BeyondLabels

The underlying rationale for the research is based on conducting participatory research that is routed in social change specific to marginalized groups. The research is also influenced and in part shaped in the methodological perspective by the following quote by Martin Luther King:

“We do not ask you to march by our side. Although, as citizens, you are free and welcome to do so. Rather, we ask you to focus on the fresh social issues of our day. To move from observing operant learning …. to the test tubes of Watts, Harlem, Selma, and Bogalusa. We ask you to make society’s problems your laboratory. We ask you to translate your data into direction-direction for action” (King Jr, 1966)

ARC research adopts a performance ethnography approach and associated criteria based on a multiracial cultural studies perspective (Denzin 2002, Diawara, 1996). Such an approach is less certain than other more established interpretive enquiry methods (Denzin, 2003) but at the same time is natural to the ARC enquiry context. From a feminist, communitarian sense, there are various approaches to performance ethnography. For our study the ideologies and ‘world views’ are quite polarized from the drivers of many performance ethnographers but we share the need for performance ethnography in terms of criteria and techniques. Denzin (2003) and Stegner (1990) eloquently described the rationale and methodological perspective adopted for this research project.

"I seek an interpretive social science that is simultaneously autoethnographic, vulnerable, performative, and critical. This is a social science that refuses abstractions and high theory…………viewing culture as a complex performative process, it seeks to understand how people enact and construct meaning in their daily …….. free of prejudice, repression, and discrimination." (Denzin, 2003).

"I seek a writing form that is part memoir, part essay, part autoethnography... I write from scenes of memory, re-arranging, suppressing, even inventing scenes, forgoing claims to exact truth or factual accuracy, search instead for emotional truth, for deep meaning." (Stegner, 1990).

It is important to illustrate further the performances perspective and the idea of performances in public and democratic spaces that has informed this study in method and style. ARC adopted autoethnographic theatre perspective that we adapted for artistic expression. Issues of people coming together, through digital communities of practice, to participate in shared and reflexive performances. For the researchers performances involve co-participation in an interpretive process. Using the above theatre analogy scripts can be considered in context of pedagogic performance art narratives. The idea of edited experiences and often formed from group experiences were embraced. This has been used in exploring identities of refugee and migrants and in stitching together many dimensions and elements of culture through informal learning activities. Performance ethnography is a way to illustrate meaning and understanding about learning experiences in the context of personal identity (Pelias, 1999). Clearly challenging to achieve but natural for a multicultural education approach driven by pedagogy routed in anti-discriminatory practice.

Christian (2000) identifies three interconnected criteria that shape these representations of the world and in the context of this research into informal multicultural education in enabling identity expression through visual arts. These three criteria provide the guiding principles for the ARC research. 1) Interpretive sufficiency – the voices of visual artists need to provide depth, detail, emotionality and critical consciousness through the researchers being part of the collective. This enabled an immersive perspective into the role of informal multicultural education in the context of social movement of people and implications to identity through interpretive enquiry methods. Working together in a co-production process (informal multicultural education) culminating in visual arts acting as ‘voices’ for refugees and migrants. Paula Freire (2001) says conscientization to be formed - the marginalized gain their own expressive voices and collaborate in transforming their own identities. 2) Representational adequacy – the diversity of what became a loose ARC community of practice ensured a no tolerance approach to discrimination and stereotyping such as by racial, class, gender, religious issues and many more issues of importance. 3) Authentically Adequate - in terms of text and visual arts the research was influenced by Christian (2000) by meeting three conditions: (a) multiple voices are represented by exploring the Sonia Neito ‘undergrid’ to multicultural education as a framework for interpreting visual art and associated collaborations (b) deal with morality by challenging, through visual art, stereotype views in our communities and society of refugees and migrants (c) promote the changing of social perspective through creative expression. The performance ethnographic perspective embraced visual art and co-production with marginalized groups to provide a multi-voice that is hoped to empower persons, and discover identity implications (in some way).

We also engaged in the research design by ideas of Lincoln (1995) on authentic adequacy in that the research should: (1) reflect the researchers personality (criterion of positionality) in words and visual expression; (2) being able to address issues of the refugee community and promote there voice was core to the research in how it was conducted (community); (3) engage the non engaged in the context of asylum seekers and migrants who are often silenced through giving a voice (voice); (4) the researchers explore their interpretation of the situation, during, before, and after the research experience through exploring the Sonia Neito ‘undergrid’ framework (critical subjectivity); and (5) ARC was routed in forming a loose collective of equal stakeholders and this facilitated openness between researchers, educators and learners by performance ethnography not allowing such a divide to be recognised (reciprocity). ARC realized the conceptualised performance ethnography potential in the context of civic, participatory, and collaborative initiative. It creates a situation of co-participation and co-production in a common exploratory project specific to facilitating, through visual arts, a means for identity expression and facilitated by informal multicultural education practice. This performance ethnography research project clearly pulls from various perspectives including: feminist approach to ethnography, traditional ‘eastern theology’ on epistemology, and neo-Marxist approaches to community development.

Performance ethnography I have been exploring is based on a multiracial cultural studies perspective (Diawara, 1996). A relativley new postinterpretive, post foundational paradigm is emerging that is less certain in terms of an interpretive enquiry approach (Denzin, 2003). The ways in which these relationships of difference and commonality are textually represented answer to a political annd epistimological aesthetic. From a feminist, communitarian sense, there are various approaches to performance ethnography.

Christian (2000) identifies three interconnected criteria that shape these representations of the world. Interpretive sufficiency - descriptions should possess the amount of depth, detail, emotionality, nuance, and coherence that will permit a critical consciousness. Paula Freire (2001) says conscientization to be formed - the oppressed gain there own voices and collaborate in transforming there own cultures. Representational adequacy - dealing with being free of racial, class or gender stereotyping issues. Authentically Adequate - in terms of text and according to Christian when they meet three conditions. (a) multiple voices are represented, (b) enhance morality in some way, (c) promote social transformation.

Multivoice ethnographic texts should empower persons, discover moral truths about themselves (in some way), and create social criticism.

Here is a useful quote from someone who has significant influence on my thoughts in the context of bilingual education - Professor Jim Cummins.

"Nowhere in this anaemic instructiuonal vision is there room for really connecting at a human level with culturally diverse students. When we frame the universe of discourse only in terms of children's deficit in English and in phonological awareness (or deficits in any other area), we expel culture, language, identity, intellect, and imagination from our image of the child. In contrast .... an instructional focus on empowerment, understood as the collaborative creation of power, starts by acknowledging the culture, linguistic, imaginative, and intellectual resources that children bring to the school"

United Kingdom - controversy around the niqab (or face veil) Jack Straw (MP) called this 'a barrier to integration'. This has been taken and agreed with by many politicians including Tony Blair. Many women in communities feel under seige and it opens the doors to the racists on the streets of the UK. Such comments has been the most significant event that has damaged community cohesion since the race riots of 2001. A recent survey commissioned by the Home Office and conducted by University of Central Lancashire has found black and asian overall more tolerant to cultural diversity than whites in the northen towns researched. The recent comments seemed to illustrate a similar situation at a state level. So there is a move from ASBOS, to banning 'hoodies' to not 'veils'!? Netherlands - a parliamentary movement to ban burkas (full length garments) but was rejected by government last year. Since 2003 many schools have banned headscarves and this is permitted for specific reasons. So where is the free society when it comes to religious tolerance. Belgium - earlier this year 2 teachers were sacked for wearing the hijab (scalf). The reason was for not complying with 'religious neutrality'. In 2005 a factory boss/manager got death threats for allowing a worker to wear a hijab. In Antwerp an old law was invoked about not being allowed to wear masks.. Austria - minister Liese Prokop proposed to ban teachers from wearing hijabs. Later he did not pursue this any further. France Banned 'conspicuous' religious symbols in schools and this has clearly contributed to opinion across Europe. The impact of this is demonstrated to be far greater for Muslims that say Christians or Jews. Germany - 7 or 16 federal states banned the hijabs in schools. Baden-Wittemberg said it would question Muslim immigrants on women's rights and 9/11. Denmark - In 2005 a supreme court ruled a supermarket chain could fire a cashier wearing a veil (scalf). Italy - There have been attempts to revive Musolini-era laws against wearing masks. Minister Letizia Moratti ruled out any ban on hijabs in schools. Switzerland - a court ruling in 1997 banned the hijab for teachers. Turkey - Laws state religious clothing should not be worn outside times of worship. For example a cause of friction is that women wearing headscarf are not allowed to register as university students or enter campuses. The so called secular state of Turkey began under Kemal Ataturk

The decision to declare 2008 the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue sounds excellent focus. focus is on: * The promotion of cultural diversity in Europe and in the world * A fundamental component of active European citizenship * Ameans to promote flexibility and adaptation to the changes in humanresources brought about by the success of the Lisbon strategy * A solidarity dimension at the service of social cohesion * An element of credibility in policies towards neighbouring countries and external relations in general The Yearis intended to highlight and raise awareness through activities of the cultural industries and beyond. As the DG states the success and impact of the European Year of InterculturalDialogue in 2008 will depend on the active involvement of civil societyand implementation at the grassroots level. And yes this is essential to ensurethat it becomes a long-lasting and durable process extending beyond2008.

I have been intending to post my view in the recent media coverage of the wearing of the veil but time pasted... I struggle with the logic and Jack Straw (MP) should be far more aware of the situation (he is loosing the Asiam vote due to the war on Iraq/Afganistan and no voice on Lebanon so why kick even harder). The response seemed calculated from the Labour government and I guess to some extent well discussed way before the public comments from Jack Straw. Such comments increase the atmosphere of Islamaphobia and anti-Muslim racism in the country. The follow up in the context of wider issues of citizenship also has the potential of moving the country towards models being pushed in other European countries and away from what is still a more pluralist rather than secular approach here in the UK. In England we now see the situation of the Liverpool woman having a veil ripped off, woman suspended from working in a school for wearing a veil and racist attacks near many Mosques. I thought we had open views in the UK and legislation that is intended to protect from religious prejudice and the Race Relations Act. We should keep with the Multiculturalism and celebrate the diversity that it has enabled through positive anti-discriminatory action.... Northen towns such as Blackburn have no problems in community relations but have significant economic deprivation. This is the challenge not what people are wearing and the comments from many leading people in the Labour party are intrusive and discrimatory in attitude. For many women the veil is a sign of liberty and in the UK many more women have decided to wear the veil since the war on Iraq. For many more its part of there identity and a choice. In Europe typically it is a choice and a sign for many of controlling there own way of doing things. For others it is a central part of being a Muslim.. In other words for many women it is central to what they are and a choice in a free society that has no impact on others.....

Really enjoyed the presentation from Graham and the chat. The summary of Graham supporting information also useful for me. Suggest a read.

Also much respect and thanks to my lovely friends from Ethnic Minority Cultural Initiative and the Mighty Zulu Nation Theatre Production Company. Look forward to working with you all again soon

So I have got there MC-DIP Question set now complete, and uploaded to Plone project site, for those I have been working with on the project - Al, Anna, Mike, Steve etc.. Massive task as the diagnostic cuts across three theoretical lenses - Multicultural education, learnign styles and creativity. The logic behind the questions sets that the diagnostic software will be built around is supporting pedagogy equity for educators and learners. In the environment I work in an imbalance on the teacher and on the Web you can see in many circles an imbalance on the learner through what is frequently termed 'autonomous learning'. The Diagnostic 2.0 software is about intervening for positive educational action for social change and hence fits well with much of the e-learning 2.0 developments and for me logical fit with Knownet software apps.

Just a little more on the background need for such an approach and underpinning thoughts. .....

For me the challenge is to create learning environments that maintain the cultural integrity of every person while enhancing their educational success. At the classroom level, culturally responsive teaching essentially involves using students’ cultural experiences and background as a medium for helping them learn important academic skills. There has also been a general agreement that the development of individual cultural identity is a major process of acceptance of the cultural norms, beliefs, attitudes and values of one cultural group rather than another. Hence multicultural education is important and necessary in order for students to be able to develop personal autonomy. To create inclusive education we need learning environments to re-configure to be in a proactive position to support diversity and equality.

Thats enough for now.. Will be posting over next week specifically on Multiculturalism, Learning Styles and eLearning 2.0 from how I see things..

This article by Jana Noel (California State university, Sacramento) examines the idea that students construction of identity can be linked to their understandings of multicultural education. This article was written from the prespective of the teacher/educators in the sense that they need to have a good understanding of why our students have such a wide range of definitions of multicultural education. This article ties in really well with my PhD in the sense that, one of my dimension is looking at the identity implication form the learner perspective as well as teacher's perspective. There are not as many discussion around in terms of teacher's identity compared to learners's identity.

Jana discussed how she found out for the first time from her 'student teacher' ......" I don't need to take Multicultural Education, because I'am in Agricultural and we feed the world". Such perception about multicultural eduation is and if it is part of the 'student teacher' thinking has made Jana more determined to gain a better understanding of why her students have such a different understanding of multicultural eduation.

"We do not believe in ourselves until someone reveals what is deep inside of us as valuable, worth listening to, worthy of our trust, sacred to our touch. Once we believe in ourselves we can rick curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight, or any experience that reveals the human spirit." (e. e. cummings, 1923/1976)

The above quote is the main discussion in an article by Nancy.P. Gallavan & A.Maria. Whittemore that I found very fascinating and deeply involved. It uses the narrative dialogue in its approach and it gave us a deeper understanding of the situation.

The article "When Parallel Lives Intersect: Experiencing Multiple Perspectives in Our Own Journeys" is based on two lives (personal experiences of the two author in the article) of completely different people and how they have openly talked about their own experienced. It highlighted the above quote very deeply and it was quiet emotional for me when I read the article.

Maria is a black female growing in the 50's and she explained how difficult and challenging it was at time being black and female. How she was the youngest of six and lived near the railroad tracks on the far end of town. The house she was living with her family was burnt-out machine shop with no bathroom and her family was the only black family in the community. Her and her siblings had to go to a segregated school which was 8 miles away. Maria was top achieve in the school and when she finally accepted in the white school, she was going through difficult times with other white children who making fun of her but luckily her white teacher see beyond her colour and gave her all the help she needed......

Nancy was too growing in the 50's and was the only white girl who lived in the house with her family who hired the black domestic. Her father was the owner of the local feed mile who hired black laborers and her mother gave her hand-me-down clothing to the black domestics family. Her parents also donated money and many other furnishing to the black families. Her parents also helped the black children to attend college. Nancy always wondered why the black children were not allowed to the while school and...

This article concluded with discussion and gone back to the quote above that we have to accept the person as he/she is and must look deeper and NOT discriminates. For Maris, her life story empowers her to see DIVERSITY as a STRENGHT and not deficits and to model this belief to everyone around her. Same with Nancy, her heart and head were reopened to many bias and social injustice inequalities she experienced in her childhood and how these now clearly apparent to her many years later as a professor of cultural diversity.

IRR journal Race & Class leads with an essay by Matt Carr who writes................ Seems to be a grrowing consensus on both sides of the Atlantic that is presenting Europe as a doomed continent that is being transformed into an Islamic colony called 'Eurabia'. Writer and journalist Matt Carr takes the reader  through the writings of conservative historians and newspaper columnists, right-wing Zionists and European neo-fascists, who find common cause in the dangerous Islamophobic fantasy that 'Judeo-Christian' civilisation is under threat from Muslim immigrants. Hey whats this 'one world order' thing we are being pushed......

Inspiring stuff. Insight into wide range of issues that me, Aishah and little Liyana was at. Good catch all for whats happening internationally and priority issues for time. Also catching up with friends ..

Recent event in the north England. On going collaboration with EMCI. Always fun and amazing theatre education for children and powerful message below the fun.............. bridging learning styles and theatre/performance loads of potential and needs more exploration 

Just came across the powerful image and thought provoking poem by Meena. She was dedicate to the struggle of Afgan muslim women andhuman rights . The poster below is by an north American artist: Favianna Rodriguez Giannoni. Cool work with emotion and power ( http://www.favianna.com/ ).

I’LL NEVER RETURN
I'm the woman who has awoken
I've arisen and become a tempest through the ashes of my burnt children
I've arisen from the rivulets of my brother's blood
My nation's wrath has empowered me
My ruined and burnt villages fill me with hatred against the enemy
Oh compatriot, no longer regard me weak and incapable,
My voice has mingled with thousands of arisen women
My fists are clenched with fists of thousands compatriots
To break all these sufferings all these fetters of slavery.
I'm the woman who has awoken,
I've found my path and will never return.
Poem by Meena (1956-1987)

The task of establishing identity and identity achievement clearly continues beyond adolescence but for the mainstream particularly challenging for youth. The ultimate goal for many is termed identity achievement (Dunn & Griggs, 1995). Identity achievement is a complex process realised through 'small steps'. For many in there youth, and throughout life, this can be problematic and this applies to both secular and non-secular settings.. Here are some key methods that I came across by Dunn and Griggs (1995) that I found useful... - identity foreclosure: accepting parental values without reservation. Common in many non-secular countries. - Nagative identity status: adopting roles and values diametrically opposed to expectations and parental values. - Identity diffusion status: young persons inability to commit to anything in terms of values, goals, religious beliefs. - Moratorium status: allowing young people time out for experimentation and alternative lifestyles

800,00 school students took action in Chile on Wednesday of last week.. Over 100 schools involved and supported by some universities. Students demaingin free travel to school and no college entrance exam fees... and restructuring of education system meeting needs of students as opposed to private sector interests. The movement most obvious on the streets of Santiago. The change in feelings may be in part influenced by Venezuela's president Hugo Chavez. Irrespective of views on his approach there is clearly support for public services and the needs of the poor and yes this seems to be creating winds blowing in the America's Can across a demonstration banner in Santiago with the words.... "be realistic, demand the impossible" - May 1968 Paris rising...

Radical Journalist Gary Younge talks about his latest book “Stranger In A Strange Land: Encounters In The Disunited States”. This book is divided into four sections –war, race, politics and culture. The overarching theme is division. The book talks about how divided US really is. Gary explained how….” the era of former US president Bill Clinton ended with one of the closest elections that we can remember- one that George Bush had to steal in the end. So Bush, and the way that he came to power, was an expression of division. When Hurricane Katrina landed, another clear division that came out if it is Race. Black, opinionated, and from a working-class background, Gary Younge is not your typical foreign correspondent. Yet, in three years as The Guardian newspaper's New York correspondent, Younge has acquired a transatlantic reputation as one of the most thoughtful commentators on contemporary America. (Book description on Amazon)

Just came across the words below and it gives a feel for the climate in the UK. Issues of interest for me here are cultural pluralism and the notion of integration being put forward in the UK. Roy Jenkins' classic definition, integration is 'not a flattening process of assimilation but equal opportunity accompanied by cultural diversity in an atmosphere of mutual tolerance' is what we should be thinking in Europe and move away from the push to assimilation. A Sivananda provides invaluable insight and I suggest check out the full interview where the quote below can from.

There's a new ballgame here - with the 2001 riots in Britain and 7/7, the government has been thrashing about for answers as to how to handle its ethnic minorities. First, with the riots, it blamed the self-separatism of Asian communities for the disaffection between Asians and whites - never acknowledging that successive governments' policies of culturalism, combined with their neglect of the inner cities, had created the enclaves which had turned Asians against whites and vice versa. Thus, the government's thinking this time was not on the lines of 'ethnic disadvantage', as Scarman had it, but of (too much) ethnic advantage, too much 'multiculturalism', not enough integration/assimilation or the much more euphemistic term 'community cohesion'. And now, after 7/7, despite the discovery that the suicide bombers were home-grown and wholly British, the thinking in the UK is to embrace the backward and undoubtedly Islamophobic discourse that is issuing from mainland Europe. Cultural pluralism has gone too far, it threatens our values and our very national safety. A line has to be drawn on difference. Ethnic minorities have now, in the domestic context of the War on Terror, to effectively subsume their cultural heritage to Britishness.

Sivanandan, May 2006

The short motion graphics of myself, produced by Rob Chiu, is compiled from a few different times/events that provides an insight in areas of activity but just as importantly a tool for me to explore and reflect. This approach is used as a means to illustrate where I want to push the BeyondLabels initiative with friends and partners. The main focus needs to remain routed in multicultural education as a critical pedagogic approach but also reach out to partnering areas related to social change and direct action related to exclusion.

Such a time eating project but fantastic and look forward to where next. The idea is one book per year on challenging issues and led by design/illustration and the core communication route. Rob Chiu creative director with his unique vision of things and me as research director routed in education for social change and community action for ethnic minorities and migrants. The trailer of the short film provides a taster and again loads of food-for-thought on where next. The media is clearly instilling fear in society with regards terrorism and there seems to be a need for collective and balance reflection on terrorism and the real situation. Hence our next project..... and hey hopefully it can financially continue to sustain itself.

Note: Thumbnail image by Lim Fung Wee Lee Fung Wee

BlackDayTo Freedom BD2F