tokenism in higher education

Learn more in: Cultural Biases in Transitional Writing Courses and Their Effect on Hispanic Students in Texas 2. Often, we are not aware of how we use language. Teachers need to do everything they can to both improve representation and avoid tokenism in schools. The Social Ecology of Tokenism in Higher Education Yolanda Flores Niemann Pages 451-458 | Published online: 22 Nov 2016 Download citation https://doi.org/10.1080/10402659.2016.1237098 Full Article Figures & data References Citations Metrics Reprints & Permissions Get access Click to increase image size Log in via your institution Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) students are, unsurprisingly, the first to feel the effects of a white curriculum. Critics have called this the Fs of culture: food, folk-dancing, festivals, fashion, and flags. Token women: An empirical test of Kanter's hypothesis.American Journal of Sociology 84(1): 160169. Learn more about Institutional subscriptions. Islay also holds a range of qualifications in the Health and Wellness field, being a qualified yoga instructor, personal trainer, wellness coach, and nutrition and wellness consultant. Another proposal is that funding bodies should make grants dependent on universities demonstrating how they are tackling racism. Medicine and medical education could, on some levels, be accused of colonising students, patients, and doctors. She has experience teaching in both primary and secondary schools and a broad range of experience prior to teaching, including extensive volunteering and activist work in environmental sustainability and social justice (particularly, LGBTQIA+, BLM, and Womens Empowerment). Okay, so pointing out all the ways good intentions can go wrong might seem a little disheartening, but this doesnt have to be the case. You might like to try some of these suggestions. This problematises BME staff and students, and places the burden on them to improve diversity and represent marginalised groups. Cheyenne says she didnt have any way to prove she might have been a token hire, and didnt want to seem ungrateful, given how few black people were there. Chan, A. The Windrush scandal last year highlighted systemic inequalities within British organisational systems and points to the persistence of colonial influences within society. The white curriculum is also one of the major contributors to the BME attainment gap, whereby students from BME backgrounds are 20% less likely to achieve a first or 2:1 degree classification compared to their white counterparts, despite arriving at university with the same grades. Promoting employees from minority groups even if they aren't qualified for the higher position is an example of tokenism. ), Praising/spotlighting/honouring/awarding pupils with disabilities for no reason or achievement other than existing, Asking for opinions from pupils from marginalized groups and then taking those perspectives as representing the whole group. Instead, this study illustrates how the relationship between the gender composition of the major and student outcomes can be accounted for by characteristics of students, aspects of the college environment, and the effects of major field. Driving Agentic Empowerment With Metatheory: Global Transformation or Global Tokenism in Higher Education?. The sample includes 7,641 women and 5,074 men in 344 fouryear colleges and universities. Teaching about BIPOC historical figures, but only those involved in antiracism, civil rights, or other race-related issues. BME academics as a whole, leave their current institutions at a higher rate than their white counterparts, relating to experiences of exclusion, and isolation and over-scrutiny of their work compared to their white counterparts. Chamberlain, M. K. (1988).Women in Academe: Progress and Prospects. McGuire, W. J., and Padawer-Singer, A. Scholars say there is no clear incentive for universities to take racial justice seriously. 1533). The perception of tokenism can be corrosive in small offices as well as large, high-profile workplaces, even those that appear harmonious on the surface. Get actions going! New York: Russell Sage Foundation. Cited by lists all citing articles based on Crossref citations.Articles with the Crossref icon will open in a new tab. The cost of this tokenism and race-related activism can be measured in dollars required to address demands, in damaged careers, in student time and energy, and in the damaged reputation of higher education. Representation is one of the clearest areas for improvement in education. In my experience, it's been a huge problem. This lack of real change (but excess of fuss being made!) Papers in the journal assist faculty and administrators in making more informed decisions about current or future operations and in improving the efficiency and effectiveness of an institution. She says leaving was the best decision for her, but that doesnt mean the effects of feeling tokenised departed when she did. By making the choice to learn and use words from their cultures, you are telling them (and everyone else) that you value their culture and language, and the person themselves. Most importantly, let the kids know youre there for them, that you care about ALL of them, and that if any of the staff ever do get it wrong, there will be a united approach to doing better and making it right. In the medical world, only 28 percent of women full-time faculty are women of color, and just 11 percent of total full-time faculty in U.S. medical schools. Whether were looking at authors of school reading, notable figures taught in history or modern/social studies, or just general depictions in childrens books and other learning materials; it is clear that we need to increase positive representation of people of colour, women, LGBTQIA+ people, people living with disabilities or mental illness, living in poverty, or from any other marginalized or oppressed groups. There is a huge difference between being diverse in your hiring efforts and seeming diverse in your hiring efforts. It is here that planning for intergenerational impact and disruptive innovation are so badly needed but also so badly under resourced and acknowledged in Higher Education. In other words. Wharton, A. S., and Baron, J. N. (1987). Instead, this can be empowering. A. The study revealed that the women, who graduated between 1969 and 2012, endured a variety of expectations and stereotypes during their time as students, including assumptions that Black women were not intellectually capable of succeeding in college and could not be leaders, among other stereotypes. Hayes, C. (2023). This study provides an empirical test of Kanter's theory of "tokenism" (1977a,b)--that individuals will be affected adversely by declining representation of their own gender within an environment. Education To enjoy additional benefits . The (disturbing yet understandable) conclusion she drew from this was that because she was a good person, she would eventually turn white. You can download a PDF version for your personal record. If you are unable to import citations, please contact A Black Lives Matter protest at Oriel College, Oxford University, in June. An empirical test of Kanter's theory of proportions.Social Forces 62(1): 153165. Y1 - 2014. . In fact, anyone whos thought at all about social justice in the context of education will surely have thought about the issue of representation. Make the effort to learn some commonly used words in their own languages and build these into your conversations with the learners. ABSTRACT This project explores racial tokenism in the Japanese academy. BME academics teaching what are often labelled as optional, and alternative courses rather than part of the core or essential modules (unless youre at SOAS) means BME academics are more likely to be casualised. Situational Specificity: Is the context bound nature of events, which provide a degree of uniqueness and impact on whether generalisability or potential transferability in research are possible or warranted. If we consider these four points, the first two are essentially the obvious ways to increase representation and diversity in learning content. The Chronicle of Higher Education Almanac (2001) reports that the total of full-time faculty members, including instructor and lecturer, is 568,719, of which 204,794 (36%) are women. AU - Gormley, Kevin. This is why the self-organisation of students and staff alike, and campaigns like Why is My Curriculum White? are so crucial. Your email address will not be published. AU - McCutcheon, Karen. Higher Education Research Institute (1992).Undergraduate Science Education: The Impact of Different College Environments on the Educational Pipeline in the Sciences. Smith, A., and Stewart, A. J. ), Addressing microaggressions between pupils, Developing awareness of unconscious bias among staff. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01730108. This exposure can help to reduce prejudice and negative attitudes children may hold and help them see beyond the tangible aspects of culture. What is Tokenism 1. But it can also mean trouble for everyone. When those narrow parameters persist, and only workers who fit a traditional mould are given opportunities to shine, organisations can lose out on competent and high-performing employees for no reason. Tokenism can be a personal problem for the individual, setting up diverse employees to fail no matter their role or potential value in an organisation. Lesson 2: Don't Accept Tokenism! Intention*. It also explores the difficulties around payments for service users which may affect their entitlement to benefits [Abstract]. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 2: 178-186. Cheyenne says when wealthy, diverse clients would enter, staff would go out of their way to introduce her and include her in conversations. While many cope with the roadblock either out of economic necessity or as the bitter price of reaching their career goals, it can leave others at a crushing crossroads. When race alone is used to gauge the living and learning environments of prospective students, it can be seen as an acceptance of responsibility for years of racial exclusion, but a dismissal of how that exclusion has ripple . Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education. Op Ed published by the Dallas Morning News, Nov. 2, 2016. NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. Students' affective development within the college environment.Journal of Higher Education 56(6): 640663. Tokenism is the practice of making only a perfunctory or symbolic effort to be inclusive, especially by including/recruiting a small number of people from underrepresented groups, only to give the appearance of sexual, racial, and other forms of equality and fair treatment within a workforce or other space, without any meaningful commitment to It refers to a policy or practice of limited inclusion of members of a minority, underrepresented, or disadvantaged group. (2016). I think they were trying to seem diverse.. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Tokenism explains women's occupational experiences and their behavioral responses to those experiences in terms of their numerical proportion, suggesting that barriers to women s full occupational equality can be lowered by the hiring of more women in organizations that are highly-skewed male. Summary: This article looks at implementing service user participation in social work training and the way in which one higher education institute has endeavoured to avoid the pitfalls of tokenism and achieve meaningful participation. Data are drawn from the Cooperative Institutional Research Program's 1985 Freshman Survey and 1989 Follow-Up Survey. Positionality: Is the concept of location in time and space which influence personal assumptions, pre-suppositions and understanding of the external world, the expression of which provides an insight into what is individually interpreted. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education. Hedges (2021) contention that, as a consequence of these factors, social justice is now the fourth purpose of education, whether or not the concept of social justice in itself is being dealt with in terms of global transformation or merely global tokenism remains wide open to critical academic debating fora. physics, engineering, mathematics, computer sciences, and economics. You could have someone who celebrates it explain it to the class. Schniedewind, N. (1985). National Center for Education Statistics (1991).Digest of Education Statistics. They discovered overall, those who found themselves to be solo minorities or one of very few in a workplace were unfairly viewed as a representative of their entire minority group and faced heavier scrutiny from both higher ups and their peers. In an open letter to the education secretary, Gavin Williamson, and higher education funding councils, regulators and representative bodies, the scholars said the sector had underestimated the prevalence of racism and failed to address its systemic and structural nature. people of higher castes. Peace Review: A Journal of Social Justice, 28 (4), pp 451-458. Mirriam Webster's definition of tokenism is: the practice of doing something (such as hiring a person who belongs to a minority group) only to prevent criticism and give the appearance that people are being treated fairly. The influence of college on self-concept: A consideration of race and gender differences.American Educational Research Journal 24(1): 4977. "Driving Agentic Empowerment With Metatheory: Global Transformation or Global Tokenism in Higher Education?." ), pp. https://uk.linkedin.com/in/islay-sarah-nicklin-24aa7666. Universities in the UK operate under a curriculum of colonial legacy, the same legacy which endeavoured to create power structures and hierarchies on the basis of race. 2023 Springer Nature Switzerland AG. Access this article for 1 day for:30 / $37 / 33 (excludes VAT). Integrate Cultural Practices Into the Everyday. Tuition or financial education assistance. The implementation of such a diversity curriculum has largely been left to individual medical schools.1 Existing cultural competence training programmes have been criticised, however, for being simplistic and flattening cultural differences down to lists, with diversity training in higher education accused of being tokenistic.23, The Windrush scandal last year highlighted systemic inequalities within British organisational systems and points to the persistence of colonial influences within society. For example, authors of a 2020 article mentioned the idea that tokenism has the potential to lead to . Ensure that classroom props and materials used for classroom use include things from the cultures represented among your students. Girls' schools are best for girls.Los Angeles Times, January 17, 1994. It states: While these and other racial inequalities remain, statements that Black lives matter can at best be regarded as tokenistic and superficial. Chilazi says changes need to happen at the top, but also among workers who are part of majority groups, by calling out exclusionary behaviour, and practicing more inclusive actions. Tokenism is defined in the Oxford Learner's Dictionary as "the fact of doing something only in order to do what the law requires or to satisfy a particular group of people, but not in a way that is really sincere". In 2019, Simmons and her colleagues published an analysis of more than 80 studies in the past 25 years on the consequences of tokenism. Tokenism is a process that is so ingrained in the U.S. because of the country's insidious history of persecuting and discriminating against nonwhite groups. National Center for Education Statistics (1994).Digest of Education Statistics. Women's colleges and women achievers revisited.Signs 5(3): 504517. Table 1 shows the underrepresenta-tion of women of color in the professoriate by rank and racial/ethnic breakdown. Each semester, I have to try not to flinch as my classmates get whiplash from how fast they . For companies aiming to be more inclusive and representative, particularly in higher ranks, one way to help new employees feel like they belong is through cluster hiring. Satisfaction? (1982). By including traditional clothes and accessories, for example, they become part of regular use rather than being marked as nontypical. It grows out of concerns regarding the low status of foreign university faculty in Japan along with a need to evaluate recent. It may also imply an assimilationist ideology. There are two sides to this. Nowhere does this issue, known as tokenism, seem more prevalent than in higher education. The dynamics of tokenism: How college students are affected by the proportion of women in their major. Is teacher training keeping pace? - 185.12.108.70. And that can prevent a level playing field to succeed. The Oxford Languages dictionary defines tokenism as "the practice of making only a perfunctory or symbolic effort to do a particular thing, especially by recruiting a small number of people from underrepresented groups in order to give the appearance of sexual or racial equality within a workforce." Tokens: minority group where there is a large majority and a very small minority. Unfortunately, institutions often adopt a deficit model when tackling issues of under-representation and attainment. Following on from the Keogh Report, the need for a framework of service-user involvement exists not just in the health service, but also in higher education. Kennan, E. T. (1994). The whole notions of global democratic equality and equity are rightfully in a dynamic state of flux, reflective of the social and political crises the world faces in relation to race, a global pandemic and escalating levels of nationalism and division. The program committee for the next annual meeting for the American Historical Association liked the idea, too. It is based on the building of new knowledge on that which is pre-existing. Google Scholar; Gustafson J. ),Making the most of intercultural education (pp. The sample includes 7,641 women and 5,074 men in 344 four-year colleges and universities. Tokenism is likely at play if attempts to diversify and improve representation in the curriculum meet any of the following criteria: They are singular changes, not part of a greater plan/structure (think tick-box exercises), They only include depictions of members of a particular group in relation to the oppression or marginalization of that particular group (only showing civil rights activists for black representation, or celebrating those with disabilities simply for existing and not for any particular achievements), They reinforce harmful or condescending stereotypes. This study provides an empirical test of Kanter's theory of tokenism (1977a,b)that individuals will be affected adversely by declining representation of their own gender within an environment. Niemann, Yolanda Flores. Los Angeles, CA: Higher Education Research Institute. This in contrast to white academic professionals who represent 87.54%, which is in fact an over-representation representation in terms of being 86% of the broader population. It also represents other cultures as static, exotic, or homogenous. Furthermore, 92.39% of professors in UK academia are white (15,905), with 0.49% being Black (85) with just 17 of those being women. Plan conversations to draw out their ideas using pictures and books to spark their insights. Cambridge Scholars. What is Tokenism? So, not just applying a few tips and tricks to try to diversify, but actually making sure there is a united, whole-school effort to learn and think critically about representation and inclusion in the curriculum, teaching, policy, and culture of the school. (Watch out for terms like pupil voice in relation to single pupils being asked to speak on behalf of large groups). A critical aspect of cultural responsiveness is educating students to become aware of inequalities that exist and empowering them to resist and challenge unfair practices. Because unfortunately, there are a lot of ways that efforts to increase diversity/representation can go wrong, Adding books by authors from marginalized groups not based on the quality of the book, but just to tick a box, Having a multicultural day or teaching a multicultural lesson, but only showing other cultures in condescending, primitive, or exotified ways, Adding books written by BIPOC authors, but only those that are written about race, Teaching about marginalized figures in history and modern/social studies, but only those perceived to breaking stereotypes (stereotypes that are imposed on them by the dominant culture). The researchers found some exceptions, namely men working in traditionally women-dominant fields, like nursing and teaching. And this can be a fine line to walk. People also read lists articles that other readers of this article have read. Using the Survey of Income and Program Participation panel data, this study compares women's and men's pay increase trajectories and patterns of job mobility in the nonprofit and for-profit sectors. And no one was tracking the numbers as you go. technical support for your product directly (links go to external sites): Thank you for your interest in spreading the word about The BMJ. The pervasiveness of stereotypes is such that once these token faculty members are identified by race/ethnicity, the stereotypes of their category group follow them. DOI: 10.1093/fampra/cmw097. Teaching about people living with disabilities in a way that exalts them simply for existing and not for any particular achievement. Taylor, S. E., Fiske, S. T., Etcoff, N. L. Ruderman, A. J. However, these works have not adequately addressed SWANA racialization in the context of higher education following 9/11. A note on that last one- yes, of course, we want to make sure pupil voice is represented in schools, but what we often see is this becoming tokenistic when the bare minimum is done to actually represent all pupils within that voice or to actually act on that voice. 4, 1996 THE DYNAMICS OF "TOKENISM": How College Students Are Affected by the Proportion of Women in Their Major Linda J. Sax This study provides an empirical test of Kanter's theory of "tokenism" (1977a,b) - that individuals will be affected adversely by declining representation of their own