Fig 1. Alice Farrow, student, UAL Foundation, 2023-24. Heterotopia Project: A Secular SpaceWithin my teaching practice, I annually experience students from diverse cultural backgrounds that (mostly) reflect the global majority, including students whose lives focus on their faith or religion. I grew up with a non-practising Catholic father and an atheist mother, both of whom shunned any idea of organised religion and would regularly disabuse me of the suggestion ‘let’s go to church’. (They did enjoy Dave Allen’s take on religion, however.)
I am not religious, but I have close friends who actively engage in Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, and I support them in their choices.
UAL offers support through the Chaplaincy Service and celebrates the UN’s World Interfaith Harmony Week, an annual initiative on ‘Uniting for Peace’, since 2010. The university has five active student societies to support some of the 13 faiths (source).
The UAL EDI 22-23 states that (for staff) the university will.
“Embed a culture of inclusion and respect where staff feel safe to practice their religion and/or belief.”
There is no parallel statement for students. How is this fully inclusive for the students?
While the EDI Annual Report provides data only, the reporting data doesn’t fully reflect an accurate statistical view. Some data the EDI reports on fractional staff, not HPLs or arts temps, and the student data is based on home students only. It seems ‘skewed’ and not truly reflective or even inclusive of the total University population.
There is no suggestion of proactivity. Although the UAL EDI Annual report 2024 reports “We have Multi-faith Rooms at College sites, designed to be used for prayer, personal reflection or meditation” having taught out of several UAL buildings, I’ve observed that there is a lack of easily accessible, appropriate ‘reflection or faith spaces’ available for students in some of the existing UAL building stock *. How do we ensure that students who require greater cultural representation can practice and support their faith and beliefs? A reasonable assumption is that the university would need to improve its facilities and the representation of BAME and global majority teaching staff. The latter is not an overnight solution, and it is one that UAL actively works on.
In Simran Jeet Singh’s video, Challenging Race, Religion and Stereotypes in Classrooms, he states that a significant challenge faced in a diverse classroom is the tendency to club people together, noting that “no community is a monolith“. And that to challenge stereotypes, we (as educators) would be better placed to recognise differences with empathy.
I am keen to support students as individuals. I respect their right to social justice. I find the support from the institution for students who weave their faith and culture to be, at times, less than inclusive.
When teaching students (in 23/24), a group of young Muslims in my cohort found themselves without an appropriate place to pray and innovatively (some might say) used the goods lift lobby, adjacent to the studio space, to pray. I was appalled that there was no other available space for them, and I felt powerless to help them find a more suitable space (and I tried). However, when discussing this with them, their choice of space was clear. It was a mostly unused space that they used during the quietest time of the working day.
As part of my practice this academic year (24/25), I was aware that Ramadan and Eid would fall during term time, which would likely impact students’ focus and attendance. Before Ramadan, I initiated regular catch-ups with the culturally diverse Islamic students who would be observing Ramadan to ensure that I understood how it might impact their studies over the coming weeks. I told my students I (and the teaching team) would support them and made them aware of upcoming deadlines. To enable students to continue observing Ramadan and feel supported throughout their course progression.
Whilst I recognise the university does a great deal of good work in collecting data, for it to be advantageous and impactful, the data could represent the university population as a whole.
The university could consider better platforms for ongoing engagement with student feedback, such as town hall style student forums, rather than the digital student surveys, ensuring students feel heard and included.
A more consistent policy for dedicated reflective spaces to be utilised for multifaith purposes – for students and staff.
* I currently teach at the Archway Campus, and this statement is based purely on my experiences of teaching at that campus.
Bibliography
UAL Equality Diversity Inclusion Annual Report, 2022-23; https://www.arts.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0015/432141/SPCB23435-EDI-report-2022-23.pdf
UAL Equality Diversity Inclusion Annual Report, 2024; http://UAL Equality Diversity Inclusion Annual Report, 2024
Singh, S. J. ( 2017) Trinity University: Challenging race, religion and stereotypes in the classroom Available at: https://youtu.be/X2et2KO8gcY?si=N7oMbyyns9rIN9Gz
World Faith Harmony Week, an annual UN initiative, https://www.un.org/en/observances/interfaith-harmony-week
Hi Sarah
Thank you for sharing your own positionality regarding faith, and sharing your students lived experience. I agree that UAL needs to do more work in proactively ensuring that the faith spaces are easily accessible, well signposted, and appropriate for use.
I was sad to read that a group of Muslim students used a goods lift space to pray, but as you have written, it was the quietest and least used space during the day. I appraise their ingenuity.
I agree that we could do better data collection, as I expect many students do not engage- I like your suggestion of a town hall style exercise – allowing a warm environment, encouraging students to speak how they feel as opposed to selecting from a drop down box online.
Its clear that you really care about your students and ensuring that their needs are met. I look forward to using your words to inspire me to embed this into my practice.
Best wishes
Jade
Hi Jade
Coming from the practitioner side of things, I never wanted to teach – i loved building and making spaces and my siblings are both teachers. However, once I dipped my toe in (architecture and spatial design) education, I was hooked. I quickly felt so engaged to always do more for my students from the outset. I have always had a larger proportion of international students, so I have always tried to understand as much as I can where they are coming from culturally to help them progress. I can see in your thoughts and writing, that you are also similar in your approach.
Thank you so much for your supportive comments