Dr Penny
 
Rabiger

Race, racism and antiracism in schools: In this session, you will gain an overview of what ‘race’ and racism are, covering the basics of institutional and structural racism, as well as the significance of terms like multiculturalism and colour-evasiveness. Participants will understand where racism dwells in our schools across six key areas of school life, will consider how to address gaps in their own racial literacy, so they can work towards embedding an anti-racist lens into their practice.

Cultural Capital: an exploration The Ofsted framework suggests that schools impart cultural capital to their students, through teaching ‘The best that has been thought and said’. But do schools understand what cultural capital is, where the concept came from, whose culture is considered to be capital, and why?

Unconscious bias in education This interactive session explores what bias is through understanding the concepts of socialisation, stereotypes and discrimination. We look at how bias manifests in education and how you can use your understanding of your own bias to create a culture of courageous conversations around ‘race’ in your school

Equality: from compliance to commitment What are the elements that we need to have in place to be compliant with the public sector equality duty for schools? How might we use our roles as school governors and leaders to move from compliance to commitment? This interactive session will start the ball rolling for governors and leaders to consider how they use their strategic role to hold the school to account and foster a sense of belonging for the whole school community.

Governors: recruitment, development & retention Data shows us every year that most boards are not diverse at all, and the situation is not improving. How do you find governors with a diverse range of backgrounds and experience? Once governors are on board, how do you keep them engaged, active and retain them? This practical session will provide tips and case studies.

Governance by enquiry: Here is a way to organise your governance that will maintain interest and impact, and will ensure that governance is dynamic during meetings and beyond. Attendees will learn about the concept of governance by enquiry, will consider the structures and routines of their own governing board, and will explore how they might initiate their board's first governance enquiry.

Creating the antiracist school: what does the evidence tell us? Following events during the start of the pandemic, the surge of interest in structural racism has led many schools to work towards incorporating an anti-racist lens across all areas of their school. Find out where racist practice is most likely located in schools, and how some schools are changing practice and pedagogy to create an antiracist school.

Tackling race inequality in staffing: This interactive session will explore the current landscape in terms of racial diversity in the schools workforce, and will take you through some of the barriers to progression as well as the factors which can contribute to progression. We will explore what staff and governors can do to combat racial inequality, understand how structural racism is reproduced in schools - and drive for change.

50 years of absent presence in English schools: This exploration of education in Britain covers some of the discourse of ‘race’ and racism over the last 50 years. It looks at how each period’s social, political and policy contexts sheds light on the way in which discourse about ‘race’, racism and anti-racism in the education system has developed in Britain, and for me, provides a background rationale to carrying out my research into the anti-racist school in the current context.