EDI Lessons from 2020: A School Perspective
The year 2020 will go down in history as the year the world stopped and life as we have known it ceased to exist. While the world battled and continues to battle the invisible enemy that is COVID-19, it also struggled to come to grips with the never-ending police brutality experienced by African Americans in the United States. Heartbroken protestors and devastated civilians around the world made their way into the streets to remonstrate against such injustices that have continued to plague Black civilians for centuries.
Back in South Africa, 14 455km from Minneapolis, Minnesota, George Floyd’s tragic death awakened a yearning for social justice in schools, with special reference to the former model C schools and, most prominently, the Independent schools. Past and present students narrated their stories, some with deep sadness and others with intense anger at the discrimination they had experienced because of their raced bodies.
Lessons for Schools
So what Equality, Diversity and Inclusion lessons can schools take into 2021? Firstly, it has highlighted the importance of and urgent need for real transformation in our schools especially in positions of influence and leadership. As showcased in the Tresemme/Clicks hair product advertisement campaign, diverse leadership and management teams are needed if organisations – including, if not most primarily, schools – are to remain relevant and progressive in the African context. Diversity in leadership enriches decision making in all facets of school life. However, schools should not fall into the trap of placing black faces in leadership positions without genuine authority. Real transformation is determined by diverse leaders or people of colour holding positions of leadership where their voices are heard.
Such voices help bring to light the entrenched white, male, heterosexual, straight, Christian, able-bodied, English-speaking framework in our institutions – a framework that continues to exist as the norm and the benchmark for excellence. Schools need to take careful stock of their calendars and events, as well as co-curricular activities that have become a norm in the daily running of the school. The Eurocentric culture that has been entrenched through hundreds of years of tradition no longer serves all today. As noted by N. Molefe, “Such ‘Eurocentric traditions’ are only valid when they build the values of the entire community. Otherwise, they are things that have just been around for a long time. Everything that is old is not valuable.”
Secondly, schools need to create spaces of safety that allow and promote the sensitive and difficult dialogues required between all stakeholders. A school is only as strong as its network of parents, students, trustees, and all school employees. It is only when each group of stakeholders feels that they truly belong and have access to all opportunities that we can start to see the wealth of true Inclusion. Creating spaces such as school transformation committees allows for robust engagement among the school stakeholders. Such engagement allows dialogues that assist school management in the running of the school. It ensures that decisions ranging from policies to school events and practices do not overlook the diverse needs of the school community.
Thirdly, our educators are an extremely important resource in our schools. If we expect them to be agents of change in their classrooms, schools need to equip them with tools and skills to navigate this space that is daunting for many. Race, gender, and other diversity dimensions are prevalent both in the classroom and on the playground. They show up in choices students make in their selection of groups to belong in as well as questions they raise in academic and non-academic contexts.
The management of conflict is another platform that highlights the value of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion discussions for the educators. While these conflicts often manifest themselves in the student body, one cannot deny their existence in the staffroom too. Empowering our teachers to facilitate such difficult conversations with confidence would entail the unlearning of many ideologies learnt through socialisation, and only long-term sustainable programmes would suffice to help educators cope with the anxiety and voicelessness they feel at present. This process would also encourage better collegiality, which would aid the management of the school as a whole.
Lastly, but most importantly, schools need to assess current recruitment processes and platforms to include vernacular newspapers as well as Department of Education Matric exam marking databases. Teachers of colour only being considered suitable for vacancies that link them to ethnic issues and discrimination when filling leadership positions need to be re-evaluated. Schools need to be intentional and deliberate in their hiring. With an increase in recruitment of teachers of colour, schools need to rethink how to provide an authentic space for mentoring, so staff of colour can bring their true selves onto the campus with no judgment and fear. Mentoring of staff of colour with the aim of promotion is critical too, as many leaders are not born with a full skill set but rather are made. This mentoring needs to be extended to the intern teachers of colour, whose career trajectories need to be monitored and invested in way beyond their qualification.
Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion in South African education should go beyond ritualization, tokenism and lip-service. Without will and commitment, transformation and diversification towards inclusiveness are always going to be a meaningless ritual that does not deliver positive change in schools. Inclusion in schools is about the health, wellness, and future success of students of colour and NOT a conceptual matter. It is therefore imperative that we make this a top priority of all our agendas.