continued support and involvement from within the Black
and Minority Ethnic communities;
- Continued support and partnership work with a range of
institutions including colleges and voluntary sector organisations.
How do we achieve this?
In order to take forward BE-ME Phase Two the following is
necessary:
- The establishment of a working party consisting of education
practitioners and others interested in BE-ME with the aim
of identifying ways in which the archive material can be
used for teaching and learning purposes;
- The production and circulation of working papers to the
wider community in order to keep people informed and involved
with BE-ME phase two developments;
- The work of BE-ME must be celebrated and shared as a model
of good practice in terms of widening participation;
- The vision of BE-ME phase two should be to develop curriculum
material, reflecting the real life experience of people
from these communities.
Higher Education Workshop
The workshop focused primarily on two related issues, research
and curriculum development within Higher Education.
BE-ME: Research Process and Issues
This section of the workshop focused on issues of academic
research and inclusion. Discussions related to the ways
in which educators and researchers working within Higher
Education can produce research in, for and with communities.
Key Themes
The discussion centred on the following issues:
- Developing the parameters for, and undertaking, collaborative
research;
- Research in, for and with communities;
- Producing ethically sensitive research work within academia;
- Re-conceptualising history - hidden histories and changing
truths.
Developing of A Curriculum For the 21st Century
This section of the workshop focused on curriculum development
and the students' learning experience. Using the experiences
of the BE-ME project and the material produced, the session
discussed some of the ways in which Higher Education can
move positively towards the development of a curriculum
that meets the needs of our multicultural society.
Key Themes
The discussion centred on the following issues:
- BE-ME at the University of Wolverhampton;
- BE-ME - process, materials and student learning;
- Facilitating curriculum change in Higher Education.
Other Points Emerging from the Workshop
A lively discussion amongst the group identified a number
of key areas which were seen to be crucial to the objectives
of bringing about change in the nature of research and in
the development of a curriculum for the 21st century. These
are:
- The work of projects like BEME should be integrated throughout
all levels of education from Primary to Higher Education;
- Initial Teacher Training was identified as a key area
of development;
- The need to establish and develop two-way links between
researchers in Higher Education and the communities involved
in the BEME project, to allow the development of community-based
research.
Plenary
Finally, there was a plenary session at which the main points
from the workshops were summarised. The discussion then
turned around the priorities that BE-ME should set itself
for the future and how the interests of parents could be
reflected in the future work of BE-ME. As expected, the
main discussion revolved around the outcomes of the four
workshop groups. Details of these are included in the previous
sections. However, the Plenary drew out a number of common
themes; namely:
- The need to influence teacher training and professional
development;
- The need for development of curricula;
- The lack of accessible, useful and relevant materials
for learning.
There was also general agreement on the ways that these
concerns could be tackled through the developing use of
BE-ME materials.
This could be achieved by establishing workshops/working
groups involving participation of both teachers/lecturers
and parents/other members of the community. In this context,
it was pointed out that, while BE-ME had plans for development
through further fundraising, currently the Project did not
have resources to carry out all this work.
Some differences emerged on the tactics that should be employed
to bring about the fundamental changes required to create
a truly equal society. Should we be reforming existing institutions
or working towards separate alternative systems of education?
It was felt that the concept of 'whiteness' must be interrogated,
as we don't know what this really means? Comments were also
made on the dangers of getting trapped into a discussion
about black and Asian however, teachers present stated that
they would welcome more explicit definitions of the terms
in use.
Overall, it was thought that the work of BE-ME, grounded
as it is in the lived experiences of people, would facilitate
the empowerment of community and could bring about significant
changes in the sense of identity for the whole community.
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Following on from the Conference...
The conference instigated some significant areas of discussion
within education. Since the conference these areas of discussion
have allowed BE-ME to embark upon a developmental process
that has absorbed the themes that emerged from the workshops
and throughout the events of the day.
Part of this process is to seek funding in order for BE-ME
to actively pursue its aims and objectives and achieve long
- term sustainability.
- This has been initiated with the successful application
to the New Opportunities Fund for
the BE-ME Digitise Project to produce a range of learning
materials. This project forms a highly significant aspect
of the overall BE-ME process, as the digitisation of the
BE-ME archive will enable learning packages to be created
and allow the BE-ME archive to be accessed via the web.
- BE-ME has also successfully been granted funding from
the Wolverhampton LEA's Widening Participation Fund to assist
with the development, design and piloting of new approaches
to curriculum and staff development. These approaches will
be grounded in the narratives of respondents who were interviewed
during the course of phase one of the BE-ME project.
- In order to seek long-term sustainability BE-ME is currently
in the process of making an application to the Heritage
Lottery Fund. This will be for a substantial amount of money
that will assist with financing the provision of a more
permanent base for BE-ME and establishing a dissemination
project that will ensure the use of BE-ME material in all
areas of education.
To Find Out More About Future Developments
Contact Swaranjit on 01902 716055
swanranjit@light-house.co.uk
BE-ME is a partnership composed of the following institutions:
Adult Education Service
African Caribbean Community Initiative
Afro-Caribbean Cultural Centre
Age Concern
All Saints Haque Centre
Asian Women's Adhikar Association
City Archives and Local Studies
City of Wolverhampton College
City Museums and Art Galleries
Educare Foundation
GATE (Guidance for Training and Education)
The Harmony Project
Jamaica 2000
The Library Service
Light House Media Centre
Local Education Authority
Office of Law and Resources
Prison Link
University of Wolverhampton
West Midlands Caribbean Parents and Friends Association
Wolverhampton Association for Music and the Arts
Wolverhampton Chamber of Commerce
Wolverhampton City Council
Wolverhampton Education Department
Wolverhampton Life Long Learning Campaign
Wolverhampton Race Equality Council
Wolverhampton Voluntary Sector Council
Wolverhampton Windrush
Acknowledgements
BE-ME wishes to thank all those who attended and contributed
towards the
conference and conference report including the speakers
and delegates quoted
Author
Black and Ethnic Minority Experience (BE-ME)
Published by
Black and Ethnic Minority Experience (BE-ME)
Light House Media Centre
The Chubb Buildings
Fryer Street
Wolverhampton
WV1 1HT
© Black and Ethnic Minority Experience (BE-ME) 2002
ISBN 0-9542433-0-7
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