‘Just call me ‘Chief’!’ - Building space and responsiveness to identities
My mother tells a story which, despite the passing of two decades between then and now, remains a firm favourite of mine. As part of the finance team at a prestigious grammar school in Northern Ireland, she recounted a conversation between a parent of a boarding pupil from West Africa and one of her colleagues. The exchange of pleasantries and introductions to which we are so accustomed in our cultural norms, was suddenly peppered with an exceptional, revealing and identity-reinforcing statement as, in response to the Finance Officer addressing the father by his name, he advised: ‘just call me ‘Chief’.
This comment stands out due to the foreign concept of chiefdom. However, to those of us with African heritage, either by lineage or, like me, by adoption, it is a powerful statement of identity and one that took place before our contemporary ideas of fluidity of identity and culture, liberalism, plurality of truth, and the increasing relinquishment of notions of cultural superiority as relics from the colonial age.
At the time, it was a negotiation of understanding between two worlds; a statement of assurance of status and authority into the nooks, crannies and mundane normality of cultural norms and etiquettes. And yet now, as I reflect on the negotiation, which seems to play out in layers as individuals from former colonised countries insist on equality, recognition, respect and, perhaps in this particular case, deference, something inside of me cheers.
It may make you chuckle, just as I do when I think about this story, but it also presents an opportunity for reflective questioning on the dynamics of our intercultural, international approaches across Higher Education in the UK. There are a few things I would like to ‘get off my chest’ – and perhaps these thoughts resonate with you too.
1) The United Kingdom is an international, multicultural and multilingual society. The narrow recognition and traditional understanding of the importance of preparing and shaping ‘the student experience’ for the groups of international students who arrive through visa routes misses the significant opportunity to be responsive to the increasing numbers of UK-domiciled students who speak English as a second or third language, have diverse cultural and pedagogical frameworks and, for many, have recently lived experience of the ‘hostile environment’ specifically created to discourage them from making the UK their home. These factors impact on students’ expectations, transitions, sense of belonging and support needs; ultimately acting as determinants of their outcomes.
2) We can pursue ‘internationalisation’ in 2D, 3D or 4D glorious technicolour! Forgive the simplistic analogy as it belies the complexity of student experiences and how they are shaped by interpersonal dynamics, the quality and responsiveness of processes, as well as the intrapersonal state of being of an individual. The sector expanded from a 2D approach of ‘you come to us approach’ years ago. Many providers have campuses in other global regions, taking internationalisation into 3D, so it’s more like a case of ‘your place or mine?’ However, in my view, that does not make for a global University. Globalisation is a phenomenon that forges greater interconnectedness and alters the fabric and social institutions (culture, values and approaches) of an organisation. This takes us into a 4D mindset. To be global universities, we have to recognise and agree what we mean by equity.
3) Equity is not just about protected characteristics, it’s about building and shaping this awareness into planning, service design and delivery, and learning and teaching approaches. A handful of examples might help to bring this out of the conceptual domain:
- Be straightforward: keep processes simple, clear and manageable by a few steps
- Facilitate engagement with learning: if students have English as an Additional Language, give them learning materials in advance of lectures and tutorials so that they have an opportunity to prepare their understanding of the language. This will enable them to contribute, grow in confidence, increase their engagement and belonging – all of which we know support better outcomes and student satisfaction
- Enable participation: before discussions, give students 2 minutes to note down any points they want to make, questions they wish to ask, or keywords. This will facilitate their participation rather than have ongoing class discussions among the usual suspects who are confident and engaged. This approach would benefit all students, not just those with English as an Additional Language
- Mix it up: multicultural contexts can easily fall into segregated communities. Use group work as an opportunity for students to connect with others and have exposure to people from other cultures, languages and backgrounds. We all, but particularly the students concerned, will be richer because of it
- Encourage success, don’t reinforce a sense of failure: University should be a stretch, not a strain. Students should not be shocked that their academic experience is challenging – that is the point, after all, and they will grow into it. That being said, this needs to be balanced with building help-seeking behaviours as a norm so that, where things are tipping into strain, the University support system is ready to step in to help. After all, recognising when we need help and knowing how to ask for it is an important life-skill that we take with us beyond education
- Seek to understand worldviews and how they impact on how students experience University. For example, find out what wellbeing means and the types of support structures used by diverse identities in the student body. If our only wellbeing support is firmly rooted in Western concepts, we are not providing accessible and inclusive support. We do not have to reinvent the wheel, but, by understanding how students experience wellbeing in a University context, we can take systemic approaches to ensure that our environment is conducive to the positive wellbeing of all students.
Above all, as someone who has experienced the challenges and enrichment of living and working in other cultures, I believe that it is important to commit to being ‘judgement neutral’ and build in space for others to be themselves. This means recognising that there is value in other ways of seeing the world and receiving people as they are, acknowledging that our way is not necessarily the best way, though it makes sense to us. As a recent example, a group of international students were devastatingly impacted by a serious road traffic accident. Conversations with those students revealed that, while we would rush to offer mental and emotional wellbeing support through clinical therapeutic services, at that point, this projection of Western understandings of mental health and wellbeing was an additional strain for this group. What they needed in the immediate was our practical help, listening ears and responses to requests that aligned to their spirituality, namely sending positive thoughts.
As Third Space professionals have understanding and insight stemming from spanning multiple domains in the Higher Education environment, they contribute an appreciation of layered identities, cultures and intersectionality with meaningful understanding of the dynamic created by these aspects of personhood and university life. Through the sharing of these insights and knowledges in the space between disciplines and professional identities (Transdisciplinarity), organisations and individuals open to the creation of more innovative, responsive approaches.
There is an opportunity here to move beyond a nuts and bolts, siloed approach to internationalisation in which the delivery of international student experiences is the remit of an International Office, to something more integrated, colourful and impactful - but it begins with building in space and responsiveness to other identities.
For me, the beauty in referring to the student’s father as Chief is the space given to a respectful encounter with another culture and system that recognises the dignity of ‘the other’ and actively embraces it within an interaction.
