Embedding Anti-Racism in the Community Development and Youth Work Programme
The Community Development and Youth Work (CDYW) programme team in TU Dublin have been embedding anti-racism across the programme since September 2020, equipping students with the skills to identify and address racism at multiple levels - individual, cultural and structural.
Community Development and Youth Work Anti-Racism Placement Resource Launch, January 25 2023
Community development and youth work in Ireland takes place in increasingly diverse cultural contexts. This requires practitioners to have the skills, knowledge and value base not only to work from an intercultural perspective, but to recognise the reality of racism, the impact of racism and racial discrimination on both the individuals and the communities that they work with, and feel empowered to respond to it.
Research conducted with Community Development and Youth Work (CDYW) students on the Blanchardstown campus (Poole, 2019) found that some students witnessed racism on placement but did not feel equipped to address it (see also Adeleye et al 2020). As white lecturers working on the CDYW programme with diverse students the programme team realised they needed to deepen their own and students’ understanding of the multifaceted phenomenon of racism.
Given the prevalence of racism in Irish society, the CDYW team consider it imperative to embed anti-racism in the programme with a particular emphasis on professional practice and the development of professionals for community development and youth work settings. Their starting point is that it is not enough to be ‘not racist’, rather we need to be actively anti-racist (Kendi 2020). Anti-racism work is very much in keeping with the core values underpinning community development and youth work practice and education, including the values of human rights, equality and anti-discrimination (AIEB 2016; NSETS 2013). Anti-racism as a call for social change and action is very much in keeping with the CDYW programme mission to produce graduates who are ‘agents of change’.
References
- Adeleye, T., Adeniran, D., Fidel, M. and Watson, C. (2020) ‘Discrimination and Apathy: Students Describe Culture of Racism on Campuses,’ University Times, 18 July. Available at: https://universitytimes.ie/2020/07/discrimination-and-apathy-students-describe-culture-of-racism-on-campuses/
- AIEB (2016) All Ireland Standards for Community Work, Galway: Community Work Ireland.
- Kendi, I. X. (2020) The difference between being “not racist” and antiracist, [online] Available at: https://www.ted.com/talks/ibram_x_kendi_the_difference_between_being_not_racist_and_antiracist?language=en
- Poole, P. (2019) Adopting an intercultural approach to youth work: Experiences of youth workers and implications for student preparation, unpublished MA research dissertation, TU Dublin.
- NSETS (2013) NSETS Professional Endorsement Criteria and Procedures for the Professional Endorsement of Higher Education Programmes of Study in Youth Work, Belfast: North/South Education and Training Standards Committee for Youth Work.
The programme team were awarded IMPACT funding (2020/2021) and EDI funding (2021/2022) to support their work on embedding anti-racism in the CDYW programme.
Activities include:
- Staff workshops on anti-racism
- Mapping module content and a committment to introducing at least one element focused on anti-racism in each module
- Revision of pre-placement workshops so that they better equip Year 2 and 3 students with the skills to identify and constructively respond to racist incidents in placement settings
- Development of an ‘Anti-Racism Placement Resource’ for and by the CDYW programme
- Co-developing and running events with students including seminars, a conference, global class and virtual learning exchange
- Students collectively developed a Student Anti-Racism Charter
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Dr. Philip Owende and Georgina Lawlor speaking at the Higher Education Authority speaking at the Anti-Racism Placement Resource Launch, January 25 2023
The CDYW Anti-Racism Placement Resource has been co-created with CDYW students and informed by insights from the Irish Network Against Racism (INAR), and the Immigrant Council of Ireland. The purpose of the resource is to support students’ learning on their anti-racism journey.
The resource:
- explains key terms and concepts related to race, racialisation and racisms
- outlines what to do if students experience or witness racism on placement
- develops students’ capacity to challenge racism
- shares useful resources and case studies to discuss responses to lived experiences of racism in practice settings.
The focus of the resource is on the practice placement as the site where students apply their theoretical learning to context specific situations.
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