Farhana Sultana wrote that to reflect on one’s positionality is “to reflect on how one is inserted in grids of power relations and how that influences methods, interpretations, and knowledge production” (2007, 376). My positionality as a practitioner is; I am a woman, with dual nationality (English/Brazilian), a native speaker of both languages, of mixed heritage, middle-class and have a learning difference.
Kimberlé Crenshaw’s theory of intersectionality addresses when one or more aspects of your identity Including disability can intersect and lead to discrimination. As she puts it “we are all, at any one-time, multiple things. We have a race, we have a gender, we have a class” and intersectionality refers “to the things that sometimes happen to us because of who we are and because of institutions that have been structured in a race, gender, class discriminatory way”, in short it is “the multiple effects of different forms of discrimination” (Crenshaw, n.d.).
As paralympic basketball player, Ade Adepitan explains “what makes people disabled is not their disability…Society it’s what holds us back, it’s that systemic discrimination and oppression” (2021). When it comes to disability a solution to addressing this, one could look at the social model of disability. The social model of disability echoes what Ade stated, people are not disabled by their impairment but by either their environment and/or by procedures. In our context of HE this could mean a building that is not accessible to get to, equipment that is not adaptable to differently abled bodies, or procedures in place that often unknowingly discriminate against those with disabilities or a combination of these. M. Oliver wrote on this and that to “put it simply, providing a barrier free environment is likely to benefit everyone with mobility impairments as well as other groups” (2023).
Disclosing a disability when enrolling ay UAL is optional. According to the UAL central dashboard, across all of UAL, from the home students 33.7% are B.A.M.E, 63.7% are white. Across all students 18% have declared a disability, 76.2% female, 23.3% male, 0.2% non-binary and 0.2% other. Within this data there will be many intersecting aspects of identity, for example s student that is female, B.A.M.E and has a disability, and they may face discrimination at UAL.
So as a teaching technician at UAL, how can I utilise the information above and apply it my practice to make my practice more inclusive? As I carry on improving my practice, I will also carry on taking a transparent approach to teaching; I share that English is not my first language, I struggle with spelling and reading, I say openly that I don’t know everything but am always looking forward to learning something new with them. This creates a safe and open environment, which I believe is key to helping students ask questions, learn and share what they are struggling with and their barriers to learning. From this dialogue I am made aware of things that I otherwise wouldn’t know, what can be improved, changed and challenged.
References
Crenshaw, K. (n.d.). Intersectionality is a recognition that people are multidimensional. [online] www.youtube.com. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/P-QRBdckDaw [Accessed 25 May 2025].
Crenshaw, K. (1991). Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, Identity politics, and Violence against Women of Color. Stanford Law Review, 43(6), pp.1241–1299. Available at: https://doi.org/10.2307/1229039.
MAKERS (2023). Kimberlé Crenshaw, The Introduction of Intersectionality | MAKERS Moment. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wL6ugSK0cWA [Accessed 26 May 2025].
Oliver, M. (2023). Social work. 2nd ed. London: Kingsley, pp.137–140.
Paralympics (2021). Ade Adepitan gives amazing explanation of systemic racism. [online] www.youtube.com. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAsxndpgagU [Accessed 10 May 2024].
Russo, R. (2018). Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw Defines Intersectionality. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWP92i7JLlQ [Accessed 26 May 2025].
Sultana, F. (2015) “Reflexivity, Positionality and Participatory Ethics: Negotiating Fieldwork Dilemmas in International Research”, ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies, 6(3), pp. 374–385.
Dear Emilia, I hope you are fine. Your article is very inspiring, and although English is not my first language, because born and raised in Italy, I have never thought to share this detail with my students, albeit my accent is quite strong and I presume easily trackable.
To obviate this issue, I have been recording my lectures with captions and uploading them on Moodle to facilitate students who couldn’t understand how to accomplish an exercise or couldn’t attend these classes in person at all.
Moreover, I also admire your humble approach with your students, where you are eager and prone to learn new things with them throughout these creative and collaborative processes. It’s true what a professor of mine once told me: “A teacher is merely the oldest learner in the classroom” (Izzo, 2006).
Thank you for your feedbac Giuseppe. It is very suefull, thank you also for sharing an example of how you foster inclusivity in your teaching. I hae been thinking of ways of manking my teaching more inclusive, and i agree that recording sessions so students can re-watch wth closed captioning in a varirty of languages is a way of fostering a more inclusive environment.
The languages support of sharepoint are: Chinese (Cantonese), Danish (Denmark), English (United States), French (France), Italian (Italy), Japanese (Japan), Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish (Spain).
https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/office/view-edit-and-manage-video-transcripts-and-captions-3cb9acb6-05b2-4f59-a50d-7df61123aa20
I wonder if you have any additional resources on language translation that I could have a
look at? 🙂
Hi Emilia
Thanks so much for agreeing to become a blog buddy at the last workshop. I’m delighted to get to read your work as I am always impressed with what you have to say in class.
This blog on disability makes for interesting reading. All the students I work with have a disability or identify as neuro diverse but as you highlight, this is but one aspect of their identity. Your positioning of yourself and reflection on the UAL dashboard stats evidence how differing aspects of who we are, intersect and create not only personal identities but structural identities; identities thrust upon us by society. Often these structural identities are founded in bias and can led to discrimination creating barriers that restrict people meeting their full potential. (Ade Adepitan’s explanation). Your understanding for the need to practice a social model of disability at institutional level and thoughts of how you yourself can create a more inclusive environment in the learning space, demonstrate empathy. Amazing that you packed so much into the blog and very impressed by the number of references. Great stuff!
Thank you Frances!
I am also always impressed with what you share in class. Your fedback has been very encouraging on my writting and if you have any further feedback on what I could add/change that would be very welcome.