Abstract:

Equality, inclusion and diversity (EDI) is foundational in many universities’ policies and practices, but international students are rarely centered in EDI and decolonization strategies. Structural barriers persist that render their unique experiences in UK Higher Education overlooked at best and invisible at worst, making institutional EDI intentions little more than virtue signaling. At program level, efforts to decolonize curricula often neglect the international diversity of student bodies, with their voices often seen as secondary to ‘home’ students when understanding how they experience their learning and learning environments. Through implementing an ‘Inclusive Curriculum Framework’ this project illuminates the experiences of international racialized students who attend performing arts courses, based primarily on white Euro- and Americentric cannons of knowledge, in an English university.

Engaging in the chosen methodology of narrative inquiry, as supported through a Critical Race Theory tenet to center marginalized voices, Amara, Kai and Alicia (pseudonyms) share their perspectives and experiences of:
1) Curriculum and staff underrepresentation through the primacy of whiteness of the knowledge cannon taught in the institution and across the UK.
2) Marginalization through miscasting or non-casting experiences, particularly due to their accent or home language influences, demonstrating the permanence of racism and racial bias. For example, they share the challenges they faced in accessing Shakespearian texts for performance purposes and how course recruitment activities failed to consider the impact of global time differences on their audition performances.
3) Stereotyping into characters and performance roles, illustrating intersectional experiences of oppression.

The Inclusive Curriculum Framework, designed as a broad inclusive education toolkit for the institution by a convened ‘task and finish group’ led by this project’s researcher, enabled participating project and discipline staff to engage with international students to specifically hone in on issues of underrepresentation, leading to an improved understanding of how racialized international students felt marginalized, invisible and positioned as convenient stereotypes in casting decisions, training practices and performance opportunities. As Amara stated, “It’s like I’m only being trained for ‘Miss Saigon’”. Amara, Kai and Alicia represent a sample of the voices captured and are drawn upon specifically to exemplify the experiences of a wider group of international students in the performing arts discipline. A focus group and individual interviews, all of which were video recorded and transcribed, provided the safe spaces for racialized international students to share their experiences.

The research concludes by discussing the subsequent process that senior staff undertook within the institution’s performing arts discipline and provision, which looked to improve the international student experience and increase staff cultural awareness. Implementing the Inclusive Curriculum Framework, paying particular attention to racial and ethnic representation, resulted in a local inclusion action plan that attempts to recognize and accommodate international students’ needs throughout the academic pipeline, from recruitment and audition for course places to showcasing greater diversity in casting for improving talent agent recruitment for progression into the industry.

Keywords:

Racialized international students, decolonizing the curriculum, narrative inquiry, cultural awareness.