Ramdeo, Janet ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2744-8572 (2024) Enhancing racial and ethnic representation in performing arts curricula. In: "Reimagining Higher Education: Journeys of Decolonising 2024" (Decolonisation Across Different Subjects II), 8th November, 2024, UCL Institute of Education.

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Abstract

How do we tackle the lack of ethnic and racial diversity and representation in university performing arts programmes? Ethnic and racial underrepresentation remains an issue in disciplines like music, drama and dance, not helped by Eurocentric curricula, lack of diversity of discipline staff and continued uneven attainment and retention (Sharma et al., 2019), with implications for attracting diverse groups into an industry which does not fully represent them (Daly, 2022). Our university’s Inclusive Curriculum Framework, created and piloted in 2022/23, became the required tool to identify necessary changes to curriculum design, delivery and assessment in the School of Acting. This project looked to evaluate the effectiveness of implementing the Inclusive Curriculum Framework, in part designed to enhance racial and ethnic representation across curricula. Adopting the Critical Race Theory (CRT) tenet of centralising voices of people of colour, narrative inquiry was utilised to interview fifteen racially minoritised final year undergraduate and postgraduate racially minoritised students to understand ethnic and racial curricula omissions through their training experiences. Findings illuminated learning experiences that lacked racial authenticity, perceived disadvantage in casting decisions and experiences of stereotyping and essentialising. Findings also highlighted the different challenges faced by ‘home’ students and ‘international’ students. However, their experiences could improve with more external diverse creatives contributing to their learning and developing staff’s racial awareness. Implementing the framework enabled the School of Acting’s staff to identify meaningful actions towards delivering inclusive and anti-racist pedagogies, practices and programmes. Areas identified as key for development include (but not limited to) replicating and implementing the methodology of this research project as standard in student voice capture, specific modifications to curriculum design to ensure diverse acting and performance teaching practices for authentic learning experiences, creating a bank of diverse creatives as contacts and community of practice to be invited in to enhance representation and authenticity of training and creating opportunities for staff to complete or refresh training to enhance their racial awareness. The Inclusive Curriculum Framework successfully provided the mechanism for sustainable and authentic changes, by centralising racially minoritised students’ voices as the key driver.

Daly, D. (2022). Actions speak louder than words. An investigation around the promises and the reality of representation in actor training. Theatre, Dance and Performance Training. https://doi.org/10.1080/19443927.2022.2078873

Sharma, S., Catalano, E., Seetzen, H., Julia Minors, H., & Collins-Mayo, S. (2019). Taking Race Live: Exploring experiences of race through interdisciplinary collaboration in higher education. London Review of Education, 17(2).

Item Type:	Conference or Conference Paper (Paper)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	representation, decolonising the curriculum, performing arts.
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) L Education > L Education (General) N Fine Arts > NX Arts in general
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group:	Faculty of Education, Health & Human Sciences Faculty of Education, Health & Human Sciences > School of Education (EDU)
Last Modified:	13 Feb 2026 15:20
URI:	https://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/52484

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