I found the conversation about social justice in our first PG Cert session useful in terms of sharing experiences and solidarity with other staff. Many of our discussions came up against the idea that it is impossible to create socially just teaching within a system that is so rigged against those who live at the sharp edge of the capitalism. For example, students who have to work at the same time as studying are materially disadvantage in terms of how much of our teaching they can access even before they walk through the door of the classroom. International students, have to learn in a language that isn’t theirs while dealing with the micro and macro aggressions of a racist society. In this context I was thinking about Arao and Clements idea of a brave space and whether it can create a more equitable base to teach from. This passage in the chapter felt perhaps like the most useful:
The collapse of “Safety” into “comfort” has been a hugely problematic swerve for those of us who want to embed social justice principles into our teaching. The idea of a brave space that can be defined by it’s participants, feels to me too inward looking to be particularly helpful, particularly in the current political context. In her new book Minority Rule: Adventures in the Culture war, Ash Sakar argues that the right wing has used social justice language, to victimise itself and justify a backlash against actual material benefits for oppressed groups. For example, trans people (such as myself) have materially gained very little from the increased representation of trans people in the media and the language of inclusion that has begun to spread in universities. However the backlash to that representation has had very material consequences: including legislation that specifically targets and discriminates against us. This is true across a wide range of minority groups. We need more than brave spaces to turn this around.
References:
Arao, B. and Clemens, K., (2013), From Safe Spaces to Brave Spaces: A new way to frame dialogue around diversity and social Justice
Sakar, Ash (2025). Minority Rule: Adventures in the Culture War. Bloomsbury Publishing.