From ‘Black Power’ to ‘Diversity & Inclusion’: British supplementary education and myths of meritocracy in London 1980-90

• In Event: If Black Women Were Free: The Politics and Pedagogy of Black Power from the U.S. to the U.K.

Abstract

In 1980s London, supplementary education centres - schools set up and run by community activists for the education of Black children - had broad based support within the Black community, with many families sending their children, Black feminist activists doing the teaching and local councils doing the funding. In this way, at the height of its popularity, the Black supplementary schools movement in the UK was a site of convergence of stakeholders with disparate aims, including personal advancement, community advancement, and the inclusion or assimilation of Black people within an emerging neoliberal landscape of ‘multicultural’ London. This paper will dive into the contradictions of supplementary education in a racial capitalist state, including the critique of meritocracy and the links and tensions between Black empowerment and careerism.
Using oral interviews with those involved in supplementary education in the 1980s (including former students as well as former teachers), archival research and curriculum analysis, this paper will explore the complex balance, overlaps and tensions within Black supplementary schools, between radical aims & ideals of Black empowerment and the (potentially) more conservative ideas of Black academic attainment. This paper focuses on the late phase of the supplementary education movement, from late 80s- early 90s, as supplementary schools generally transition from an association with Black feminist and Black power movements, towards de-politicised tutorials centres, coinciding with defunding from the state and a rise of ‘Equality Diversity & Inclusion’ schemes in mainstream state education and work.

Author

• Rosa-Johan Uddoh, Central Saint Martins