Race
Sadiq’s TEDx talk really resonated with me, especially when he pointed out that higher education failed him and that he could not identify anyone who looked like him among senior business leaders. Another point from Sadiq’s talk that really struck a chord was when he talked about people having different learning preferences, specifically referring to his neurodivergent son, who responds better to tasks when broken down into small segments. This highlighted the importance of recognising different ways of learning rather than expecting all students to adapt to a single educational model.
Thinking back to what Sadiq discussed about diversity in education, it prompted me to reflect on an uncomfortable contradiction within higher education. At UAL we have undergone extensive anti-racism and diversity training, yet there can be less emphasis on changing the curriculum and pedagogical practices that shape students’ everyday experiences. Bradbury (2020) argues that educational policies and practices can appear neutral while continuing to privilege dominant groups and perspectives, encouraging educators to look beyond individual attitudes and examine how institutional structures reproduce inequality.
Working with such diverse cohorts, I am constantly aware and haunted by the fact that I might have acted with bias because, despite coming from a different country and culture, I still have unconscious bias; we all do. No training will make anyone anti-racist. However, undergoing that training has helped me become more aware of my unconscious bias and more willing to engage with the discomfort that accompanies critical self-reflection. For me, the value of this training lies not in achieving a fixed state of being ‘anti-racist’, but in developing an ongoing practice of questioning how my teaching decisions may privilege some perspectives while marginalising others.
I am not against anti-racist training and think we all need constant reminders to check our bias and be aware of our privilege. More importantly, seeing that no training will eradicate racism, I think more attention and support could be provided for staff to help change what and how we teach. For instance, I have been previously criticised for not placing enough importance on Swiss Style when teaching design history. For context, Swiss Style has historically been constructed around a canon dominated by European male designers, resulting in a narrow conception of design excellence that can marginalise alternative visual traditions, cultural perspectives and forms of knowledge.
One academic who has significantly influenced my teaching practice and helped me to decolonise the graphic design curriculum is Ellen Lupton. Her contribution to the fiftieth-anniversary Beatrice Warde Memorial Lecture, Good Types/Bad Types, at the St Bride Foundation inspired me to contextualise Swiss Style within its particular cultural and historical conditions, rather than presenting it as a neutral or universal model of design excellence. It also encouraged me to widen the curriculum’s graphic design canon by introducing students to a broader range of designers, visual traditions and perspectives (St Bride Foundation, 2021).
The truth is that for many years, as a university, we have been teaching a predominantly Western and white design canon, partly because knowledge of alternative global design histories has been less visible within mainstream design education. I believe that every piece of design and reference has its own place in history, but we do need to move with the times and be more aware that design education often reproduces a narrow Eurocentric canon that excludes Black and other marginalised design histories (Leslie, 2020).
Garrett (2024) argues that universities need to move beyond increasing diversity alone and instead implement cultural and structural changes that value intersectional identities and different forms of knowledge. This resonates with my own experience, as meaningful inclusion is not simply about representation but about reconsidering whose knowledge, histories and perspectives are legitimised within the curriculum.
This not only should encompass the references and examples we use within the curriculum, but also extend to the guest lecturers we invite, ensuring that we platform a broader range of voices and experiences from the design industry. By doing so, we can create learning environments in which more students are able to recognise themselves, their histories and their future possibilities within the discipline.
References:
Bradbury, A. (2020) ‘A critical race theory framework for education policy analysis: The case of bilingual learners and assessment policy in England’, Race Ethnicity and Education, 23(2), pp. 241–260.
Channel 4 (2020) The School That Tried to End Racism. YouTube video, 30 June. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I3wJ7pJUjg (Accessed: 20 June 2026).
Garrett, R. (2024) ‘Racism shapes careers: career trajectories and imagined futures of racialised minority PhDs in UK higher education’, Globalisation, Societies and Education, pp. 1–15.
Orr, J. (2022) ‘Revealed: The charity turning UK universities woke’. YouTube video, 5 August. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRM6vOPTjuU (Accessed: 20 June 2026).
Sadiq, A. (2023) ‘Diversity, Equity & Inclusion: Learning how to get it right’. YouTube video, 2 March. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HR4wz1b54hw (Accessed: 20 June 2026).
St Bride Foundation (2021) Beatrice Warde Memorial Lecture – 50th Anniversary: Good Types/Bad Types. Lecture held at St Bride Foundation, London, 18 November. Available at: https://sbf.org.uk/whats-on/view/beatrice-warde-memorial-lecture-50th-anniversary-good-types-bad-types/ (Accessed: 20 June 2026).
Leslie, A. (ed.) (2020) The Black Experience in Design: Identity, Expression and Reflection. New York: Allworth Press.