CERES Blog
Welcome to the CERES Blogs
These blogs are intended to raise issues relating to promoting race equality and anti-racism within education in general. Blogs may present issues arising from research or can be personal accounts from educators, education students, parents, individuals and groups relating to the teaching on, or leadership of, matters related to ‘race’. They can be examples of best practice or discussions about conundrums or discomforts. The aim of the blogs is to open up discussion, to provide spaces for disruption, transformation and boundary-pushing in the area of race equality and anti-racism within education.
Contribute to CERES Blogs
If you feel you would like to contribute (and we hope you do), then please see the information below. We are very happy to take contributions from Scotland and across the world.
Blogs should include:
- 500-800 words submitted on a Word document.
- If you include any images/video, please ensure these are appropriately credited and with permission.
- A short bio of who you are with good quality head shot photo.
- If you are happy to include this, a link to your professional profile or an email address for readers to contact you.
- Any Twitter or Instagram handles and hashtags you would like to add when we promote it.
We encourage you to write to us with your idea for a blog before submission. Please contact us at ceres@ed.ac.uk and mark your email with ‘Blog submission’.
CERES Blogs: Disrupting whiteness: countering ‘white backlash’
By Marlies Kustatscher After recently writing a blog on hegemonic whiteness in the higher education classroom, my CERES colleagues invited me to reflect further on ‘white backlash’, or ‘pushback’ particularly from those who would deem themselves pro-social justice....
CERES Blogs: Developing anti-racist practice at Cowgate Centre for Under 5s, Edinburgh
By Jayne Weaver Racism pervades every aspect of life in Scotland. In 1989, on our own doorstep in Cowgate, racist youths attacked Somalian student Axmed Abuukar Sheekh and his Somalian friend. “..screaming racist abuse, the thugs repeatedly punched, kicked and stabbed...
CERES Blogs: Anti-Racism: A Teacher Trade Unionist Perspective
By Asif Chishti “In a racist society it is not enough to be non-racist, we must be anti-racist.” Angela Y. Davis If we want to create a more equal society, where everyone is valued, then we need to take action. Surely this is especially the case for teachers? It is...
CERES Blog: Deja vu or Progress – Reflections of a retired HM Inspector of Education
By Hakim Din Every so often, we all have a reflective moment where we think about where we are and what are we doing. For me, it has been reflecting on my work in Education, in particular race equality, across almost four decades. As retired Schools Inspector, I can...
CERES Blogs: ‘Racism exists in me’ – a challenge to Scottish education leaders to reflect on their positionality
By Lesley Whelan Great educational leadership might previously have acknowledged that racism exists. A bigger challenge within educational leadership, and our collective professional learning, is to take the step towards understanding that ‘racism exists in me.’ And,...
CERES Blogs: Moving Toward Antiracist Family Engagement
By Reed Swier In 2020, not only did the United States government fail in supporting the country’s most vulnerable and historically marginalized families, many of our schools did as well. In my work with school districts I have witnessed firsthand how leaders continue...