Different perspectives on allyship

Recently I have written 5 blogs on allyship, in an effort to articulate, if not define its meaning. I have read a lot, as I understand that I’m possibly not the first to think about this stuff. As ever I’ve explored the work of writers who face marginalisation, trying to side-step those speaking from a position of privilege. As I’ve learned, trying to please people that do not challenge their own privilege is part of the harm. As they not only fail as allies, but tend to hold those marginalised responsible for their own fragility. My responsibility is not to make it easy, because organisational and institutional injustice is huge. My choice is to support learning, in a dialogue that articulates harmful ideas, in order to challenge them.

Allies 1. A town called allies, describes my relationship with my sister. I rarely talk/write of private stuff, so a break from convention as I wished to introduce you to a wonderful woman. On a personal level she has reminded me for years where the problem is, shifting focus from individual to society.

Allies 2. Hello, is it me you’re looking for, is the story of my friendship with Jenny. She remains a powerful and awesome ally. I’m glad we both had the sisters we did, without them we’d have struggled to be the allies we are. Friends play such a critical role in securing a sense of hope, an optimism that good things happen, because they already have.

Allies 3.  I'll always save a room for you!  Professional wisdom is a beautiful thing, especially when applied to working practice and workplace relationships. While not forgetting that identity and activism is hugely important, as they are the first step in acknowledging personal experience, the fight against injustice is also important. Therefore, an outward looking stance, on that faces different oppressions, frees us up to stand beside, not above or in front of, those most disadvantaged by them.  I stand against marginalisation, not because of my experience, but because denying alternative views adds insult to the experience of discrimination and inequality.

Allies 4. Neighbours! In an age of consumerism, there’s a tendency to forget the relationships that are neither familial nor professional. Yet, there is nothing worse than feeling unsafe on the street. From parks, to clubs and churches, the spaces we share are priceless for our well-being. Therefore, being a community ally, is making sure space is not only safe, but absence is noticed.  "You were not there, where were you?"  

Allies 5.  My do-do list, an attempt to respond to the comment "what can I say?!” There’s a tendency for allies to self-promote I feel. However, it’s a slippery path, because what qualifies the role? I often feel pressured into agreeing with people that have declared their allyship, yet seem to not have any understanding of the characteristic oppression I face. If in our relationships as family, friend, colleague, neighbour fail to address what harms the disabled population they are no ally of mine. 

Rather than try to identify which role gives us power, it may be that deciding where to lend our strength is far more critical. I can voice my anger against racism, classism, sexism, homophobia, religious intolerance, to protect family and identity choice, without rejecting any personal experience. However I need to understand what people face to stand against it. I can’t agree without understanding!  

My allyship as sister, friend, colleague and neighbour is in the action I take to minimise  the harm that heads their way. Only they can decide if I’m addressing their interests, or that I’ve acted to make our shared space safer. I can’t call myself an ally, but others may call on it, and hopefully rely on it.

Thank you Ashton Sixth Form College FD Students

Here’s the post that served me as a crib sheet:

Dear learners 

Thank you Ashton Sixth Form College for welcoming me to your community of learning. I was delighted to meet you and answer your questions about my handbook: A Different Perspective On Respectful Language.

 

Q: You describe inclusive practice as a leadership activity, with this in mind do you believe that all schools can offer complete inclusion 100% of the time due to the differing needs of pupils, resources, staffing and training? 

A: I believe that inclusion as a term cons us into thinking there is an option that is currently unavailable. Given variations in practice, contradictory aims, and competing strategies across schools, it seems that no space at the moment is without the sexism, racism, homophobia, religious intolerance, classism, ageism… that threatens the belonging for many. Therefore, as individuals from marginalised groups cannot trust a safe choice, inclusion is no option. Inclusion is probably safer as a vision, a direction or a north star to follow.  

When people say they do inclusion it’s a red flag to me, it so often means there has been little thought about those beyond the walls, and those most marginalised by organisational culture.

Short answer: no!

 

Q: What made you so passionate about equality and inclusive practice? 

 A: Being denied participation in primary schools, being bullied in secondary school, and being abused at college, certainly lit a fire in me to right the wrongs I’d experienced. Evidence suggest education currently does more to divide and deepen inequality. For too many belonging demands more than is possible in terms of fitting in, and for a few education is not a safe space. As for segregated provision, for individuals it is still where there is the highest probability of bullying and harm.

 

Q: Was it your experience in a teaching role?

 A: In many ways becoming a facilitator gave me a voice. Not an expert’s privilege, or an authoritarian highhandedness, but a more equal say in community conversation.

 

Q: Did you face any major barriers to inclusive practice in your role?

 A: Many, but the most painful was the look in some people’s eyes that education was wasted. The belief I would never work. In very real terms I was repeatedly told I’d come to nothing, and was therefore a waste of time and energy. 44 years on I’m ‘Dr Chapman’. However, the barriers have been huge, the cost disproportionately high and the effort was enormous. For me, but also  for my family and my friends. My sister completed in 8 years a journey that took me 20.

 

Q: Do you believe that all children with additional needs or disabilities should attend mainstream schools/settings? 

 A: May I refer you to the first question, it is a difficult and nuanced discussion. Carers and disabled children face an impossible choice. As it stands I don’t think we can safely send any disabled learner to their local school without risk. Variation is such that while inclusive practice is widespread, not every difference is accommodated, embraced, encouraged everywhere. The options we do have tend to fall into different ways of mainstreaming, that's on a vague continuum between segregation and integration, both allowing us the idea of a the non-learner. There are wider questions about education, as distinguished from schooling, that need addressing. We still ask who fits, rather than does the institution serve purpose? ‘Should’ is also problematic here, who chooses who’s in or who’s out? 

As my friend and colleague Kay Sidebottom says with such heart: who gets to define culture? What the rules are? Who must conform and who is rejected?

 

Q: Do you think it depends on the individual needs and abilities of each child? 

 A: EVERYONE CAN LEARN, EVERY CHILD HAS A RIGHT TO EDUCATION. As a global family we are failing to uphold the fundamental human right to education.

 

Q: I work in a primary SEN school in a class of 8 children who are non verbal. We have some children who do not have the understanding or any reaction to talking on their level, shouting, humour etc even though we are aware that we have respect for these children how do we know that they know this?

 A: if you had met me 44 years ago, I couldn't walk, hold a pen, make a mark, speak your language … yet I leaned and have proved many assumptions wrong. Having been exposed to the most disempowering prejudice, I’ve had to unthink a lack of aspiration. Would Stephen Hawking have been supported if he’d come to school with the communication needs he had once he succeeded?

 Expect the least dangerous assumption* , if you treat them everyone with empathy, care and consideration, assuming they can’t say but do feel everything as much as anyone then there’s a possibility of least harm. If you assume otherwise the damage could be enormous, painful and last a lifetime.

 

Q: Do you believe that some people can have their personal choices taken away from them to coincide with other people's beliefs, because of 'political correctness' and being afraid of having their own opinions? 

A: Yes indeed, there are many ways individuals, groups, and global populations get silenced. It’s not the words themselves that do most harm or good, but the way they are used. It’s rarely coincidence, most often it is arrogance, ignorance or a combination of both, with which some will value their own experience more than they are open to others. ‘Dominant’ narratives erase the contrasting views and discredit the experiences that are often pushed out of conversation altogether. If you say something unusual, many voices will often speak over you, and silence the experience you are seeking to share. 

Q: If we are identified by our use of language, whether it be individually, or in groups. How can inclusion take place? 

A: As I said earlier, inclusion is not a reality at the moment, see above, we can do better!!

Q: What is positive discrimination? and how can discrimination be positive? 

A: Well there’s a big question. Discrimination is caused by stereotypes, followed by assumption, if the assumption is positive you might end up being rewarded for success without effort – positive. Sadly, if instead people expect failure, it’ll be sought, and therefore more likely. 

If you’re asking whether procedures should be weighted, let’s say to take account of the barriers you’ve already faced, then that is fairer. Unfortunately most of us see our achievement as personal success, rarely factoring in the unearned privilege or the discrimination we’ve overcome, so we are probably not being honest with ourselves in terms of achievement. 

Q: In a situation where professionalism is essential, jargon and specialist language are inevitably going to be used. How can we be professional but include everybody at the same time? 

A: There’s a difference between a conversation within our direct community of practice and one that tries to extend beyond it. Truth: I don’t know! When I write for people I don’t know I try -hard and fail- to write in more everyday language. A bit like chatting over the fence to a neighbour. I use simple words to say deep stuff. The ideas I share might be challenging but there’ll be no depth or nuance in the conversation.  If I’m talking to a colleague, someone who shares an und of equality say, we’ll take shortcuts, acronyms, and terminology that allows us to talk about more complex stuff without having to redefine every 2^nd word.  Judgment of relationship and context is everything. Being mindful, and listening to who you are talking with will help.

Q:  Do you think schools are doing enough to develop the skills of young learners in having open, honest, respectful and empathetic conversations. 

A: Oh boy!! Not while those within them think remembering facts is a mark of intelligence, being silent is a mark of learning, and siting in rows to pass exams matters more than being open, honest, respectful and empathetic… [don’t get me started on politics, power, and wilful neglect]

Q: What would you recommend to a new teacher to support them in initiating and embedding the practice of inclusive language and meaningful conversations amongst young children? 

Know your stuff, by learning more stuff. The more you understand about learning the more you can support it. Find books, videos, YouTube, podcasts. Mistakes are part of trying, it’s fine to screw up, but not to stop learning from mistakes. Put what you are inspired by into practice, learn by developing more understanding, add reflection and adapt, do better. Learners deserve our best effort, not us theirs!! Speak of shared progress, celebrate effort and rejoice in discovery. What would worry me is if we spoke in a decade and you were speaking the same words – and your knowledge and nuance had not grown.

 A decade of conversation is not 10 years of saying the same thing!

 

*Carole Tashie taught me the least dangerous assumption.

Seeing the Charade: Written by Carol Tashie, Susan Shapiro-Bamard,  Zach Rossetti 2006, UK

 

Abridged Bibliography

Bhopal, K. (2018). White privilege the myth of a post-racial society. Bristorl: Policy Press.

Chapman, L. M. (2016, feb 26). The words that bind us. Retrieved Aug 12, 2017, from The Language Of Respect : http://languageofrespect.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/the-words-that-bind-us.html

de Waal, F. (2009). The Age of Empathy, nature’s lessons for a kinder society. London: Harmony Books.

Eddo-Lodge, R. (2017). Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race [kindle edition].London: Bloomsbury Publishing.

Nind, M., Sheehy, K., & Simmons, K. (2003). Inclusive Education: Learners and Learnng Contexts.London: David Fulton.

Pease, B. (2013). Undoing Privilege, unearned advantage in a divided world. London, New York: Zed Books.

West-Burnham, J. (2009). Rethinking Educational Leadership. London: Continuum.

Wheatley, M. J. (2002). Turning to one another, simple conversations to restore hope to the future.San Franciscoq: Berret-Koehler publishers.