Introduction
Black representation plays a crucial role in shaping the education experience and outcomes of Black youth throughout the Diaspora. This research project aims to investigate how under-representation or lack of representation can be mitigated to foster educational belonging and spaces of social change, offering both Black specificity and insights into the broader implications for diversity, equity and inclusion in educational spaces.
Methodology
To comprehensively assess the effects of our interventions, this research employs a structured approach involving a diversity of activities that have sprung from our inaugural programme of weekly sessions hosted by university academics of Black heritage committed to change (our so-called ‘Jegnoch’, ‘Jegna’ singular). These sessions focused on the respective fields of expertise each Jegna, aiming to provide opportunities to connect with educators and researchers from a diversity of fields and backgrounds.
In all of our initiatives, students participate in reflective discussions, sometimes in the form of peer interviews and other times through creative media such as podcasts, poetry and film. These reflective discussions are captured as qualitative data emerging from the students’ conversations and valuable insights into how our activities influence students’ interests, academic expectations, and sense of belonging.
This approach allows for a deep, nuanced understanding of the multifaceted impact that our interventions have on experiences and outcomes of Black youth and on fostering action for social change.
Above Figure: We draw heavily on creative engagement in our methods. These are illustrative images and screen grabs of creative outputs that involve a focus on hair produced by young people on our programmes. Top row: detail of scrapbook entries from three different groups of secondary school students on one of our on-campus intervention programmes. Middle row: screen grabs from a 6.5-minute film produced by a young person that showcased interviews about Black history from Black students and scholars in Exeter. Bottom row: first image is a screen grab from a 7-minute film created by a group of 6 students (including script writing, filming, acting and cast interviews); middle image is of a scrapbook page from a group of 5 students who interviewed school peers at their respective schools and Jegnoch on one of our intervention programmes that then featured in a collective poem with a video of their process (third image).
B-HUGs a social change project 