Wikipedia

Kalwant Bhopal

Kalwant Bhopal MBE, FAcSS is Professor of Education and Social Justice and Director of the Centre for Research in Race & Education at the University of Birmingham. Her work explores the achievements and experiences of minority ethnic groups in education with a focus on how processes of racism, exclusion and marginalisation operate in predominantly White spaces.

Kalwant Bhopal
Kalwant Bhopal speaks at RLUK in 2017
Scientific career
InstitutionsUCL Institute of Education
University of Southampton
Harvard Graduate School of Education
University of Birmingham
ThesisThe position of South Asian women in households in the UK (1996)
Doctoral advisorSylvia Walby

Early life and education

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Bhopal was born in England and is of Indian descent.[1] She studied sociology in her undergraduate degree, before completing a Postgraduate Certificate in Education in further education.[2] She then completed an MSc in sociology at the London School of Economics before completing her doctoral degree at the University of Bristol. She worked as a research associate at the UCL Institute of Education.[3] Here she conducted research on the educational experiences of UK Gypsy and Travellers[4] During her early career she claims to have experienced both subtle and overt racism.[5]

Research and career

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Bhopal worked at the School of Education, University of Southampton, from 2006 where she served as Professor of Education and Social Justice. In 2015 she was appointed Equality and Diversity Champion for the University of Southampton Faculty of Social, Human and Mathematical Sciences.[6] Here she researched the considerable effort that black and ethnic minority staff have to make to reach higher levels of academia[7][8] and the educational experiences of other underrepresented groups including Gypsies and Travellers.[9] She studied how the everyday aspects of teaching and learning serve to marginalise certain groups of students.[10] A result of this work was the creation of recommendations for how race, diversity and inclusion should be taught in postgraduate education courses.[11]

She joined the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 2017, where she spent two years as a visiting professor.[12] That year she moved from the University of Southampton to the University of Birmingham.[12] At Birmingham she was appointed Professorial Research Fellow and deputy director of the Centre for Research in Race & Education.[2] In January 2020 she was appointed Director of the Centre for Research in Race & Education.[13] Bhopal was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2020 New Year Honours for services to race equality in education.[14]

Bhopal has investigated race inequality and racism in UK academia.[15] She claims that racism is present in academia in various ways; including the marginalisation of black and minority ethnic staff, their exclusion from decision-making, frequent micro-aggressions, implicit bias and open prejudice.[15] She argues that dealing with racism is currently not a priority for UK universities.[16] In a 2016 report from the University and College Union, almost three-quarters of black and minority ethnic staff reported that they had experienced racial harassment and bullying from managers.[15] The same research has claimed that UK academia has racist recruitment and promotion practises and a considerable ethnic pay gap.[17][18] Bhopal argues that radical change is needed to support black and minority ethnic students.[19][20] She has argued that universities work towards equality in general terms, without confronting uncomfortable practises, and ultimately perpetuating white privilege.[21] Bhopal has called for more financial investment in the Equality Challenge Unit Race Equality Charter,[22] so that universities recognise that it is as important as Athena SWAN.[15] She has claimed that diversity initiatives in the United Kingdom mainly benefit white middle-class women, and that whilst most universities view gender as a universal issue race is largely ignored.[23]

Selected publications

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Her publications include:

  • Bhopal, Kalwant (2024). Race and Education: Reproducing White Supremacy in Britain. Penguin Pelican. ISBN 9780241537329.
  • Bhopal, Kalwant; Myers, Martin (2023). Elite Universities and the Making of Privilege. Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-367-46607-7.
  • Bhopal, Kalwant (2018). White Privilege: the myth of a post-racial society. Policy Press. ISBN 9781447335979.
  • Bhopal, Kalwant and Martin Myers (2018) Home Schooling and Home Education: race, class and inequality. Routledge. ISBN 978-1138651340
  • Bhopal, Kalwant (2016). The experiences of black and minority ethnic academics: a comparative study of the unequal academy. London; New York, NY: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-315-81834-4.
  • Bhopal, Kalwant (26 June 2015). The Experiences of Black and Minority Ethnic Academics. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-317-81659-1.
  • Bhopal, Kalwant (2010). Asian Women in Higher Education: Shared Communities. Trentham Books. ISBN 9781858564692.
  • Bhopal, Kalwant (2000). Connecting Children: Care and Family Life in Later Childhood. Routledge. ISBN 9780203996355.

Bhopal is editor-in-chief of Women's Studies International Forum, executive editor of the British Journal of Sociology of Education, and serves on various editorial boards including the journal Race Ethnicity and Education.[24][25][26] She has also written for The Conversation and Times Higher Education.[27][28]

References

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  1. ^ Bhopal, Kalwant (16 August 2011). "'We tend to stick together and mostly we stick to our own kind': British Indian women and support networks at university". Gender and Education. 23 (5): 519–534. doi:10.1080/09540253.2010.512271 – via CrossRef.
  2. ^ a b "Professor Kalwant Bhopal - School of Education - University of Birmingham". www.birmingham.ac.uk. Retrieved 28 October 2019.
  3. ^ "Biography: Kalwant Bhopal". www.socresonline.org.uk. Retrieved 28 October 2019.
  4. ^ Bhopal, K., Gundara, J., Jones, C., & Owen, C. (2000). Working towards inclusive education: Aspects of good practice for gypsy traveller children. Norwich: HMSO.
  5. ^ "Professor Kalwant Bhopal on race, education in US, UK". www.rifuture.org. Archived from the original on 24 October 2017.
  6. ^ "Professor of Education and Social Justice Kalwant Bhopal | Southampton Education School | University of Southampton". www.southampton.ac.uk. Retrieved 28 October 2019.
  7. ^ "Black and ethnic minorities still have mountains to climb in higher education". Times Higher Education (THE). 5 November 2015. Retrieved 28 October 2019.
  8. ^ "Bera :: Speakers". beraconference.co.uk. Retrieved 28 October 2019.
  9. ^ Bhopal, K., & Myers, M. (2009). Gypsy, Roma and Traveller pupils in schools in the UK: Inclusion and ‘good practice’. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 13(3), 299-314.
  10. ^ Teague, Laura (16 September 2017). "5 ways teachers can challenge inequality in the classroom". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 28 October 2019.
  11. ^ Bhopal, Kalwant; Harris, Richard; Rhamie, Jasmine (2009). "The teaching of 'race', diversity and inclusion on PGCE courses: a case study analysis of University of Southampton". eprints.soton.ac.uk. Kalwant Bhopal, Richard Harris, Jasmine Rhamie. Retrieved 28 October 2019.
  12. ^ a b "Professor Kalwant Bhopal - School of Education - University of Birmingham". www.birmingham.ac.uk. Retrieved 28 October 2019.
  13. ^ "Who we are". University of Birmingham. Retrieved 10 October 2021.
  14. ^ "No. 62866". The London Gazette (Supplement). 28 December 2019. p. N16.
  15. ^ a b c d March 12th; 2019|British; Politics, Irish; Policy; Fairness; Equality; Featured; Comment, Holly Henderson|1 (12 March 2019). "Gender over Race? Equity and inclusion in higher education". British Politics and Policy at LSE. Retrieved 28 October 2019. {{cite web}}: |last4= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  16. ^ Bhopal, Kalwant. "Investigating higher education institutions and their views on the Race Equality Charter" (PDF). Retrieved 28 October 2019.
  17. ^ "The experiences of Black and Minority Ethnic staff in further and higher education" (PDF). UCU. Retrieved 29 October 2019.
  18. ^ "Experience of black and minority ethnic staff in HE in England". Equality Challenge Unit. Retrieved 28 October 2019.
  19. ^ "Manifesto idea #2: Professor Kalwant Bhopal". HEPI. 11 May 2018. Retrieved 28 October 2019.
  20. ^ Williams, Martin (31 October 2016). "Does your university produce racism?". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 28 October 2019.
  21. ^ "C2C: Keynote Speaker Professor Kalwant Bhopal – GEA – Gender and Education Association". Retrieved 28 October 2019.
  22. ^ Løvereide, Elise. "Kalwant Bhopal: It pays to be white on campus". Kifinfo. Retrieved 28 October 2019.
  23. ^ "Policy Press | White Privilege - The Myth of a Post-Racial Society, By Kalwant Bhopal". Policy Press. Retrieved 28 October 2019.
  24. ^ Interview with Kalwant Bhopal, Editor of Women's Studies International Forum, retrieved 28 October 2019
  25. ^ "Race Ethnicity and Education". Taylor & Francis. Retrieved 28 October 2019.
  26. ^ "British Journal of Sociology of Education". Taylor & Francis. Retrieved 28 October 2019.
  27. ^ "Kalwant Bhopal". The Conversation. Retrieved 28 October 2019.
  28. ^ "Kalwant Bhopal". Times Higher Education (THE). 4 February 2016. Retrieved 28 October 2019.
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