Educom academic delivers government training

Following a successful training session on 'race and education' for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), Silhouette was invited by the Department for Education (DfE), East England North East London Division (EENEL) EDI Team to deliver a training session on intersectionality in the context of education.

Silhouette, senior lecturer in education studies, and an EDI lead, is also a specialist/facilitator in anti-racist, culturally relevant, decolonial pedagogical interventions.

The session was part of the DfE's programme of training events for civil servants within the department's regional delivery directorate such as the Director's Office and the Regional Schools of Commissioners Office.

Silhouette is currently researching black girlhood in Britain. The training session was an opportunity to:

1. Engage with policy-makers and other professionals outside of education institutions to consider a range of intersectional manifestations of oppression minoritised children, young people and adults face in Britain.
2. To begin discussing some of the distinct ways black girls experience structural injustice in education. The session also provided an introduction to intersectionality analytical framework to discuss social justice issues in compulsory and post-compulsory education (and society) in England.

The session discussed structural and interpersonal racial, gendered and neurodiversity inequities in education and society and highlighted some strategies to address some of the social justice issues raised. Attendees were invited to reflect on areas of interest, the identified patterns, and the potential missing data that can reveal how interlocking inequalities impact specific marginalised communities.

Silhouette said,

It is really important to raise awareness of nuanced social justice issues within education and more broadly,  to introduce appropriate analytical tools originally created for racialised gendered justice (but can be used in much more expansive ways), and solution focused strategies that can be developed within their own work contexts."

A range of people attended the training, including policy-makers, project managers, both secretariat and operational leads.